Meet Your Speakers

2017 Convention and Trade Show – Meet The Speakers!

The Schedule of Events is building for the upcoming convention and trade show taking place March 9 – 12, 2017 at the Quality Inn & Conference Center in Abbotsford, BC!

A diverse and interesting group of presenters is being gathered to provide delegates with information on regulatory issues, technical innovations, the newest information in research and interesting and innovative projects that are changing the face of decentralized wastewater.

Don’t miss your opportunity to listen, learn and network at this exciting event!

Keynote – Eric Casey, Executive Director, National Onsite Wastewater Recyclers Association

Eric Casey has served as the Executive Director of the National Onsite Wastewater Recycling Association since June 2010. In that capacity he has day-to-day responsibility for the management and operation of the association. His responsibilities include

Policy development and strategic planning
Development and implementation of conferences, publications, websites and new products
Membership relations and liaison with state onsite associations
Representing NOWRA’s interests before outside stakeholder groups.

$\"Eric$ Casey is a member of the USEPA Decentralized Wastewater Workgroup, the NSF International Joint Committee on Wastewater, and the Water Environment Federation Small Communities Committee. He has an undergraduate degree in government relations from the University of Virginia, and an MBA from The George Washington University.

Standing Up to the Big Pipe – the US Onsite Community’s Quest for Fairness

One of the many things the US and Canada have in common is a lack of support for their respective country’s onsite/decentralized wastewater communities. Among the issues we share are a lack of access to financial resources for repair/replacement of failing systems or for new construction using onsite/decentralized technologies, inconsistent and out-of-date regulation, a built-in bias toward centralized sewerage, and a poor reputation. In the US, the National Onsite Wastewater Recycling Association has begun an effort to change the paradigm in the US through an active and focused strategy intended to effect meaningful changes in federal laws and regulations. This presentation will outline the challenges facing the US onsite industry, how those challenges have helped shape our advocacy goals and objectives, and make some suggestions on lessons which may be applicable for the industry in Western Canada.

Stephanie Munn, P Ag

$\"\"$ Stephanie Munn was raised in the sewage industry. A plumber-in-training from birth, her folks wanted an education for their girl. A Bachelor of Science degree in Environmental Sciences from the University of Alberta in Edmonton was obtained, punctuated by some \”real\” learning – a small scale study on the first LFH At-Grades for Bruce Silvester, and excessive dinnertime discussions of the 1999 Code Revision. After a short time earning her stripes at an Engineering Firm, Stephanie began taking on Sewage Design work. Projects such as the Leisure Campground on Pine Lake, at 5500 gal/day, the Wetaskiwin Rest Area at 5000 gal/day and the Pipestone Creek Campground at 4500 gal/day are the heavyweights in a design career now spanning 15 years.

But as we all know, the real lessons are learned when we get messy, and Stephanie would like to thank every installer she followed around for an hour or a day. Each and every treatment plant and septic tank you have opened for me teaches a lesson; aroma, colour, smell, normal, heavy strength, cancer in the home, paint in the tank. Learning how to rip apart a pump and remove the rags wound around the impeller and put it all back together was a high point, ranking right up there with my first time going into a 25 year old tank – thank you. In appreciation for all you have taught me, I would like to share some of what I have learned with you; about soil and how to design for the most difficult ones, how to avoid trouble (callbacks), and give you the language to discuss soil with each other, inspectors and homeowners, ultimately increasing the $$ that stay in your pocket.

Identifying and Analyzing Limiting and Restricting Layers in Soils

Mrs. Munn will discuss the design process for a challenging site. Beginning with soil logs and important terminology, such as redoximorphic features, mottling, gleying, structure and texture, limiting and restrictive layers will be identified and characterized. The discussion will continue with application of the loading rate table and determination of suitable types of systems.The session will be completed after choosing a suitable location, while avoiding the very real pitfalls that encountered in the field.

LFH (Alberta) At-Grades

LFH At-Grades are now included within BC\’s SPM, but do you know how to design and build them? Come learn how to use the newest tool in your toolkit. With 13 years of experience with LFH At-Grades under Variance in the province of Alberta, Mrs. Munn will cover the Design – Build for these versatile systems. This session will include a worksheet handout for LFH At-Grade sizing and we will work through an example. Please bring a calculator (oh, you say you can use your phone for that too?!?!), writing utensil and an open mind. Installation methods will also be covered, including a few pitfalls to avoid.

