A small, but prosperous town was virtually brought to a social and economic standstill by a tiny bacterium about two microns in size. Photo - Sue Ann Ellis, The Walkerton Herald-Times

The entire Canadian water treatment industry came under public scrutiny following an outbreak of E. coli 0157:H7 at Walkerton, Ontario, where several died and over 2,000 were made ill. This tiny, lethal bug was usually associated with poorly cooked hamburgers, but the tragic events in this small Ontario town brought national awareness and outrage that this could ever happen to Canadian drinking water.

In addition to the heartbreaking tragedy of children and the elderly being stricken, there are other factors which must be added to the pain, suffering and medical costs. A small, but prosperous town was virtually brought to a social and economic standstill by a tiny bacterium about two microns in size, while ironically, the biggest new growth industry in town was the news media.

Reporters and videographers seemed to propagate like bacteria in a petri dish as they thrust cameras and microphones at civic leaders, parents and relatives. The Mike Harris government was berated in the legislature for what was termed an unprecedented loss of life through drinking water.

The usual media suspects ­ budget cuts, private laboratory services, downsizing ­ were brought in for questioning. What I found interesting, is that chlorine ­ for many years the bête noire of environmental activists, was repeatedly cited as a paradigm for safe drinking water. While some media reports were thoughtful, scientific, accurate, and sensitive, patches of real ignorance were interwoven with fallacious conclusions and broadcast ad nauseum on the airwaves and in print.

Some genetic engineering in the world of semantics took place as the story unfolded. In both early print and TV reports, E. coli 0157:H7was correctly described as a lethal bacterium, but as the story grew, the bacterium was mysteriously transmuted into a lethal virus, sometimes in the same sentence.

A CBC presenter aggressively called for an increased federal government role to protect our water supplies. If the Federal Human Resources Minister could not easily find one billion dollars in her grants program, I have serious doubts if the feds could find a particular strain of E. coli some two microns in size.

Walkerton is not alone in its water problems. Other incidences of E. coli 0157:H7 are being investigated in various parts of Canada. Now we see engineers and biochemists from analytical laboratories in the forefront of news media reports, instead of the usual array of self-annointed environmentalists.

A more fundamental reason for some of our water problems could well be the reduced role of engineers and scientists in government bureaucracies. Flashback to the glory days of the Ontario Water Resources Commission (OWRC) in the mid 1950s, which later evolved into the Ontario Ministry of the Environment (MOE). For decades, the senior people in the OWRC and the subsequent MOE senior bureaucrats, generally had strong scientific and engineering backgrounds. Moreover, Dr. A. Berry, OWRC's first Chief Engineer, General Manager, and eminent scientist, encouraged many in his young team of engineers to obtain Master's degrees in various environmental disciplines. Their combined multi-disciplinary credentials and talents gave them both practical and scientific expertise in overseeing the design and operation of drinking water and wastewater treatment plants.

Some 10 years ago, the dominance of technical and scientific staff began to erode, as P.Engs, scientists, and chemists were being replaced by highly educated but non-technical people. The trend continued under David Peterson's Liberal governments, Bob Rae's NDP reign, as well as two Mike Harris PC governments. Over the past ten years, capital spending on sewage and water treatment started to decline. As a result, we now have a sewerage and water treatment infrastructure in dire need of massive infusions of capital. The underfunding is not just in Ontario, but in many parts of Canada.

Canadians do not know how well they have been served in the past nor how little they actually pay for both drinking water and wastewater treatment and distribution. While it is a common sight to see Canadians nursing their plastic water bottles costing as much as $2 for 200 mL (we in fact paid $3 per bottle at a sporting event recently), how many know how little they pay for their municipal drinking water treatment services by comparison? The average home in Ontario uses approximately 250 litres of treated water per person daily. Industrial use and mains leakage puts the per capita use far higher. While these are rough estimates, they give some idea of the enormous scale of the engineering required to obtain, treat, and deliver water to customers.

Take the Mega City as an example. Toronto has first-class water and wastewater treatment facilities and yes, these could be improved further if more investment were available. The Mega City has about 5,000 kilometres of water mains in a distribution system which takes treated water to consumers from its four treatment plants. Some 5,000 kilometres of sanitary sewers take care of the wastewater, plus another 5,000 kilometres of stormwater sewers.

A vast and complex array of massive pumps, valves, sophisticated instrumentation, tanks, controls, and other equipment, is needed to draw water from Lake Ontario, treat and pump it north as far as Richmond Hill, some 30 miles away, as well as to the east and west borders of Toronto. This water is tested regularly by highly-trained chemists and microbiologists.

The cost to consumers to treat and dispose of these enormous volumes of treated water is often just over $1.00 a cubic metre ­ a fraction of a penny per litre. To do all this at such low prices on a daily basis is an astounding engineering feat. A buck a cubic metre for a product probably cleaner than many foodstuffs.

'Dirt cheap' is the cliché for the lowest value imaginable yet. Try to buy 1,000 kilograms of anything for a dollar. You cannot get soil delivered to your home for this price. Yet drinking water ­ usually treated and delivered to medically accepted standards ­ is delivered in both sub zero and sub tropical temperatures with a regularity not matched by any other service. Canadian telephone services are extremely reliable ­ so are hydro services. But, Walkerton notwithstanding, nothing even remotely matches the safety and reliability of our water treatment facilities as demonstrated over many decades.

But the battle for water purity will never end. As bacteria, viruses, and parasites such as Giardia and Cryptosporidium are relentless opponents of human health, safe water demands constant vigilance by experts and adequate funding from governments.

High intensity livestock operations, as well as industrial run-off, are now seen as growing potential threats to groundwater purity in many parts of North America.

Although no linkage has been made between biosolids land application practices and the contamination of the Walkerton water supply, these practices along with manure handling and other agricultural practices will come under scrutiny as a result of this tragedy.

The Water Environment Association of Ontario Biosolids Committee is preparing a communication plan with the objective of ensuring that sound scientific information on biosolids land application practices are available to the media and to the public.

We urgently need watershed planning which takes into account the many factors involved in water treatment and distribution. We need engineering teams who have a multi-disciplinary approach to all facets of water treatment. We need to upgrade and monitor the training and skills of treatment plant operators. Finally, we need PUCs, councils, regions and other owners to become aware of the value of quality in all aspects of water treatment services and purchases.

The environmental industry has long been beset with the twin problems of protecting public health while catering to the low bid ethos. For consultants, manufacturers and laboratories, price has too often been the deciding factor. Yet the life cycle benefits of superior pumps, valves, and piping can last half a century, often more. Both in economics and treatment effectiveness, well designed environmental facilities can yield real savings for years. Amortize any savings from inferior engineering over a decade and savings, if any, are likely to be minuscule. Specify equipment on quality and you could get reliability as well as significant savings. Add innovative engineering and you could be saving millions, as well as protecting public health.

Copyright Tom Davey, all rights reserved.

Many of Tom Davey's editorials were compiled into a book For Whom The Polls Tell. Readers who purchase a one-year subscription of Environmental Science & Engineeringfor $46.15 (includes GST) or $45 US, can get a free copy of this book. Two-year subscriptions are: $74.90 Cdn. or $70 US. We regret we can only accept orders from Canada and the United States.