Modern Solutions to Age-Old Problems

January 27, 2020

Tulsar Canada specializes in tailoring unique solutions to unique problems experienced by our clients. Many municipalities in Canada have aging infrastructure and underground pipes that carry both rainwater and sewage to a treatment plant. As combined sewers, they start to show their age when new development and growth in older urban areas exceeds their capacity, raising the risk of flooding and backups. An Ontario municipality faced such a situation when a new provincial government building tapped into a combined sewer line that was close to capacity.

The Challenge: The threat of raw sewage spilling in the neighborhood was real. The stop-gap measure was to bus staff off site when they had to use the washroom. Tulsar was asked to:

Conceive a solution that would allow wastewater from the building to safely flow into the municipal combined sewer pipes.
Ensure staff in the building could use the washrooms in the building.
Protect against the risk of future sewage spills.

Our Solution: Design a control panel to divert sewage from the building into a holding tank, where it is stored until there is capacity in the city’s forcemain combined sewer line.

When the wastewater level in the forcemain drops to a safe and acceptable level, the control panel diverts material from the holding tank into the sewer line. The panel also monitors the level in the holding tank, and not only pumps it out when safe, it also flushes and cleans the tank to ensure optimum operation.

The Benefits: Provincial staff working in the building are now able to use the washrooms in their facility without having to go offsite, and the municipality is comforted knowing that wastewater from the building is being safely managed with minimal risk of flooding.
In the event of a Century Storm coinciding with the building’s holding tank being full, the panel will shut down the system and alert security to shut down the washrooms. This would be a rare occurrence, but is built into the logic of the panel as a protection.