Colin Boog

$\"Colin$ Colin Boog has worked as a consultant for over 20 years. One of his first introductions to wastewater treatment and biosolids management was with the Project Engineering Department of the Greater Vancouver Regional District. The experience was excellent and led him to meeting one of the owners of Bionest Technologies, one of Canada’s largest companies singularly focussed on wastewater treatment.

Colin has enjoyed successfully introducing Bionest to Western Canada and has developed a solid reputation for working collaboratively with other wastewater professionals to design, implement, and maintain very successful and environmentally sensitive systems for both residential and commercial applications. Mr. Boog is proud to be working throughout BC with people who are committed to getting systems properly designed, installed professionally and working to protect the environment.

High Strength Waste Water – When is it commercial, not residential?

This presentation and discussion include the many factors that contribute to the differentiation between residential and commercial strength effluent and its treatment considerations.

Key considerations of effluent characteristics and influent factors will be discussed including what to look for when assessing commercial strength effluent. Key source contributors such as FOG (Fat, oil and grease), blood, baking goods, cooking oil, butter, dairy products, cleaning agents, floor stripping agents and other influents such as Winery production water and coffee grinds will be highlighted and discussed.

Keeping Track of Spare Parts – Gold or Garbage?

Ten minutes at the end of every day and give yourself a $10,000 bonus every year! Not only will parts bins in a trailer or the pickup save you time. . .it will save you money! We’ll talk about small habits for morning departure and end of day cleanup that will make all the difference in your business.

Michael Payne, P Eng, P Bio

$\"\"$

Michael Payne is a professional engineer and hydrogeologist. He is a provincially-recognized expert on soil infiltration and soil-based treatment of sewage. Over the last 20 years his company, Payne Engineering Geology, has evaluated sites and completed designs for 200 wastewater drainfields serving a total of more than 6,000 homes.

Michael was co-author of BC’s first Standard Practice Manual, as well as SPM V3. Michael pioneered the use of the borehole permeameter for wastewater systems in BC. He is also one of the three primary authors of the new APEGBC practice guideline for onsite sewage systems, and has been appointed as an expert witness for disciplinary enquiries relating to engineering onsite sewage systems.

Septic Systems for Cost Effective Water Recycling: A review of how a septic system removes pollutants from wastewater allowing clean water to reach the water table and recharge aquifers.
Viruses from Septic Systems: A summary of published research on what happens to septic system viruses after they leave the septic tank, and a discussion of the risks of viruses reaching drinking water supply wells.

Steve Carballeira, P Geo

$\"\"$ Steve Carballeira has a Bachelors degree in Geology and is a hydrogeologist with over 27 years consulting experience. Steve moved to Vancouver Island in 1996 and worked for EBA Engineering and then Levelton Consulting in their groundwater and environmental divisions. He completed many environmental studies where he was responsible for determining onsite groundwater conditions, contamination plume conditions and planning designs for remediation strategies as well as soil and wastewater projects. In 2005, he and his wife Elaine started H₂O Environmental Ltd, a groundwater and wastewater consulting business. He has been involved in subdivision assessments, wastewater system design for residential, small commercial and multiple unit developments and has also completed small to large hydrogeology studies, well setback reduction investigations, drinking water and production well quality and quantity evaluations and aquifer characterization studies. He has taught hydrogeology and wastewater courses and has been a past presenter at WCOWMA conferences. Steve is always happy to answer questions, try to solve problems and help others in the wastewater industry.

At What Point Do You Call a Professional?

This short presentation and question session will review when ROWPs have to, should, might and may consult a professional geoscientist, hydrogeologist or engineer for advice. It will go over some of the formal, and informal, conditions in the process of designing a wastewater system that would be of significant enough concern to ask for guidance.

