From tragedy to training | Farmtario
The Walkerton Water Crisis led to an overhaul of source water protection in Canada.
Prior to the crisis, which resulted in the deaths of at least seven people, water monitoring focused on ecological aspects rather than the protection of drinking water against contamination.
Why It Matters: The Walkerton Water Crisis put a lens on the importance of protecting drinking water.
The Ontario Clean Water Act of 2006 ushered in a new era of source water management and required those responsible for protecting drinking water to have practical, ongoing training to ensure compliance with the Act’s guidelines.
Today, much of that training begins at the Walkerton Clean Water Centre, situated in an industrial park on the outskirts of the community not far from the site of the crisis’s epicentre.
The glass-clad building embodies enhanced transparency in water protection. Inside the facility, water treatment employees from across the province refine their skills and learn about the latest innovations in water source protection through hands-on training.
Facility CEO Brian Bates has dedicated most of his career to improving water quality for communities worldwide. At the WCWC, he advocates for the most advanced skills and resources available to municipalities.
Reflecting on the past, he noted that numerous factors led to the Walkerton water crisis, and facilities like the WCWC help ensure it doesn’t happen again.
“High-level operators falsified documents saying chlorine was getting where it wasn’t; the training wasn’t there,” explained Bates. “They didn’t really understand how to fix the pump and the importance of chlorine.”
Combine this with flash rains, run-off from fields, substandard operational conditions and a poorly located well that should have been taken offline years ago — it’s a recipe for disaster, Bates said.
He added the WCWC is designed to help communities be proactive and reactive through preventative maintenance and effective safeguards, ensuring that a similar trifecta isn’t repeated. The facility is also open to the public to improve understanding of local and residential source water protection.
The facility’s training stations are designed to offer hands-on experience and reflect current water source protection protocols, allowing operators to learn how machines operate and about new technological advancements.
“We teach everything from regulations and what they are required to do as an operator to the day-to-day skills to ensure that the water plant is functioning in its most effective capacity,” Bates said.
Since the Walkerton water crisis, he said training has been “amplified,” adding that there are more regulatory requirements around education credits.
“We also have a helpline that the public phones if they have questions about drinking water, whether it’s a private well or something concerning their city water,” Bates said.
Mobile information has become a key component of the facility’s learning resources, with the recent pilot of an education program that brings the facility to remote locations.
“For small communities, First Nations communities take us up a lot on this. We take a scaled-down version of the technology to their site to show them what can work to treat whatever their contaminants are,” he said.
“The centre then does the necessary research and puts together the right mobile equipment to effectively treat the issue. We run it, sample it, and at the end provide a report that they would supply to the town or community’s engineer.”
The findings are used to improve or design facilities to provide better water treatment.
The WCWC team also plays an active role in educating private well owners. Bates said the program was born out of the repercussions of farmland runoff contamination, but many rural area newcomers are unprepared for the responsibilities of private well ownership.
“Unfortunately, private wells are not regulated,” he said, noting that public health monitors them but encourages homeowners and municipal operators to advise private well homeowners to conduct sample tests. He added that, although the centre and municipalities are not directly involved in monitoring private wells, his team is developing resources for the public to ensure that testing is being conducted.
“We are looking at developing something that I think would be beneficial to a lot of people that just take it for granted that you turn on the tap and there is water there,” he said.
Bates said WCWC develops new courses on an ongoing basis to stay ahead of new source water protection technology and innovation.
“Any time we see a change in the industry or a change in technology, or even the Ministry of the Environment or Conservation — if they start seeing recurring issues, they inform us, and we’ll develop a course,” he said.
A brewing storm
Source water protection remains an ongoing challenge for many communities, particularly in light of climate change. In recent years, Bates recalled violent storms creating runoff challenges, which will be amplified as the impacts of climate change become more pronounced.
“Whenever a violent storm happens, it changes the characteristics of your surface water,” he said. “There is technology coming that helps predict some of that, but it’s not quite mature yet.”
Bates said higher water temperatures have led to more algae events, increasing the risk of released toxins in the water. As a result, the centre offers more community resources to mitigate risk and treat outbreaks.
Additionally, he said, more communities are impacted by microplastics that cannot break down in the soil. Instead, they migrate through the ground and groundwater.
Similar to other Canadian industries, the number of workers retiring outpaces those entering the workforce, resulting in a shortage of operators and posing a significant challenge for communities striving to stay ahead of source water protection. Coupled with record population growth, it strains municipal plants.
“This growth is certainly putting more stress on municipal plants, either through trying to get more water through existing plants or building new plants and getting new operators,” he said.
“It’s testing the limits of technology.”
Moving forward, people must understand that facilities like the WCWC serve more than operators, Bates said, noting that the public has the right to ask questions and be informed.
“We underpay for water in Ontario; we certainly underpay for water. You think about buying bottled water — how much that costs per litre versus what’s coming out of your tap,” he said. “We only get better through awareness and education.”
“I also feel informed people are more likely to vote yes to water infrastructure improvements.”
Source: Farmtario.com