[Pharmwaste] goldfish used downstream of water treatment plant

[Tenace, Laurie]

http://www.canada.com/edmontonjournal/news/cityplus/story.html?id=b6dc97e9-04
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Gold Bar waste put to goldfish test  
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 Jerry Leonard, executive director of the Edmonton Waste Management Centre of
Excellence 
Photograph by : Chris Schwarz, The Journal    
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  Font: * * * *  Gordon Kent, The Edmonton Journal
Published: Tuesday, January 03, 2006 
EDMONTON - Down by the North Saskatchewan River, a thousand goldfish are
constantly swimming against water flowing from Edmonton's Gold Bar treatment
plant.

The fish in the tanks are a modern-day version of canaries in coalmines,
helping researchers since last April check the health and environmental
impact of medication and pesticides that are flushed down city drains every
day.

The fish will be studied over a year to find out the effects of their
exposure to trace amounts of contamination that remain in treated water.

The fish are characteristic of Jerry Leonard's world, which is all about
finding better ways to dispose of debris -- where even a stinking pile of
trash could become a source of energy.

Leonard is executive manager of the Edmonton Waste Management Centre of
Excellence, a non-profit company boosting the city's reputation as a world
leader in waste management.

"That's one of the unique things about the centre," he says. "It looks at the
whole spectrum of waste, from sewage to solid."

The organization, started in 2003, includes a two-storey facility at the
Clover Bar waste management centre and a lab at the Gold Bar sewage treatment
plant.

It only has a handful of employees. Research is done by the staff of the
partners behind the centre -- the city, University of Alberta, Alberta
Research Council, Northern Alberta Institute of Technology, Olds College and
the Amec consulting firm.

"Not only do we have academic expertise available to us, but we have a huge
amount of expertise available to us through the city," said Leonard.

The centre is currently in charge of about a dozen projects. Leonard doesn't
know of any other organization with the same structure doing similar work.

In one of two big work spaces at the Clover Bar site, city staff are putting
together equipment to test the feasibility of creating small pellets and
shredded fluff out of trash such as plastic bags that can't be composted.

Instead of sending it to the landfill, this material could be converted at
high temperatures into a gas which can be used for fuel or chemical
feedstock.

Once a couple of hundred tonnes of the material is produced, it will be
tested by a Quebec firm to determine whether the scheme is practical.

The centre, with an annual operating budget of about $250,000, is still in
the startup phase, says Leonard, a U of A agricultural engineer specializing
in waste management.

The first big success was finding a way to clean and reuse most of the
100,000 tonnes of sand Edmonton dumps on roads each winter to improve
traction.

A process spearheaded by former transportation supervisor John Mundy, in
which sand swept up each spring is washed through sieves, worked so well the
centre has a deal to recycle all street sand for six years.

It contracts out the recycling to a company Mundy started. The centre
receives money and a chance to do research aimed at further improving the
process.

Leonard wants to start selling the centre's expertise internationally,
providing training, waste management planning and consulting services for
anyone interested.

A Mongolian delegation is coming to Edmonton in February with a list of
questions for city officials, including how best to operate a landfill, he
says.

The centre's immediate focus is finding customers in the growing economies of
China and Mexico, he says.

"In China, they're interested in how you charge people for garbage services,
and how do you get them to put recyclables in different containers," he says.

Countries are increasingly focused on dealing properly with their sewage and
trash, Leonard says.

"There's a whole lot more waste, and very little of it is actually managed,
but it needs to be."

gkent at thejournal.canwest.com



Laurie J. Tenace
Environmental Specialist
Florida Department of Environmental Protection
2600 Blair Stone Road, MS 4555
Tallahassee, Florida 32399-2400
PH: (850) 245-8759
FAX: (850) 245-8811
Laurie.Tenace at dep.state.fl.us
 
view our mercury web pages at: 
http://www.dep.state.fl.us/waste/categories/mercury/default.htm