UTEAU opens doors for private tour

Chris Lowrey
LITCHFIELD June 6, 2018
UTEAU, a septic and wastewater treatment plant, recently granted THE EQUITY an exclusive tour of its 60 acre Litchfield site in the Pontiac Industrial Park.
The announcement by the park’s former owners, Green Investment Group Limited, garnered plenty of interest on both sides of the Ottawa River.
When the facility first opened in 2012 on the site of the old Smurfit-Stone plant, many residents were concerned about the environmental impacts of a septic and wastewater treatment facility on the banks of the Ottawa River.
However, UTEAU owner Maurice Charlebois says there is nothing to worry about, as his facility can treat wastewater better than most municipal water filtration systems.
UTEAU is one of the tenants at the Pontiac Industrial Park.

Charlebois started renting the property in 2012 with an option to buy, an option which he exercised in 2016 when he took full ownership of the site.
One of the main features of the facility is a massive holding tank that can house upwards of 2,000 tons of septic sludge.
The sludge sits in the tank – otherwise known as an anaerobic reactor – while it is broken down by microorganisms until it is liquid enough to go into the filtration system.
“In one gram of topsoil you have 2.5 billion microorganisms,” Charlebois said. Understandably, with the amount of biodegradable material in 2,000 tons of septic waste, the number of microorganisms in the anaerobic reactor is massive.
In fact, Charlebois said that septic waste is fairly easy to treat, thanks to the microorganisms he refers to as his ‘workers.’
“Organisms that break down sludge grow fast,” he said. “Human waste is easy for those organisms to process.”
But the different organisms needed to break down different materials grow and develop at different rates, which can complicate the treatment process.
“Organisms that transform ammonia into nitrates take longer to grow than organisms that break down carbon,” Charlebois said.
As a result, in most cases the septic waste takes about three months from the time it comes into the treatment plant until the time it is discharged into the river.
Surprisingly, there is very little odour even when standing next to a massive tank that holds around 2,000 tons of septic waste.
One of the main reasons for this is because UTEAU can choose what is received, which means the company can reject any kind of waste it deems too difficult to process.
“We don’t want that,” Charlebois said of strong odours coming from the facility. He said that foul odours would be bad for business.
After the septic waste is broken down in the holding tank, it is sent to a filtration system where things like napkins, soap refuse and condoms are screened out.
It is then sent into an underground treatment plant where oxygen is pumped into the tanks to help break down any pollutants. By exposing the water to several different types of ecosystems (the anaerobic reactor as well as the treatment plant), it helps to break down the maximum amount of pollutants.
On top of this, UTEAU also has a massive capacity to store and continue treating the wastewater thanks to the facilities of the former Smurfit-Stone plant.
The facility has massive indoor buffering tanks that allow UTEAU to continually treat the septic waste until it meets the necessary environmental standards.
If UTEAU isn’t satisfied with how clean the wastewater is, it can continue to cycle and treat that water for weeks thanks to the extra capacity afforded by the indoor buffering tanks.
Charlebois says that this allows UTEAU to treat wastewater more effectively than most municipalities. He said that most municipal treatment facilities don’t have the capacity to continually treat wastewater because they don’t have the extra storage capacity that UTEAU does.
“I’m never forced to send water out,” Charlebois said.
He said that many municipal systems have to treat what comes in immediately. As a result, contaminants like ammonia don’t get enough time to be broken down into nitrates before being expelled.
For example, Charlebois said that if ammonia levels are too high, the wastewater isn’t sent into the river, but instead retreated in the tanks again and again until it’s safe.
“The tanks give us more flexibility than most other municipal treatment plants,” Charlebois said.
In fact, Charlebois said the plant can hold up to 2.25 million gallons of wastewater, which represents the capacity of 1,000 septic tankers.
As a result, Charlebois said it’s easy to be in compliance with environmental regulations.
The end product that eventually makes its way into the river is no worse than what is typically left over in the kitchen sink after the dishes from dinner are cleaned, according to Charlebois.
UTEAU has also branched out into other treatable materials.
There are several piles of road sweepings that were picked up in the springtime. UTEAU siphons out any garbage and what’s left looks like brand new stone dust.
The company has also branched out into composting, taking on some composting waste from the City of Ottawa.
The facility can even break down and recycle old asphalt and concrete and turn it into stone dust.
As for concerns about materials leeching into the river, Charlebois points to a paved ditch that runs the length of the property between the facility and the river. Anything that runs off from the facility toward the river is captured by the ditch and sent back into the treatment plant.
In the grand scheme of things, Charlebois said that his facility is actually better for the environment because it’s an alternative to landfills.
“So much waste goes to Ontario for landfill because its cheaper and less complicated,” he said. “What we’re doing is a service that’s needed.”