Developing, evaluating and modeling subpotable water reclamation and remediation

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Fast-paced economic and industrial growth in Saskatchewan translate into significantly higher water quality and quantity assessments and treatment to meet demand and maintain environmental integrity. The impacts of climate change, oilfield and mining activities, non-point inputs from agricultural nutrients and chemicals, and winter highway maintenance have significant effects on raw water quality. Since the majority of potable water is not consumed as drinking water there is potential to reclaim stormwater in place of high-cost, treated potable water for new economic growth activities and industries while reducing load on municipal infrastructure. SK surface water presents several unique design and management challenges, particularly since nutrient loading is in the dissolved form. Thus, many existing methods and models for nutrient removal in water treatment do not address this challenge. This project will investigate a variety of options for reclaiming and treating stormwater for reuse in circumstances where large volumes of good quality, subpotable water are required. Research will focus on porous media byproducts from SK industries for removal of eutrophication-causing inorganic phosphorous and nitrogen. The removal of other urban contaminants, such as landscaping pesticides, oils and grease, and microorganisms will be investigated in sub-projects to evaluate overall system design efficacy, limitations, processes, and models for remediation. Mechanistic models will be developed to elucidate fundamental processes by which inorganic nutrients are removed from reclaimed water. Model development and calibration include a variety of environmental and water quality conditions and proposed mechanisms of contaminant removal, including adsorption, absorption, bulk transport, pore transport (both pore and surface diffusion). These mechanisms and processes are investigated for implementation and publication of models and scholarly results of performance monitoring. The potential reclamation and reuse models can be applied where water supplies are sparse, drought-susceptible, over-allocated or disputed for multiple users, or otherwise restricted or compromised.