Category Archives: Water

Rainwater reservoir helps Robinson Place stay green

Homes with a rain barrel connected to the downspout are fairly common today, saving up nature’s own water source for use watering gardens and washing cars.

But 20 years ago a rain barrel was a sign that whoever lived there was on the cutting edge of eco-awareness.

So to with Robinson Place, the massive but elegantly designed building at Water and Charlotte streets commonly referred to as “the MNR office.”

When it opened 20 years ago Robinson Place had a hidden resource down in the basement: a 35,000-litre rainwater tank, equivalent to a 24-by-12-foot swimming pool, eight feet deep.

Water from the tank is used to flush toilets. A seven-storey, 350,000-sq.-ft. building that provides office space to more than 1,000 provincial government employees has a lot of toilets.

David Burns didn’t know about the rainwater system when he signed on as building manager at Robinson Place. Nor was he aware of the large natural area, waterfall and vegetable garden tucked away on the Otonabee River side of the building.

Burns works for CBRE GCS Canada, a property management company hired by the province. Robinson Place is the largest of several buildings he is responsible for in Peterborough and area and his own office is there.

Designed as the provincial headquarters of the Ministry of Natural Resources (now Natural Resources and Forestry), it was originally used solely by MNR. Today it also has offices for six other ministries.

In eco terms, the building’s defining accomplishment is achieving LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Platinum status two years ago. Most LEED Platinum buildings were built with the exacting standard in mind. Robinson Place is one of just 12 in Canada to qualify in the “existing building operations and maintenance” category, and the first government building.

Technical upgrades that pushed the building into the platinum circle included magnetic bearings in the compressors of huge cold water “chillers” that drive the air conditioning system. Using a magnetic field instead of mechanical shafts reduced energy use, Burns explains.

Across the board, energy consumption has been reduced by 31% over the past decade, he says. Aggressive recycling promotion has steadily increased the rate of diverting waste from the city/county landfill site. In 2012 the diversion rate was 62%; for 2015 it was 77%.

Features like the vegetable garden also contribute to LEED success, Burns says. We walk from the bright, sunny lobby out to a rear stone courtyard. Off to the right is a gate, latched but not locked, in a tall fence covered with vegetation.

Inside the garden area, roughly the size of large backyard, we sit at one of several picnic benches. It’s a natural area without trimmed grass or landscaping. Seven raised vegetable planters, each six feet by four feet, are the most noticeable feature.

The planters overflow with tomatoes, cucumbers, zucchini, melons, lettuce, spinach, onions, beets and carrots. Burns and 10 to 20 others who work at Robinson Place and tend the gardens each summer deliver their harvest to the nearby Lighthouse Community Centre at St. John’s Anglican Church.

Another hidden resource that contributes to the “green” aspect of Robinson Place is a bicycle parking area in the underground garage.

“We have a very high percentage of staff that bicycle to work,” Burns says, “in the range of 80 to 100 bicyclists.” Several garage parking spaces were converted to bike racks and a bicycle repair station.

The vegetable garden sits on top of the parking garage entrance. We go back out the gate and stroll alongside the waterfall, which more closely resembles a gently descending set of rapids. The quiet burble of tumbling water makes for a soothing little oasis.

It’s a popular lunchtime retreat, one that Burns and many of the building’s workers appreciate.

“I have people come up here from Toronto, consultants, and they say, ‘Oh my God, I wish I worked here.’ And I say, ‘Sorry, you can’t, because I am.’”

Employers take note: good, green design can help attract, and keep, good people.

This is one of a series of articles commissioned and paid for by Sustainable Peterborough and published in partnership with The Peterborough Examiner. By Jim Hendry, Peterborough Examiner, original article published Saturday, July 30, 2016.

Level 2 Drought Persists!

Despite some rain in August, Level 2 Drought for the Otonabee Watershed still persists, and 20% water conservation is encouraged.  For more details please refer to the news release and presentation by Otonabee Region Conservation Authority.

Some helpful resources include:

OMAFRA Dry Conditions and Low Water

MOECC Green Facts – Managing your water well in times of water shortage

CMHC Household Guide to Water Efficicency

It’s water cannons vs. dust at Unimin mine site near Havelock

Mikhail Clarkson points to a 10-acre section of mostly flat, gray hardpan. A scattering of grasses and other vegetation that are taking hold grow thicker close to a pond at one end where a half dozen Canada geese swim.

A series of pipes supply an irrigation system and a few large water cannons.

“Five years ago we maintained this area just like a big desert. It was a beach,” says Clarkson, the assistant plant manager at Unimin Canada’s nepheline syenite mine north-east of Havelock in the heart of cottage country. “There was no grass at all.”

Dust was a real problem, especially on hot, dry windy summer days.

Nepheline syenite is an igneous rock that bubbled up to the surface as lava just over one million years ago. It crushes down to a bright, white powder that is used as a filler in almost all glass and ceramic products and in outdoor paint

The tailings left over after the rock is crushed and powdered had always been “slurried.” That is, mixed with water, pumped out over several flat areas that total about 100 acres and left to dry. Hence the dust.

Water was also a problem. Not technically a problem because the company had permits that allowed it to draw water from lakes on the mine property and discharge effluent back in.

However, like most modern corporations, Unimin no longer frames its environmental obligations as simply meeting the base requirements set by government regulators.

“I think that attitude started to change at about the same time that I was hired on, about 10 years ago,” says Clarkson. That was right after he graduated from Queen’s University with a degree in mining engineering.

