|
Britannia Mine Water Treatment Plant
An innovative water treatment facility is cleaning-up one of North America’s largest sources of heavy metal pollution.
For more than 70 years the Britannia Mine has been an ecological concern. Every day, hundreds of kilograms of heavy metals entered British Columbia’s Howe Sound through contaminated acid rock drainage that came from the now abandoned copper mine.
In March 2005, EPCOR and its partners signed an agreement with the B.C. Government to clean-up the mine water. Eight months later, the Britannia Water Treatment facility was up and running. In 2006, the facility treated four billion litres of water and removed over 255,000 kilograms of heavy metal contaminants. The amount of copper removed in the facilities first year of operation is the equivalent of preventing 30 million copper pennies from entering Howe Sound.
EPCOR has a 20 year guaranteed performance contract with the province to operate and maintain the mine and water treatment facilities. A micro-turbine powered by the outflowing treated water is used to help power the treatment plant.
Britannia Beach is situated on the Sea-to-Sky Highway on Howe Sound. Significant development is planned in the area, and 500,000 visitors a year are expected at the BC Museum of Mining in the run-up to the 2010 Olympics.
EPCOR’s facility removes:
- Copper
- Iron
- Zinc
- Aluminum
- Manganese
- Cadmium
Cause of Contamination
The Britannia Mine site was one of the largest heavy metal pollution sources in North America. For more than seventy years naturally-occurring metal sulphide ores have been exposed to air and rain. The resulting chemical and biochemical reactions produce concentrated acidic, metal-contaminated water. This contamination, known as acid rock drainage (ARD), exited the old mine and flowed untreated into Howe Sound.
Solution
EPCOR developed the plant's treatment systems to meet strict new water effluent regulations with a focus on high operational reliability. The plant combines EPCOR's unique expertise in both power and water; electricity produced from the mine's discharge flow is used to help power the treatment plant.
Britannia Mine Water Treatment Plant Discovery Centre
Come explore EPCOR’s new Discovery Centre, where you will get ‘hands-on’ with real science to learn how the Britannia Mine Water Treatment Plant is cleaning up the environment.
Contact Information
water@epcor.ca
Related information
|
Third Party Disclaimer:
EPCOR's website may provide listing of and/or links to third party websites as a convenient information service
only. EPCOR accepts no responsibility or liability for the privacy practices, content, opinions, accuracy, and
administration of such other websites, nor do we monitor or endorse these websites.
|
|
|