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Stantec Red Deer recognized for work after Fort McMurray fire

Honoured for excellence in engineering
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Stantec in Red Deer was honoured this week for its work assessing and restoring critical infrastructure so Fort McMurray residents could return home and begin rebuilding their lives after the 2016 wildfire.

Stantec was involved in getting the city’s wastewater treatment plant back into shape, as well as protecting the wastewater system from debris.

Staff received a Water Resources Award of Excellence from the Association of Consulting Engineering Companies — Canada, and Canadian Consulting Engineer, in Ottawa on Tuesday.

Stephan Weninger, principal in the water sector at Stantec in Red Deer, said it was an honour to receive the award, but Stantec efforts were just one piece of the massive recovery effort.

“We weren’t firefighters. We can’t put ourselves on the level of those guys, but it’s just nice to be recognized by our industry peers for sure,” Weninger said.

“It was great to help out the community where we could.”

One of the things Stantec focused on was protecting the sewer system from hazardous debris.

“A lot of asbestos insulated homes were burned and there was concern about asbestos making its way to the waterways. We helped identify points where it could enter the river, or water courses in general.”

Then they orchestrated control measures that were put in place throughout the community to protect sewers and downstream waterways, he said.

After the fire Fort McMurray’s Wastewater Treatment Plant was inundated with water coming into the sewer system that impacted the plant’s biological process. An innovative biomass transplant using thickened waste activated sludge from the Red Deer’s Wastewater Treatment Plant was trucked to Fort McMurray.

“It’s kind of like a blood transfusion between wastewater treatment plants,” Weninger said.

He didn’t know of any case where a community that size had been empty for that long, and there was no guarantee that the biomass would do well after the seven-hour haul. But it worked.

“Once people came back in and started using their toilets again, the biological process really took off and we didn’t have to do anything beyond that.”

The award for Stantec’s work in Fort McMurray was one of four Canadian Consulting Engineering Awards the company received for Alberta projects. The awards recognize exceptional engineering projects by Canadian firms and highlight the important work consulting engineers do in communities across Canada and the world.



szielinski@reddeeradvocate.com

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