City of Calgary

Airdar Helps Communities

This project received an Award of Merit at the 2017 Consulting Engineers of Alberta Showcase Awards.

Managers at the Fish Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant (FCWWTP) had tried everything they could think of to stop nuisance odours from leaving their facility. The nearby community of Deer Run had had to endure the foul smell of rotten eggs in their neighbourhood on a regular basis since the 1970s. Many of the residents called the City of Calgary frequently to express their frustration with the situation and the City sometimes sent workers to collect reports from these residents in an attempt to determine the source of the problem. Despite these efforts, no solution could be found.

In 2014, Airdar Inc. was retained, as a subcontractor to Golder Associates Ltd., by the City of Calgary, to help resolve the odour issue. Within a few months of collecting data at the facility, an Airdar analysis identified the most important source of H2S on the site: a pipe that had become corroded unknown to facility workers. This unsuspected source was emitting H2S at an average rate of 0.29 L/min, a rate low enough that by the time the resulting plume reached the fence line, the concentration was below the detection limit of a human nose. In reality, the Fish Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant was not responsible for the odours that had been blamed on it for 40 years.

The Airdar system showed that there were 3 major off-site sources of H2S located at a distance of 3 km away from FCWWTP. These fugitive emission sources were the true culprits for the foul odours that had that had been a nuisance to the local residents, and the FCWWTP, for so long.

As a result of the analysis done by Airdar, the odour problem was addressed and the residents of Deer Run were able to fully enjoy their neighborhood at last.