Waterloo Biofilter

Bill has been a member of our club for 23 years and served as our President in 1996/97. Bill went to school locally at WLU, trained as an accountant and received his CA designation while articling at the firm Clarkson Gordon. Since that time he has followed an entrepreneurial path having owned and operated several businesses including a local bedding manufacturer named Waterloo Bedding for sixteen years, a local investment firm named Stacey Muirhead for nine years and most recently over the past four years as the President and owner of Waterloo Biofilter. Also, Bill continues to serve on the Board of Governors for Wilfrid Laurier University and chairs their Investment Oversite Committee.

 

In 2013, Bill was looking for a change from the investment industry and was introduced to Craig Jowett Ph.D who had founded the business based on research performed at UW. At that time, Craig was looking to transition the business and a relationship was forged.

 

Bill has two kids who are educated in Environmental Engineering and are of the opinion that our generation has wrecked the planet. The opportunity to participate in a business focussed on helping the planet was attractive for Bill and his family.

 

For most, water is just something that goes down the drain. In a municipal setting, central wastewater management is available, but this comprises only 75% of the applications. For the other 25% generally in rural settings, onsite waste water treatment (septic systems) is necessary, and this is where Waterloo Biofilter works. (Editors note-as a cottager, we generally talk about three things; the dump, the weather and septic systems so Bill is a hot commodity at cottage cocktail parties).

 

Nature has the power to clean itself as bacteria in soil can, in the right circumstances, naturally clean wastewater before hitting ground water, generally in the first 3 feet. In Canada, there are challenges due to our terrain, and climate as soil may not be of appropriate depth or of the correct composition and cold weather reduces the effectiveness of bacteria. Waterloo Biofilter has developed a product that gives an artificial home in foam for bacteria to live and grow to clean wastewater to 95% before it is released into nature to continue the cleaning process. This allows construction in areas that would not allow a conventional septic system with field bed (ie. Smaller lots or rocky terrain).

 

The company is heavily rooted in research and continues to focus on R&D with the continued participation of Masters Students etc. This is an important area for future innovation in the age after the Walkerton disaster as our society struggles to deal with issues related to:

-nitrogen resulting in blue baby syndrome

-phosphorus resulting in blue green algae

 

This is a timely issue as aging infrastructure struggles to keep pace with development and there have been some significant spills, most notably Montreal last year and it has been identified that climate change will result in greater risk of sewage leaks. There is an interesting article that refers to “Over 1 trillion litres of raw sewage leaked into Canadian waterways between 2013-17”: https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/wastewater-sewage-climate-cp-1.4785810

 

Waterloo Biofilter has grown substantially over the past four years under Bill’s leadership as it services customers throughout Canada and the Northern US and will continue to play it’s part to help keep our environment clean for the future!