Issues & Trends in Industrial Wastewater Treatment

Biographies of Speakers

Siobhan Burland Ross, M.Eng., P.Eng.

Siobhan Burland Ross is the Manager of the Municipal, Industrial and Hazardous Waste Section of the Environmental Assessment and Licensing Branch of Manitoba Conservation. Siobhan manages the technical review and assessment of proposals for developments pursuant to The Environment Act, The Public Health Act and The Dangerous Goods Handling and Transportation Act for wastewater treatment facilities, landfills, hazardous waste facilities and industrial facilities including food processing plants, mines and manufacturing facilities.
Siobhan is responsible for overseeing the implementation of the Water and Wastewater Facility Operators Certification Program. This program, in effect since 2003, ensures that all water distribution and treatment facilities and all wastewater collection and treatment facilities in Manitoba are classified and that they are operated only by competent and trained operators.
Siobhan began her post-graduate career in the Environmental Assessment and Licensing Branch from 1999 – 2003. Prior to re-joining Manitoba Conservation in 2009, Siobhan was a project engineer at XCG Consultants in Kitchener, Ontario. As a consultant, she worked with facility owners to prepare applications for Approval by the Ontario Ministry of the Environment for facilities with air emissions, industrial wastewater treatment and waste disposal sites. Additionally, she managed the site assessment and remediation of contaminated sites and prepared human health and ecological risk assessments to develop site specific risk-based clean-up criteria for soil and groundwater.
Siobhan earned her Bachelor’s degree in Regional Environmental Systems Engineering at the University of Regina and her Master’s degree in Civil Engineering at McMaster University.

Dr. Qiang Zhang

Dr. Qiang Zhang is a Professor in the Department of Biosystems Engineering, University of Manitoba and a Registered Professional Engineer (P.Eng.) in the Province of Manitoba. He received his Ph.D. and M.S. degrees in Agricultural Engineering from Pennsylvania State University and B.S. degree in Mechanical Engineering from Hefei Polytechnic University, China. Dr. Zhang is a member of Canadian Society for Biongineering (CSBE), and American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers (ASABE). His research interests include animal environment, emission and dispersion of odour from livestock operations, and design and analysis of bulk solids systems.

Sheldon Stott

Sheldon Stott is Director of Environmental Affairs for HyLife Ltd. in LaBroquerie, Manitoba. He has a Bachelor of Science in Agroecology from the University of Manitoba and is a practicing professional agrolist in Manitoba. Sheldon has been involved in an environmental management role for the majority of his 11 year career with the last being with HyLife Ltd. at numerous capacities. Most recently, Sheldon provided executive oversight of the development of HyLife Foods industrial wastewater treatment facility construction and continued oversight through the operations of the facility.

Paul Barsalou

Paul Barsalou is a project manager and process engineer at AECOM in Winnipeg. He has a degree in Civil engineering and a masters of Environmental Engineering from the University of Manitoba. Paul has been in consulting for 21 years and has worked for AECOM for the last 7. He works primarily in the fields of water and wastewater treatment with additional focus on residuals treatment.

Meghan Marsland

Meghan Marsland began working with the Environmental Standards Division of the City of Winnipeg’s Water and Waste Department in May 1999. She has been the Supervisor of Industrial Waste Services since January 2009. In this role, Meghan is responsible for several by-law enforcement programs including grease trap enforcement, septic hauler licensing, industrial monitoring, and Pollution Prevention Planning.
Meghan graduated from the University of Winnipeg with a B.Sc. in Environmental Science in April 2000. She has completed a Certificate in Quality Management from the University of Manitoba’s Continuing Education and a Certificate in Management and Administration from the Canadian Institute of Management.

Hanns Till Freihammer

Hanns Till Freihammer is a senior process engineer with over 15 years of experience in the water and waste water sector. Till progressed in his career in France, Germany and the United Kingdom from commissioning to proposals, tendering and project delivery.
His responsibilities include selection and validation of process design strategies and the coordination of multidisciplinary teams. His experience covers a wide area of industrial and municipal water - and waste water processes, including membrane technology.
He is employed by AECOM and was the lead commissioning engineer for the new water treatment plant in Winnipeg.
Hanns Till holds a Physics/Environmental Engineering degree (Dipl-Ing) of the University of Applied Science in Munich/Germany - 1991.

Hiram Thompson

Hiram Thompson - President & General Manager of MTS Environmental Inc., where we believe that nutrient contamination, odours and solid build-up are not the problems, but the symptoms of microbial and nutrient imbalance. Our line of Bio-Desolve products work to restore a natural balance of microbial life, activating the natural biodigestion system to eliminate the cause as well as the symptoms.

Saibal Basu

Saibal is a Senior Process Engineer and wastewater process specialist with Stantec Consulting in Winnipeg. He has over 20 years of diversified experience specializing in the area of advanced water and wastewater treatment processes. He has completed planning, design and process optimization of medium to large facilities in the municipal and industrial sectors in Canada and abroad. He shares his knowledge with peers and students alike, and continues to develop and deliver training seminars for Operators across Western Canada. He is a member of WCW and WEF

Kelly Braden

Kelly has been the Director of Operations for the City of Portage la Prairie for 14 years, and before that, the Manager of the Wastewater Treatment Division. He is a Professional Engineer with a degree in Engineering from the University of Manitoba. He was on the Board of Directors of the Manitoba Water and Wastewater Association for several terms and was awarded the Lorne Sayer Service award in 2010. In his work with the City he has been directly involved with the development and administration of Industrial agreements regarding the discharge of high-strength wastewater.

Patrick Pulak

Patrick has been employed with the City of Brandon for the last 17 years. He is currently the Deputy Director of Engineering Services and Water Resources. For the last 10 years, Patrick has been leading the project to upgrade the Industrial Wastewater Treatment Facility to meet the Province of Manitoba’s nutrient management guidelines. In particular, he has instrumental in developing the public-private partnership to cost share the three phase upgrade.

Marshall Gibbons

Marshall is a Senior Municipal Technologist with AECOM. Since joining the firm in 1988 he has worked on numerous inspections and condition assessments of subsurface and above-ground piping systems. Through these experiences he has worked with a variety of NDT contractors and tools, and has gained considerable knowledge of piping materials, construction methods, and material performance. Marshall also provides corrosion investigation and design services on construction and rehabilitation projects, and is a NACE certified Corrosion Technician, Level 1 CP Tester, and a Level 1 Coating Inspector.