Wild Canadian Fish Party on Cocaine and Oxycodone

TAKE THIS SERIOUSLY FOLKS!

The blog title may seem frivolous to you folks, but our drinking water is next in line for these dangerous drugs leaching into our water. The three drugs mentioned are three of many abusive drugs.

The following article link to Munchies_ Food by VICE appeared in Drinking Water Canada’s newsletter,  ~ “Why Wild Canadian Fish Are on Cocaine and Oxycodone” by Alex Swerdloff July 27, 2015

   Bust out your rhinestone snuffboxes and hit up your favorite restroom, party people. It’s time to head up to Ontario’s Grand River. Cocaine, morphine, and oxycodone—among other drugs of abuse, as the scientists call them—apparently flow freely in the waters there.

That’s right. A study recently published in the journal Environmental Toxicology & Chemistry shows that way more fish have been getting their Tony Montana on than we previously believed.

The study, which comes out of McGill University’s Department of Chemical Engineering, focused on the Grand River Watershed in Southern Ontario. The research shows that water discharged from wastewater treatment plants in the area has low levels of the aforementioned drugs in it, which could affect marine life and contaminate local sources of drinking water.

Here’s the problem. Households and chemical plants discharge both figurative and literal crap into the river. A wastewater treatment plant is supposed to clean out most of these contaminants. And some distance downstream, the water then goes through an additional water treatment plant that cleans it further and prepares it for human consumption.

But the study showed that small quantities of drugs were found in the river water coming out of the water treatment plant, and their concentration did not decline with distance downstream from the plant. To make matters worse, the drugs were not removed completely during drinking water treatment.

In short, plants, fish and other living things in the river were swimming in water dosed with small amounts of recreational and prescription drugs. Screw Nemo—these fish seem to have more in common with Rick Ross!

But there could be a solution. Professor Viviane Yargeau, who was the lead author of the study, argues, “Improving our wastewater treatment processes can help clean up our drinking water.”

What’s new about this research is that the scientists found drugs in the water between the wastewater treatment plant and the drinking water treatment plant. Sure, the drinking water treatment plants got most of the drugs out of the water, but not all. Improvements upstream would keep the life aquatic—including plants, insects, and fish—from inadvertently indulging.

It seems to me, however, that the researchers forgot to ask one all-important question: How in the hell does a fish line up a rail without an opposable thumb?

Back to Professor Yargeau. She explains, “We believe that if improvements are made to wastewater treatment plants to protect the sources of drinking water, this will prove a more effective way of dealing with the problem in the long run—as this strategy would also protect the aquatic environment and all the plants, insects and fish that are found there.”

Next to come will be a five-year project to look into improving wastewater treatment to keep contaminants like cocaine out of Canada’s drinking water. But five years is a while away, so the fish will keep partying on in the meantime.

After all, even marine life deserves some booger sugar once in a while.

So folks now the choice is up to you ~ wait for the hammer to fall  ~ or be proactive and protect your family’s health right now.  We have great options for you as a water treatment system company.

Our RainSoft Reverse Osmosis Water system is exactly what you and I need right now.  Martin, owner of Eternally Pure Water Systems, Inc. explains how this system works to provide you with safe, delicious and refreshing drinking water.  Watch the video below (truly worth your while) and call us.  We’re here to solve all your water treatment problems.

Eternally Pure Water Systems, Inc.
 5450 Canotek Rd, 66-67
 Ottawa, Ontario  K1J 9G5
Tel – (613) 742-0058
Fax – (613) 742-4209
Hours: Mon. – Fri. 9:00  – 5:00 

Consumers Choice Gold Winners – 2006, 07, 08, 09, 10 
Web Site – www.rainsoftofottawa.com
Twitter – http://twitter.com/Rainsoftottawa  
Blog – https://rainsoftottawa.wordpress.com/
Facebook – http://on.fb.me/gVap5O
A+ Rating with BBB

Canadian humour ~ You’ll Love Our Winters! Ha! ha! Part II

The following is the youtube video, “Boston Blizzard 2015 #Snowlapse ” that I included in the first part of this blog.  

