Industrial Water Supply Testing and Permitting
- Client Name
- St. Gobain/Norton Abrasives
- Location
- Plattsville, ON, Canada
Challenge:
As part of Norton/ St. Gobain’s corporate sustainability goals, they were looking for ways to lower their environmental footprint and save costs at their Plattsville, Ontario, Abrasives Manufacturing Plant.
Solution:
SLR Hydrogeologists completed a hydrogeological investigation to support a Category 3 PTTW application with the MECP for an existing water supply well located on the property. Our team completed a step-drawdown pumping test to evaluate the performance of the well. Following the recovery period of the step drawdown test, we carried out a 24-hour constant rate pumping test using the rate from the step-drawdown results. The collected field data were used to assess the performance and specific capacity of the well, evaluate hydraulic properties of the aquifer, confirm groundwater quality, and ultimately determine a long-term sustainable pumping rate. The Hydrogeological Investigation Report and Category 3 PTTW application were accepted by the MECP in 2025.
Previous testing has shown that water from the on-site well has lower hardness than the municipal supplied water (650 ppm vs. 1350 ppm, respectively), which would reduce the softening requirements for the Site and improve the efficiency of the reverse osmosis system.
Impact
By utilizing less municipal water and more groundwater from the on-site well, the Norton/St. Gobain Plant expects to reduce its operating costs and lower its environmental footprint using less disposable filtering equipment and softening salts. With the improvement in reverse osmosis efficiency and reduced demand for water softening, the Client is expecting a reduction in the total amount of water used, which is consistent with Saint-Gobain’s objectives of reduced resource consumption in its global business model.
