OAKVILLE, ONT, Canada, March 16, 2005 -- Zenon Environmental Inc. has been chosen to supply King County, Wash., with the largest membrane bioreactor (MBR) in the world. The ZeeWeed MBR will treat an average day flow of about 144,000 cubic metres of municipal sewage or 38 million gallons per day (mgd) with peak flows up to 204,000 cubic metres or 54 mgd, serving over 100,000 households. In addition, the company received an order for a second smaller plant, which results in a total order value to Zenon of $30 million.
Design of the greenfield plants is currently underway with construction expected to begin in 2006 and completion scheduled for 2010 for the larger Brightwater plant and 2007 for the smaller Carnation plant. Zenon expects to receive the final purchase order by the end of May 2005.
The new Brightwater Wastewater Treatment Plant will be the first membrane plant owned by King County, as the existing two sewage treatment plants do not use membrane technology.
"We selected Zenon's membrane bioreactor system for our new plant because of its performance in providing consistently higher water quality," said Ron Sims, King County Executive. "As we are planning to discharge the treated wastewater into Puget Sound, protecting our marine life as well as our communities was a primary concern. We are confident that the ZeeWeed MBR technology will help us to preserve our surrounding environment."
According to Andrew Benedek, Zenon chairman and CEO, this order demonstrates the competitiveness of membrane bioreactor systems and their ability to treat wastewater for plants of any size. Once completed, the Brightwater Wastewater Treatment Plant will represent a new benchmark in the industry and become a significant reference site for the company.
King County's Wastewater Treatment Division serves 18 cities -- including Seattle, 16 local sewer agencies and more than 1.4 million residents in King, Snohomish and Pierce counties.
Zenon Environmental (www.zenon.com) is a world leader in providing advanced membrane products and services for water purification, wastewater treatment and water reuse to municipalities and industries worldwide. In 2004, Corporate Knights, a business publication addressing corporate responsibility, ranked Zenon as Canada's top Corporate Citizen, for the second time. Canada's Top 100 Employers ranked it in their top 100 list for the last five years. The company is publicly traded.
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