This winter, which is one for the records, many of our American friends to the south are also experiencing record breaking temperatures and snowfalls.  Hang in their folks ~ they tell us that there really is a spring season at the end of this long white tunnel!

Here in Ottawa the snow keeps coming (although thank goodness we’re faring much better than our fellow Canadians down east) and the frigid temperatures are still with us. Time again to snuggle up with your blankie and a warm cup of cocoa to enjoy the rest of these cartoon jokes…

  

Whoops! Still looks like I lied about spring
being at the end of the white tunnel!

Have a great weekend and try to get out to enjoy a winter activity or two with family and friends… 

Hope you’ll visit with us again next week.

Canada in need of a national water policy?

The following article, “Should Canada have a National Water Policy, by Stephen Braun, appeared in the July/Aug 2014 issue of watercanada.

Despite the best efforts of many people who care so much about our national water resources, Canada has no national water policy or strategy. 

Canada’s creeks, rivers, lakes, and groundwater are governed by a patchwork of laws and regulations, though they cross provincial or territorial boundaries without restriction.
One thing is certain: coming up with a better definition of a national water policy is not going to make it spontaneously materialize. We have defined this issue well and have a good point of reference. What is required now is political will and recognition that such a policy is essential to Canada’s self-interest – and nothing less.
For example, the Canadian Water Resources Association took the issue on in 2008 with the release of Toward a Canadian National Water Strategy, authored by well-known water policy expert Rob de Loe. Yet implementation remains elusive on this subject despite this and other high profile efforts.
More recently, Ralph Pentland and Chris Wood’s 2013 book, Down the Drain: How We are Failing to Protect Our Water Resources, explained the unimplemented but ambitious 1987 Federal Water Policy,and that little progress has been seen since federally. Their arguments and facts that our water resources are an issue of national importance and cannot be left to the provinces are compelling. Pentland and Wood stated: “Legislation currently in force and Confederation’s founding documents empower Canada’s federal Crown to take robust action to defend water, waterways, and the life that inhabits them.”
Canada’s past approach to the contrary, the federal government absolutely does have the power to ensure our national water resources are kept healthy and sound. Canada
Canadians might believe this country is advanced in its environmental policy, but we are lagging behind other jurisdictions. Even Republican U.S. President Richard Nixon recognized the importance of a national water policy. He founded
the  Environmental Protection Agency  (EPA), which subsequently led to the Clean Water and Safe Drinking Water acts.  Nixon facilitated some pretty ambitious national water protection in a country not known for its love of federal regulation.
Canada’s more recent approach Of discontinuing environmental round-tables, restricting scientists from speaking publicly, and shuttering cottages on certain lakes might seem like the time isn’t ripe for a national water policy. Perhaps the time will never be right exactly, but as water professionals we must continue to advocate for it.
Desmond Tutu visited some of Canada’s northern watersheds this spring. His famous quote, “I am not an optimist, I am a prisoner of hope,” seemed to capture the mood up there. But he said something else.
If we apply this insight to a national water policy, it can be seen that the pillars of the bridge are largely in place. They are there as the result of excellent past work of many in this country and within other parts of the world. The reasonableness is in those pillars; it is up to us to build the rest of the bridge—hopefully with more magnanimity than realpolitik—but it must get built. 

 Stephen Braun is a principal
and water resources engineer
with GeoProcess Research
Associates.

He is a founding
partner of RainGrid Inc.

and is currently the Ontario branch president of
the Canadian Water Resources Association.

Related link

http://www.canadians.org/waterpolicy-info 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=er3pJzAmouw

Hayley Todesco, Calgary Alta, wins Stockholm Water Prize

Part 2 ~ “Hayley Todesco wins Google Science Fair”. Please see last Friday’s blog for Part 1 

~ The following article was posted on worldwaterweek.org, Sept. 3, 2014

VICTORIA HANDS ‘JUNIOR WATER PRIZE’ TO CANADIAN

Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden presented the v to Hayley Todesco from Canada for inventing a method that uses sand filters to treat oil contaminated water and recover water for reuse.The award ceremony Wednesday was part of the World Water Week in Stockholm.