Ian Ralston

$\"\"$ Ian Ralston BSc PgDipAgEng ROWP is a consultant specializing in onsite systems for difficult sites and subsurface drip dispersal systems. He is also the past chair of the TRC and chair of the Canadian Onsite Technical Resource Assn. He was editor of both the V2 and V3 BC SPM.

Ed Hoeppner

$\"Ed$ Ed, through his company, Aquarian Systems Inc, has been involved in on-site water management for over 15 years. Working closely with both non-profit community groups and provincial government ministries, Aquarian Systems has been involved with research and development in innovative onsite wastewater treatment systems, including Constructed Wetlands for sewage treatment and Planter Box systems for greywater treatment. Ed and his associates are now using the planter box method for onsite wastewater treatment including toilet wastes. As well, Aquarian Systems, is actively involved in designing and installing rainwater collection systems both for in house potable use and landscape irrigation.

Aquarian Systems offers full design consultation for property development, integrating building design with landscaping, rainwater collection and use, wastewater treatment, and stormwater management.

Composting Toilets and Greywater Reuse

Workshop on the new Manual of Composting Toilet and Greywater Practice, with a walk through of the key standards in the manual and worked examples for application of standards, including system selection, sizing and management. Opportunity for questions, examination of case studies and discussion.

For this workshop, participants should have a copy of the Manual.

Participants are encouraged to bring their own case studies for discussion.

Contaminants of Emerging Concern

Contaminants of emerging concern, such as pharmaceuticals and personal care products, are becoming an important factor in wastewater management both on a large scale and on a single household scale. Informed homeowners and communities are beginning to ask how these contaminants are being dealt with. Decentralized onsite wastewater treatment and dispersal systems can be effective in addressing these contaminants. This presentation will provide information on key contaminants and on strategies that can be used to address them in the decentralized context.

Bryer Manwell M.Sc., P.Eng.

$\"\"$ Bryer holds a master’s degree in Environmental Engineering from the University of Calgary and is a Professional Engineer registered with APEGBC. Ms. Manwell has over ten years of experience as an engineer/ hydrogeologist specializing in the study of ground and surface water interaction and water quality and quantity-related investigations.

She has designed and evaluated environmental monitoring programs to assess potential impact on the receiving environment at dozens of landfill and wastewater disposal sites within the interior of B.C. Her master’s thesis involved investigating the effects of groundwater and surface water dynamics on non-point source contaminant migration within the Elbow River watershed, east of Calgary, Alberta. Bryer is proficient at water quality evaluation and has conducted groundwater under the direct influence of surface water (GWUDI) assessments. She has also developed several aquifer and wellhead source water protection plans.

Currently she manages the environmental monitoring programs for nine landfills within the Columbia Shuswap Regional District (CSRD) (five sites) and the Regional District of Okanagan Similkameen (RDOS) (four sites). She also manages the groundwater monitoring networks at eight sites in the Columbia Shuswap Regional District along with several other sites throughout the interior.

Further, she is currently performing a land-use and water quality assessments at Swan Lake for the Regional District of North Okanagan and along the Coldstream Creek for the Okanagan Basin Water Board. Bryer was a member of the core groundwater team who completed the groundwater resources assessment for the Okanagan Basin Water Board Groundwater Study.

Nutrient Removal – the Subject No One Wants to Talk About in the B.C. Onsite Community

In B.C. our Sewerage System Standard Practice Manual calls for a horizontal setback of at least 30 m between septic (wastewater) systems and surface waters to protect the receiving environment from impact. However, is this setback enough to avoid environmental impact in the form of nutrient loading from Type 2 and Type 3 onsite wastewater systems into the receiving environment? And if we cannot meet the setback, should that automatically require nutrient removal?

We have evaluated downgradient water quality at numerous Type 2 and Type 3 wastewater systems operating in the interior of B.C., installed near lakes, both meeting and not meeting the 30 m setback. From this work, we have showed that at many locations, nitrate concentrations in the foreshore groundwater and surface water downgradient of the Type 2 and Type 3 systems exceeded the provincial aquatic life guideline of 3 mg/l (30-day average) and in some instances, also exceeded the drinking water guideline of 10 mg/l.

