The Chilliwack Wastewater Pretreatment Facility is sustainably treating one of our most precious resources: water. The pretreatment plant accommodates the large amount of effluent the new Molson Coors brewery produces. The wastewater that comes from the Molson Coors plant is “high-strength,” meaning it contains a large amount of organic matter and requires pretreatment before it goes to the city’s main wastewater facility. Without the pretreatment facility, the additional loading from the brewery would require a doubling of Chilliwack’s existing treatment plant.  

The team installed a Calorix, the main water heater for the facility. The Calorix is the first installation of its kind in Canada. In addition to the European Upflow anaerobic sludge blanket treatment process, we also procured the glass-lined tanks and much of the other equipment globally to provide the City of Chilliwack with the best available wastewater equipment and technology.

A 3D design of plant piping helped the design team plan for the final layout and uncover potential issues before they arose. When process pumps arrived on-site that were slightly different from those ordered and as a result did not fit within the already-built space as planned, we worked closely with our trade contractor partners and the design team to reorient the pumps to fit them within the physical space. The team proposed solutions and issued a new design within days of identifying the issue so work carried on seamlessly. 

The Chilliwack Wastewater Pretreatment facility processes 19,000 gallons of water per hour, a quantity the brewery turns into more than 211,000 cans of beer in the same amount of time.