Final Design Process

ADAPT Consortium is responsible for the final design and construction of the North Shore Wastewater Treatment Plant. The final design will build on the principles resulting from the Indicative Design, which was developed with the community in 2013. The design will be subject to the District of North Vancouver’s Development Permit Process.

Key Design Features in the Indicative Design

The North Shore Wastewater Treatment Plant design will:

• employ best practices for wastewater treatment and resource recovery
• include enhancements that benefit the environment, the local community, and the region
• provide maximum flexibility to apply future technologies and adapt to population growth
• take into account climate change (sea level rise)
• meet post-disaster building requirements (earthquake, tsunami, etc)

The Indicative Design specifically addresses four project objectives:

1. Provide secondary treatment using a process that:

• ensures effluent quality meets requirements defined in the Integrated Liquid Waste and Resource Management Plan and the new federal Wastewater Systems Effluent Regulation under the Fisheries Act
• has low life cycle costs relative to other wastewater treatment technologies
• can be modified to adopt new technologies if future regulatory changes require higher effluent quality standards and increased to a capacity that will accommodate future population growth beyond 250,000 on the North Shore

2. Demonstrate a socially, ecologically and economically sustainable project while fulfilling Metro Vancouver’s mandate of providing a core service. Sustainability features integrated into the design include:

• energy efficiency through electricity conservation and energy recovery
• water conservation and water reuse within the treatment plant
• on-site storm water management including a green roof for rainwater harvesting
• minimal waste generation and maximum reuse and recycling during construction

3. Implement integrated resource recovery strategies that recover valuable energy, water, and nutrients. The plant will:

• generate energy from wastewater in two forms;
• use biogas to generate electricity and heating to off-set the need for external sources of hydro and natural gas
• extract sewer heat from treated effluent with potential to connect into an external district energy system
• space is allocated for an energy provider to transfer sewer heat into existing or future district energy systems
• potential to be energy neutral while contributing at least 12% of available sewer heat to district energy systems
• reclaim water for non-potable use within the plant and potentially for use off-site
• produce class A biosolids (high nutrient organic matter) for Metro Vancouver’s biosolids program
• have capacity for future phosphorus recovery, through the formation of struvite, if future market conditions or operational considerations improve the business case   

4. Create a facility that is integrated into the community. The plant design will include:

• spaces for community activities on the roof
• visually appealing architectural design and landscaping
• features that allow for education opportunities
• public meeting spaces