The winning entry is a new application of an old water treatment technology that dates back to 1804.  Sand filters have traditionally been used to treat drinking water, however Hayley Todesco   used slow sand filters on contaminated water in oil sands tailing ponds instead… “This year’s winning project addresses a neglected but pressing environmental issue. The entry displays genuine outside the box thinking. Hundreds of hours of self-driven effort achieved a project that excelled in all judging criteria,” the Jury said in its citation. 

“I am shocked but so grateful. I got the idea of using sand filters from a pen pal in Namibia two years ago, and started testing them on wastewater in a tank at home. Now I have just started studying to become a microbiologist and I hope to spend a great deal of time in the lab to continue developing the method”, Hayley Todesco said.

About Stockholm Junior Water Prize

The competition is open to young people between the age of 15 and 20 who have conducted water-related projects at local, regional, national or global levels on topics of environmental, scientific, social and/or technological importance. The aim of the competition is to increase awareness, interest and knowledge of water and the environment. As of this year the board of SIWI has decided to increase the prize sum to the winners and also to institute a new prize. The international winner will from now on receive a USD 15,000 award and a prize sculpture, the winner’s school receives USD 5,000 (new category)…

Hayley Todesco wins Canadian Google Science Fair

Part 1 of  2,  Calgary’s Hayley Todesco wins Canadian Google Science Fair prize

The following excerpt is from, “Filters made from sand and bacteria clean toxic oilsands tailings 14 times faster” posted to CBC News, July 11, 2014, by Emily Chung.

A young woman from Calgary has invented a faster way to clean up toxic waste generated by oilsands extraction, using filters made from sand and bacteria. The new technology has made Hayley Todesco, 18, the Google Science Fair’s regional winner for Canada, Google announced in a news release this week…Todesco says that based on her research, her technique could break down toxic compounds found in oilsands tailings 14 times more quickly than letting them sit, stored in tailings ponds as they mainly are now.

“The significance of these results is the discovery of a sustainable way to decrease the detoxification of tailings ponds from centuries to decades,” she wrote in a summary posted on the Google Science Fair website.

Watch Hayley Todesco’s video about her project Tailings ponds occupied about 176 square kilometres in 2010 or roughly the area of B.C.’s Saltspring Island, according to the environmental think-tank the Pembina Institute. That area is expected to grow to 250 square kilometres by 2020…

Todesco said that having been born and raised in Alberta, she was very aware of this pollution problem. She was trying to think of a science fair project that would help solve it, when she thought back to a demonstration in her Grade 5 class. The class had been raising money to send filters to Africa for drinking water, and a guest speaker helped the students make some from pop bottles and sand. “We put muddy water in the top and it came out totally clean,” Todesco said. When she remembered that, she added, “That’s kind of when I had my eureka moment.”

A tailings pond reflects the Syncrude oilsands mine facility near Fort McMurray. Such ponds of toxic waste are expected to cover 250 square kilometres by 2020. (Jeff McIntosh/The Canadian Press)

Todesco was also interested in biology and bioreactors that use bacteria to break down waste, so she decided to make a bioreactor that incorporated sand, similar to devices invented to clean European sewage in the 19th century. Todesco wanted it to break down naphthenic acid, a major toxic component of oilsands tailings…Lisa Gieg, an assistant professor in biological sciences at the university, agreed to let Todesco work in her lab with the bacteria and tailings they had already collected. Because it was a biology lab, they didn’t have much in the way of supplies for building filters, but they did offer her some tubing…Todesco then began work designing the filters, using aquarium sand, empty IV bags, and other materials she picked up at hardware and dollar stores. Initially, to speed things up, she hooked her system up to a fountain pump from Home Depot, which promptly caused it to overflow…“A few months of work was basically ruined when I turned it on,” she said. “Building and engineering was definitely the hardest part.”

It took her seven months and about 120 tries with different designs to get a working system, which relied on gravity to pull oilsands tailings through sand topped with a film of bacteria in IV bags. In all, it took two years to complete the project, including the experiment and the analysis – she checked naphthenic acid levels in about 100 samples using the lab’s gas chromatograph. Each sample was prepared for analysis in an hour-long procedure that included several minutes of vigorous shaking…In addition to going into the lab for three or four hours after school, she spent her March Breaks there and also missed lots of her Grade 12 classes at Queen Elizabeth Junior Senior High School, which her teachers later allowed her to make up. So it was with much anticipation that she stayed up late to see if her efforts and labour would get recognized by the Google Science Fair regional judges. The regional winners were quietly disclosed online at 1 a.m. ET on June 26.