Given the results from our work, we have to ask “Is the 30 m setback to surface water bodies for Type 2 and Type 3 systems adequate in protecting the receiving environment?” Further “Should the B.C. onsite wastewater industry assess if nutrient removal from Type 2 and Type 3 wastewater effluent is required for systems operated in areas with high water tables and within 100 m of a surface water body?”

Is an industry funded investigation of downgradient nutrient loading into the receiving environments from Type 2 and Type 3 wastewater systems within 100 m from surface water bodies required to assess how widespread this issues is in B.C. and if changes to the Standard Practice Manual are required?

Barry Rumsey

$\"\"$ Barry Rumsey was educated in the Province of BC and subsequently joined and served with the Canadian Military, British Columbia Dragoons and was stationed twice to the European theatre. From the Canadian Military, Barry went on to obtain a Diploma in Forest Technology from the British Columbia Institute of Technology. Upon his graduation and after obtaining work experience in Forestry, Barry joined the RCMP and was stationed throughout Canada. Upon retiring from the RCMP, Barry started in the sewage industry in 1995, obtaining his certifications through BCOSSA and BCWWA. He created BioHarmony Inc, which is a company that sells, installs and maintains sewage treatment systems ranging from Septic, Type 1, 2 and 3, as well as commercial systems. With over 20 years in the design, installation and maintenance of sewerage systems, this time has provided a wealth of knowledge with respect to the issues related to these three subjects.

Planning for Maintenance

Routine maintenance of onsite wastewater systems is a must. It is important that the planner take maintenance into consideration during the planning process in order to aid in the sustainability of the system.

Once the plan has been developed, the actual installation may be completed by an installer that has very little to no experience servicing them. The installation, while at the outset may look appropriate,may create issues for the maintenance provider and the client. This can cause the client added expense to have the issue repaired by the maintenance provider.

This presentation will examine various system problems discovered during maintenance visits that could be mitigated or avoided through the planning and installation phase of the system.

Wm. \”Carl\” Garrison, PE

Carl is a licensed Civil Engineer in the state of Washington with a degree from California State University in Chico.

Carl started his career working for Metcalf & Eddy doing ground water and surface water work and he began his septic education working on the city of Paradise project with George T, Ron Crites, Hal Ball and others. After that he focused his career on septic only and went to work for Bill Stuth and The Stuth Company in Maple Valley Washington doing work in on high strength septic applications. So he got his degree from Chico, but his education from Stuth co and the other great people in our industry.

After venturing out on his own he focused on O&M and large system high strength designs. In 1997 he began tinkering with the idea of using transducers in septic applications and in 1999 with partner Brian Lipscomb formed Aquaworx Inc and launched the Aquaworx Data logging Control panel line. In 2007 he partnered up with Infiltrator Inc to take the line to a larger market and continues with that venture today.

His talk today focuses on why we time dose, a time dose equation he developed in 1996 and one of his toys, a high strength sand filter. This will include an update on the filter.

Timed Dosing for High Strength Effluent

Dan Watterson, P Geo

Mr. Watterson is principal Hydrogeologist with Watterson Geoscience Inc. WGI provides a wide range of geologic, hydrogeologic and environmental services to public, private and First Nations clients.

$\"Dan$ He has acquired about 30 years of significant and varied expertise in groundwater resource evaluations, water well design and testing, geotechnical support, stormwater management, domestic / community waste water disposal assessments and design, multi-phase environmental assessments and contaminated site remediation, applied earth and environmental science, mining-related hydrogeological assessments and comprehensive project management for work in British Columbia, Alberta, Yukon, Northwest Territories, the western United States, Africa and Mexico.

Mr. Watterson is registered as a Professional Geoscientist in BC and Alberta and is registered in Washington State as a Licensed Geologist and Hydrogeologist.

Groundwater Mounding – Causes, Issues and Prevention

The groundwater mounding presentation will introduce and discuss the ideas behind mounding, including

What it is and why is it important?
How is it related to vertical separation?
Groundwater flow basics.
How to identify where groundwater mounding may be an issue?
Consequences of failure to recognize potential groundwater mounding
How to manage and mitigate potential groundwater mounding problems

Colin Sprake

$\"Colin$ Colin H.A. Sprake is a Business Acceleration Renegade, Founder and CEO of Make Your Mark Training & Consulting and Author of the #1 Amazon and Canadian Bestseller Entrepreneur Success Recipe – The Key Ingredients That Separate The Millionaires From the Strugglers and #1 Amazon Bestseller Stand Apart co-authored with Dan Kennedy.

