CNW: Clearford Water Systems Inc. Acquires 90% of UV Pure Technologies Inc.

Via: CanadaNewswire  OTTAWA, Dec. 22, 2014 /CNW

Clearford Water Systems Inc. (“Clearford” or the “Company”), (TSX-V: CLI), today announced the closing of the acquisition of a 90.7% interest in UV Pure Technologies Inc. (“UV Pure”). UV Pure is a Toronto-based manufacturer and distributor of ultraviolet systems for the purification of potable water, grey water and wastewater, based on its proprietary Crossfire™ technology, with over 14,000 systems installed. UV Pure has averaged approximately 10% annual revenue growth with positive operating earnings in each of the past 5 years. Operating earnings for the fiscal year ended May 31st, 2014, were $374,000 on revenues of $2.9 million (determined using Canadian Accounting Standards for Private Enterprises). Following the completion of the acquisition UV Pure will have no debt.

Clearford will acquire 90.7% of all of the outstanding shares of UV Pure for a cash payment of $2.6 million, subject to adjustments at closing. UV Pure’s management team will retain the remaining shares of UV Pure. UV Pure will operate as a corporate subsidiary of Clearford, under the leadership of its President and CEO, Richard (Rick) Vansant. The transaction closed late on December 19th, 2014 and is effective October 31st, 2014.

The market for ultraviolet purification of water and wastewater is estimated to be worth over $1 billion annually, with growth forecasted at 14% annually by independent market research firms. UV Pure’s product line is based on its proprietary Crossfire™ technology that is a generational step ahead of the technology used by competitors. The product line is lower in capital and operating cost per unit of water flow, easier to install, and both easier and cheaper to maintain. Hard water is a challenge for other UV systems and can be purified efficiently and effectively with UV Pure’s Crossfire™ technology. Further details can be found on http://www.uvpure.com.

Clearford is currently the distributor of UV Pure’s products in Colombia, and sees the acquisition as a strategic addition to ClearRecover™, the final step in the Company’s Clearford One™ wastewater collection and treatment system to deliver clean and pure water.

VancouverSun: Sechelt, BC aims to scrub pharmaceuticals from its wastewater

Via: VancouverSun, November 13, 2014

The District of Sechelt, B.C. is pursuing a unique pilot project that will use recovered sewage solids to remove traces of pharmaceutical drugs, recreational drugs and hormones from post-treatment wastewater.

Such a system could be used to treat the province’s wastewater before it is discharged into surface water systems used for drinking water by downstream communities. Many municipalities outside the Lower Mainland discharge treated wastewater into rivers and a handful — such as Vernon and Oliver — already use it for irrigation on golf courses and hay fields.

The U.S. Geological Survey recently reported that pharmaceuticals persist for several months in irrigated soils, which Sechelt Mayor John Henderson fears could hinder consumer acceptance of foods grown with reclaimed water. Plus, trace chemicals from treated municipal wastewater are known to disrupt the reproductive systems of fish.

Sechelt is hoping to divert its wastewater for use in agriculture and Henderson hopes the pilot will help answer the “last objection” from people concerned about the introduction of trace amounts of drugs and other contaminants into the food system.

The Sunshine Coast community plans to make charcoal for filtration from wood waste, paper and solids recovered from sewage by heating it to at least 500 C, which destroys pathogens and contaminants and leaves behind a powerful filtration medium not unlike activated charcoal, according to Sechelt’s water treatment project coordinator Paul Nash.

The product — called biochar — will then be used to remove drugs, hormones and other contaminants dangerous to humans and other living creatures from treated wastewater.

A treatment facility that uses biochar made from sewage solids to filter drugs and hormones from water would the first of its kind in the world, said Henderson.

“If we succeed, we will have a way to remove pharmaceuticals from both effluent and biosolids using waste as a resource,” said Henderson.

HydroWorld: Halifax Water generates power from a 32-kW in-pipe small hydroelectric system

Via: HydroWorld

Halifax Regional Municipality of Nova Scotia, Canada, is the first Canadian city to use an in-pipe hydroelectric generation system within a pressurized water distribution pipeline.

Halifax Regional Municipality of Nova Scotia, Canada, is the first Canadian city to use an in-pipe hydroelectric generation system within a pressurized water distribution pipeline, according to Halifax Water. On Nov. 13, a 32-kW generating system within a drinking water distribution control chamber for Halifax Water began providing power.

Stakeholders for the Halifax project hope the system will power about 30 homes and produce US$29,000 in revenue annually. Officials said the project cost US$443,000 and Halifax Water; Denver, Colo.-based Water Research Foundation and the provincial government provided the funding.

