This one-semester course is designed to teach the student fundamental analytical techniques, which are required for satisfactory performance in any laboratory-related work.  Techniques taught include proper use of the analytical balance, proper pipetting techniques, use of the buret, transferring solutions, use of the pH meter and the spectrophotometer.  The course consists of 1 lecture hour and 2 lab hours.

This one-semester chemistry course includes both lecture (three hours) and laboratory (three hours) sessions.  The lecture sessions deal with the practical aspects of chemical principles, and the laboratory sessions relate to the practical applications of chemistry and the development of the necessary hands-on basic techniques and skills necessary for water analysis.  Topics include matter, atomic structure, chemical bonding, nomenclature, chemical formulae, the mole, simple chemical reactions and solution chemistry.  An emphasis is placed on developing problem solving skills.

Today’s employers give preference to job candidates who are team players with strong verbal communication skills. This course will help students find their voice and develop their ability to work in teams, giving them the competitive advantage they need in today’s job market. It will also strengthen reading comprehension, writing ability, presentation skills and computer application proficiency, all of which are skills fundamental to success in college and in the workplace.

This a practical lab subject that is intended to give science and engineering technology students the spreadsheet and documentation skills that they will need in their college and professional careers.  The students will gain experience using WINDOWS 7 and MICROSOFT WORD/EXCEL/POWERPOINT.  This subject consists of one two hour lab per week which is accompanied by extensive home assignments.  It is the students’ responsibility to ask for help for any parts of the assignments that they don’t understand.

Learn more about the prominent environmental issues of our time.  This course will focus on timely issues in the environmental field that present varying degrees of risk to the health of humans, ecosystems and our planet.  It will be a look beyond the media headlines at the policies, politics and basic science of our most interesting environmental challenges.  Topics will include climate change, arctic ecosystems, water conservation and water quality, endocrine disrupting substances (gender benders), renewable energy, resource depletion, the dilemma of pesticide use and natural toxins. The course will begin with a brief look at the responsibilities of the federal, provincial and municipal governments as they relate to environmental matters.  Then, each issue will be considered in the Canadian and global context.

This two-hour lecture course provides specific health and safety training in areas that are directly pertinent to water and wastewater facility and field operations in water distribution and collection systems. The course covers basic health and safety legislation and focuses on roles, responsibilities, personal protection and worker rights that are immediately applicable to an industrial workplace. Specific instruction is conducted in key areas that are most relevant to the water and wastewater industry, such as confined spaces. Students complete a course in first aid and CPR as a component of the course prior to going out on placement. There is an additional charge of approximately $100 for the first aid course.

This three-hour lecture course reviews basic mathematical operations within the SI system of units.  Topics covered include algebra, fractions, decimals, percentages, ratios, proportions, graphing and problem solving.  This course covers the component skills required for MATH 2125.

Electrical Control Fundamentals is designed to educate students at an introductory level, the theory of electricity fundamentals primarily applied to an industrial environment. Key concepts of Ohm’s Law are explored to provide students with a necessary foundation in the investigation of Direct Current (DC) and Alternating Current (AC) circuit theory.

Electric motors, VFDs and associated control devices are studied along with schematics reading and electrical symbols. The course concludes with an introduction to relay ladder logic. The laboratory component of this course provides practical experience with electrical devices that can be directly related to industrial control components found in industry. This course is a prerequisite for Automation Fundamentals, OPER 3133.

This course is a three hour lecture and two hour lab per week and is designed to give students an understanding of water and its use by residential and ICI sectors of society. The properties of water (physical, chemical and microbiological) will be examined and used for the basis of the study of treatment. The properties of wastewater will also be examined and used for the basis of the study of wastewater treatment. Although treatment of water and wastewater is important, an equally important aspect is the movement of water and wastewater, to and from consumers. This course will introduce students to the concepts involved in the distribution and collection of water and wastewater. The lab component of this course will focus on presenting numerous water and wastewater testing methods used in all aspects of the water and wastewater industry. The lab component will also be used to provide students the opportunity to visit operating facilities and gain hands on exposure.

