Construction moving steadily for new dairy dewatering plant in central Alberta, first in Canada

The DIW plant will use reverse osmosis and ultrafiltration to create a concentrated component to then produce various products. Boeve says as milk is roughly 86 per cent water, the facility will remove over half of the water content. Transportation wise, he says that could reduce some truckloads from four to one, saving producers over $5 million per year.

“Milk is expensive to haul anywhere because it has to be in a truck that’s designated only for milk. So, you’re only hauling it one way; you’re always coming back empty and it’s expensive because you’re hauling a lot of water. Fluid milk, you drink all of the water but for cheese you need almost all of the water out of it anyway,” he said.

While plant-based milk is seeing a growing trend in the country, according to Statistics Canada, Boeve says milk-based products like butter and cheese are still in hot demand for one simple reason: their delicious taste.

“Everybody always talks about dairy fat not being good for you; it’s actually healthy fat, used in the right context. But it tastes good, that’s our number one thing; people love it,” he said.

The project was initially announced in November 201, however, only began construction in August 2023 due to various delays regarding inter-provincial regulations, Boeve said. Apart from design changes, he said that as the organizations are all regulatory bodies, they had to consult with the roughly 1,400 dairy producers and abide by many legalities in order to invest funds in one province.

As of this week, concrete walls have already gone up for the facility, with Chandos Construction as the contractor, and is expected to be complete by Spring 2025.

Precast and hollow core installation of DIW plant (Supplied)

Boeve says the local economy will benefit with the addition of roughly 20 new jobs to run the dewatering plant.

The facility is located on land shared by Blackfalds and Lacombe County in a joint economic agreement.

READ: Year in Review: Lacombe County Reeve says 2023 has been a successful year despite challenges

At the County’s recent council meeting in late February, the municipalities signed a cost sharing partnership to address water reservoir capacity in preparation for the DIW facility.

As most businesses utilize the current water and wastewater services for low-demand domestic purposes, the Town says there is enough capacity to accommodate the plant. However, the County had previously entered an agreement with the Town for a sewer main upgrade to accommodate additional wastewater flow for future growth.

The town will pay 41 per cent, or $2.54 million of a $6.2 million project to upgrade the Broadway Reservoir and Pumps, funded by their Aspelund Water Offsite Levy Reserve, which currently sits at $989,053.

Administration confirmed that DIW estimated their daily water needs at 1000 cubic metres (m3) and 1200 m3 for wastewater.

Boeve says that through the facility’s design, they will reuse the sanitized water extracted from the dewatering process of the milk to clean the plant.

“It just shows that the industry responds to being innovative. No industry can just be stagnant. In working with our other stakeholders, the process was to just make sure they can get milk where they need it and we’re just trying to be as environmentally responsible as possible,” he said.

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by Alessia Proietti

Construction moving steadily for new dairy dewatering plant in central Alberta, first in Canada

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