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Cesspool Ontario Issues Drinking Water Alerts
Boil-water warnings in 48 towns as Dirty Harris Water Problelms Continue As We Previously Reported In Our Own Exclusive Boil-water orders
highlighted in Ontario
By SUSAN BOURETTE and
RICHARD MACKIE
The Globe and Mail
Toronto — Residents of at least 48
Ontario communities have been told to
boil their water in recent weeks because
it is unsafe to drink, according to
documents released yesterday by the
Environment Ministry.
Schools, subdivisions, trailer parks,
cottages and private wells have been hit
with the advisories after their water
supplies were found to be contaminated
and a risk to public health.
The documents show another 113
incidents of questionable water reported
to the ministry. In some cases, testing is
continuing; in many others, follow-up
tests showed there was no health risk.
Northern Development Minister Tim
Hudak said the government is not
satisfied with the high level of risk in the
province's drinking-water supplies.
"If somebody doesn't have access to
drinking water, to clean drinking water, I
think it's important for the government to
work with our partners to ensure that we
minimize and reduce that level," he said.
Of the 48 recently issued boil-water
advisories, 40 continue.
Ontario Environment Commissioner
Gord Miller said the number of
boil-water advisories is too high.
"I wouldn't say it's a crisis, but I would
say the list is longer than it should be," he
said. "There's a lot of small issues [in the
report]. But those small issues are, of
course, big issues to individuals on those
water systems, and they're the kinds of
things that should be avoided."
Mr. Hudak promised that in future the
Environment Ministry will have a system
in place in which the public will be able
quickly to find out about problems with
water supplies received from provincial
and municipal officials.
Neither he nor the ministry could
provide details on when this system will
start or how it will work.
Environment Minister Dan Newman
promised on May 29 that the province
would have new regulations on water
quality within a couple of weeks. The
regulations have yet to be released.
The incidents revealed yesterday all
occurred in the two months following the
contamination of the water supply in
Walkerton by E. coli bacteria that left at
least seven people dead and 2,000 sick,
many of them seriously ill.
The ministry released the documents
yesterday in response to a story in The
Globe and Mail on Monday, reporting
on the existence of documents labelled
"privileged and confidential" that cited
problems with water supplies across
Ontario.
New Democratic Party environment
critic Marilyn Churley demanded that
Premier Mike Harris reconvene the
legislature to deal with the water crisis.
"We've got a government and a ministry
that are trying to hide from Walkerton,"
Ms. Churley said. "I'm at the point
where I believe we have a bit of a crisis
here in Ontario."
Liberal Party environment critic Jim
Bradley said the documents are
incomplete and reveal only some of the
threats to safe drinking water. "I didn't
see any mention of about 30
municipalities of some significant size that
don't have a water-filtration system," and
which rely on chlorine to kill bacteria.
Mr. Hudak said the government had
made a mistake in not releasing the
information on water contamination
before being pressured to do so.
"There may be many reasons why this
information was not released sooner.
The bottom line is that it should have
been," he told a news conference at
Queen's Park.
"Government doesn't collect test results
to sit on them. This information belongs
to the public. The government has a
responsibility to provide information to
the public that is accurate and
complete."
However, Mr. Hudak could not explain
why government spokespersons had
refused to comment on the documents
last week when questioned by The
Globe.
"I can't answer for the ministry in
particular on why a response was not
forthcoming," he said. "Any excuses I
provide are inexcusable."
Mr. Hudak was filling in for Mr.
Newman, who is on vacation with his
family in Northern Ontario.
Ms. Churley said the government's
decision to have Mr. Hudak at the news
conference instead of the Premier or Mr.
Newman "clearly indicates that they
don't have a clue what a serious situation
we're in."
She said the government would never
have released the report had portions of
it not been made public. "I believe that
they were dragged kicking and
screaming because of The Globe and
Mail story to release the information."
Mr. Bradley agreed. "It's quite obvious
that they weren't going to release it
today and for some period of time."
He stressed, "It's very hard [to compile
such documents] when you don't have
the staff any more. When you make a
decision to drastically cut funding and
staff ... you increase the risk, you
increase the vulnerability of the water
supply in the province."
Since the Progressive Conservatives
took power in 1995, the ministry's
budget has been cut by 40 per cent and
staff levels have been trimmed by 30 per
cent.
Listed among the communities with
boil-water advisories are the township of
Goderich, Simcoe County, Heyden
Peace Tree Woods near Sault Ste.
Marie, Courtice in Durham, and
Balmertown in Nothern Ontario, where
the cryptosporidium parasite has been
found in the drinking water.
The report also shows that a huge swath
of Northern Ontario west of Thunder
Bay is on a boil-water advisory owing to
the presence of the giardia parasite,
which causes stomach upsets and
diarrhea.
Globe & Mail
(7/20/2000)
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