On June 3, 2015, the city of North Battleford in Saskatchewan, Canada was presented with a 2015 Canadian Association of Municipal Administrators (CAMA) Environment Award during the association’s national conference in Jasper. The award recognizes the successful implementation of a Lystek biosolids management system at the city to replace its historical practice of landfilling.
“CAMA is pleased to recognize the administrative excellence demonstrated by the city of North Battleford for its efforts to convert biosolids into a commercially usable fertilizer,” said Robert Hughes, president of CAMA and chief administrative officer for Stratford, Prince Edward Island.
CAMA’s Environment Award, which was sponsored by Ravenhill Group Inc., recognizes the commitment of a municipality to environmentally sustainable governance, to protecting the environment and to combating climate change. Awards are granted to programs, projects or services that have made a significant and positive impact on the environment. Since Canada has a unique mixture of small and large communities, awards are granted according to population—for municipalities under 20,000, for those between 20,001 and 100,000 and for those over 100,000. Certificates of Merit may also be awarded.
The city began looking for a proper method to manage its biosolids in November 2007 and began to identify and study possible biosolids stabilizations processes. In January 2014, the city issued a request for proposals for an economical method of handling its biosolids.
After evaluating the submitted proposals, the Lystek system was chosen because it was affordable, compact enough to easily be retrofitted into the existing plant, and did not require additional staff to be hired or special skills to operate. A covered lagoon is used to store the liquid fertilizer, which is (CFIA) registered. There is also a revenue-sharing agreement with the city. North Battleford is the first municipality in Western Canada to adopt this system. An agreement to initiate the project was executed in February 2014 and the system started operating in December 2014, on budget and ahead of schedule.
Source: Lystek
