Treatment

https://doi.org/10.1002/opfl.1369

Karl Zimmermann, Maryam Dezfoolian, and Candace Cook are research scientists at
RESEAU Centre for Mobilizing Innovation (www.reseaucmi.org) and the University of
British Columbia (www.ubc.ca), Vancouver. Benoit Barbeau is a professor at Polytechnique
Montréal (www.polymtl.ca/en). Madjid Mohseni is scientific director and a professor at
RESEAU Centre for Mobilizing Innovation and the University of British Columbia, Vancouver.

Biological Ion Exchange Provides

DOC Removal in Small Communities
A small community in British Columbia, Canada, needed a water treatment
process that required minimal maintenance but could handle the community’s
unique challenges. In the end, a university collaboration led to an effective
biological ion exchange system.
BY KARL ZIMMERMANN, BENOIT BARBEAU, MARYAM DEZFOOLIAN, CANDACE COOK, AND MADJID MOHSENI

T
HE DZIT’LAIN’LI community,
also known as Middle River,
sits alongside the quiet river-
bank upstream from Trembleur
Lake in central British Columbia,
Canada. The community, a part of the
Tl’azt’en Nation, has a seasonal popu-
lation that fluctuates from five to more
than 40 people. Since 1998, researchers
have attempted to identify a water treat-
ment system appropriate for the com-
munity and robust enough to treat high
organics, turbidity, and bacteriologi-
cal loading. With the nearest hardware
store 100 kilometers away in Fort St.
James, the challenge was heightened by
the community’s remote location. In the
last two decades, efforts had been made
to address the issue, but each failed in
getting community buy-in.
SMALL WATER SYSTEM CHALLENGES
Many challenges arise when designing
drinking water systems for small, remote
communities. When November snow
arrives in central British Columbia, the
logging roads leading to many remote
communities become impassable for
days, making it difficult to deliver con-
sumables and spare parts. Furthermore,
because of the geographical separation
of rural communities, it could be weeks
between visits by skilled technicians,
leaving them without proper mainte-
nance or support. Remote communities
may also suffer from intermittent power
and internet connectivity, leading to
delayed communications with suppliers
and difficulties obtaining manufacturers’
support. Moreover, these communities
may have a lack of communication and
engagement with residents who may
be separated by geography or culture,
PHOTOGRAPHS: RESEAU CMI

making it difficult to ensure everyone’s

needs are met.
The Dzit’lain’li water treatment plant was built off-site in shipping containers and Another challenge associated with
assembled in the community. such communities is a frequent reli-
ance on a single water operator. With

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The Dzit’lain’li community is situated in central British Columbia,
Canada. The village is on the quiet Middle River, which also serves as
the community’s water source. The river contains high dissolved organic
carbon, making it problematic for treatment technologies.

the economies of scale working against
them, small communities may struggle
to train a backup operator. This limits
the time operators can spend away
from their communities, reducing their
training opportunities. Long-term water
solutions for small and remote com-
munities must include systems that are
robust, reliable, and simple to operate, as
well as require minimal consumables—
especially chemicals.
Every community has a unique
set of water-related obstacles, and
Middle River has experienced many
of the aforementioned challenges. The
Dzit’lain’li community gets its name
and drinking water from the Middle
River flowing past the village. The
river is noticeably colored with dis-
solved organic carbon (DOC), averaging
5–6 mg/L, as well as low ultraviolet
transmittance (UVT). Ultraviolet (UV)
and chlorine disinfection are considered
necessary treatment options. UV offers
an ideal primary disinfection and inac-
tivates Cryptosporidium and Giardia,
whereas chlorine offers protection
against viruses and a residual during
storage. Yet the high DOC causes two
concerns: It reduces UVT to less than 75
percent, and it leads to the formation of
disinfection byproducts (DBPs). Hence,
a solution was sought to reliably reduce
DOC so the Dzit’lain’li residents could,
for the first time, drink water from their
home taps without worrying about
exposure to harmful microbial contami-
nants or DBPs.
DOC REMOVAL IN SMALL SYSTEMS
To address the problem, a part-
nership was formed involving the
Tl’azt’en Nation, the RESEAU Centre for
Mobilizing Innovation (RESEAU CMI),
WSP, the manufacturing firm BI Pure
Water, the First Nations Health Authority,
and Indigenous Services Canada. The
team sought a solution to reduce raw
water DOC for improved UV disinfection
and DBP reduction while addressing the
challenges associated with water treat-
ment in small, remote communities.
Among the technologies consid-
ered were conventional treatment
(coagulation, flocculation, and filtr-
ation), ultrafiltration (UF) or nanofiltra-
tion membrane filtration, and carbon
adsorption. However, these processes
were deemed unsuitable because of
either high capital or operating costs
or significant operator intervention
requirements. Another option is the
use of an oxidant such as ozone fol-
lowed by sand filtration or activated
carbon adsorption. Ozone is short-lived
and requires on-site generation, which
is a challenging task for remote sys-
tems. Biological activated carbon is low
maintenance but is limited to low DOC
removal (up to a maximum of 20 per-
cent), hardly solving the community’s
UVT and DBP concerns.
Anionic ion exchange (IEX) is
well-established for DOC removal,
whereby DOC, which is negatively
charged at environmental pH, is
adsorbed to the resins; a resulting
equivalence of negatively charged chlo-
ride ions is released. This process can
remove up to 90 percent of DOC, yet
IEX has failed to achieve widespread

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2020 © American Water Works Association
Treatment

implementation because the resins Following the new drinking water treatment plant’s implementation, the community
become saturated after days of opera- was able to revoke the long-term boil-water advisory that had been in place for
tion and require regeneration to restore more than a decade.
treatment capacity. This regeneration
produces large amounts of salty brine
waste (up to 10 percent sodium chlo-
ride) that is difficult and costly to
routinely dispose of in remote com-
munities. However, researchers from
RESEAU CMI, the University of British
Columbia, and Polytechnique Montréal
developed a novel technology to bring
IEX capabilities into small, remote
communities: Biological ion exchange
(BIEX) is a self-regenerating water filter
capable of DOC removal in excess of
60 percent and requires minimal main-
tenance or regeneration.