Halifax Water serves the municipality’s 355,000 residents. The regulated municipality contracted Rentricity Inc., a New York-based renewable energy company, to install the in-pipe system that is rated “safe for drinking water.” The device’s viability for placement in a system from which people consume drinking water is based on Canadian and international safety standards.

According to Rentricity the company designs and installs Flow-to-Wire, their trademarked, unique energy recovery system. “The system harnesses excess pressure within water mains and uses it to generate clean electric power,” said the company. “A single Flow-to-Wire system produces between 30 and 350 kW of clean, renewable, electricity that can then be sold back to the grid.”

rabble.ca : UN panel says climate change has implications for North America’s water supply

Via rabble.ca

by Brent Patterson, April 8, 2014

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the United Nations organization that assesses the impacts of climate change, has released a new report, the second part of a larger assessment by the panel. The Globe and Mail reports, “(It) lists outcomes such as the displacement of populations, food shortages and economic shocks that are triggered or exacerbated by rising temperatures.”

This new report has a chapter on North America. “So far, among the most obvious impacts experienced by city dwellers in North America are meteorological, including a higher risk of dangerously extreme heat in summer, heavier precipitation and flooding events and a decreasing snowpack in winter months. …(But) larger consequences for North America are in store, including the loss of glaciers in the West, with implications for water supplies, threats to the livelihood of northern communities because of vanishing sea ice in the Arctic and impacts on coastal industries because of shifts in populations of economically important fish species.”

Natural Resources Canada has stated, “Glaciers play a role in recharging groundwater aquifers. This aspect of our hydrology is critical to understanding the variability of water supply under a changing climate…” NRC says, “Canada’s glaciers hold water resources equivalent to all of the water contained by our lakes and rivers. As a Nordic country, much of Canada’s freshwater is derived from seasonal and perennial snow and ice, which exerts important controls on the timing and magnitude of water fluxes.” And they have cautioned that there will be “decreases in water availability resulting from increased intensity and frequency of drought, declining snowpack and glacier dimunition” in Canada.

Previous news reports have also told this story. In 2011, CBC reported, “The snowpack across the northern Rocky Mountains has shrunk far more quickly in the past 50 years than in the previous 800… Runoff from those layers of snow feed rivers that supply water to more than 70 million people (in the western United States), raising concerns that the declining snowpack will lead to water shortages in western North America, reported (a) study published online in Science Express. …Robert Sandford, chair of a group that connects policy makers with scientific research on water, said the study shows the declining snowpack will add to the gradual decline in stream flows that are already happening in some of Canada’s most important watercourses.”

And Postmedia News has highlighted, “(The melting snowpack is) altering river flows in the Canadian prairies and central British Columbia, said (the study’s) co-author Brian Luckman, at the University of Western Ontario. ‘Snowpack is essential for water supply to many of these areas,’ Luckman said, noting that the Rockies feed rivers flowing through central B.C. and the Bow, Athabasca and Oldman rivers in Alberta. ‘Between 60 to 80 per cent of the water in those rivers is snowmelt from the mountains.’ …The study says the changes are affecting the Colorado, Columbia and Missouri Rivers, which together supply water to 70 million Americans.”

Council of Canadians chairperson Maude Barlow has stated,

“The issue of glacier melt is where climate justice and water justice come together. Water abuse is hurting the climate, and climate injustice is hurting water. The most important thing to remember is that water governs us. It is our lifeblood. It is not a resource for our profit and pleasure, but the most important element of the ecosystem which we depend on for life. We must build solidarity between the water and climate justice movements, between the global north and south, and among those who care for the future. We must vow to be one family and be brave because we are up against terrible forces.”

Oceanside Star: Water out of thin air

Via: Water out of thin air / Oceanside Star, January 23, 2014

A Vancouver company wants people to consider getting cheap, potable water from a widely available source: air.

Splash Water For Life has created two atmospheric water generators: one for industrial use and one for home use.

The residential water generator looks like your typical water cooler, except there is no big blue bottle on top and it’s not connected to the building’s water supply.

“The air goes into an air filter at the bottom of the machine and the water gets sucked out of it [through condensation],” the company’s Elliot Mashford told a group of curious residents at Errington Hall on Monday. “Water then gets pumped through five filters, including UV filtration.”

Air quality has no effect on the generated water quality, thanks to the many filters.

Mashford and Splash Water’s Karson Hutchinson were in Errington at the invitation of Arrowsmith Water Management owner Larry Crawford, who said he was blown away by the technology.

“It’s going to be very important technology,” he said.

Mashford and Hutchinson call it “disruptive technology” because it can stop people from relying on bottled water.

