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Recovering from Lake Recovery

Building resiliency in a new era
Published: 8:00 AM | January 10, 2019
Updated: 3:50 PM | March 25, 2019

Halifax Water has partnered with the Water Research Foundation through the Tailored Collaboration Program to obtain matching funds for a project designed to help Halifax Water and other utilities understand the implications of source water quality changes due to lake recovery on designing and operating drinking water treatment plants.

 

Halifax Water employees and Water Research Foundation employees looking at lake

Project 4920, titled “Decision Support Framework for Drinking Water Treatment Plants Experiencing Lake Recovery.” was awarded to Hazen and Sawyer in early Fall 2018, and the project kicked off with a one week workshop in Halifax in October to gather information on existing infrastructure, operations and challenges at both the JD Kline and Lake Major water supply plants.

The workshop involved over 30 people throughout the week including members of the Executive and staff from Engineering and Water Services at Halifax Water, the team from Hazen and Sawyer, Technical Advisors, project partners including Tampa Bay Water, New York City Department of Environmental Protection, Brick Municipal Utilities Authority, Mohawk Valley Water Authority, and students and faculty from the NSERC/Halifax Water Industrial Research Chair at Dalhousie University.

 

people sitting around tables for a workshop at Lake Major Water Supply Plant

It was a week full of learning as the project team spent time discussing challenges including the recent diatom issue at JD Kline, conducting plant audits at the two treatment plants, touring the watersheds and lakes, and listening to partner utilities talk about some of their challenges and perspectives. The team spent time dreaming about the perfect water supply plant and then understanding the key factors required to make dreams a reality.

The next step in the project is data mining to provide the basis for development of a dashboard style decision support tool.  This tool will be critical both in the short and long term to help Halifax Water expand its toolbox with existing infrastructure while planning for long-term capital upgrades to provide resiliency as source waters continue to change.

Halifax Water