This course continues the work that was begun in MATH 1109 with a focus on specific calculations and formulas required in the water quality industry.  These will include Applied Volume Calculations, Flow and Velocity Calculations, Loading Rate Calculations, and Detention and Retention Time Calculations. Using mathematical procedures and applying mathematical concepts to solve problems is stressed.

This three hour lecture course provides a review of water quality legislation and key regulations in Ontario.  The course emphasizes the provincial and municipal responsibilities relative to water and wastewater.  The course concentrates on the following Acts and their prominent applicable regulations: the Safe Drinking Water Act, the Ontario Water Resources Act, the Water Opportunities Act, the Ontario Environmental Protection Act, Environmental Assessment Act and the Environmental Bill of Rights.  New Regulations will be added as required.

Technical Communication is the “art and science of making complex technical information accessible, usable and relevant to most people in most settings.”  This course reinforces and expands on technical communication skills introduced in first semester, which students will require in the workplace. Students will learn to select and use appropriate research, language, and layout for different technical documents, while further developing their written and verbal communication skills and their ability to work in a team.

This course provides the basic microbiological concepts that pertain to the water and wastewater industry.  It introduces students to different types of micro-organisms including the bacteria, protozoa, algae and viruses commonly found in water and wastewater.  Topics include the morphology, identification, function, reproduction and enumeration of these microbes.  Students are also introduced to the environmental conditions in which water and wastewater microbes grow and the methods used to control their growth. Practical laboratory exercises provide students with the methodologies currently used by laboratories to comply with the current standards and practices used in the industry.

Automation Fundamentals is designed to educate students in the theory of operation and basic implementation of Programmable Logic Controllers (PLC) and HMIs (Human Machine Interface), as they relate to industrial control systems.

Common PLC instructions and programming techniques will be discussed along with devices compatible with PLC Inputs and Outputs. Students will learn how to utilize HMI development software for the creation of operational controls that interact with the PLC, as outlined by a predetermined specification. The investigation of HMIs will conclude with an introduction to the operation and configuration of a common SCADA software interface. The laboratory component of this course provides practical experience with software and control devices that can be directly related to control systems found in industry.

The goal of this course is two-fold.  Primarily it assists students in developing a well planned and organized job search plan. In order to accomplish this, students develop professional cover letters, resumes, portfolios and career action plans. The second goal of this course is to introduce students to subject matter which will assist them to meet today’s workforce challenges. An introduction of Organizational Behaviour is explored including; Understanding and working with management to attain company and career goals, working and communicating in a team environment, functioning and managing stress in today’s workplace and understanding why organizational change and development take place.

Placement is considered an important part as a technologist’s education, and student are required to obtain a minimum of 80 hours on the job placement in their chosen field and 5 hours of required workshops. There is no formal set of topics of instruction for placement but it must provide the student with practical experience in their chosen field. Each placement will be different as there will be a variety of organizations participating.

Students may achieve their placement requirement in various ways by completing one of the following:

1. A summer position after second year related to their field of study.
2. Working one day a week during the fall or winter academic school year.
3. Working during a block period of time such as the Christmas break, Reading week or in May after all courses work is completed.
4. Completing an internship for 4,8,12 or 16 months.
5. Applying for a prior work experience with proper approval and documentation.

Placement is approached as an actual job, with students attending interviews and being selected for positions by the employer. Students are to perform as technologists in training. A satisfactory completion is mandatory in order to graduate from Durham College.

This course consists of two hours of lecture and two hours of laboratory exercises per week.  The collection and treatment of wastewater is an important component of water use in Ontario.  The course examines the major trends in wastewater management at the industrial, urban and agribusiness levels.  It offers an in-depth examination of the wastewater treatment methods currently used in Ontario with an emphasis on operator preparedness for employment in the wastewater treatment sector.  

