Water Pollution Control Centre

The Water Pollution Control Centre, located at 249 Bradford Street, is a tertiary treatment plant that uses ultra violet disinfection instead of chlorine to treat all sewage from the City of Barrie before sending it into Lake Simcoe.  The facility receives domestic, commercial and industrial wastewater and provides a level of treatment to meet the water quality standards of Lake Simcoe.

How Does Wastewater Arrive at the Water Pollution Control Centre?

The sanitary system is a series of pipes specially designed to transport the millions of litres of wastewater generated each day.  Sewer piping is categorized by the type of flow it transports namely sanitary, storm and combined sewers. The City of Barrie system is constructed as a separated sanitary and separated storm sewer collection system. The sanitary system is directed to the Water Pollution Control Centre.  The storm system is direct to storm water management systems strategically located throughout the city.   

The sewer system receives wastewater from the community and conveys it by gravity flow systems.  Gravity flow sewer piping is laid with a slope steep enough to maintain a wastewater flow velocity of approximately 0.75 metres per second.  This velocity is sufficient to keep all of the materials present suspended in its flow.  In areas where it is geographically impossible to allow for gravity flow, lift stations are provided to receive wastewater from low lying areas and pumps are used to transport the wastewater for further transport by gravity sewers.

Overview of Wastewater Treatment at the Water Pollution Control Centre

Overall, the entire treatment process can be described at the transformation of wastewater into three (3) useful products:

• Treated effluent
• An agricultural crop fertilization supplement
• Energy, in the form of heat and electricity

For a detailed breakdown of the treatment process as well as the historical timeline of pollution control development in Barrie download the Water Pollution Control Centre pamphlet.

Laboratory

The environmental services laboratory is located within the administration building at the Water Pollution Control Centre (WPCC). It provides analysis and support for the Environmental Services branch including the WPCC Operations as well as Environmental Response and Investigation. The lab is under the supervision of the Senior Environmental Officer – Laboratory. Analysis is performed on a routine basis including, but is not limited to; Ammonia, Phosphorus, pH, Turbidity, Solids analysis and Biological Oxygen Demand. The immediate availability of results aids in plant performance evaluation and compliance assurance of the plant’s discharge with the Ministry of Environment Guidelines. Internal quality and assurance control are equivalent to those set out by regulatory authorities.