Lake Ontario Keeps Getting Blasted with Sewage

Lake Ontario, image via WikiMedia Commons.
Partially treated sewage flows into Toronto's water systems on a regular basis, but officials aren't concerned.

Documents obtained by the Lake Ontario Waterkeeper (LOW) through freedom of information requests, show that in 2013 and 2012, sewage bypasses—a euphemism for when untreated, or partially treated, poop water is spewed into the lake—occurred every two weeks on average. In 2011, the average was weekly.

Bypasses occur when wastewater plants are unable to process the volume of sewage reaching a plant and have to let it pass without fully treating it. In the July 8 storm last year, over 1 million cubic metres (or 1.19 billion litres) was bypassed into surrounding water systems.

Water samples taken by LOW staff four days after last year’s storm show E. coli levels were more than three times the provincial standard near the Toronto Harbour and 20 times the standard in the Humber River. No special alerts concerning water quality were issued.

LOW, a charitable watchdog organization founded after deadly water contamination in Walkerton, Ont., began requesting documents pertaining to sewage bypasses after the lack of response from the City.

"We just assumed that the city would say something and then when they didn't… that was a moment when we realized that they were actively resisting the idea that the public should have more information," said LOW cofounder Krystyn Tully.

The general manager of Toronto Water, Lou Di Gironimo, claimed water quality was unaffected and director of water infrastructure management Michael D’Andrea downplayed it days later. (Di Gironimo was unavailable to comment on this article.)

Tully and LOW staff have been lobbying the city to institute a sewage bypass alert system for about two years as part of their Swim Guide—an app that allows users to see water quality in locations all over North America.

But Tully said they've met with resistance at every stage: "We could spend the rest of our lives trying to negotiate internal politics or we could just go straight to the province and maybe get it done a little faster.”

So almost a year later, on July 7, LOW filed an application for review with the Ontario Ministry of Environment requesting that Toronto be required to alert residents when sewage bypasses occur. LOW even made a model alert based off Toronto's weather advisories. To Tully, it's a reasonable, quick-fix that municipalities like Ottawa and Kingston already do. The goal is to have information accessible so a year-long research project like LOW undertook isn't necessary for people to decide whether or not to go for a plunge or paddle along Toronto's waterfront.

Toronto Water and Toronto Public Health, two separate divisions of the municipality of Toronto, say their responsibility only extends to 11 designated official beaches. Non-designated areas, like the sites of LOW's July 2013 samples, are outside of their scope.

Tully feels the city goes astray in limiting their responsibility to those 11 beaches: "There are all these places in Toronto where people are using the water that aren't official beaches and that aren't monitored and those are the areas that we're concerned about."

Though the City is required by law to inform the Ontario Ministry of the Environment promptly of bypasses, both ministry and city officials say sewage bypasses are, in fact, part and parcel of the wastewater management system. They say the plants are SUPPOSED to bypass.

The decision to bypass is a conscious choice made by plant operators in order to avoid damage of plant equipment or flooding in streets and residential buildings, according to Toronto Water's statement to VICE. "Bypasses are a necessity in a combined sewer system."

Tully disagrees. "It reflects Toronto Water's tendency to defend a poorly designed, aging system… Toronto Water describes bypasses unapologetically, as if they are an unavoidable way of managing any sewage system."

In October 2013, a report to the city's executive committee revealed Toronto Water was facing a $10-billion funding shortfall over the next 10 years.

Of 12 cities rated by Ecojustice in 2013 for its annual review of sewage systems, Toronto was in the bottom three. Only London and Windsor fared worse. Toronto would have surpassed many other Ontario cities if it hadn't scored so poorly in the category of bypasses.

The ministry acknowledges bypasses are a necessity "during significant wet weather events" but a bypass only warrants a charge under the province's Environmental Bill of Rights if caused by non-natural causes, like human or mechanical error. The ministry did not charge the city for the July 2013 bypasses.

LOW's request is now in front of Ontario Environment Minister Glen Murray. He has 60 days to respond officially, however in a statement to the Toronto Sun last week he wrote: "I feel that the public has the right to know when bypasses occur."

@ek_hudson