Ontario's descent from acclaim to disdain in a single decade

Editorial Comment by Tom Davey

There was a time when Ontario's environmental record was a matter of international acclaim, a time when world-renowned scientists were repeatedly impressed that a single Canadian province had a more modern environmental infrastructure in place than many countries. Hard to believe, but true.

I recall giving a paper at a 1982 World Health Organization Conference in Rome, where I presented data on Ontario's treatment facilities. Scientists from universities around the world were amazed that Ontario, some 20 years earlier, had 98 percent of its urban communities serviced by modern drinking water systems and 95 percent served by treatment plants. By 1980, 220 Ontario wastewater plants had phosphorous removal facilities which removed 7,000 tonnes annually. By 1982, there were 360 publicly-owned wastewater treatment plants, most with secondary treatment, many with nutrient removal facilities. Data like these impressed the conference. But then they were experts, accustomed to the realities of the environmental sciences.

A $1.1 million water and storm sewer replacement program now underway on Yonge Street in Aurora, Ontario. The storm sewer replacement will use 375 mm Centennial Concrete pipe and manholes. A 300 mm diameter Ipex PVC water pipe is replacing a 45 year-old, six inch cast iron water main. Canada needs $65 billion simply to uphold our present infrastructure needs. There are not enough projects like this to keep up our infrastructure standards. Photo - Tom Davey.

This was at a time when Japan's electronics industry and robotics held the world in awe, yet Tokyo still used a fleet of "honey" boats to dump raw sewage into the sea. The poetic euphemism did not mask either the facts, or the olfactory evidence, that parts of Tokyo lacked even primary sewage treatment facilities. Japan was not alone. Many other countries ­ including Canada ­ had cities which dumped sewage into rivers or oceans. But during this time, the Ontario record was exemplary with its potable water and wastewater treatment facilities. Ontario lagged somewhat, in addressing its serious industrial waste problems but began to address this with the MISA1 program around 1988.

But Ontario had always been blessed with outstandingly prescient engineers. Thomas Coltrin and Samuel Keefer, for example, half brothers born in Thorold, Ontario, designed urban water systems over a period spanning several decades in the 1800s. In 1887, Thomas was elected the first President of the Canadian Society of Civil Engineers which had been formed in Montreal two years earlier. In 1888, his brother Samuel was elected to the same high position. Thomas, highly regarded in the United States, was elected President of the American Society of Civil Engineers in 1888, the first Canadian to be so honoured.

Samuel Keefer had worked on the first Welland Canal which the Duke of Wellington wanted for both defence and transportation. The Duke had shares in the Canal which he sold and established a bursary for University of Toronto students which was still in existence as late as 1985.

Then there was Willis Chipman, arguably Canada's first consulting engineer, like many other top engineers of that era, a pioneer in the surveying profession. Educated in Weston, Ontario, Chipman could trace his ancestry back to William the Conqueror. He graduated from McGill in Montreal with top honours in both civil and mechanical engineering. He then went on to earn surveying commissions across Canada. His work earned him a Canada-wide reputation for both his water and wastewater treatment plants and he was a prolific author of articles in technical magazines. He was a founding member of the Association of Ontario Land Surveyors, later serving as its President. He also was one of the most active members of the committee, leading to the drafting of the Bill which led to the creation of what is now Professional Engineers of Ontario. When he died in 1929, he was interred in Brockville with his Iron Ring, denoting the calling of an engineer.

The building of Ontario's modern environmental infrastructure was laid on the solid foundations of an environmental engineering discipline which began in the mid 1800s when Ontario was rife with typhoid and other lethal water borne diseases. The story takes a surprising twist involving President Eisenhower at a dinner with Governor General Vincent Massey and Ontario Premier Leslie Frost. It is is said that President Eisenhower told the Premier that pure water was one of Canada's greatest assets; that he should take care of the unspoiled lakes and rivers under his jurisdiction. Legend has it that the Premier was later moved to create the Ontario Water Resources Commission, which was given Royal Assent on March 28, 19562.

