US: Potato processing plant aims for ISO 14001 certification

Carberry, Man. hosts a McCain Foods (Canada) potato processing plant and an ultra-modern $20-million wastewater treatment centre, which has helped the operation become the first McCain facility in Canada to achieve ISO 14001 certification.
The benchmark has 17 internationally accepted standards of communication, documentation, monitoring and measurement for an environmental management system.
The wastewater system was designed by AMEC Earth and Environmental to treat a maximum daily flow of 4200 cubic metres of potato processing wastewater from the french fry operation. The plant processes 17,000 trucks of potatoes and uses 110 rail cars of cooking oil annually.
The wastewater project was implemented in three phases over three years using a team of contractors and sub-contractors that included Raven Construction, Abco Supply & Services Ltd., Celco Controls, North Atlantic Systems, FLI and Lemna Technologies, Inc.
The primary treatment phase for removal of mud and frying oil was implemented in 2008. The anaerobic pre-treatment lagoon, which removes nitrogen and phosphate, was operational by January 2009. The advanced nutrient removal system for biochemical oxygen demand and total nitrogen control was completed in November 2009.
"As of January 2010, all three phases are operational," says Bill Malyk, vice president and principal engineer with AMEC Earth and Environmental in Waterloo, Ont.
Malyk says the design and construction of the wastewater treatment system presented interesting project challenges, including requirements for a secondary containment for the anaerobic pretreatment system to satisfy the plant's Manitoba conservation licence.
"A double membrane liner system was used to satisfy the province's requirements," says Malyk. "McCain took that a step further and installed an electronic leak detection system to provide an indication of any leakage from the primary liner system to the secondary liner system."
Soil conditions in the vicinity of Carberry make it an ideal location for growing potatoes, but also presented construction challenges. The sandy soils needed specialized construction techniques to achieve the basin configurations required for the process design specifications of the treatment system. "AMEC's geotechnical group in Winnipeg was instrumental in designing slope stabilization schemes that allowed the civil works contractor to efficiently construct the systems," says Malyk.
Finally, the construction of the anaerobic pretreatment components in January 2009 took place during a major cold snap. McCain site engineers worked with the liner and cover contractors on the anaerobic lagoon system, combating ice and winds to make it operational by March 2009.
Achieving the ISO 14001 certification required the Carberry plant to undergo a series of rigorous internal and third-party audits and interviews. McCain says it's aiming to have all of its factories around the world certified by 2013.
As a direct result of the operation of the treatment plant, a wastewater lagoon once described as "purple in colour" and the surrounding area have been transformed into a viable natural habitat.
The company has also expanded its irrigation program to lower the water level in the lagoon so vegetation can grow, and planted 2,000 hybrid poplar trees and a wide range of prairie grasses to make the site attractive and to prevent soil erosion.
Ducks Unlimited Canada selected indigenous flood-hardy plants and grasses to transform the area to a wetland.
The site now has ducks and other waterfowl.
"It's amazing to see the difference," says Fred Schaeffer, president and CEO of McCain Foods (Canada). "But it goes to prove that if you give Mother Nature a chance, she starts to heal herself."