This course consists of two hours of lecture and two hours of lab per week. The course provides a detailed examination of groundwater and surface water movement, availability and usage and the factors that impact and influence them. This course investigates how groundwater and surface water move, the impact of porosity and permeability, rainfall and drought. This course focuses on the importance of the entire watershed, the influence of the hydrological cycle, stream flow, floods, reservoirs and aquifers. This course also focuses on the mechanics that occurs when both installing a well and extracting water from it. Throughout the course, students will be encouraged to relate their learning back to their future roles as operators and to identify how this learning will provide them with a strong foundation for making sounds decisions in the future. 

This course introduces students to hydraulics.  Topics include basic physical principles pertaining to fluid flow and the relationship between force and pressure, schematic diagrams and hydraulic symbols and pumps, actuators and valves. 

This course introduces students to the beneficial and detrimental significance and role of micro-organisms in water and wastewater treatment processes.  Students learn how specific aerobic and anaerobic water and wastewater treatment processes affect the micro-organism’s environment and ability to survive.  They also learn the identity and significance of microbial indicator organisms. The dynamics of established and emerging waterborne pathogens, the diseases they cause and their impact on public health are covered extensively. Practical laboratory exercises provide students with the methodologies currently used by laboratories to comply with current standards and practices used in the industry.

Placement is considered an important part as a technologist’s education, and student are required to obtain a minimum of 80 hours on the job placement in their chosen field and 5 hours of required workshops. There is no formal set of topics of instruction for placement but it must provide the student with practical experience in their chosen field. Each placement will be different as there will be a variety of organizations participating.

Students may achieve their placement requirement in various ways by completing one of the following:

1. A summer position after second year related to their field of study.
2. Working one day a week during the fall or winter academic school year.
3. Working during a block period of time such as the Christmas break, Reading week or in May after all courses work is completed.
4. Completing an internship for 4,8,12 or 16 months.
5. Applying for a prior work experience with proper approval and documentation.

Placement is approached as an actual job, with students attending interviews and being selected for positions by the employer. Students are to perform as technologists in training. A satisfactory completion is mandatory in order to graduate from Durham College.

Elective general education courses appear in your program of study as GNED 0000. This is called a “placeholder.” This placeholder is replaced by an actual course that you will select from a list of available "elective" general education courses when you register in the relevant semester.

Please note that the type and number of elective courses available will vary from semester to semester and from year to year.

Please visit the General Education website for more information.

This course introduces students to process instrumentation and controls used in the water and wastewater field.  Students will gain an understanding of the functionality of instruments used to measure, control and monitor plant process variables such as flow, level, pressure, as well as analytical instruments used to measure plant conditions such as turbidity, chlorine residual and pH.

This course will introduce students to the fundamental legal principles applicable to businesses in Canada.  Students will gain an understanding of the Canadian Legal System, Dispute Resolution, Contract Law, Business Torts, Property Law, Employment Law, Intellectual Property Law, as well as the key distinctions between Civil and Criminal Law.  Students will examine the legal theory in a practical manner through case scenarios and case analyses.

This course consists of a one hour lecture and a three hour lab. It is a combined theory lab course covering the following topics. Centrifugal water pups, waste water pumps, w2ater valves, pipe threading, soldering, metrology, fittings and fluid conductors, bearing, seals, packing, drilling and taping, coupling alignments with dials and lazor, air preparation, and vibration analysis.

This course consists of two hours of lecture and two hours of lab per week.  It is detailed examination of water treatment and water distribution.  This course investigates the sources and characteristics of drinking water and how that water is treated to make it safe to drink. This course also investigates the design, constructions, and operation of water distribution systems. Throughout this course, the topics are related back to the context of the roles and responsibilities of being a water treatment and/or water distribution operator within the Provinces of Ontario. As topics are discussed, there will also be reference to pertinent legislation (within the jurisdiction of the Province of Ontario). This course allows students an opportunity to select an industrial application or alternative treatment that is of interest to them and research the topic for later presentation to the class.