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Municipal sewage
editAccording to Marq de Villiers in his 2003 non-fiction Water: The Fate of Our Most Precious Resource, until the 1970s approximately a third of Canadian municipalities dumped raw sewage into rivers with no waste-water treatment.[1]: 305 [2][3] By 2011, there was no national regulatory body for drinking water.[4] Water pollution by sewage is one of the main culprits involved in polluting drinking water.[5] By 2009, advocacy group Ecojustice estimated that raw sewage dumping in Canada represented approximately 200 billion litres a year.[6] By 2009, the Halifax Regional Municipality in Nova Scotia was still dumping human waste directly into the Halifax harbour.[6] Errors and inadequacies in sewage facilities resulted in 190 million liter raw sewage spill into the Ottawa River in 2004,[7] and the release of "partially treated sewage water into the Red River in Winnipeg, Manitoba in 2011.[8]
In October 2015, Montreal intentionally dumped eight billion litres of raw sewage from an same interceptor sewer in the St. Lawrence River, the city made international headlines.[9] It had been a common practice to dump sewage into the St. Lawrence prior to the 1980s.[9] Montreal dumped 10 billion litres of wastewater into St. Lawrence in the spring of 2003, 7.6 billion litres in the fall of 2003, and 770 million litres of untreated wastewater in the fall of 2005.[9] Heavy rains in Toronto has an older sewer systems that is overwhelmed often by heavy rains. The City is then forced to "bypass water-treatment plants and send raw sewage into Lake Ontario.[9] In July 2013, a flash flood resulted in a billion litres of sewage and storm water overflowed onto city streets flowing into Toronto's harbour.[9]
Halifax, Nova Scotia dumped raw sewage into the harbour prior to the construction of their new construction of their new wastewater treatment plant in 2008. There was some sewage discharged "unknowingly, when sewer lines were cut during construction".[9]
Winnipeg, Manitoba dumped approximately 185-million litres of raw sewage into "Winnipeg's rivers since 2004 due to the city's antiquated combined-sewer system".[9] The required massive upgrades to Winnipeg's sewage system would cost $4 billion.[9]
Since 1894, Victoria, British Columbia began dumping raw sewage into waters that flow towards Puget Sound, United States.[9] By 2015, the Victoria and Esquimalt region in British Columbia were dumping approximately 130-million litres of raw sewage every day into the Juan de Fuca Strait, which leads to the Pacific Ocean.[9] This practice ended by January 2021, with the completion of a new $775 million sewage McLoughlin Point Wastewater Treatment Plant in Esquimalt that can treat the "equivalent of 43 Olympic-sized pools of waste daily".[10]
Ground water pollution
editGroundwater contaminants point sources include municipal landfill sites, industrial waste disposal sites, "leaking gasoline storage tanks, leaking septic tanks, and accidental spills". Distributed, or non-point sources include "infiltration from farm land treated with pesticides and fertilizers".[11] Ground water pollution affects water supplies as the contaminants eventually reach rivers, lakes and oceans.[11]
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
deVilliers_2003was invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ "Harper Government Moves to Protect Canada's Water Quality". Environment Canada. Retrieved 29 October 2012.
- ^ "What is the Purpose of Drinking Water Quality Guidelines/Regulations?" (PDF). Safe Drinking Water Foundation. Archived from the original (PDF) on 6 October 2011. Retrieved 11 December 2011.
- ^ "What is the Purpose of Drinking Water Quality Guidelines/Regulations?" (PDF). Safe Drinking Water Foundation. Archived from the original (PDF) on 6 October 2011. Retrieved 11 December 2011.
- ^ Nakate, Shashank. "Sewage Water Pollution". Retrieved 24 October 2012.
- ^ a b MacQueen, Ken (30 April 2009). "Many cities still dump raw sewage". Macleans. Retrieved 29 October 2012.
- ^ Rennie, Steve (13 June 2010). "Millions of litres of pollutants dumped in cities: analysis". The Star. Retrieved 27 October 2012.
- ^ Owen, Bruce; Bartley Kives (25 October 2012). "City charged for putting partially treated sewage into Red River in 2011". Winnipeg Free Press. Retrieved 27 October 2012.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j "Montreal's sewage dump saga explained". CBC. 8 October 2015. Retrieved 30 March 2021.
- ^ Meissner, Dirk (9 January 2021). "Victoria no longer flushes raw sewage into ocean after area opens treatment plant". Canadian Press via CTV News. Retrieved 30 March 2021.
- ^ a b "Groundwater contamination". Government of Canada. Environment and Climate Change. 9 June 2017 [9 January 2007]. Retrieved 25 March 2021.