Lets talk about Poop! Or, more importantly, what happens after you flush your toilet in Paris.
This is a subject where I have always had a lot of questions, back in October 2019, myself and all of the other Councillors for Paris took the opportunity to participate in public tours of our Paris Wastewater Treatment Facility. Around 40 people attended this open house and here is the short version of what we learned.
Treating Sanitary Waste: The Process
A combination of gravity and 6 pumping stations push whatever we flush to the Treatment Station in the south end of Paris, where a number of treatments take all of those solids and liquids, filter out the foreign objects, and then with the help of bacteria and micro-organism “bugs”, digest the material, which clarifies it and allows it to be separated into water and solids. The water path includes addition of chlorine and the water exits into the Grand River. This liquid at this stage looks just like tap water and is actually “cleaner” than the Grand River itself. The solid waste is further digested, thickened and ends up as a form of fertilized soil which we ship out (about 3 large bins per week) to be used locally in farmer’s fields. The farmers do not pay for the material and we do not pay them to take it. The overall Wastewater Treatment process takes approximately 30 hours and the most expensive part of it is electricity. The power usage of this facility is comparable to that of the Brant Sports Complex. Biosolids from other parts of the County are also trucked into this facility for final processing.
Treatment Capacity & Looking Forward
I have had many questions from residents about the capacity and future of our Wastewater Treatment Facility so here are some answers to some specific questions:
Capacity: On average, we process 3800 cubic metres per day. Our capacity is over 7000 cubic metres per day. We typically are operating at 35-65% of our capacity.
Any municipality that is nearing 85% capacity will trigger an Environmental Assessment to review options to increase capacity. Our municipality will likely start that process sometime next year (before hitting 85%), along with a similar evaluation of our drinking water capacity. I recall from a previous Public Open House that increasing our capacity for Wastewater Treatment and Drinking Water will cost around $100 Million. It is worth noting that while our resources are constrained in these two categories, this gives the County some valid arguments to limit residential development accordingly until the infrastructure is expanded. There is room on site to twin the Paris Wastewater Treatment Facility if and when we decide we want to do that.
What Not to Flush
Lastly, this tour provided an opportunity to learn about what should and should NOT be flushed down the toilet. Bottom line is that if its not toilet paper, or a bodily function, please do not flush it down the toilet! About a pickup truck full of foreign objects have to be shipped to the Paris Transfer Station every two weeks. Other foreign objects such as bacon grease, some household cleansers, condoms, tampons, and other similar materials should NOT go down the toilet. Flushable wipes are NOT flushable, despite what the package says. Pet poop is ok, but people should know that pharmaceuticals (of all types) are NOT processed through our treatment process and could end up going into the river.
Note: This article was originally posted to Facebook on October 26, 2019. Information was correct at the time of writing but some changes may have taken place since then.