Ostara Nutrient Recovery Technologies, the Vancouver, B.C. water cleantech firm that specializes in nutrient management solutions will be awarded a Project Excellence Award from the Water Environment Federation (WEF).

The world’s largest nutrient recovery facility improves the water quality of the Chicago Area Waterway System, while reducing downstream phosphorus discharges into the Gulf of Mexico, has won a Project Excellence Award from WEF. The honor will be presented to the project’s owner, the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago (MWRD); Black & Veatch, the facility’s design-builder; and the technology provider, Ostara.

The project was instrumental in transitioning the largest wastewater treatment facility in the world—the MWRD’s Stickney Water Reclamation Plant, located in Cicero, Illinois—into a resource recovery facility.  Using Ostara’s nutrient recovery technology, Black & Veatch worked with the MWRD and Ostara to design and build the nutrient recovery facility.

“We are extremely honored to have received this recognition from WEF and have been fortunate to partner with the MWRD of Greater Chicago and Black & Veatch to build the largest nutrient recovery facility in the world, providing a cost effective and environmentally progressive solution to support the MWRD’s clean water mandate,” said Dan Parmar, president and CEO of Ostara. “This solution will ultimately help protect the Mississippi River Basin and provide a revenue stream to the District from the sale of the high value phosphorus fertilizer recovered.”

Ostara’s nutrient recovery solution implemented at the Stickney Water Reclamation Plant not only reduces phosphorus loads within the operational system of the plant by recovering these nutrients into a high value, marketable fertilizer, but nutrient loads are also reduced downstream into the Mississippi River to help address phosphorus deposits in the Gulf of Mexico.

“We thank our partners at Black & Veatch and Ostara for helping us achieve this honor and developing the innovations that protect our environment and benefit our taxpayers,” said MWRD president Mariyana Spyropoulos. “The nutrient recovery facility represents cleaner waterways locally and abroad, creates an instant revenue stream, provides for the agricultural community and aids the planet in facing a scarcity of phosphorus and reducing harmful algae blooms.”

Designed to treat up to 5.45 billion litres of water each day and serving more than 2.3 million residents, the Stickney Water Reclamation Plant is pioneering this critical industry shift from water treatment to recovery for reuse.

The award will be presented during WEF’s Annual Technical Exhibition and Conference (WEFTEC 2017), Sept. 30-Oct. 4 in Chicago.

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