The purpose of this project was to design a Northern Passive Treatment Facility responsible for addressing research questions on how passive treatment wetlands function in a northern climate.
The Northern Passive Treatment Facility would be valuable in furthering Yukon's knowledge and research in understanding how these passive treatment systems can utilize natural processes to maximize their effectiveness for increased removal efficiencies. While the operation of passive treatment systems are well understood in temperate regions, there is a growing need to understand how they operate in arctic & subarctic climate conditions. As new mining projects are developing in the territory, a northern experimental treatment facility offers an opportunity to increase our understanding of the fundamental factors influencing passive treatment systems under cold climate conditions.
The facility was designed to provide researchers, regulators, and industry stakeholders with a facility that would enable them to address concerns and find plausible solutions to mitigate and remediate contamination while meeting evolving industry and government environmental standards. This would lead to opportunities for discussion between regulatory and industry representatives at an educational facility. Plans for the facility also accounted for its use as a teaching resource to educate and train the public, industrial stakeholders, and future employers of these technologies. With independent control over each cell, the facility would allow for adaptations to conditions to learn more about specific northern vegetation or treatment types suitable for Yukon’s cold climate.