THE POWER OF BIOLOGY

Dzit’lain’li residents were called “car-
riers” by the European fur traders,
but they know themselves as Dakelh,
meaning “we travel by water,” and their
ancestors thrived off the lands they still
call home. With such a close tie to the
water, it’s only fitting that a solution for
their drinking water would come from
the surrounding environment.
Ion exchange is known to offer suffi-
cient DOC removal for water treatment
but requires brine regeneration. A col-
laborative effort by researchers at the
University of British Columbia and
Polytechnique Montréal found a way to
create a biologically self-sustaining ion
exchange filter. After eliminating the
brine regeneration, researchers found
that a naturally developing biofilm—
comprising microbes originating from
the raw water source—begins to popu-
late the ion exchange bed.
Tests conducted at university
research laboratories showed that ion
exchange filters with biological activity
The researchers believe the micro-
bial community thrives in the DOC-rich
environment on the ion exchange resin
bed. The biofilm consumes the attached
DOC, liberating sites for further removal.
Although this mechanism has yet to be
confirmed, long-term tests of biological
activated carbon, IEX, and BIEX using
water from the Des Prairies River in Laval,
Québec, showed the potential of BIEX for
DOC removal without regeneration. While
IEX removed 80 percent of DOC using
weekly brine regenerations, BIEX main-
tained DOC removals greater than 40
percent for nearly a full year without a
single regeneration. The biology in BIEX
filters allows for a significant extension
to the period between required regener-
SYSTEM IMPLEMENTATION
Armed with the results of the University
of British Columbia and Polytechnique
Montréal trials, the project partners pur-
sued the world’s first full-scale BIEX
system. A nine-month pilot by RESEAU
CMI in Middle River found that BIEX
maintained greater than 60 percent
removal of DOC without any regener-
ation. The pilot tests yielded further
information on bed velocity and column
throughput, backwash requirements and
frequency, performance data spanning
multiple seasons, and recommendations
for filter sizing.
Relying heavily on the pilot results,
the final design included media prefil-
tration followed by three parallel BIEX
PHOTOGRAPH: RESEAU CMI

could maintain DOC removal well after
identical nonbiological filters exhausted.
Subsequent tests found that BIEX was
an effective pretreatment to reduce
downstream UF membrane fouling.
ations. Critically important, BIEX meets
small system treatment requirements:
a packed-bed filter without complex
mechanical pumps or chemical regenera-
tion that’s simple to operate and reliable.
filter vessels, operated independently
to accommodate the community’s sea-
sonal population. A low-pressure UV
reactor provides primary disinfection
while chlorine is used as the secondary

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 Everyone in the village and from
the project team is optimistic
about the system’s future.

intervention and chemical consumption.

The ion exchange columns are shown before the first hydraulic backwash (left). The
The design minimizes challenging pumps
resins begin white but quickly turn brown and then black as they become saturated
and valves, and a human-machine
with dissolved organic carbon, then a biofilm develops on their surface (right).
interface allows for easy monitoring.
The system hasn’t required a single
brine-producing regeneration.
Everyone in the village and from the
project team is optimistic about the sys-
tem’s future. For the first time, people
are drinking their tap water without
fear, and the community is now able to
host cultural gatherings with people
from other communities. The system has
made life a little easier in this remote
community. Using microbes from their
surrounding environment, the Dakelh
have become that much closer to the
water that surrounds them.

Authors’ Note: Thanks to Dzit’lain’li com-

munity members and operators; RESEAU
disinfectant. When walking into the system to effectively disinfect the water. CMI partners; Pierre Bérubé, Martin
shipping container that houses the To top it off, DOC removal in the first Schulz, Joerg Winter, Roman Vortisch,
modern-looking system, the BIEX tanks year exceeded expectations, with average and Heather Wray from the University
seem markedly unimpressive: three removal exceeding 80 percent. of British Columbia; and Nargess Amini,
500-L green fiberglass tanks. But it’s the Throughout the first year, the water Isabelle Papineau, and Veronika Storck
technology inside that makes these ves- treatment plant required minimal operator from Polytechnique Montréal.
sels special, allowing clean, properly
disinfected water to flow to every house
in the community. Long-Term Performance of Three Water Filters
Biological ion exchange (BIEX) exceeded biological activated carbon (BAC) in dissolved
LIFE MADE EASIER organic carbon removal. Ion exchange (IEX) performed best, but weekly regeneration made
it impractical.
The full system was commissioned
in the fall of 2018. Following health
authority approval, the Dzit’lain’li
community’s drinking water advisory
sign was ceremonially chopped to the
ground, where it lies to this day as a
reminder of the hard work invested in
turning BIEX technology into a robust,
community-approved solution.
Since coming online, the filters have
performed largely as expected. Ion
PHOTOGRAPHS: MARYAM DEZFOOLIAN

exchange with its associate chloride

release was observed for the initial eight
months until biological activity began to
act as the dominant DOC-removal mech-
anism. Meanwhile, the BIEX filters raised
UVT from 70 percent to greater than 97
Data courtesy of Polytechnique Montréal.
percent, allowing for the downstream UV

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