Public involvement helps us engage our community in meaningful conversations as we learn to better serve our customers and support Kingston’s goal of becoming A Smart and Livable 21st Century City.
Building our Community
Employees raised $26, 744 for United Way KFL&A, achieving the Cornerstone Achievement Award and Sapphire Britton Smith Foundation Leadership Award. Congratulations!
Public Tours: Providing Hands-On Utility Education
In 2021, we brought our public tours of treatment facilities online! From source water to potable water at the tap, local grade 2/3 and 7/8 classrooms learned all about water treatment.
Boards and Memberships
We’re part of the fabric of our community and proud to serve on these boards and memberships:
- Institute for Catastrophic Loss Reduction (ICLR) - Municipal Advisory Committee
- Ontario Water Consortium (OWC) Net Zero Working Group – Member
- Sensus Partner and Advisor Network – General Membership Chair
- Plug’n Drive – Board of Directors
- Ontario Municipal Water Association (OMWA) - Board of Directors
- Ontario Regional Common Ground Alliance (ORCGA) – Kingston Region Geographic Council - Co-Chair
- Ontario Regional Common Ground Alliance (ORCGA) – Gas/Oil Distribution Stakeholder Group - Board Member
- Canadian Standards Association (CSA) – Member
- Canadian BioGas Association - Renewable Natural Gas Information Network - Member
- Canadian Gas Association (CGA) - various sub-committees
- Infrastructure Health and Safety Association (IHSA) Kingston Labour-Management Health & Safety committees – Construction - Member
- Technical Standards and Safety Authority (TSSA) Oil and Gas Pipeline Risk Reduction Committee – Member
- TSSA Natural Gas Risk Reduction Committee - Member
- Canadian Coalition on Wastewater-Related COVID-19 Research - Consortium Leader
- Ministry of Energy – LDC Working Group on Building Broadband Faster Act
- Ministry of Infrastructure – Work Group on Building Broadband Faster Act
- Workplace Safety & Insurance Board Workplace Excellence Program
- Association of Electrical Utilities Safety Professionals (AEUSP)
- Kingston Regional Labour Management Health and Safety Committee
- Membership in the following organizations, serving on various sub-committees:
- Canadian Electricity Association
- Utility Technology Council
- Intelligent Community Forum
- Utility Standards Forum
- Electricity Distributors Association
- GridSmartCity
- Greater Kingston Chamber of Commerce
- American Water Works Association
- Ontario Water Works Association
- Canadian Water and Wastewater Association
- Canadian Water Network - Municipal Consortium
- Water Research Foundation
- Kingston Home Builders Association
- Ontario Energy Association
- Ontario Good Roads Association
- Canadian Water Network – Contaminants of Emerging Concern Working Group
Sponsorship
Through local sponsorship, we give back to the community we serve:
- St. Lawrence College – Kingston Hydro Award for Sustainable Energy Leadership, presented to Michael B.
- St. Lawrence College – PromoScience
- Greater Kingston Chamber of Commerce, Powering Success
- Queen's University, Water Environment Conference
- Queen's University, CIRQUE
- United Way of KFL&A, Tampon Tuesday
- United Way of KFL&A, banner program, 2021
- Smart Energy Kingston
- Kingston Transit, electric bus rollout
- City of Kingston, Love Kingston Marketplace sponsor
Innovation through Research Partnerships
Continued improvement and innovation are our focus in these recent research partnerships. Thanks to our partners for these opportunities!
- Queen’s University, Beaty Water Research Centre – Wastewater Surveillance Program initial research for SARS CoV-2 prevalence in area with low case counts of COVID-19.
- Queen’s University on their NSERC-funded project “Pipe Liner Evaluations and Connection Studies (“PipeLEACS”).
- Queen’s University MITACS project for Utilities Kingston on “Optimizing Anaerobic Digester Start-up and Operation”, and evaluation of Island Water Technologies biological activity sensor as an indicator of digester health.
- GridSmartCity-McMaster University “ICE-HARVEST” research project, an Integrated Community Energy system, using a small generator to generate electricity, and harvesting the waste heat from the generator to use in a community energy system.
- Queen’s University TEAM Project “Hydraulic Energy Recovery at the Cataraqui Bay WWTP”.
- Queen’s University on their NSERC-funded project “Optimizing a Microbial Platform to Break Down and Valorize Waste Plastic” (“OpenPlastic”).
Hydraulic Energy Recovery at the Cataraqui Bay Wastewater Treatment Plant
In 2021, we supported a team of Queen’s engineering students in their Capstone fourth year design project to research technologies that could capture hydraulic energy from the wastewater treatment process at the Cataraqui Bay Wastewater Treatment Plant. This project continues in 2022.
Genome Canada OpenPlastic
In 2021, we partnered with Queen’s University on the four-year Genome Canada project “Optimizing a Microbial Platform to Break Down and Valorize Waste Plastic” (“OpenPlastic”). This project is affiliated with the Contaminants of Emerging Concern Research Excellence Network (CEC-REN) at Queen’s University, which is an interdisciplinary research and innovation initiative. CEC-REN is focused on the detection and treatment of emerging contaminants in the natural and built environment that pose environmental and human health risks. This project will have important implications on waste plastic and plastic contaminates in our community.