The Region of Peel in the province of Ontario is one of the fastest growing municipalities in North America. The Region is home to the burgeoning cities of Mississauga, Brampton, and the Town of Caledon. These three communities are served by two water resource recovery facilities – G.E. Booth and Clarkson. But by 2020, the G.E. Booth facility was already approaching its capacity limits. With projections showing Peel Region’s employment and population to shoot up by 2041, the Clarkson and G.E. Booth facilities needed expansion.

Peel Region turned to the experts at GM BluePlan and GEI Consultants to complete the essential Schedule C Class Environmental Assessments (EA) required to increase the wastewater treatment capacity of each plant.

The project required a unique approach. Because G.E. Booth and the Clarkson facilities are so interconnected – sharing sewer lines – the two locations operate as one big system. Approaching them as separate entities wasn’t going to work. So, our team took a holistic approach, conducting the first two phases of the Environmental Assessments in parallel before stepping back to look at how to implement expansions at each plant.

As project manager, GMBP was responsible for completing the EA, which included developing a wastewater system and treatment alternative, impact identification and assessment, and stakeholder consultation and communication.

GEI provided hydrogeological, geotechnical, climate change and natural heritage technical support, which included comprehensive background reviews and site-specific investigations. As part of GEI’s work evaluating the natural heritage systems at each site, experts identified a wetland on the site of the Clarkson expansion that would need to be relocated. Meanwhile, GEI’s team worked hard – conducting field surveys, monitoring nesting birds, mapping potential Monarch habitat, and more – to determine that the expansion at G.E. Booth would not impact natural heritage areas.

Once complete, the two EAs recommended the expansion of the G.E. Booth facility from 518 Mega Litres per day (MLD) to 550 MLD. For Clarkson, we recommended an expansion from 350 MLD to 500 MLD. In addition, our EAS also recommended an update and expansion of the biosolids management facilities for both plants.

Thanks to the combined efforts of GMBP and GEI, we delivered alternatives for plant capacity expansions that addressed Peel Region’s key objectives, including:

• Long-term sustainability
• Resilience
• Environmental protection (specifically through GEI’s field surveys identifying sensitive areas on site to protect during construction)
• Community acceptability (specifically through GMBP’s communication plan with stakeholders outlining the alternatives and clearly describing the preferred concept and how it benefited the community)
• Ease of operations (specifically through GMBP meeting with Peel operators to confirm proven processes)
• Energy efficiency and the reduction of greenhouse gases
• Fiscally responsible (specifically through the project team completing life-cycle analysis on the various alternatives and factoring that into the evaluation process)

Meanwhile, the residents of Mississauga, Brampton, and Caledon can look forward to enjoying safe, reliable wastewater services, through 2041 and beyond.