Integrated EHS Audits – 3 Water / Wastewater Treatment Plants

Blackbird was Lead Health and Safety Auditor on Integrated Site Assurance Team (ISAT) internal audits. The purpose of these engagements was to provide reasonable assurance to the facility operator’s Senior Management Team, their Audit Committee, and their Environment, Health and Safety (EH&S) Committee that the plants complied with EH&S legislative and regulatory requirements, operating permits and internal procedures including the service provider’s HSE Management System. In addition, selected Operations and Maintenance processes were reviewed to verify conformance to internal processes.

Sites audited included:

Rossdale Water Treatment Plant in Edmonton Alberta

The Rossdale Water Treatment Plant (WTP) has been in operation in Edmonton since 1903 with the current plant built in 1947 and expanded in 1956. Along with the EL Smith WTP, the Rossdale WTP provides the City of Edmonton (COE) with sufficient potable water from the North Saskatchewan River to meet in-city customer demand.

Strathmore Water Reservious and Wastewater Treatment Plant in Strathmore Alberta

The Strathmore Wastewater Treatment plant services 14,000 customers as part of a twenty year operation and maintenance contract with the Town of Strathmore. Strathmore currently receives its drinking water from Calgary, Alberta via the East Calgary Regional Water Line (ECRWL), which was installed in 2010. Water is stored in several reservoirs around the town.

Britannia Water Treatment Plant in Squamish, BC

An innovative water treatment facility is cleaning up one of North America’s largest sources of heavy metal pollution. For more than 70 years, the Britannia Mine has been an ecological concern. Every day, hundreds of kilograms of heavy metals entered British Columbia’s Howe Sound through contaminated acid rock drainage that came from the now abandoned copper mine. The facility treats an average of 4.2 billion litres annually, removing an average of 226,000 kg of heavy metal contaminants. The amount of copper removed yearly is the equivalent of preventing 30 million copper pennies from entering Howe Sound.