Wastewater Treatment Facilities at the
Edmonton, Alberta Plant of Building
Products of Canada Limited
JAMES P. HARTLEY, Manager of Engineering
Building Products of Canada Limited
Montreal, Canada
INTRODUCTION
Building Products of Canada Limited is a large manufacturer and distributor of
construction materials in Canada.
The Company was organized in 1926 with the acquisition of the Canadian
interests of Bird & Son and Ruberoid, both large roofing manufacturers in the United
States.
Operations are divided into three divisions: 1) Building materials with plants at
Pont Rouge, Quebec for the manufacture of structural and decorative board and at
LaSalle, Que; Winnipeg, Man; Edmonton, Alta., where roofing and multi-cylinder
boards are made; 2) Flooring with a plant at Hamilton, Ont., for the manufacture of
vinyl-asbestos and solid vinyl floor tile, and sheet vinyl flooring; and 3) Plastic
products with a plant at Acton, Ont., for the manufacture of P.V.C. and
polyethylene pipe, lighting panels, and custom plastics.
In 1964 the issued stock of Building Products of Canada Limited was
purchased by the Imperial Oil Limited and BP is now a wholly-owned subsidiary of
this company.
The Edmonton Plant of BP was started in 1951 with the construction of a
roofing machine. Initially, organic felt for roofing manufacture was made on the
paper machine at Winnipeg, and shipped by rail to Edmonton. In 1954, a
multi-cylinder board machine was installed in the Edmonton Plant.
This machine of Beloit design has seven cylinders, one a single cylinder for
roofing felt and six for multi-cylinder products — corrugating medium, liner board
and gypsum papers.
WATER SUPPLY AND USAGE
For plant water supply, there are two sources — a six in. line from a neighbor
manufacturer's pumping station, which water comes from the North Saskatchewan
River and purchased city water. The former costs 17 cents/1000 IMP gal and the
latter 40 cents/1000 IMP gal.
Such high cost of process water means that conservation is essential. A
relatively closed system for water is maintained (consumption is 200-300 gpm), and
efforts to reduce this are continuous.
The effluent from the plant is 300,000 gpd and prior to changes described in
this paper, flowed into a small creek, running through a coulee, which crosses the
property. This creek flows into the North Saskatchewan River.
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