SMART Stormwater Project Assists Canadian WWTP

About the author:

Winner profiles were compiled by SWS Managing Editor Katie Johns and Associate Editor Cristina Tuser. Johns can be reached at [email protected] and Tuser can be reached at [email protected]

Collingwood, Canada’s SMART Stormwater Project started up in September 2017 to help reduce storm water inflows from private properties into the municipal sanitary sewer system and wastewater treatment plant. 

The project team installed a new internet connected sump pump and rain cistern products in neighborhoods that were at high risk from flooding. The products also prevented non-compliant connections to the sanitary sewer system and redirected discharges to low impact development (LID) features. 

In the spring of 2016, for example, during a severe rainfall event, untreated sewage from Collingwood’s Wastewater Treatment Plant (WWTP) was released into the Georgian Bay. 

Data collected from the smart technologies (SafeSump and RainGrid) were used with a concurrent sewer monitoring program and asset management study. 

The LID installations monitored components including; permeable parking lots at institutional and commercial sites; rain gardens; internet rain cisterns and basement sump pump installations at residential sites.

Reducing chronic extraneous inflows to the sewage system was a core goal. This action would help reduce the town’s green house gas footprint, including that of the WWTP. Using the concurrent asset management study helped quantify the severity of the residential storm water connections to the wastewater treatment plant. 

The collaboration was funded by the Federation of Canadian Municipalities through the Green Municipal Fund and was completed in March 2020.