Watershed Overview of Wastewater Treatment Plant Performance Presentation to Wastewater Practitioners Group 15 October 2015

2 Background  Program initiated in 2010 (as a pilot) to address wastewater spills and bypasses  Municipal partners, GRCA, and MOECC  WMP identifies optimization as a best practice

3 What does optimization mean? Continuous improvement process to make effective use of existing resources and infrastructure to meet defined goals, e.g. improved effluent quality to reduce environmental impact.

4 WWOP Objectives  Improve water quality in the Grand River and its tributaries;  Tap the full potential of existing wastewater infrastructure and promote excellence in infrastructure management;

5 WWOP Objectives  Strengthen partnerships for wastewater optimization;  Enhance partner capability and motivation;

6 WWOP Objectives  Leverage and learn from U.S. EPA experience with area-wide optimization programs; and  Demonstrate an area-wide optimization program that can serve as a model for other areas of Ontario.

7 WWOP Activities  8 workshops to provide hands-on and classroom optimization training  8 Comprehensive Performance Evaluations of wastewater treatment plants  A poster was created to highlight the WWOP  WWOP overview article in Influents magazine  2 annual summary reports created (for 2012 and 2013)

8 Performance Report  A key activity in the WWOP is plant performance monitoring  28 WWTPs  Plant Flows  Per Capita Flows & Loads  Raw Influent Ratios  Plant Performance  Watershed Summary

9 Enhanced Performance Reporting

10 Impact of WWTPs

11 Impact of WWTPs

12 Benefits  Measure effectiveness of the program  Track changes and improvements over time  Identify plants for further optimization work  Support a recognition program #1#1

13 Next Steps  Report on 2014 data is underway  Workshop to review performance summary (early 2016)  Finalize report, circulate and post on website  Use information to feed into recognition program

14 Key Messages  Optimization is a best practice, similar to the Rural Water Quality Program  Collecting good data is crucial to make good decisions  Fostering partnerships is fundamental to the program; optimization is really about people.