Laval wins five stars for water quality; Sainte Rose Manager wins North American recognition
Last month, the Pont-Viau and Sainte Rose water treatment plants won five stars for providing exceptional drinking water in 2012. This is the second time in a row the two plants won the highest honour a plant can get for providing safe drinking water to its community.
From left to right: James Chaffee, AWWA president; Claude Durivage Sainte-Rose Station Supervisor; Robert A. Dubé, Réseau Environnement president
In addition, Sainte Rose Station Supervisor Claude Durivage was honoured with the 2013 George Warren Fuller Award, a North American honour.
“M. Claude Durivage works hard daily to make sure our Sainte-Rose station produces the highest possible standards of drinking water,” says Denis Allard, superintendent of Laval’s drinking water division. “This award recognizes M. Durivage’s volunteer efforts within the North American waterworks community. He deserves this honour, and serves as a role model for all managers striving to improve water quality.”
Claude Durivage Wins George Warren Fuller Award
Durivage’s new award is named after the man who built North America’s first water filtration plant. It honours his volunteer work with Quebec’s Programme d’excellence en eau potable (PEXEP) and the American Water Works Association (AWWA)’s Partnership for Safe Water. He also got it because under his leadership, Sainte Rose became the first plant in Quebec to use two-step biological treatments. It was also Quebec’s first plant to achieve the third phase of PEXEPs four-phase plant process optimization program, which it did in 2004.
Point Viau Win Despite Ongoing Renovations
The Point Viau plant had to work hard to obtain five stars. A $400,000 million renovation that began in 2009 is still underway. Plant employees had to change their normal processes to achieve excellent water quality, but they succeeded.
Laval Produces Video about Quality Drinking Water
To celebrate these honours and inform citizens about their renovation efforts, the city of Laval has created a video, which is available online at
For more information, refer to: http://www.laval.ca/Pages/Fr/Citoyens/eau-potable.aspx
Note: This article appeared on pages 1 and 14 in the Laval Edition of the Suburban on Wednesday, November 13.
Laval Won Award for Superior Drinking Water in 2012
December 2012
- Point-Viau Water Treatment Team
Last month, the Pont-Viau and Sainte Rose water treatment plants won five stars for providing exceptional drinking water in 2011. The award honoured the plants’ ability to provide high quality drinking water throughout the year while also improving operating procedures.
Five stars are the highest award given by the Programme d’excellence en eau potable (PEXEP). PEXEP is the Quebec version of the Partnership for Safe Water from the American Water Works Association (AWWA). The two Laval plants joined two others in Central Quebec who also won.
“To achieve five stars, the plants have to meet criteria that are three to six times more severe than Quebec regulation requires,” says Denis Allard, superintendent of Laval’s drinking water division. “To meet the five star requirements, everyone needs to follow the procedures and give ideas to improve every single step in the plant. That means the operators, the technicians in control, the supervisors, everyone. We’re very proud of them.”
Sainte Rose plant employees have always worked hard to excel. Allard credits a former manager from the 1980’s who helped equip the plant so that it was the first in Quebec to use two-step biological treatments, something that is now more common. Sainte Rose was also the first plant in Quebec to achieve the third phase of PEXEPs four-phase plant process optimization program, which they did in 2004.
The Point Viau plant had to work even harder than normal to perform at the five-star level because the plant is still under a $400,000 million renovation that began in 2009. Almost half of the facilities are still demolished.
“There is 40% less production from that plant,” said Allard. “We had to implement a new way to treat the water and it wasn’t free. We spent a lot of time optimizing everything. We had to boost treatment to 100%.”
Plant employees had to use polymers to ensure that sedimentation remained within the clarifiers during a radically increased flow and change the sequence of chemical use until they achieved the water quality they wanted. Their efforts will continue until the renovations are completed in 2014. By then, the current clarifiers will be obsolete.
The PEXEP conference in Laval on October 23 and 24 also gave three stars to Laval’s Chomedey plant and recognized plants in 12 other cities in Quebec. They include: Beauharnois, Bécancour, Dorval, Gatineau, L’Assomption, Rivière-du-Loup, Rosemère, Rouyn-Noranda, Saint-Eustache, Saint-Hyacinthe, Sainte-Thérèse and Victoriaville.
