Wastewater Collection and Treatment

Halton Region's responsibility for treatment of wastewater

Halton Region is responsible for the treatment and management of wastewater. The Region owns and operates 7 Wastewater Treatment Plants. These treatment plants deal with 232,000 cubic metres of wastewater every day.

Locations of Halton Region's Wastewater Treatment Plants

The wastewater treatment process

Wastewater arrives at one of Halton Region’s Plant’s after travelling through many kilometres of sewer pipes and pumpstations. It first goes through a pretreatment phase to remove any debris (i.e. rags, large plastic, heavy granular material).

Primary settling tanks then provide an efficient process for the removal of solids that sink to the bottom. The water containing suspended solids (small particles that did not settle out) undergoes secondary treatment where microorganisms such as aerobic bacteria “eat” the suspended solids and create a “floc” that can more easily settle to the bottom of the tanks. Final settling tanks settle this floc which is then pumped back to the primary treatment tanks to settle with the primary solids.

These solids together are pumped to the digesters where they are undergo treatment to be turned into “biosolids.” Biosolids are a clean and safe organic product, rich in nutrients, that are beneficially reused by the agricultural community for healthy crop production. Disinfection of the effluent water is the final part of the treatment process.

Halton Region uses ultraviolet radiation to disinfect the water inactivating disease causing bacteria and viruses.

Wastewater and stormwater performance reporting

The Ministry of the Environment, Conservation and Parks modernized its approach to the Environmental Compliance Approval application process, creating the Consolidated Linear Infrastructure Environmental Compliance Approval. The reports below meet the requirements of this new process.

Arranging wastewater treatment plant tours

Wastewater treatment plant tours can be arranged by contacting Access Halton for the facility you would like to see. You will find location information on the interactive map, above. Facilities under construction will not be available for tours.

Tour participants should wear casual clothing and comfortable shoes or boots.

Contact

To learn more, or to get in touch with any treatment plant:

• Call 311 (within Halton Region)
• 905-825-6000
• Toll Free: 1-866-442-5866
• TTY: 905-827-9833
• Email: accesshalton@halton.ca