RENFREW – “I think you should be really good at what you do. If you can’t be good at it, then you find something else to do. Or, at the very least, put all your effort into being as good as you can be.”
That’s the philosophy of Kevin Bossy, CEO of Bishop Water Technologies, which won the Ontario Community Futures 2016 Entrepreneur of the Year Award.
Bishop Water Technologies is in the business of removing solids from wastewater.
From its formation eight years ago in Eganville, the company has grown by focusing on what it does well and becoming a multi-million dollar company with 12 employees selling its technology right across Canada.
Don Bishop, who had been running Bishop Aquatic Technologies since 1992, brought Bossy into Bishop Water Technologies in 2008 to develop a geotube facility in Eganville.
“After Walkerton, the provincial ministry of environment’s intention was to ban the land application of untreated septic tank waste in Ontario,” Bossy said.
Rather than banning the practice outright, said Bossy, the provincial government helped fund tests of a variety of treatment practices.
Don Bishop, in collaboration with the townships of Bonnechere Valley and North Algona Wilberforce, sought funding from the ministry to test geotubing as a treatment for septic tank waste, Bossy said.
geotubing is a technique that decontaminates septic waste and reclaims the nutrient value, which can then be used in agriculture as fertilizer, Bossy said.
The waste is pumped into a geotube, a special membrane that allows excess water to seep from it. A polymer is used to reduce the magnetic charge from suspended solids in water so they can form into larger clumps. The solid forms into clumps too large to fit through the holes in the surface of the tube. Hence, the water can seep out while the solids remain trapped inside.
Get your October 12, 2016 edition of The Valley Gazette to read the full story.