The construction of North Bay's Water Treatment Plant began in April 2006 and was completed in May 2010. The Plant was built to comply with new requirements for municipal drinking water systems after the outbreak of waterborne diseases in Walkerton in the summer of 2000, which included, among other things, new minimum levels of treatment for viruses, Cryptosporidium, and Giardia. The new regulation also established a procedure for disinfection which states that all drinking water systems that obtain water from a raw water supply which is surface water must include filtration.
The plant operates using a multi-barrier approach to meet these treatment goals. The primary barrier in this plant is Pall Corporation's Aria Microfiltration system. This membrane filtration system is made up of 11 parallel membrane racks, each equipped with dozens of pressure vessels that house thousands of hollow-fibre membranes. These membranes provide an effective barrier to physically separate the various contaminants in North Bay's drinking water.
The secondary treatment barrier is the UV disinfection system, which inactivates any organisms like Cryptosporidium and Giardia that are present in the water using high intensity light. The water is then injected with chlorine to kill off any viruses and bacteria that are able to bypass the previous systems. The raw water for the plant is drawn from an intake pipe that extends 300m off the shore into Delaney Bay, approximately 21.5 m below the water surface. An average of 20 million litres (ML) of water run through this plant every day, with a maximum daily flow of 79.5 ML.
Ellendale Reservoir, High Lift Pump Station & Re-Chlorination Facility
The facility is a reinforced concrete at-grade, double cell, un-baffled, treated water reservoir, located at the east end of Ellendale Drive. The reservoir has an approximate capacity of 18,200 cubic meters, with dimensions of 71 meters by 38 meters by 7 meters. The facility is equipment with a sodium hypochlorite re-chlorination system, on-line continuous water quality analyzers for free chlorine and turbidity. Standby power is available with the generator to operate the facility during power outages.
Airport Standpipe, Booster Pumping Station and Re-chlorination Facility
This 4,000 cubic meter water storage standpipe, booster pumping station and re-chlorination facility was constructed in 2009. With standpipe, high lift pumps, pressurized cushion tanks and a 500kW back-up diesel generator. This facility maintains pressure in the pressurized zone of the distribution system servicing the Airport and Carmichael Drive areas. The overall system consists of pressure zones 4 and 5 which accommodate a total of nine pumps; including three booster pumps (2 duty and 1 standby) for Zone 4, four booster pumps (3 duty and 1 standby) and two fire pumps for zone 5. The water standpipe is connected to the zone 4 distribution header to provide zone 4 fire flows and peak hour demand. It is also connected to the zone 5 fire pumps suction header to provide zone 5 fire demands. Zone 5 is equipped with four (4) pneumatic tanks connected to the Zone 5 discharge header to mitigate minor pressure fluctuations within the distribution system, and to provide some volume to available storage during power interruptions before the standby power system engages. This will mitigate the potential for negative pressure in the distribution system.
Canadore Pumping Station
The facility is equipped with high lift pumps and pressurized cushion tanks to maintain pressure in the pressurized zone of the distribution system services Canadore College and Nipissing University. There is an on-line continuous water quality analyzer to monitor free chlorine residual and a 200kW, 347/600 Volt, 3 phase diesel generator to provide power and SCADA communications during prolonged power outages. Site is offline and on standby now that Cedar Heights is in operation.
Birch's Road Standpipe and Re-chlorination Station
The facility consists of one (1) 39 meter high, 19 meter diameter, 11,775 cubic meter capacity with a hydrostatic mixing system, the steel treated water standpipe located near the southwest corner of Birch's Road and Booth Road. The facility is equipped with sodium hypochlorite re-chlorination system, on-line continuous water quality analyzers for free chlorine and turbidity and fixed 7.5kW, 120/240 Volt single phase, diesel powered generator to power the re-chlorination and SCADA communications during prolonged power outages.
Larocque Rd. Standpipe
The facility consists of one (1) 22 meter high, 15 meter diameter, and 4,000 cubic meter capacity glass fused to steel standpipe with a hydrostatic mixing system. The standpipe is located at the North end of the city on Larocque Rd. to provide water pressure to future development, along with the Canadore College and Nippissing University. There is a 10kW, 120/240 Volt backup generator to maintain communication and SCADA controls during power outages.
