Designing for Low Carbon Infrastructure

Equipment for the Naramata Treatment plant was purchased according to full life cycle cost assessment including power consumption. The model of UV reactor chosen was the most power efficient. Planned pipe twinning will supplies treated lake water to residents and untreatedupland creek water for agricultural properties / RDOS.

Ensuring that infrastructure systems evolve toward low carbon, more sustainable solutions requires implementation of efficient, innovative technology and best practices, as well as an evolving engineering and design process.

Treated water runs through heat exchanger which can either supply or remove heat from the outside air. This saves energy and money in heating or cooling the building. / RDOS. The Regional District of Okanagan-Similkameen (RDOS) retrofitted the community of Naramata's water treatment and distribution system with a heat exchanger that uses the ambient temperature of the treated water to heat and cool the building, substantially reducing energy consumption.

Water distribution will make maximal use of gravity feeding, avoiding unnecessary pumping. RDOS will eventually completely de-couple the municipal and irrigation water supplies, decreasing the volume of water that needs to be treated, further reducing energy consumption and operations costs.