To date the Raymond A. Barker Water Filtration Plant has had over 1500 people from around the world visit our plant to look at the ZeeWeed® technology (Brazil, China, Japan, Germany, Australia, Hungary, Korea, Mexico, New Zealand, UK, U.S.: (Arizona, California, New York, Texas, Illinois, Carolinas, Florida)

Raymond A Barker Water Treatment Plant is the International training centre for Zenon Membrane water treatment facilities.
 

History

The Town of Collingwood was incorporated in 1858 and was once considered to be the Chicago of the North.

Collingwood Water Works was established in 1889.

Collingwood Water & Light Commission was formed January 6, 1908, under Mayor George Watson Jr.

Changed to Collingwood Public Utilities Commission on July 24, 1912.

The latest change in 2004 converted the Commission to a Municipal Service Board called Collingwood Public Utilities.

The old water treatment plant comprised of a settlement zone and disinfection prior to pumping in to the Town's distribution system.

Georgian Bay contains some of the purest water in the World, even so water borne parasites are endemic.

In 1996 the then Commission with the support of Council made the proactive decision to build a "State of the Art" water treatment facility to ensure a safe and secure water supply for the community.

In 1998 the Raymond A. Barker Membrane Filtration Plant was commissioned.

The Plant utilises ultra filtration membranes to process the raw water without the use of chemicals for coagulation.

The plant produces some of the safest drinking water in the world.
 

Current Rated Capacity 31,140 m3/d

-- Building dimensions 52 m x 20m
-- 5 basins (480 series 500A membranes)
-- An additional series 1000 membrane plant has been instaleld to run in parallel with other membranes.
-- In addition a dedicated process pipeline was commissioned to supply Industry with unfiltered water for industrial uses (30% of our water).

In 2006 the average volume taken during the reporting period from the Raymond A. Barker Plant was 18,825 m3/d which was approximately 60% of the maximum daily volume of 31,140 m3 permitted. The highest day recorded was 27,242 m3, occurred in August and was approximately 87% of the maximum volume permitted.

The Collingwood Public Utilities has completed an Environmental Assessment to expand the rated capacity of the Raymond A. Barker Ultra-filtration Plant.

Source: Nottawasaga Bay surface water

The Raymond A. Barker Water Treatment Plant is an Ultrafiltration Treatment Plant, which is a Class II facility. This state-of-the-art membrane water treatment plant employs the Zenon hollow fibre membrane technology, filtering surface water from Nottawasaga Bay. The plant supplies and treats all the water used by the municipal water system.

There are 480 hollow fibre membrane modules with a nominal pore size of 0.01 microns that will produce up to 31,140 m3/d of water at a water temperature of 2 degrees Celsius.

The raw chlorinated water (pre-chlorination for Zebra Muscle Control) flows by gravity through the 1.07m diameter (42") intake pipe to the water screen and then into the filter basin.

The membranes are submerged in five membrane tanks and permeate pumps create a slight suction on the membranes pulling the water through them. This filtered water is then post-chlorinated before it flows into the dedicated superior baffled chlorine contact chambers and then into the clear well to be pumped to the distribution system and the New Tecumseth Regional Pipeline.

To assist in keeping the membranes clean and prevent them from fouling, air is sent to the bottom of the membrane tanks. This air in the form of bubbles then rises to the surface to provide an air scour around the membrane. The bubbles create turbulence to keep the fibres separate and to assist in keeping any particles in suspension. These particles concentrate within the membrane tank and are withdrawn by the concentrate pumps and sent to the Industrial Process Water Plant where it is blended with lake water for non-potable use. The air scour was originally designed to operate in a continuous mode. However, recent modifications have converted the continual scour to a cyclic system turning the air on and off within the tank. This has resulted in a 50% reduction in energy use for the production of air. Each membrane production period is 15 to 20 minutes long. After the production cycle has completed, the system automatically goes into a backpulse cleaning procedure. During a backpulse the membranes are subjected to a positive pressure from within with a flow of filtered water pumped from the backpulse tank back through the fibre, thus blowing off any particles that may have adhered to it. This sequence lasts for 30 seconds and then the unit will go back into its production cycle.

The Ultra-Filtration Plant provides disinfection by the means of chlorine gas. The chlorine dosage rate at this facility ranged from 0.43 mg/l to 0.97 mg/l for the raw water pre-chlorination and a range of 0.99 mg/l to 1.9 mg/l for the treated water post-chlorination.

There is continual 24 hour online monitoring of various parameters such as pH (measures of acidity), Temperature, Turbidity, Particle Counts, Flows, Pressures and Chlorine Residuals for both the raw and treated water and alarms are issued if necessary. There are four high lift pumps; one 55hp and three 150 hp that deliver treated, filtered water to our 126 km water distribution system as well as to our 2,500 cubic metre elevated Water Tower and to our 6,818 cubic metre A. R. Carmicheal West End Reservoir. Both pumping facilities are equipped with backup power generation to ensure a continuous supply of treated potable water for the community.

Owner/Operation: Collingwood Public Utilities

Population Served: The plant currently serves approximately 7,500 residences, 710 commercial establishments and 11 industrial facilities within the Town. In addition, it also supplies New Tecumseth with 9,500 m3/d and the Town of The Blue Mountains with 2,500 m3/d.