By Gagandeep Ghuman
Published: Sept 24, 2018
The repair of a major mechanical failure on the circular clarifier at the Mamquam Wastewater Treatment Plant took four months to complete and cost the tax payers $298,000.
Bob Smith, the director of public works, told council the staff was able to manage the breakdown and the repair efficiently.
“By completing large portions of the work with multiple contractors and in house forces, we estimate a savings in the region of $65,000,” he said.
The major mechanical failure on the rotating steel structure in the circular clarifier tank occurred on January 14 this year, rendering the tank out of commission.
It was considered a major mechanical failure as the plant treats 90 per cent of the flow through the facility.
This failure happened around 8:30 am while the weekend employee was working and that employee’s quick response to shut down the equipment and contact senior staff minimized the extent of the damage.
Smith said the immediate response was to divert all flow entering the WWTP to the back-up treatment train, also known as the “old side”
The district, Smith noted, is very fortunate to have a redundant treatment train to allow uninterrupted treatment of wastewater.
If it were not for the swift action of our wastewater operations staff and the foresight of past Engineers in design and construction of redundant treatment processes, the situation may have been very different, Smith said.
“It is nearly impossible to measure the value of having a back-up treatment system in these situations. Significant and severe environmental impacts would certainly have occurred if this were not the case in Squamish,” he said.
Dave Colwell says
It is to be hoped that there will always be a back-up system in place in all such facilities everywhere regardless of the cost. This should never have been a merely serendipitous situation which it appears was the case.