Keeping it clean
Employees at Marine Harvest Canada's processing plant in Port Hardy, BC, are on the clock 24/7 using constantly evolving technologies to ensure effluent leaves the plant crystal clean.
Marine Harvest Canada’s (MHC) $6.5 million water treatment facility is located next to their salmon processing plant in Port Hardy, British Columbia. Built in 2011, the facility functions to filter the effluent water from the processing plant before returning it to the bay in Port Hardy.
“It’s really simple to describe what it does,” says Angela Dempsey, Waste Water Treatment Operator at MHC. “But it’s a bit more complicated to explain exactly ‘how’ it does it.”
Angela Dempsey, a native of Deer Lake, Newfoundland, has been a Waste Water Treatment Operator at MHC for 5 years. Working alongside Greg Payne, Environmental Operator, the facility is under operations 24 hrs a day, 7 days a week.
The water treatment facility employs high-tech equipment that is constantly evolving, but Angela says the core processes remains the same and include primary screening for solids, pH neutralization and flocculent dispersion, separation of solids from liquids and fine screening. The final step in the treatment is disinfection with UV radiation.
The Ultra-Low UVT disinfection system (Trojan I-Jet Gen 3) is the newest investment at the plant. “The company’s investment into the best technology is great to see,” says Angela. “It makes my job exciting and successful.”
Marine Harvest’s maintenance team – which includes electricians and millwrights and is led by Andy Beech – has been an integral part of ensuring the heavily mechanized facility has had few operational hiccups.
With a capacity for 114 L/min, Angela and Greg remain busy monitoring and tweaking the system to ensure effluent water is exceeding the expectations of Federal regulators and third-party certifications.
The processing plant is certified to the Seafood Processing Standard, which is GFSI recognized.
