Science Plans to Build a Safer Well

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By Mike Pettapiece

Safe drinking water – one of the country’s most precious resources – remains a critical issue in Canada eight years after the Walkerton tragedy.

Even as construction nears on a new Walkerton Clean Water Centre and as headlines rage about poisoned supplies on First Nations reserves, sobering alarm bells continue to echo from the fatal mismanagement of 2000.

Bacteria-contaminated water claimed seven lives and left more than 2,000 ill in the Ontario town. The tragedy taught some clear lessons: we cannot ignore risks or take expedient shortcuts in providing safe water.

In Canada and abroad, the premium is on exacting standards in water education, in infrastructure, and in treatment technologies.

A joint university-government-industry partnership touting a water research centre of excellence hopes to turn first-class science and technology ideas into innovations to safeguard water supplies. The plan has gained approval of a panel of experts and hopes for a nod from the federal government.

According to Conservative government MP Mike Wallace – known for his affinity with water issues – the partnership plan “is an opportunity where we have the infrastructure in place (with) very little investment from the federal government”. An independent panel of national experts has endorsed the plan.

The backers hope to establish “a world-class initiative” dealing with water and sanitation issues. It would be built around the wastewater technology centre at Environment Canada’s laboratory at Hamilton Harbour in Ontario.

“This proposal aims to build upon Canada’s strengths in water and wastewater technology,” notes the strategy. The centre would focus on three themes: urban and rural water, water and health, and energy efficiencies in providing safe and adequate water provisions.

The partnership has an international flavour. Among the players is the United Nations University network on water, environment and health, based in Hamilton.

Other partners include McMaster University, University of Waterloo, University of Guelph, and the University of Ontario Institute of Technology. Besides Environment Canada, the proposal draws on the strengths of private-sector partners, such as GE-Zenon and IBM.

The McMaster-led collaborative cuts a large course, with an economic spin. It would exploit research and technology expertise within academic, government and private sector arenas. The hope is that the intellectual property treasure would speed uptake and transfer of new ideas to market, resulting in innovations in water and public health systems.

In contrast, the new Walkerton centre provides drinking water education, training, and support for operators of drinking water systems. It is also charged with demonstrating leading-edge water treatment technologies. Another entity on the water map is the Canadian Water Network, based in Waterloo, consisting of stakeholders from academia, the private sector, and government agencies.

The expertise behind the university-government partnership resides in such areas as:
•     hydrogeological engineering
•     microbial source tracking
•     nano-level modelling of sediment-particulate transport
•     development of biosensors to test for pathogens and changes in water environment
•     and detection of links between water quality and antibiotic resistance in environmental bacteria.

The partnership envisions a single IP policy and a stand-alone water and wastewater research and development facility, with its own management board. The centre would give partner companies “a significant advantage in the global water-management market.” It would build on a burgeoning water-technologies economic cluster within the Toronto-Waterloo-Hamilton triangle.

This proposal is also aimed at better energy efficiencies. They could include improved process monitoring and control strategies that would cut distribution costs and use of alternative energy sources, such as wind turbines.

The back story behind this plan is a move by Ottawa to transfer non-regulatory laboratories in Canada to other hands. An independent panel of experts reviewed several proposals for transfer. The panel cited five proposals, including the water research centre, as being “identified unanimously for recommendation as early candidates for transfer.”

While the centre would benefit water safety and handling in Canada, it would also put this expertise to good use in developing nations. Many countries badly need help in assuring safe potable water, in reclaiming lost lakes, and in desalinating seawater.

In Hamilton-Halton area, it’s almost post-ironic to say that there is substantial expertise in restoration efforts. That pool of knowledge has developed because of the damage to the watershed caused over several decades. If you poison the well, you must fix it.

For example, a once-glorious nature sanctuary called Coote’s Paradise (off Hamilton Harbour) has lingered in ill health. And the harbour itself has been designated one of more than 40 “areas of concern” within the Great Lakes system.

Randle Reef, a harbour hot spot, has been cited as having the highest levels of polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) on the Canadian side of the Great Lakes. PAHs are coal tars, highly toxic hydrocarbon compounds. The reef also has elevated concentrations of heavy metals such as iron and chromium.

But for some years now, remedial action plans have worked on the Coote’s marsh, on the harbour, and on the adjacent watershed.

Millions of dollars and exhaustive hours of work have gone into the rescue project. Environment Canada’s Roger Santiago calls the overall campaign “by far the project with the greatest amount of local stakeholders” in Canada.

The rescue work has included upgraded wastewater treatment plants and better sewage-overflow controls, reductions in metal-loading into the harbour, removal or capping of contaminated sediment, and improved development controls to lessen erosion runoff. Harbour work will go on for at least another decade.

But the costly rescue does have economic and social benefits. A York University study estimated the spinoffs, such as a new pier and greenspace, might reach $1 billion. And the remediation has fetched international notice. Santiago himself has spoken outside Canada about the restoration campaign.

“I think in some ways the example of the bay area restoration is an interesting story to share with people in developing nations,” says Zafar Adeel, head of the United Nation University’s network on water, environment and health, one of 14 arms of the UN’s education outreach. “. . . I think there’s very good potential for this whole area to be the hub of water research and training.”

Mike Pettapiece, a journalist for more than 30 years, most recently at the Toronto Star, writes and edits the newsletter for the Golden Horseshoe Biosciences Network, based at McMaster University in Hamilton.