Have you ever wondered where the “water” goes when you flush the toilet, drain the bathtub, or pull the plug in the sink? In Kingston East and the old part of Kingston, it goes down to the Ravensview Water Treatment Plant on Highway 2. It’s a state of the art facility that’s so technologically advanced, it sets new environmental and energy efficiency standards for water treatment plants in North America.

It was built in 1957 and serviced Kingston and the former Pittsburgh Township. Today, it services the same area as it did in 1957, but due to development over the years the capacity has increased dramatically.

Over the years, the facility was upgraded and updated, but the latest expansion that completed in 2009, was the most significant. The facility boasts one of North America’s largest Biostyr™ Biological Aerated Filter (BAF) installations. It reclaims the methane gas that’s a natural by-product of the wastewater treatment process and uses it to power the generators. Then it uses the heat from the generator’s exhaust to heat part of the “digestion” process. And it uses limited chemicals to return the processed water back to nature. It’s a very environmentally friendly facility and fits in perfectly with Kingston’s Sustainability Plan.

As Stephen King, the Sub-Forman of Water and Wastewater Operations explained, “Each day, over 60,000 cubic meters of water is processed in the plant. It comes from 80,000 houses and runoff from city streets.” The water enters the plant through 3 channels (Picture 1) and passes through a system of screens to filter out the large debris like tampon applicators, rags, needles and anything bigger than 12-15mm (Picture 2).

Each week, approximately four yards of debris is collected and sent to the landfills.

After the water passes through the large debris screens, it flows into the Degritting Tanks where air is pumped into the water, (Picture 3) and the heavier particles sink to the bottom of the tank. Ferric Chloride is added to the water to remove some of the Phosphorus and a Polymer is added to make lighter suspended particles sink so they are collected with the grit. Approximately two yards of grit are collected each week and sent to the landfills.

The water then moves through the primary clarifiers (Picture 4) where more matter is removed by a series of “paddles” that scrape the surface of the water and the bottom of the tank. And then the water is off to the jewel of Ravensview, the Biological Aerated Filters (BAF).

Kevin Riley, the Manager of Water and Wastewater Operations said, “The BAF is the largest in North America (Picture 5) and attracts visitors from all over the world. As the water enters the BAF, it’s injected with air from two small jet engines located in the Low Lift Pumping Station. The aerated water also gets a shot of Chlorine and then flows up through billions of styrene balls that look like Styrofoam. On each little ball there are single cell organisms that eat the bacteria in the water. The water then travels up through 77,000 nozzles and on to the Chlorine Contact Chamber.”

The Chlorine Contact Chamber (Picture 6) is a series of switchbacks that allows the water to slow down and the Chlorine to further purify it.

But highly Chlorinated water can’t be pumped back into Lake Ontario, so before it leaves the plant, Sodium Bisulphate is added to neutralize the Chlorine. The water then travels down a trough (Picture 7) into a huge pipe and out into Lake Ontario. And that completes the path the water takes, but there’s more to it.

Along the way, there’s lots of sludge that’s collected. The sludge is pumped into 4 massive Anaerobic Digesters where it’s “cooked” to kill the bacteria (Picture 8). This process creates Methane Gas which is then filtered and used to run the generators that power the heating process. It’s as close to a perpetual heater as you can get.

The cooked sludge contains two – three percent solids when it’s sent to the Dewatering plant where a centrifuge spins it at 3,000 rpm to remove the moisture. When it’s done spinning, the sludge is twenty-eight percent solids. Then it’s moved to the Sludge Storage Pad (Picture 9) where it’s stored until it can be trucked to agricultural land and used as fertilizer.

So next time you flush the toilet, even if you don’t think about where the water is going, it’s on its way to be purified and returned to Lake Ontario.

Read Part 1
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