“It’s something that’s happening in corporate Canada generally. You use the term ‘social licence to operate.’ You can’t be in industry any more without being conscious of the people around you and the environment in which you work.”

The dust problem came to a head in 2012. After a particularly hot, dry spell, high winds stirred a dust storm that affected cottages and homes on nearby Kasshabog Lake. The company was charged by the provincial environment ministry and eventually fined more than $400,000.

But long before the court case was settled, Unimin had begun a $1.5 million investment that would solve the dust issue, substantially reduce the amount of water the mine uses and completely end all effluent discharge.

One part of the solution was to use water that drains off the hillsides of the property as the mixing agent for slurry. Water is still taken from two lakes on the mine property, Barrette Lake and Big Mountain Lake, but substantially less of it.

A system of filtration ponds now filters the water so it can be re-used in the slurry process. That closed loop means the same water is used again and again. And any remaining water is used to irrigate the slurry fields, which will eventually go back to grass and vegetation.

There was a time when Unimin pumped 1.2 million litres of water out of Big Mountain Lake daily. That number is now down to 450,000 litres. And because rainwater that gathers in the huge open pit mine is pumped back into Barrette Lake in a two-stage process, the net effect there is an addition to the lakes system: on an average day 361,000 litres are pumped out and nearly 900,000 litres of rainwater go back in.

The entire mine site covers 3,000 acres but just 10 per cent of it is actively in use, including the 400-foot deep pit mine, slurry fields, roads and the Nephton and Blue Mountain processing plants.

One section of slurry field is now in the last stage of reclamation.

“We’re doing the final elevation and reclaiming it right now. Were putting down the final layer of grass and sod and we’re going to have a nice hill for the kids to play on,” Clarkson says.

Or maybe another option.

“They’re talking about a golf course. It would make a great golf course.”

This is one of a series of articles commissioned and paid for by Sustainable Peterborough and published in partnership with The Peterborough Examiner.  By Jim Hendry, Peterborough Examiner, original article published Saturday, June 18, 2016.

Composting at 100 per cent at Food Forest

It’s the end of the lunch rush and Food Forest Cafe is buzzing with conversation, so Adam Deck and Katie Tuma suggest we do our interview out back.

Turns out they were speaking literally. We head outside to an open area behind the Water St. restaurant. Three mismatched chairs, which I later learn likely came from a thrift store, are waiting for us.

Next to the chairs are a few orange, five-gallon pails. Katie says there would usually be a lot more. The pails hold food scraps that farmers and gardeners pick up and use for compost, returning the pails later. During an average week Food Forest gives away 18 pails of the stuff, or 90 gallons.

Deck waves toward a brick wall that separates the courtyard area behind this section of Hunter St. buildings from those along Water St.

On the other side of the wall is a large dumpster bin that other restaurants in the block share and pay to have hauled away.

“Because we’re a plant-based restaurant 100 per cent of our food waste can be composted,” Deck says. “So, at the end of the week we have less than one garbage bag.”

That’s less garbage than most households produce. It goes to the curb for pickup by the city, a big cost saving for them and a load off the landfill site.

Food Forest is vegan and gluten free. It’s no coincidence that the plant-based nature of their menu produce minimal garbage. Deck and Tuma are health and ecology advocates first and restaurateurs second.

They met while studying ecological restoration at Fleming College in Lindsay. Inspired by what they were learning. they looked for a way to make a difference on their own. A vegan restaurant run on strict environmental principles was a natural outlet.

Tuma describes their relationship as “partners in life and in the restaurant.”

Food Forest opened three years ago in a smaller George St. location just north of downtown. A year ago they expanded to the 32-seat Hunter St. site, where they have 10 employees.

The restaurant’s fun, quirky feel fits its clientele and its owners’ personalities, but it was put together with intent.

Pine boards used during the interior renovation are all recovered scrap, most of it sourced from Deck’s father, who owns Deck Transport, a third-generation local trucking firm.

“We also do a lot of thrifting,” Tuma says. “Most of our small pots and cups and teapots are from the thrift store. . . . We aren’t really fans of buying all new.”

When possible they go beyond re-use to “don’t use.”

They don’t give out cutlery as part of their busy take-out business. Take-out containers are made from cane juice pulp, not paper, but they would rather you not use them at all. They charge 25 cents per container and encourage customers to bring their own instead.

“After doing a couple hundred of those orders that saves a lot of waste,” Deck says.

“And gets the conversation going,” Tuma adds. “We have really strict policies – our non-straw in house policy; we don’t give out take-out cutlery – things like that those create conversations, which makes some people uncomfortable but it allows us to explain why we’re doing it and that causes them to think about things in a different way.” They buy their organic vegetables locally whenever possible – Jenny Ross of Earth Nook Farm is their main local provider – and manage the entire business with a mindset of being sustainable, waste free and low carbon.

But the key element, they say, is serving only plant-based food.

“In regards to climate change, wth animal agriculture, especially the intense factory farming that goes on, the greenhouse gas emissions are more than all transportation combined,” Tuma says.

They see no endpoint to their sustainable journey.

“It shouldn’t just stop at a green promise or something like that,” Tuma says. “We kind of assess what we can improve on and how we can get the community involved. It’s fun … fun having that role.”

This is one of a series of articles commissioned and paid for by Sustainable Peterborough and published in partnership with The Peterborough Examiner.  By Jim Hendry, Peterborough Examiner, original article published Saturday, June 18, 2016.