EXCLUSIVE: H2O Global News’ Natasha Posnett spoke with Commercial Managers Matthew Dale and Henrik Olsson about their wastewater treatment services at Stolthaven Terminals in Houston and New Orleans. They discussed the environmental benefits it brings to the company and the importance of expanding their services to improve water issues and enhance sustainability for third party businesses.
The protection of waterways from excessive pollution is a challenge seen around the world. Wastewater is all too often dumped and discarded of inadequately, with little or no regard for the environmental consequences. Correctly treating wastewater is essential in fighting these issues and creating long term environmental sustainability in the water industry. Biological wastewater treatment is one proven solution.
Stolthaven Terminals, part of Stolt-Nielsen, have implemented just this to ensure that their company is running in a sustainable manner and to offer other businesses an easy solution to treat their wastewater. Sustainability is at the core of Stolt-Nielsen’s strategy and operations and the biological wastewater treatment is helping them to achieve their goals. They aim to expand their services to more third party businesses in order to grow the positive results that are seen from using biological wastewater treatment.
Stolt-Nielsen and what they offer
Stolt-Nielsen is a long-term investor and manager of businesses focused on opportunities in logistics, distribution and aquaculture. Stolthaven Terminals is a global provider of safe, high quality storage services for bulk liquids and gases and with a renewed focus on biological wastewater treatment. Together, with their two market leadin sister companies, Stolt Tankers and Stolt Containers, they deliver an efficient ship-to-shore service for their customers.
Stolt-Nielsen is a signatory of the UN Global Compact and aligns with its principles and the UN Sustainable Development goals. Continuing to reduce their carbon footprint is one of their main goals and each year they release a sustainability report which help them asses their progress.
The biological wastewater treatment services available at Stolthaven Terminals links in well with Stolt-Nielsen’s sustainability goals for the future. It may not currently be contributing much to their overall revenue, but the wastewater services should not be overlooked. In an ever changing world, where more focus is being placed on sustainability than ever before, it is a valuable service to have available.
Wastewater services at Stolthaven Terminals
Biological wastewater treatment is the process of eliminating harmful contaminants from water by using bacteria and other microorganisms to naturally degrade organic contaminants. The biological treatment of water is used worldwide because it is effective and more economical than many mechanical or chemical processes. It is also a responsible choice for chemical industries, offering a profusion of environmental benefits.
Let’s talk about environmental sustainability
Biological wastewater treatment has been around for many years, but only more recently have people begun to appreciate the environmental benefits it can have for a company. Most importantly it produces a source of clean water. It reduces waste and creates less pollution in waterways where it is released.
Stolthaven Houston Terminal Commercial Manager, Matthew Dale said: ”The water that is released back once it’s been through our system is cleaner than the water that is already in the ship channel. The water that goes out is better than the water already in there!”
This is a huge benefit and strong selling point, especially in Houston where they handle both hazardous and non-hazardous wastewater streams. The more businesses that use wastewater services, the better the water quality would be in surrounding areas.
Furthermore, wastewater treatment can help to reduce a business’ carbon footprint. This is vital if you are aiming for a sustainable business. Sustainability is about focusing on maintaining natural resources and making sure that they are protected for future generations to use. In this instance, Stolthaven reduces the amount of harmful greenhouse gases it produces. They can treat all of their wastewater on site, eliminating the need for additional transportation. The same benefit would be true for other local companies or ships that are already in the vicinity of Stolthaven terminals.
Stolthaven New Orleans Terminal Commercial Manager, Henrik Olsson said: ”At Stolthaven we have a sustainability policy and the wastewater plants fit perfectly into that. Not only does it make sure that the water is clean and meets all the correct regulatory standards, our wastewater treatment allows us to reduce our carbon footprint by managing it all on site. Other terminal operators that don’t have these facilities will have to transport their wastewater to third party facilities, sometimes very far away. We also service ships and barges that call at our terminal by receiving and treating their engine sludge and wastewater generated from tank cleaning. This reduces the need for them to go back out to sea in order to dispose of wastewater, further reducing the amount of fuel burned and therefore their carbon footprint.”
Additionally, and perhaps a point that isn’t focused on as often, is disease prevention. Wastewater treatment plays an essential role in removing pollutants from water that could be harmful if consumed by humans and animals. Wastewater may also contain harmful chemicals which if released into the environment without correct treatment would damage flora and fauna.
Sustainable and cost effective choice
The benefits of wastewater treatment speak for themselves; it protects the environment while at the same time allowing business to meet their sustainability goals. Stolthaven Terminals is already gaining from using their wastewater treatment services inhouse, but now they wish to spread the benefits further by reaching more third party companies and getting them involved.
Dale explained: “We have an advantage at Stolthaven because the barriers to entry into this industry are now very difficult. We have already made a substantial investment into our wastewater treatment plant and it is now about how can we get those extra third party waste flows into our system.”
Wastewater is here to stay
Wastewater is definitely here to stay, we can’t alter that! What we can alter is how business deal with their wastewater supplies and make it as efficient and sustainable as possible. Biological wastewater treatment services have many benefits which makes it a viable long and short-term answer to the world water issues. Populations are increasing and this is bound to increase the volume of wastewater that will be produced, making water treatment a vital aspect of environmental sustainability.
Getting more businesses to use wastewater treatment services is one solution. Spreading the word on these services and educating people on the benefits is possibly the best place to start!
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