WCW26

Registration Required - Cost: $175 + GST
Speakers:

• John Wilbur (Hach/AQI)
• Tyrone Yan (Hach/AQI)
• Rui Li (EPCOR)

Effective water and wastewater operations rely on accurate, accessible, and well‑governed data to support regulatory compliance, operational performance, and informed decision‑making. This seminar will explore common water data management challenges faced by utilities, including data silos, manual processes, data quality issues, and increasing reporting requirements. Attendees will learn best practices for structuring, validating, and managing operational data across treatment, distribution, and collection systems, with a focus on creating a reliable foundation for analysis, reporting, and long‑term asset management.
The session will include a practical demonstration of WIMS, a water information management system used by utilities to centralize operational and compliance data, streamline regulatory reporting, and support advanced analysis. Real‑world examples from utility operations will illustrate how standardized data management practices improve efficiency, reduce risk, and enable more proactive operational insights. The seminar is designed for water and wastewater professionals seeking to strengthen their data management strategies and better leverage operational data to support day‑to‑day operations and long‑term planning.

• Principles and best practices for water and wastewater data management to support regulatory compliance and defensible reporting
• Application of structured data management approaches to improve operational efficiency, data quality, and informed decision‑making
• Practical instruction through a live demonstration of a water information management system (WIMS) and utility‑based use cases

Who should attend: This workshop is intended for water and wastewater operators, engineers, technologists, supervisors, compliance staff, and utility managers who are responsible for operational data collection, regulatory reporting, and the use of data to support effective treatment, distribution, collection, and wastewater operations.

Registration Required - Cost: $175 + GST
Speakers:

• Ryan Cooper, M.Sc., P.Biol. Senior Environmental Scientist, City of Regina
• Emeka Orji, P.Eng, PMP., Water Operations Manager, City of Saskatoon
• Ryan Ledl, Senior Industrial Wastewater Investigator, EPCOR Water Services, Edmonton

Effective sewer source control is one of the most powerful, yet often underdeveloped, tools municipalities have to protect wastewater infrastructure, safeguard treatment processes, protect the environment, and reduce long term operational costs. This workshop discusses the foundational elements required to build, implement, and sustain a robust source control program, starting with the core question: Why are we doing this? Participants will explore the risks and challenges that arise when no formal program exists, including system damage, regulatory exposure, and impacts on public and environmental health.
The session provides a practical, step by step look at bylaw development fundamentals to approval pathways, revision cycles, and the essential components of a modern sewer bylaw. Key distinctions such as prohibited versus restricted versus surchargeable substances, and the differences between storm and domestic sewer requirements, will be explored.
Successful source control depends on collaboration. The workshop examines strategies for managing diverse stakeholders: City Council, industrial partners, wastewater treatment plant operators, regulators, and bylaw enforcement officers. Participants will also gain clarity on spill response roles and responsibilities, release reporting expectations, and the design of monitoring and sampling programs, including what to test for, how to structure inspections, scheduling considerations, and available monitoring technologies.
High risk or “problem” industries will be discussed alongside enforcement tools and emerging innovative approaches such as toxicity probes. The workshop also addresses logistical challenges that municipalities commonly face when rolling out or scaling a program such as compliance approvals, permits to release and pretreatment requirements.
The workshop will be facilitated by a group of industry practitioners from across Western Canada, who will share their experience in managing source control projects, along with the approaches adopted by their respective municipalities
By the end, attendees will leave with a better understanding of what success looks like for a sewer source control program, both in measurable outcomes and in long term system resilience, with practical insights they can apply immediately within their own organizatio

• Why is source control important
• Bylaws
• Stakeholder management
• Spill response
• Monitoring/Sampling
• Problem industries
• Enforcement
• Novel approaches
• Logistical challenges
• Successes

Who should attend: Sewer collection system operators, Wastewater and stormwater professionals, Bylaw enforcement personnel, Environmental professionals.  

Learn about WCW and how to get the most of your Conference experience.

Wastewater siphons represent some of the most difficult municipal assets to assess due to complex hydraulics, limited access, and operational constraints that restrict traditional inspection methods. This presentation examines the application of free-swimming multi-sensor inspection technology (INGU Pipers®) as a rapid screening tool for evaluating the condition and performance of large, multi-barrel wastewater siphons, using the City of Lethbridge triple barrel siphon as a detailed case study.
The Lethbridge system consists of multiple asbestos cement barrels operating under gravity-driven and pressurized conditions. Screening was conducted to establish a baseline understanding of system integrity, identify hydraulic inefficiencies, and inform future maintenance and high-resolution condition assessment planning. The inspection collected hydraulic grade line data, acoustic leak detection, air pocket identification, and indicators of internal restrictions while the system remained fully operational.
Results confirmed no active leaks within tool sensitivity, while identifying localized air accumulation and segments exhibiting elevated hydraulic losses consistent with internal deposition and reduced conveyance efficiency. Screening data supported targeted recommendations including progressive pigging to restore hydraulic performance and follow-up structural assessment to better understand long-term asset integrity.
This case study demonstrates how minimally invasive screening enables utilities to evaluate complex siphon infrastructure quickly, reduce uncertainty, and make defensible decisions regarding maintenance and capital planning. Attendees will gain practical insight into deployment strategies, data interpretation, and how screening technologies can support phased, risk-based condition assessment programs for critical wastewater siphons.