A South African native and serial entrepreneur, Colin fully understands how to build successful business in any kind of economy, environment and industry. His 20+ years of global business building experience, from growing multi-national companies to building his own multimillion dollar businesses from the ground up enabled Colin to develop an unrivaled success recipe of seminars and accountability programs which teach his proven systems for maximizing business growth, sales and profit.

Since 2004 Make Your Mark Training & Consulting has taught thousands of entrepreneurs how to build profitable, sustainable business with soul – businesses which positively impact those their business touches.

Colin currently resides in the Vancouver, BC area with his beautiful wife and two daughters. Family is his #1 priority.

Yihting Lim, EIT, BASc

Environmental Protection Officer, Compliance Section, BC Ministry of Environment

$\"\"$ Yihting has a Bachelor of Applied Science in Environmental Engineering and over eight years of work experience in the environmental industry mainly providing consulting services. Her expertise includes project management, project coordination, data analysis, research, and reporting. She joins the Ministry of Environment as an Environmental Protection Officer in their Compliance division.

Sharon Bennett, M.Sc.

Environmental Protection Officer, Compliance Section, BC Ministry of Environment

Sharon has over 10 years of experience working on a variety of environmental and watershed management issues. She holds a M.Sc. from the University of British Columbia in Resource Management and Environmental Studies focussing on watershed management. Her past experience includes working with the Sudbury Conservation Authority in Ontario where she assessed threats to drinking water as part of the Drinking Water Source Protection Program under Ontario’s Clean Water Act. While there, she worked closely with Municipal staff and the local Health Unit to better understand the relationship of septic influences and the occurrence of blue green algae blooms in area lakes. Sharon has recently joined the BC Ministry of Environment as an Environmental Protection Officer and works on Compliance Promotion.

Clarifying the Municipal Wastewater Regulation and Sewerage Systems Regulation
Policy: Standards, Regulations and Policy

Domestic sewage generation is a fact of life, and its treatment/disposal is an essential service in developed and industrialized nations. As sewage effluent may pose human health and environmental risks, sewage operations are regulated under various pieces of legislation (acts, regulations and bylaws) administered by several levels of government: provincial, regional, and municipal authorities.

Lack of public familiarity with applicable legislation has been highlighted as an issue of concern, and forms part of an audit being conducted by the Ministry of Environment on sewage operations in northeast BC.

The main focus of our presentation will be providing guidance on the BC provincial regulations administered by the Ministry of Environment (MoE) and the Ministry of Health (MoH), including its Northern Health regional authority. MoE environmental legislation consists of the Environmental Management Act (EMA), which contains the Municipal Wastewater Regulation (MWR) and Waste Discharge Regulation (WDR) while MoH health legislation consists of the Public Health Act (PHA) and its Sewerage System Regulation (SSR).

The two regulations most commonly and directly applicable to sewage system operators are the MoH’s Sewerage System Regulation and MoE’s Municipal Wastewater Regulation. The MWR and SSR is meant to work collaboratively; however, due to the similarity between those two pieces of legislation, confusion between the applicability of the two regulations often arises.

Although both regulations outline requirements for the construction and maintenance of sewerage systems/facilities, the SSR is meant to regulate smaller systems while the MWR was meant to apply to larger facilities. This is distinguished by SSR’s applicability to sewerage systems with a designed daily domestic sewage flow of less than 22 700 litres, and MWR’s applicability to sewerage systems with either a discharge to water, a discharge of designed daily domestic sewage flow of greater than or equal to 22 700 litres to ground, (generally speaking, as there are other considerations concerning structures and parcels serviced, etc) or reclaimed water usage. Special cases may require permitting under the Environmental Management Act and the Waste Discharge Regulation. Regardless of source sector and sewerage infrastructure, under the EMA, all activities must be conducted in a manner that does not cause pollution.

