The new award-winning system to convert waste biosolids into fertilizer in North Battleford was on full display Friday.
The occasion was the open house at North Battleford’s wastewater treatment plant, showing off the newly-installed biosolids management system at the plant developed by Cambridge, Ont.-based Lystek International Inc.
Tours of the plant were conducted in the morning and afternoon, attracting many civic officials from other municipalities looking for viable solutions to their own waste problems.
The Lystek system has been up and running since December. Before that, North Battleford hauled biosolids waste from the wastewater treatment plant to the landfill, creating issues and a foul smell.
The Water Security Agency put in place new regulations forcing a change from the old way of doing things. The new system includes a storage tank and a reactor that is designed to convert the biosolids into commercial fertilizer.
Those are now in place inside the wastewater facility in the location where trucks used to come in to remove the biosolids waste. A covered lagoon was also built outside for storage.
North Battleford was the first city in western Canada to use the Lystek system, which had been used before in Ontario.
Already the system has gained recognition across Canada, with North Battleford winning a National Municipal Environmental Award in 2015 for implementing the system.
Officials at a noon-hour luncheon at the Dekker Centre had good things to say about the Lystek system.
“We are no longer throwing away a valuable raw material that can be used as fertilizer,“ said City Director of Operations Stewart Schafer, “but secondly we’re not filling up our landfill with raw biosolids, which will increase the useful life of the landfill.”
“We’re very excited about it, obviously,” said Mayor Ian Hamilton, who added the city was “willing to share our experiences and give you as much information as we possibly can to extend this to your communities …”
“Innovation is a word everybody uses,” said Lystek President Rick Mosher. “But there aren’t nearly as many that use the word as actually apply it. And North Battleford has demonstrated that.”
