$60 million water consortium supports Ontario clean tech innovation

Published on October 5, 2012 07:43 by Water Network Research, Official research team of The Water Network in Technology

TheOntario Clean Technology Allianceis attending WEFTEC 2012, the Water Environment Federation's Annual Technical Exhibition and Conference and the largest conference of its kind in North America, with news of an ambitious $60 millionSouthern Ontario Water Consortium(SOWC) that hasalready attracted $20 million of technology investment from IBM Canada Limitedtogether with additional investment from the private sector, government, and universities. SOWC is a research and development platform for new water technologies and facilities for the testing and development of drinking water solutions, wastewater purification, ecotoxicological analysis, watershed management, and sensor development.

To be fully operational by 2014, the SOWC platform includes a series of facilities within the Grand River watershed, the Mimico Creek sub-watershed near Toronto, the City of London Greenway Wastewater Treatment Centre, the City of Guelph Waste Water Treatment Centre, the Sensor Development Labs at McMaster University, Drinking Water Treatment Labs at the Universities of Toronto and Waterloo, ecotoxicological labs and staging facilities at Laurier, and the Ground Water Research Facilities at Base Borden and the University of Guelph. The platform will be open to companies interested in testing technologies in a real watershed or municipal environment, companies looking for collaborative R&D with leading water researchers from eight universities, and international companies looking for a North American beachhead.

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