Wastewater Systems
Contact Us
For more information
Call 905-546-2489 or
Email [email protected]
The City of Hamilton collects and treats both sanitary and combined sewage from the large underground wastewater collection sewer system. The City owns and operates two wastewater treatment plants; Woodward Avenue Wastewater Treatment Plant and Dundas Wastewater Treatment Plant.
Wastewater collection
Hamilton’s wastewater collection system includes:
This collection system services the city of Hamilton including:
Combined sewer overflow tanks were added to the system to reduce the number of combined sewer overflows to the local receiving waters. These tanks capture and store excess combined sewage during rainstorms and later send it to the Woodward Avenue Treatment Plant for treatment after the storm.
Wastewater treatment
Woodward Avenue Wastewater Treatment Plant
The Woodward Avenue Wastewater Treatment Plant has an average daily capacity of 409 million litres. The facility is a conventional activated sludge plant with tertiary filtration and anerobic sludge digestion. There are six wastewater treatment processes used at this plant, including:
The Woodward Avenue Wastewater Treatment Plant digester complex treats
primary treatment sludge
thickened secondary activated sludge
This complex has three primary and one secondary anaerobic digesters in operation. The digestion process uses a heated biological process to reduce the volume of organic matter and destroy pathogens. This process produces methane gas and biosolids. The methane gas is used as a fuel or converted into electricity. The treated biosolids, after being conditioned, are approved for use on agricultural land.
View a diagram of the treatment process
Dundas Wastewater Treatment Plant
The Dundas Wastewater Treatment Plant has an average daily capacity of 18.2 million litres. The facility is a conventional activated sludge plant with tertiary filtration. There are five wastewater treatment processes used at this Plant, including:
Biosolids are stored on site in covered holding tanks until they are transported to the Woodward Avenue Treatment Plant for further processing.
Wastewater Treatment Facilities Annual Report
2023 Wastewater Treatment Facilities Annual Report
The 2023 Wastewater Treatment Facilities Annual Report for the City of Hamilton is a consolidated report for the Woodward Wastewater Treatment Plant, Dundas Wastewater Treatment Plant and the following facilities as a result of conditions within the individual facilities’ approvals:
Biosolids Management
The Biosolids Master Plan provides direction for managing biosolids generated from the City’s wastewater treatment plants. Currently all of the biosolids are processed through the Woodward Avenue Wastewater Treatment Plant. The new Biosolids Management process uses thermal drying system which takes the nutrient-rich organic materials that result from the wastewater treatment process and turn them into pellets to be sold for fertilizer or fuel.
Electricity production from wastewater
Hamilton is the first municipality in Ontario to be accepted to build a generator for sustainable green energy by the Ontario Electricity Financial Corporation. It is also the only wastewater biogas co-generation plant in Ontario with a 20 year contract to sell electricity to the Ontario Power Authority. The project is one of the most innovative, large-scale examples of biogas co-generation in Canada.
This facility aims to:
- Produce clean renewable electricity from a waste product
- Reduce greenhouse gas, or GHG, emission to the atmosphere
- Increase energy efficiency of the facility
- Generate revenue and reduce operating costs for the existing wastewater treatment plant by producing electricity and utilizing waste heat to offset natural gas usage
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