Know Your Source - The Development of a Source Water Reference Guide for Plant

Operations

Erin Gorman1 Elisa Rolon1 Ian Douglas1,2

1City of Ottawa – Drinking Water Services 2 University of Toronto, Department of Civil Engineering

Canadian National Conference on Drinking Water

October 27, 2014

Background

City of Ottawa Water Quality Section has accumulated a wealth of source water data going back over 100 years;

• information not easily accessible, only known to a handful of staff

• need for a technical reference guide for operations and technical staff

Answer = A Source Water Reference Guide

Guide Description

• internal technical reference guide intended for:

1) operations

2) technical support staff

3) research and consultants

4) public communication

5) emergency response (spills)

• hardcopies for process control office and technical support area, electronic format accessible on shared drive

• 1 stop shop

A Look Inside

• Chapter 1 – geology and history

• Chapter 2 – water quality data and river characteristics

• Chapter 3 – upstream pollution sources

• Chapter 4 – historical challenge events

• Chapter 5 – hydraulic river model

• Reference section for key contacts

• Appendices – tables, maps, data sets

Chapter 1 – Background

• watershed characteristics boundaries

geology, hydrology

history

land cover

population

-large watershed, mostly wilderness -low turbidity, high organics & colour -limited human impact upstream

Ottawa River

Land Cover

Forest 75.2%

Wetland1.4%

Grassland/Shrub5.5%

Agriculture6.1%

Rock/Barren0.6% Water

10.1%

Developed0.6%

Other/Unclassified0.5%

Ottawa River WatershedLand Cover

Chapter 2 – Water Quality Data

• 100 years - water levels

• 80 years - physical raw water quality

• 50 years - flow data

• 40 years - metals & nutrients

• summarized into subsections; physical, chemical, radiological, microbiological

• Annex at the end to include all raw data

Examples of graphs to be included…

Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec

Max 761 336 796 1,121 1,743 1,159 774 648 615 1,186 913 1,302

Average 665 593 607 989 1,437 747 471 355 328 544 678 724

Min 534 591 647 1,050 540 524 405 317 277 290 459 534

0

500

1,000

1,500

2,000

2,500

3,000

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4,000

Ottawa River : Average Monthly Minimum, Maximum and Average Flow Rate (m3/s) 1961-2012 : Deschenes Rapids at Britannia

Flo

wra

te (

m3

/s)

Physical

Seasonal Trends

0.00

2.00

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NTU

Ottawa River: Daily Temperature, Turbidity, and Alkalinity Levels Lemieux Island Water Purification Plant Intake 2013

Temp Alkalinity Turbidity

Alk

alin

ity

(mg

CaC

O3

/L)

Tem

per

atu

re

0

50

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250

Jan

mar

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No

v

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v

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v

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v

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v

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v

2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013

Raw Water Giardia Concentrations 2008-2013 Corrected for % Recovery – Britannia Water Purification Plant Intake

Giardia-Brit

Giardia-Lem

cyst

s/1

00

L

Pathogens

Raw Water Quality Overview (2009-2013)

Chemical Dissolved Organic Carbon (mg/L) 6.8 5.6 - 8.1

Alkalinity (mg/L CaCO3) 28 18 - 45

pH 7.41 7.21-7.58

UV254 (abs/cm) 0.26 0.20 - 0.29

Total Hardness (CaCO5) 32 23 - 41

Microbiological Total Coliform (cfu/100mL) 748 20 - 17,330

E. coli (cfu/100mL) 11 0 - 867

Radiological Gross Alpha (Bq/L) 0.01 < 0.01- 0.04

Gross Beta (Bq/L) 0.04 <0.01 - 0.06

Tritium (Bq/L) 5.0 <3 - 16.6

Average Range

Physical Temperature (OC) 11 0 - 28oC

Turbidity (NTU) 3.3 1.3 - 26.6

Colour (TCU) 37 26 - 47

Parameter

Average Concentration Range # Samples Laboratory Date

Total Coliform cfu/100mL

815 20 - >2420 1825

(2009-2013) ROPEC ongoing

E. coli cfu/100mL

15 0 – 614 1825

(2009-2013) ROPEC ongoing

Cryptosporidium (corrected for % recovery)

oocysts/100L 7 0 - 99

156 (2008-2013)

ALS/EPCOR ongoing

Giardia (corrected for % recovery)

cysts/100L 30 0 - 200

156 (2008-2013)

ALS/EPCOR ongoing

Ottawa River Source Water Pathogen Summary (1994-2014)

Virus mpniu/L

0.22 0.02 - 0.59 24 INRS Laboratory 2008-2011

Campylobacter cells/100mL

0.67 0 – 4 16 University of Waterloo 2011-2012

Salmonella cells/100mL

0 0 - 2 8 University of Waterloo

2011-2011

E. coli 0157:H7 cells/100mL

0 0 8 University of Waterloo

2011-2012

(cfu/100mL) Fecal Streptococci 18.5 - 20 University of Ottawa 1994

Clostridium perfringens 7.6 - 5 University of Ottawa 1994

Fecal Coliform 55 - 17 University of Ottawa 1994

Aeromonas sp. 43.5 - 10 University of Ottawa 1994

Somatic coliphages 53.2 - 13 University of Ottawa 1994

Chapter 3 - Potential Upstream Pollution Sources

I. upstream sewage discharges

II. major industrial sources I. Pulp & Paper

II. Chalk River (AECL)

III. Mining & Tailing Ponds

III. local storm water & combined sewer overflows

Les Mines Agnico-Eagle

Atomic Energy Canada Limited

(Chalk River)

SMC Canada

Xstrata Canada

Tembec Industries

Mines Richmont Inc.

CSO and Storm Water Outlets

Chapter 4 – Seasonal/Spill Events

• identifies and describes seasonal and challenge events, actions taken, plant performance and outcomes

– Wind storms

– Tritium spill

– Diesel spill

– Spring run off

– Frazil Ice

Turbidity Event

• heavy rainfall during dry conditions caused severe local erosion

• 1 week duration (Sept 2010)

• turbidity 3 12 NTU

• 16 hour travel time between plants

consistent with hydraulic model

calculations

Turbidity plume in core section

of river

Tritium

Diesel

Phenol

Diesel

Freon

0

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300

350

400

450

500

0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 22 24 26 28 30 32 34 36 38 40

Bq

/L

Elapsed Time (days) From Spill

Ottawa Raw/Treated Tritium Profile from Chalk River Spill

Ottawa Raw

Ottawa Treated

onset of plume at 17 days

peak concentration at 23 days

Freon Spill Model Accidental release 1400m upstream from Lemieux Water Purification Plant

•March 2009

•6000lbs of Freon-22

released over a 24hr

period

•outlet for cooling

system discharged into

storm drain

Chapter 5 – Travel Time Model

• model approximate travel times from

potential pollution sources to Britannia

intake

-travel time

-distance

-peak concentration/duration

Ottawa River Watershed

•areas upstream that would potentially

affect Ottawa

•divided into 15 reaches (areas with

similar features and topography)

References & Appendices

• Contact information: – industries

– stakeholders

– Municipalities

– Ontario Power Generation

• Appendix to include full source water

data sets

Ontario Power Generation (Chenaux)

Atomic Energy of Canada Limited

Next Steps

• reviewing final edits

• on shelves in the New Year

• Would like to recognize: – Ottawa Drinking Water Services Dept

– Ottawa Environmental Business Services Dept

– Ottawa Planning and Growth Management Dept

– Baird and Associates Engineering

Questions?

erin.gorman@ottawa.ca