In Winnipeg, Manitoba, industries discharging industrial wastewater to the municipal collection system are required to meet wastewater quality limits set forth by the City’s Sewer By-law No. 106/2018. Given the strict discharge limits for biological oxygen demand (BOD), total suspended solids (TSS), pH, and fats, oils and grease (FOGs), many industries utilize onsite wastewater treatment systems to reduce these parameters prior to discharging their wastewater to avoid costly surcharges. However, for industries that produce a variety of different products, such as large-scale food processing facilities, the resulting wastewater quality can be highly variable making it difficult for onsite wastewater treatment systems to maintain optimal treatment conditions, such as coagulant dose. Therefore, industries are burdened with needing to continually monitor and manually adjust their onsite wastewater treatment system in order to minimize the discharge of overstrength wastewater and avoid surcharges. Given that most industries do not have dedicated wastewater treatment system operators, the onsite wastewater system often goes unattended and operates outside of the optimal treatment conditions, particularly when the industry produces highly variable wastewater quality.
To better control their onsite wastewater treatment system, a large-scale food processing facility installed a real-time monitoring system (i.e., an S::CAN Monitoring Station) to continually measure water quality prior to and following the onsite dissolved air flotation (DAF) system and automatically adjust coagulant and polymer dosing to meet treated water targets. The S::CAN system consisted of two (2) online UV-Vis spectrophotometers that would measure BOD, TSS, and FOGs as well as ORP and pH meters to monitor pre and post-treated water quality. Initially, the pre and post-treated water quality was monitored for approximately 3 months to evaluate the variability in the incoming wastewater quality and to identify periods where the production of a particular food product resulted in wastewater that was difficult to treat using DAF at the set coagulant and polymer dose. For production periods identified as producing wastewater that was particularly challenging for the DAF to treat, jar-testing was used to determine the optimal coagulant and polymer dose. Following the initial evaluation and optimization period, the wastewater quality data and optimal chemical dose ranges were used to develop and refine feedback logic used to control the chemical delivery system.
Overall, the implementation of the real-time S::CAN monitoring and automated dosing control system enabled the facility to transition from reactive, manual process adjustments to a proactive, data-driven treatment approach. By continuously characterizing influent variability and linking water quality measurements to optimized coagulant and polymer dosing strategies, the facility improved the stability and performance of its DAF system despite highly variable production schedules. The project demonstrates that integrating real-time monitoring with adaptive control logic can significantly enhance onsite industrial wastewater treatment reliability, particularly for food processing facilities with fluctuating wastewater characteristics.

Leduc County completed a comprehensive condition assessment of the New Sarepta Forcemain and the LS‑1 Forcemain to support proactive asset management and risk‑based decision‑making for critical wastewater infrastructure. The New Sarepta Forcemain is a 200‑millimetre PVC pipeline owned and operated by Leduc County and serves as a vital component of the regional wastewater system. The LS‑1 Forcemain is a 300‑millimetre PVC pipeline owned by Edmonton International Airport and operated by Leduc County, where reliable wastewater conveyance and early leak detection are critical to airport operations and environmental protection.
The assessment incorporated acoustic leak and gas pocket detection, transient pressure monitoring, hydrogen sulfide (H₂S) monitoring, and fatigue analysis of the PVC pipelines. This integrated methodology enabled a robust evaluation of key operational risks, including leakage, entrapped air, pressure surges, corrosive environments, and long‑term material fatigue.
The findings demonstrated that comprehensive condition assessments significantly enhance confidence in pipeline condition, support lifecycle planning, and inform risk‑based maintenance and capital investment strategies. This case study underscores the value of integrated assessment approaches in improving system resilience and reliability, capturing lessons learned, identifying opportunities for future enhancement, and supporting the long‑term management of critical wastewater assets.
 

To address persistent odour concerns at the discharge of the City of Saskatoon Jasper Avenue Lift Station, an Oxygen Injection System was installed to proactively reduce hydrogen sulfide (H₂S) formation within the force main. The system uses pressure swing absorption to concentrates oxygen on site from atmospheric air and injects the oxygen into the wastewater stream, maintaining aerobic conditions and preventing the biological generation of H₂S as the wastewater is pumped through the discharge forcemain.
Since commissioning, the system has achieved over a 90% reduction in H₂S concentrations at the downstream manhole. This significant decrease has improved odour control, reduced corrosion potential within the collection system, and enhanced overall system performance without the need for chemical addition.
The installation demonstrates an effective, sustainable approach to odour management through in-line oxygenation and proactive sulfide prevention.

Auto samplers are used within wastewater treatment plants at multiple locations as well as within the sewer network. Auto samplers also form a key part of composite sampling for lab analysis.
 
This presentation will cover what auto samplers are and how they work. Different auto sampler pump technologies will be discussed, and the benefits of the different pump implementations will be explored e.g., reduced maintenance activity requirements. 
 
The cooling system is an integral part of auto samplers to allow for the sample to be representative of what is in the stream by the time it reaches the lab. This presentation will discuss concerns associated with Sulfuric acid formation and how this affects the cooling and the evaporator and condenser coils within the cooling chamber. Technology improvements will be discussed which covers how coil failures are being mitigated which allow for longer auto sampler cooling module life cycle.
 
Typical usage locations for auto samplers will be reviewed and then the installation recommendations will be reviewed as this is the number one issue with auto samplers. The typical sampling method for each installation location will also be discussed.
 
Different sampling methods / programs will be reviewed and discussed for attendees to understand different methods rather than just looking at composite samples.