Drinking Water Treatment Infrastructure: Responding to Climate Change and Increasingly Variable Source Water Quality

As a result of climate change and other pressures that result in “extreme events” like wildfire and flooding, many drinking water utilities are at risk of potentially catastrophic failure and need treatment adaptation strategies to prepare for increasingly variable and potentially rapid deterioration in source water quality. Currently there are no recognized tools for evaluating the anticipated impacts of such events on water treatment plant operations. This research will enable Stantec Consulting Ltd. to become a leader in this area by 1) optimizing the performance of key processes within a typical drinking water treatment plant facing these risks, 2) identifying water quality parameters of critical import and their anticipated extremes, 3) optimizing key processes to address deterioration of water quality while maintaining excellent baseline performance, and 4) developing a process optimization and costing tool to allow
“real time” assessment and process adjustment to maintain treatment plant compliance and performance.

Faculty Supervisor:

Dr. Monica Emelko

Student:

Ding Wang

Partner:

Stantec Consulting Ltd.

Discipline:

Engineering - civil

Sector:

Environmental industry

University:

University of Waterloo