The Town of Crossfield and Collicutt Siding Golf Club (CSGC) are about to embark on the second phase of a pilot project to use Swirltex’s wastewater filtration system on the town’s lagoons this fall.
According to a press release from the Town, Calgary-based Swirltex builds custom wastewater treatment systems and has developed a “proprietary technology that enables wastewater to be recycled to a very high quality,” in a cost-effective manner.
“Swirltex’s innovative technology is a good fit for the town and its residents, for the golf course and for the environment,” said Crossfield Mayor Jo Tennant in a statement.
Phase 1 of the project was completed in 2019. Phase 2 will run from September to October and will provide Alberta Environment with data needed to consider final approval and deployment of the filtration system.
According to Swirltex’s Chief Administrative Officer (CAO) Melanie McClare, the Town is using the company’s Swirltex Lagoon Unit (SLU) – a portable, two-part ultra-filtration system. She added the technology is about two years old.
“The first part is buoyancy manipulation, where we attach bubbles to the solid particles in the wastewater,” she said. “That makes them float, and then we spin it through a tubular membrane.”
The spinning keeps those contaminants away from the membrane surface, McClare said, which increases the membrane’s capacity.
“Those contaminants are then hyper-oxygenated, so when we return the recycled loop back to the lagoon…we’re increasing the oxygen into the lagoon with our byproduct,” she said.
In addition to a reduced environmental footprint compared to conventional wastewater treatment methods, McClare said the SLU is modular and can be set up seasonally, at a lower cost than having to install permanent wastewater treatment infrastructure.
“It allows for the Town to have this modular plant achieve their goals, instead of having to spend tens of millions of dollars in upgrading their existing infrastructure,” she said.
McClare declined to say how much the SLU is costing the Town or CSGC, as Swirltex is offsetting some of the cost with provincial and federal grant funding.
“It’s at a deeply discounted rate to what we’d be in the market for,” she said.
“Under normal circumstances, we wouldn’t have grant funding to help cover the costs of this project, so it’s not indicative of what we’d charge under the market rate.”
Lyndon King, CSGC’s general manager and head golf professional, said the system provides a benefit to both the Town of Crossfield and the club. He said the golf course will be able to use the treated effluent for irrigation.
“From the golf course’s perspective, it’s being able to have water readily available when we need it,” he said. “We suck [our pond] dry. If it’s a hot and dry year like it was a couple of years ago, it’s just not enough to sustain us.
“And we just built three new holes for children, so we’re going to need even more water. It’s important timing to get this in here now.”
In 2018, King told the Rocky View Weekly that CSGC was not allowed to use the Town’s effluent for irrigation purposes, which caused the course’s greens and fairways to dry out that summer. According to the Town’s CAO Ken Bosman, the reason the golf course was not allowed to use the effluent was certain water quality standards were necessary before the municipality could put treated wastewater on the golf course, and those standards were not met.
King said the use of the SLU solves that conflict.
“It’s a win for the Town of Crossfield, who doesn’t have to pay to dispose of it. It’s a win for us because we need water to keep the grass growing, and it’s a win for downstream because it’s not wastewater being dumped into the creek,” he said.
“It’s good to see the Town and golf course working together on this one.”
Scott Strasser, AirdrieToday.com
Follow me on Twitter @scottstrasser19
