Some food consumers, in an effort to contribute to environmental stewardship, are choosing to eat food produced closer to home.  How does this practice stack up, environmentally?  read more »

Yesterday, Ontario legislators debated a private member's bill that would transform the way water and wastewater services are organized, financed, and regulated. Bill 237, the Sustainable Water and Waste Water Systems Improvement and Maintenance Act (SWIM), would require metering and full cost recovery, promote consolidation of smaller systems, encourage private sector involvement in service provision, and establish an economic regulator to oversee water and wastewater utilities across the province. The bill passed Second Reading and was referred to the Standing Committee on General Government for review.  read more »

The Conference Board of Canada has joined the growing ranks of those endorsing full-cost pricing of water and wastewater services. In Improving Infrastructure Management: Municipal Investments in Water and Wastewater, the Conference Board points out that much of Canada's water and sewage infrastructure is old and due for replacement – work that will cost many tens of billions of dollars. In order to tackle their infrastructure deficits, municipalities will need stable sources of revenue. Instead of waiting for grants, municipalities should rely on water revenues: "Consumers must pay for every unit of water they consume, and the price paid must reflect the supply cost."
   read more »

In his Annual Report on Drinking Water, Ontario's Environment Minister urges consumers to choose tap water as their drinking water, assuring them that it is safe and of high quality. He boasts of the last year's drinking water quality test results, noting that 99.85 percent of the tests of municipal residential drinking water systems met strict standards. Not so fast, Mr. Gerretsen! Such complacency is both unwarranted and dangerous.  read more »

In his Annual Report on Drinking Water, Ontario Environment Minister John Gerretsen claims that, through the Financial Plans Regulation, the province is "ensuring that all system owners take the first step in planning for the long-term financial sustainability of their drinking water systems." Unfortunately, the Financial Plans Regulation, which was developed in 2007 and will go into effect in 2010, will do little to make drinking water systems financially sustainable. The regulation requires municipalities to prepare financial plans for their systems. But these plans need not ensure that municipalities price water services in order to recover their full costs from their customers.  read more »

A brief reference to Microbial Source Tracking appears in the Annual Report on Drinking Water released last week by Ontario's Minister of the Environment. Researchers using this exciting new technology recently identified agriculture as the dominant source of E. coli in southeastern Lake Huron.  read more »

"Ontario is a leader in protecting drinking water." So claims the headline accompanying last week's release of the Environment Minister's Annual Report on Drinking Water. But it seems that Minister Gerretsen has confused rhetoric with leadership. His report is strong only on the former.  read more »

Yesterday, at a conference on renewing Ontario's infrastructure, Colin Saunders, the Utilities Manager for Brockton, expressed great satisfaction over his municipality's partnership with a private water and wastewater operator. Brockton, which includes the town of Walkerton, is reassured by the firm's expertise and its large pool of trained staff. It is impressed by quality control programs that exceed those required by the province. And it is delighted by the significant cost savings offered by the firm.  read more »

The 2008 Environmental Compliance Reports have been posted on the Ontario Ministry of Environment web site, and the news is not good. Reports of non-compliance at 102 municipal sewage facilities fill 111 pages. Some of the province's biggest cities – Toronto, Ottawa, Hamilton, London – show up in the reports.  read more »

Toronto's sewage woes were in the news last week. The Globe and Mail, the Toronto Sun, and the Toronto Star all ran stories about legal charges arising from a sewage bypass at Toronto's Ashbridges Bay treatment plant. But the real story here isn't that charges have been laid. The real story is that charges should be laid far more often.  read more »