Innovative passive treatment systems for source water protection

安大略省最近认识到有效的水源保护措施对保障公众健康和环境健康至关重要（例如《清洁水法》，其中涉及沃克顿调查报告的一些建议）。与此同时，还必须认识到，废水和环境污染物处理系统的创新（用于设计和操作有效、成本效益高且操作简单的增强型被动系统），以保护该省所有地区的水源，特别是在较小的半城市化和农村地区，缺乏资源来实施高技术的“城市”式水和废水管理基础设施和工艺。为了能够提出这种创新的增强型无源系统，首先必须对这些系统有基本的科学和工程理解，最好是通过对全尺寸现场演示系统的长期运行和评估来实现。拟议的研究计划将建立在以前取得的重大成功的基础上，即建立一个大量的现场研究站点网络，以及它们在寒冷气候环境下系统和工艺操作和设计的详细评估中的应用。待评估的系统包括用于处理扩散垃圾渗滤液的地下流人工湿地（金斯顿ON），用于现场处理生活废水的创新近零排放植被过滤器（废水花园）（波特兰ON），以及使用创新过滤介质改进处理的增强地下废水处理沟渠工艺（Cornwall ON）。这些过程是被动式（操作和机械简单）系统家族的代表，但一旦我们通过详细的实地调查对工作中的化学，物理和生物过程有了全面的了解，它们也代表了水源保护的适当技术。这些信息反过来将使监管机构能够就这些系统在安大略和加拿大各地的应用做出明智的决定。

The Province of Ontario has recently recognized the critical importance of effective source water protection measures to safeguard public health and environmental health (e.g. the Clean Water Act, which addresses some of the recommendations of the Walkerton Inquiry report). At the same time, it must also be recognized that innovations in wastewater and environmental contaminant treatment systems (for the design and operation of effective, cost efficient and operationally simple enhanced passive systems) are still required, to allow for source water protection in all areas of the province, particularly in the smaller semi-urbanized and rural areas lacking the resources to implement high technology "urban" style water and wastewater management infrastructure and processes. In order to be able to propose such innovative enhanced passive systems, a basic scientific and engineering understanding of these systems must first be gained, and this is best done through the long-term operation and assessment of full-scale field demonstration systems.The proposed research program will build on significant previous successes, in terms of the establishment of a substantial network of field research sites, and their use in the detailed assessment of system and process operation and design in cold-climate settings. Systems to be evaluated include a subsurface flow constructed wetland for the treatment of diffuse landfill leachate (Kingston ON), an innovative near zero-discharge vegetated filter (the Wastewater Garden), for the on-site treatment of domestic wastewater (Portland ON), and an enhanced subsurface wastewater disposal trench process using an innovative filtration medium for improved treatment (Cornwall ON). These processes are representative of the family of passive (operationally and mechanically simple) systems, but they also represent appropriate technologies for source water protection, once we have achieved a thorough understanding of the chemical, physical and biological processes at work through detailed field investigations. This information in turn will allow regulators to make informed decisions about the application of these systems in Ontario and across Canada.