Luckily for Ontario, the right man was ready to take this challenging position ­ Dr. Albert Edward Berry, P.Eng., a founding member of Professional Engineers of Ontario. Born on a farm near St. Marys, Ontario in 1894, Dr. Berry was appointed OWRC General Manager and Chief Engineer. He was, and is still, the only person ever to have been elected President of the American Water Works Association and the Water Environment Federation.

His prodigious energies created a symbiosis of private sector consultants and contractors with his new agency. The OWRC quickly launched Ontario on an unprecedented spate of water and wastewater treatment projects in a province which was and still is growing at a rapid rate. Dr. Berry received many awards and honours from the United States and Canada before gaining the Order of Canada. He died at the age of 90 in London, Ontario. Although his research and work on chlorination of effluents, and the pasteurization of milk, probably saved millions of children, he and his wife never had children. The OWRC ended after a Department of Environment was established in 1971, followed by the Ministry of the Environment being established April 1, 1972.

How now are the mighty fallen. Ontario, which had seized the environmental initiatives decades before Greenpeace and Pollution Probe, is now being castigated for its lax standards and poor enforcement of regulatory standards. MISA, which could have been Part II of the Ontario success story, became an emaciated acronym through lax enforcement; indeed, the government never did get around to finishing the municipal monitoring part of the MISA program and the industrial sector went into a bout of enforcement anorexia.

Once world-renowned for its substantial and highly focussed environmental infrastructure, Ontario has become the target of contempt for its poor funding, lax standards, and widely perceived ministerial indifference. While new health threats emerge from parasites such as Cryptosporidium and Giardia, our sewers and water mains are crumbling. With some notable exceptions, replacement and rehabilitation programs lag far behind actual needs, yet water and wastewater treatment ­ once appropriately called sanitary engineering ­ is the keystone of any public health program. The Canadian Water & Wastewater Association estimates it will cost $65 billion simply to keep up with current infrastructure needs ­ not counting funding for the growing population increases which require large housing and industrial construction. The growth is rapidly becoming exponential.

In the mid fifties, the newly created Metro-Toronto had a mere 1.5 million population. In 1998, the new Mega City of Toronto has some three million, with newcomers still pouring into the area. In the '50s, Ontario faced the challenge of massive immigration with great confidence and vigour. The result was the envy of the world ­ the developed world at that. These days, if we rate any environmental envy, it could only emanate from the Third World.

Professional staff at the Ministry of the Environment has been gutted. The Canadian Environmental Law Association says: "By the end of 1997-98, the Ministry of Environment (MOE) budget will have been cut by almost $400 million." Monitoring of waterways is falling behind; so are approvals for new projects. Sometimes harrassed employees have their work interrupted by other projects, causing much needed environmental work to be delayed.

Smog warnings are becoming ever more common, reaching from Niagara Falls to the fabled Muskokas. Our water and sewer pipes are badly in need of rehabilitation. Hundreds of millions of litres of purified water leak from our mains, sometimes into leaky sewers which carry it back to be treated as sewage ­ a macabre and highly expensive form of recycling. While cuts to hospitals generate highly emotive headlines, pure drinking water is the most vital component of any public health program.

I stress that Canada needs to spend $65 billion on our water and wastewater infrastructure, simply to keep up with present needs, yet neglect of Ontario's environmental infrastructure is quite simply a disgrace. Ottawa, as well as the last three Ontario governments, have contributed to this decline. Some municipalities also are culpable.

As we approach the millennium, who is there to match the Keefer brothers, Willis Chipman, Dr. Albert Berry and the many other men and women who once made Ontario a synonym for environmental excellence?

¹Municipal/Industrial Strategy for Abatement.

²Recollections, an environmental history written by Tom Davey in 1985.