Rapid growth in the Okanagan area of British Columbia pushed the Cities of Kelowna and Vernon to expand their biosolids composting operations. They joined forces to build a large facility and improve their economies of scale. The work involved construction of the first phase of an aerated static pile composting facility on a 4.7 ha site located in the Regional District of North Okanagan, south of the City of Vernon. The project included a 30m x 50m mix building, sludge receiving building, 12 concrete aeration pads (each 10m x 27m by 0.8m depth), installation of owner supplied aeration equipment, an administration building, road works, paving, and related civil, electrical and mechanical works (including two booster pump stations). The Kelowna/Vernon Compost Facility is sized initially for 10.5 dt/day of biosolids in 12 individually controlled ASP zones. The facility is laid out for ready expansion to 36 zones. The aeration system features a high efficiency aeration floor, reversing aeration, rugged low-speed stainless steel fans, and zone-to-zone heat sharing. The control system includes intuitive operator interface PC software, automatic temperature feedback based control and monitoring, speed control of the fans for improved energy efficiency and control, and wireless temperature probes for simplified operations.