The residential water generator can produce up to eight gallons of water per day. The water is recirculated throughout the day to keep it fresh.

The generator runs on both electricity and diesel fuel at a cost of between 3-8 cents per gallon.

The industrial model can produce up to 11,365 litres of water per day.

Splash Water For Life executive vice-president and inventor Phil Fraser came up with the idea during a board meeting a decade ago.

“He saw somebody dump the water from a dehumidifier in the room and thought there should be a way to use that water,” Hutchinson said.

Fraser raised $5 million in financing over 10 years while he worked on successive models. After putting together the 18th model he felt confident enough to go to market.

The residential model is priced at about $1,000, while the industrial model’s price varies according to specifications. The filters need to be changed every year or so at a cost of less than $200.

The only catch is the water generator can only be used in regions where the relative humidity is between 40 per cent and 100 per cent.

“Eighty per cent of the world’s population lives in regions where the machine could work all year,” Mashford said.

On Vancouver Island, he said, the relative humidity rarely drops below 80 per cent.

The machine’s only byproducts are warm and cool air, which can be used to regulate the temperature of a room.

“At our North Vancouver showroom, we used it to control the temperature in our showroom,” Mashford said.

Atmospheric water harvesting has next to no effect on the environment, he said. If every home on Earth used the water generator, it would cause only an estimated 0.0002 per cent drop in water vapor levels in the atmosphere.

The company started selling the generators about 10 months ago. One of the machines is part of a permanent display at the Telus World of Science in Vancouver.

For more information, see http://www.splashwaterforlife.com.

Water Canada : Diagnosis: Stream Sickness

Via: Water Canada 

Posted on December 16, 2013
Written by Angela Wallace

Are Toronto’s streams sick? Yes, many of them are. They are suffering from an “illness” known as urban stream syndrome (USS), which results from changes associated with urban development. The hardening of surfaces, such as roads and roofs, creates a landscape that makes it difficult to absorb rainfall. In areas without proper stormwater management, the volume of stormwater is high and runoff collects sediment, nutrients, and contaminants as it travels across hard surfaces, causing streams to function more like sewers. Symptoms include changes in the aquatic community, hydrology, and water chemistry.

The Greater Toronto Area has approximately 5.5 million people. This has put pressure on its approximately 3,654 kilometres of streams and watercourses. The Toronto and Region Conservation Authority (TRCA), one of 36 conservation authorities in the province, has been tasked with protecting and managing water and other natural resources in partnership with government, landowners, and other agencies.

TRCA operates a long-term, large-scale Regional Watershed Monitoring Program (RWMP), which tracks aquatic habitat and species, surface water quality, stream flow, precipitation, groundwater quality and quantity, and terrestrial natural heritage in nine watersheds across 3,467 square kilometres. Data from the RWMP was recently used to show that streams in the Toronto region have USS. Road density (used as a surrogate of urbanization) was shown to be related to the USS symptoms. Both fish and benthic-macroinvertebrate (aquatic “bugs” that inhabit stream bottoms) communities were negatively related to road density. Higher road density was also linked to decreases in aquatic ecosystem health (biotic diversity), higher stream water temperature and discharge, lower amounts of forest, and higher levels of contaminants.

In fact, concentrations of nutrients, metals, and bacteria were all higher in catchments with higher road density; several contaminants, including chloride, copper, E. coli, sodium, and zinc, had very strong relationships with road density, suggesting they are more abundant in urban areas and that impervious cover may serve to concentrate and convey these variables quickly to local waterways.

G&M: Making the most of wastewater

via Globe and Mail

Monday, December 30, 2013

By Richard Blackwell

The warm water being flushed down Canada’s sewers could become a huge source of recycled energy.

Wastewater heat is already being put to use in a handful of buildings in British Columbia, where a small company called International Wastewater Systems is on the leading edge of the technology and hoping to turn it into a formidable business.

IWS’s system takes heat from the water going down the drain from sinks and toilets in a condo, and transfers it to the clean water coming into the building. It can dramatically cut water heating costs, and thus pay back the price of installation within a couple of years.

The system works because wastewater is consistently at about 20 to 25 degrees Celsius. With heat exchangers, that energy can be used to generate hot water at higher temperatures.

IWS founder and president Lynn Mueller, who trained as a refrigeration mechanic, said he was working with geothermal heating systems when he began considering all the warm water which was being flushed down the drain.

“I was thinking that every day I comfortably flush down water that it cost me $10 or $20 a day [to heat],” he said. “That is perfectly good heat.”

A 2005 U.S. Department of Energy study estimated that 350 billion kilowatt-hours of heat energy is flushed down the drains in the United States each year.