Valve Chamber
The facility consists of a valve and is located near the northeast corner of Judge Avenue and Lakeshore Drive. The facility is equipped with a fixed 7.5kW 120/240 Volt single phase, diesel powered generator to power the valve and SCADA communications during prolonged power outages. Valve control for pressure or tower level integrated with Birches Standpipe. The equipment for a re-chlorination station is located at the facility however not currently in use.
CFB North Bay Reservoir and Re-chlorination Facility
The facility consists of a double cell 1820 cubic meter capacity, un-baffled reservoir and a re-chlorination facility located at the north end of Manston Crescent. The facility is equipped with on line continuous water quality analyzer for free chlorine and standby power.
Cedar Heights Booster Station
This Facility is equipped with two (2) 100 hp high lift pumps responsible for filling the Larocque Rd. Standpipe with a pressurized cushion tank to protect pressure surges in the grid. There is an on-line continuous water quality analyzer to monitor free coloring residual and a 357kW, 347/600 Volt, 3 phase diesel generator to provide power and SCADA communications during prolonged power outages.
The raw water flows into the plant's inlet channel by gravity, then passes through two stainless steel screens in series before entering one of the two wet wells in the plant. The screens, located under the low lift pump room, separate any particles larger than 6 mm from the water in order to prevent damage to the pumps. These screens are cleaned periodically to remove debris that collects on the inlet side of the screens.
Five identical vertical turbine pumps are used to pump water from the wet wells. Four of these pumps are duty and one is standby for maintenance or peak flow demand. Each pump can provide a maximum flow rate of 20 ML/d at a total disparage head of 110 feet. The pumps are powered by 150 HP motors and controlled using Variable Frequency Divers (VFDs). The maximum speed of these motors is 1800 RPMs.
Incoming water from the low lift pumps must be screened further to prevent damage to the membranes. The water from the wet wells is then pushed through a set of five strainers. The strainers separate suspended particles larger than 300 microns from the process water. The water is then transferred into two 600 mm pipes, one feeding Membrane Filtration Racks 3-7m the other feeding Racks 8-13.
The core treatment process of the North Bay Water Treatment Plant is its membrane filtration system. The system consists of 11 primary filtration racks along with 2 secondary filtration racks, all of which are housed within the Membrane Process Area.
The primary filtration racks each house 64 filtration modules running in parallel, while the secondary filtration racks hold 40. Should the demand for municipal water in North Bay increase in the future, the primary filtration racks have the capacity to hold 14 additional modules, while the secondary racks can hold 8 additional modules.
From the pre-membrane screens, water travels into the bottom manifolds of the filtration racks before entering one of the pressurized filtration modules. Encased in these filtration modules are several thousands of thin, hollow fiber membranes. These hollow-fiber membranes are made from ployvinylidenefluoride (PVDF) and are approximately 1 mm in diameter. The water entering the module is driven through the walls of the membranes by pressure created by the low lift pumps. Any particles large than the pore size (0.1um) of these membranes are separated from the water into the concentration stream.
After Membrane filtration, the water flows back down to the pipe gallery for UV disinfections. The UV light penetrates the cell wall of the microorganisms present in the water and alters the DNA, Making the unable to reproduce.
The water from the primary filtrations racks flow into one of the three primary UV reactors (two operational, one standby). The water from the secondary membrane racks flow into one of the two secondary UV reactors. Each on of these UV units house 6 UV lamps and provide more than 0.5 log inactivation of Giardia and Cryptosporidium.
After passing through the UV reactors and the chlorine contact tanks, the water enters one of the two high lift, pumping wells located under the high lift pump room. Both wells have a capacity of 250,000 L.
The five high lift pumps (one standby) are responsible for pumping the treated water to the city's distribution system. Each of the pumps are powered by 350 HP motors and are capable of pumping out water at rate of 222 L/s or approximately 20ML/day.
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