Rupert Benson B.Sc., REHO

$\"\"$ Manager, Land Use, Ministry of Health

Rupert Benzon has worked as the Manager of Land use (policy and legislation) with the Ministry of health (Health Protection Branch) for the past 9 years.

Prior to this, Rupert worked as an Environmental Health Officer with the Interior Health Authority and the City of Toronto for 10 years, where he specialized in recreational water quality and health hazard abatement. He has also been involved with onsite sewage and drinking water quality programs at the filed level during his 19 years with government.

Harshan Radhakrishnan, P.Eng., M.A.Sc.

Practice Advisor, Professional Practice Standards and Development, APEGBC

Harshan Radhakrishnan supports the Professional Practice, standards and Development Department with by providing practice advice, interpretation and guidance to the Association and its members/licensees on matters related to the professional and ethical practice of engineering and geoscience in British Columbia. He works on development of APEGBC professional practice guidelines funded via provincial governmental contracts that explain the standard of care APEGBC professionals must follow while engaged in certain governmental projects.

Mr. Radhakrishnan is a registered professional engineer in BC and Alberta and holds a Masters in Chemical Engineering from the University of Toronto. He previously worked as a Municipal Approvals Engineer with Alberta Environment and coordinated the issuance of environmental approvals for waterworks, wastewater and storm water systems in the Province. For a brief period, he also worked as an Industrial Approvals Engineer for the Alberta Energy Regulator and through Eco-Tec, in the Pickering Nuclear Power Plant’s Boiler Feed Water Treatment Plant as an Operations Coordinator.

Jim Andersen, Dipl. T., ROWP

$\"\"$ ASTTBC

Jim’s background is in the excavating and general contracting business, including 40 years’ experience in onsite wastewater system installations. His contracting firm does design, installation, maintenance and inspection of wastewater systems on Vancouver Island and the Lower Mainland. In addition, Jim works as an educational curriculum developer and instructor. Jim is currently the ASTTBC Manager of the Onsite Wastewater Certification Program.

Standard Practice, Health Hazards, and the Maintenance of Type 3 Systems

The Ministry of Health has been working with representatives from ASTTBC and APEGBC representatives to develop guidance which clarifies the responsibilities of authorized persons in preventing health hazards from occurring for newly constructed sewerage systems. The letter of certification filed with the regional health authorities requires an authorized person to affirm that a newly constructed sewerage system “if operated and maintained as set out in the maintenance plan, will not cause or contribute to a health hazard.”

The MoH/ASTTBC/APEGBC working group has also collaborated to develop more robust guidance for Registered Onsite Wastewater Practitioners maintaining type 3 sewerage systems under the supervision of a Professional. This guidance will be captured in the APEGBC Professional Practice Guidelines for Onsite Sewerage Systems.

The guidance documents for health hazards and type 3 systems are anticipated to positively impact the onsite wastewater industry through enhanced public health protection, increased certainty, and improved system maintenance.

Key Learning Points:

To describe the key provisions within the Health Hazard Guideline.
To discuss the amendments made to the APEGBC Professional Practice Guidelines section on maintenance to augment the involvement of Registered Onsite Wastewater Practitioners in the maintenance of type 3 systems.

Kent Nentwig

$\"Ken$ Ken Nentwig is a retired landscape architect and educator, currently engaged with CANARM as Executive Director and also as Governor, BC Jurisdiction. He has developed a national training and certification program for CANARM, and is expanding the CANARM-BC network among practitioners, educators, and suppliers. With over four decades in land-related planning and design, and including twenty years in educating and training practitioners in the landscape industry, he is involved in education online and through day-long seminars. Students from all over the world have taken his online courses over the past ten years, bringing a comprehensive mix of sharing and experience. Work travels have taken him to Singapore, Europe, Brazil, Japan, and across most of Canada and the US. Other than teaching, he does watercolour and ink renderings, trying to specialize in historic and landmark buildings and landscapes.

Rainwater Harvesting: An Alternate Source of a Non-Renewable Resource

This presentation will highlight the current status of training in RWH best practices, and outline some of the background research that brings old practices into the modern era. Examples of system design opportunities will be shared, along with the rationale for training, accreditation, and certification.

British Columbia