The Region of Waterloo's Biosolids Management Plan – Magnifying the Sustainability Lens

The sustainable management of wastewater treatment plant biosolids remains a key challenge for wastewater utilities across North America. Like many of these utilities, the Region of Waterloo (Region) is developing a biosolids management plan (BMP) that will position the Region for the sustainable management of its biosolids into the future. The Region completed a BMP in 2003. Since then, numerous changes in planning, regulatory and technical issues took place. Most importantly, the Region adopted its Environmental Sustainability Strategy in May 2009. Thus, the Region began an update to its BMP in 2010 that is based on a multi-step decision analysis approach within a sustainability framework, enhanced through extensive stakeholder involvement.This presentation focuses on the decision analysis approach and presents the methodology and results of the assessment, including the short-listed strategies that incorporated all of the Region's wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) and biosolids processing and end-uses.