Veolia Water Technologies by GineersNow Engineering Magazine GineersNow Engineering Magazine September 2016 | Page 88

eliminate surcharges. Although
the first option was the cheaper
one, the second one was chosen
as it was seen to be most beneficial
in the long run.
The brewery invested $13 million
in an anaerobic digestion system
that will remove surcharges and
will also meet the natural gas
demand for plant boilers of up to
5 per cent.
What they did was contrary to
the popular mantra among water
treatment circles which is “the
solution to pollution is dilution,”
but Oland managed to control the
problem just fine.
See, the problem with food and
beverage wastewater discharge
is taking responsible of where
the water goes before the effect
becomes irreversible. That is why
companies like Oland are worth
emulating when it comes to their
social responsibility with water
treatment.
Truth be told, water treatment is
taken for granted in the food and
beverage production sector. It
only comes to mind when there
is a problem after the water
they utilize is discharged; but
nonetheless, it will soon become
a problem.
Such is the case of Oland
Brewery, who two years ago had
a wastewater discharge problem
that affected the Halifax municipal
treatment plant. The brewery
forced the Nova Scotia city to
release water with dangerous
levels of biological oxygen demand
(BOD) and total suspended solids
(TSS) into the Halifax Harbor.
Here’s the catch: Oland Brewery
was torn between two options
to solve the problem: one, is
to upgrade the municipal plant
which would cause surcharges
to quintuple to almost $1 million
annually based on the BOD and
TSS levels at the time; or two, is
to invest in a new system that will
THE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY
ON FOOD AND BEVERAGE’S
WASTEWATER DISCHARGE
88
SEPTEMBER 2016
Clean Water Technologies