The Abbotsford Water Show – BC Small Business Success Stories

On Friday April 4, I had the honour and great pleasure of attending and speaking at the Abbotsford Water Show.

As noted on the website for the event “The Water Show is a unique and original event bringing Trades and Technologies from Water Reclamation, Wells Irrigation, Ponds and Pools, Micro Energy all the way to Onsite septic together for the first time.”

For me, it was also a great opportunity to hear first-hand from a number of BC small businesses. I had the opportunity to fly direct from Victoria to Abbotsford on Abbotsford-basedIsland Express Air. Owner and Captain, Gerry Visser, started the company in 2009 and personally provides first-class customer service. The 20-minute trip on a Piper Navajo provides the passenger with an incredibly scenic trip which even includes a fly-over of the Cherry Point refinery in the  US. Hope TV’s program P3: People, Places, Perspectives, hosted by Randall Mark provides a detailed history of Island Express and provides further information.

The Abbotsford Water Shaw featured a number of talks, although I was only able to sit through those between 09:30 and 14:30. David Mellis, president and owner of Langley-based EDS Pumps and Water Treatment Ltd., spoke about recent advances in water well remediation. Patrick Lucey, president of Victoria-Based Aqua-Tex Scientific Consulting Ltd., located on the boundary of the riding of Oak Bay Gordon Head (#201-3690 Shelbourne St.), explored the potential benefits of integrating waste water an energy systems in the design of cities, towns and municipalities. Kamloops-based Terry Ormod, Western Canada Sales manager for The Toro Company, highlighted the numerous simple, cost-effective ways of improving irrigation systems to conserve water and provide higher-quality irrigation.

But the highlight of the event, without a doubt, was the extensive conversations I had with representatives from Pinnacle Environmental Technologies Inc, whose President Frank Hey, is pictured above with a BioBarrier^®, residential Membrane Bio-Reactor (MBR) tertiary treatment system. Imagine having your own tertiary-based sewage treatment system in your back yard supplying you with water for irrigation and use in toilets!

It was inspiring to see so many people committed to developing prosperity through the use and installation of sustainable and innovative cleantech — the basis of tomorrow’s economy.