The key to Mr. Mueller’s system is the special filter his company designed, which temporarily removes the solids from the wastewater, leaving it just clean enough to pass through a heat pump without clogging the heat exchangers. The warmth from the wastewater is transferred to a flow of fresh water – without either stream of water coming in contact with each other. The solids are then combined back into the wastewater before it goes down the sewer.

The system also has software that monitors it at all times – “a brain that reports to us before any problem exists,” Mr. Mueller said.

RBC commits $1 M to support First Nations water and ecosystems

Via CNW, June 21, 2013

University of Guelph announces $1 million commitment from RBC Blue Water Project to improve water and biodiversity in First Nations communities

GUELPH, ON, June 21, 2013 /CNW/ – The University of Guelph announced today a $1 million commitment from the RBC Blue Water Project to support teaching and research initiatives in water and ecosystem monitoring, as well as treatment and conservation on First Nations reserves.

“Water contamination is one of the most important health-related environmental problems facing First Nations communities,” said president of the University of Guelph, Alastair Summerlee. “These communities also face serious and increasingly complex threats to ecosystem biodiversity. We have the research and teaching expertise and commitment — and now, thanks to RBC, additional resources to make a difference.”

The new education and research initiative includes student field projects to help them learn more about water and biodiversity. The gift was made through the BetterPlanet Project, the University’s $200-million fundraising campaign for teaching and research in food, environment, health and communities.

RBC Blue Water Project: $2.3 Million in Funding Announced

via PR Newswire:  2013 RBC Blue Water Project Leadership and Community Action Grants announced

June 14, 2013

RBC awards $2.3 million in funding to protect water in cities and towns around the globe

TORONTO-RBC today announced the recipients of the 2013 RBC Blue Water Project Leadership and Community Action Grants, totalling more than $2.3 million in funding for water protection and preservation programs. Awarded on the fourth annual RBC Blue Water Day, the grants support 123 organizations spanning seven countries, including Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, Singapore, Jamaica and Turks and Caicos Islands.

“Water is the lifeblood of our planet and vital for our social and economic wellbeing,” said Gord Nixon, president and CEO, RBC. “Since the RBC Blue Water Project was established in 2007, we have committed more than $38 million in grants to some 650 organizations around the world working to protect our most precious natural resource, including the grants we’re announcing today. We are honoured to support the important efforts of this year’s grant recipients, whose projects reflect our new focus on urban water issues.”

In December 2012, the RBC Blue Water Project announced a shift in focus to address a significant, emerging issue that is relevant to the majority of RBC employees and clients – protecting and preserving water in towns, cities and urbanized areas. The 2013-2014 Leadership and Community Action Grants are funding programs that improve urban water quality and efficient use, enhance storm water management and protect and restore urban waterways.

“By 2050, three quarters of the world’s population will live in cities,” explained Alexandra Cousteau, RBC Blue Water Project Ambassador and National Geographic Emerging Explorer. “With more people, our urban water resources will become even more strained than they are today. The 2013 RBC Blue Water Project Leadership and Community Action Grant recipients are working to solve some of the most critical water issues facing our growing communities and helping to ensure we have the clean water we need for the future.”

envirolaw: Will Environmental Tribunal Enforce Public Trust in Water?

Will Environmental Tribunal Enforce Public Trust In Water?
by Dianne Saxe, Saxe Law Office, May 22 2013

via mondaq.com

Ecojustice has intervened in an appeal before Ontario’s Environmental Review Tribunal, hoping that they will enforce a public trust in water resources.

Nestle Canada Inc. (“Nestle”) runs Ontario’s largest water bottling operation. They pump groundwater from two different sets of wells in the Guelph area. Each well requires a Permit to Take Water (“PTTW”) from the Ministry of Environment (“MOE”) in order to operate.

Nestle recently had the PTTW for one of their wells renewed by the Ministry. The renewed permit contains new conditions that require reduced water takings during periods of summer drought1. Nestle appealed these conditions to the Environmental Review Tribunal (“ERT”).

Ecojustice intervened in the appeal on behalf of public interest groups and/or local citizens with a long history of opposing Nestle’s bottled water operations in the area – the Wellington Water Watchers (“WWW”) and the Council of Canadians (“CoC”).

While the Ministry of the Environment is the main party defending the conditions, they have agreed to a settlement of the appeal. Ecojustice is asking the ERT to continue the hearing, in order to prevent any settlement agreement from weakening the anti-drought conditions. Ecojustice argues that the principles of the public trust doctrine (“PTD”) provide an additional basis for upholding the original conditions.