“I like freaked out and woke my sister up and it was great,” Todesco said. “This is really the height of my recognition for all the work that I’ve done.”

The global finalists will be announced Aug. 6, and will have a chance to compete for prizes including a $50,000 scholarship, a trip to the Virgin Galactic spaceport and a trip to the Galapagos Islands.

Hayley Todesco
Hayley Todesco, 18, has just finished Grade 12 at Queen Elizabeth Junior/Senior High School in Calgary. (Courtesy of Google)

Please see our followup blog next Friday ~ “Hayley Todesco, Calgary Alta, wins Stockholm Water Prize”

Snow – an untapped commodity in Canada

Waste Not, Want Not,
“Are Canadians turning a blind eye to the untapped potential of snow?” by Clark Kingsbury, assistant editor of WaterCanada.
IT IS NO SURPRISE that snow is cumbersome for cities. It must be removed from streets and disposed of as swiftly as possible, creating an organizational headache and a monetary burden. For example, the City of Montreal spent $120 million to remove 13 million cubic metres of snow in 2006.

Generally speaking, snow in Canadian cities is collected and dumped in a snow disposal facility (SDF), where it is left to melt over the course of the year. But alternatives where snow is treated as an untapped commodity rather than as an expensive nuisance are slowly being suggested both in Canada and abroad.
Patrick Evans is an architect and professor of environmental design at the Université de Québec à Montréal, as well as the author of the children’s book ‘Where the Snow Goes’. He believes that the snow Montreal receives can be used either as a source of energy, or as a “visible, celebratory, urban event.”  Evans traces his interest in snow removal and its possible re-use back to his first winter in Montreal in the 1990s.
“I think it was the sheer unadulterated awe of witnessing the late night winter choreography of snow removal in Montreal’s narrow urban streets,” he wrote in an email. “Even then, I was immediately struck by the question: where does the snow go?”
… Evans suggests that we take a more creative and useful approach to snow removal—an idea that has been gaining traction at different locations around the world.
In their study, Potential Utilization of City Owned Snow Disposal Facilities for Seasonal Cooling in Ottawa, Canada, Paul Cipcigan and Frederick Michel state that more than 100 seasonal storage systems exist in Japan and China, as well as a seasonal cooling project at the county hospital in Sundsvall, Sweden, part of Västernorrland County.
Prior to the year 2000, the 190,000 metre-squared hospital used a conventional cooling system to control the indoor climate and to ensure technical equipment didn’t overheat. However, a new cooling facility was eventually constructed at a nearby repository for snow cleared from area streets. Snow is stored in a sever-metre-deep bowl-shaped asphalt basin and is insulated with wood chips during the spring and summer to slow the melting process.
According to the Vasternorrland County Council’s website, meltwater is “pumped through the heat exchanger where the water cools the technical equipment as well as the ventilation air, which passes through the hospital.” The water warms through this process and is used to melt more snow on its way back through the system.
Efforts have been made to incorporate similar technologies in Canada. Cipcigan and Michel’s paper describes…
“The principle behind the seasonal storage of ice/snow technologies consists of utilizing the energy stored as latent heat in the phase change of water into ice during winter. The natural snow/ice collected during winter is then stored until summer when it is used as a sink for the heat removed during cooling of buildings or other industrial processes.”
“The heat transfer is done through a heat exchanger and the cooling agent can be either re-circulated or discharged after use. The most common cooling agents used are water, ice/snow meltwater, and air, which are more environmentally friendly than the ones used by the conventional chiller systems.”
Cipcigan and Michel’s study, conducted in the winter of 2008/2009, investigates the amount of potential cold energy available from the Conroy SDF in Ottawa. “The cold energy,” the report reads, “is the amount of heat that can be consumed or dissipated during cooling.”
The report determined that in the winter of 2008/2009, the Conroy SDF held around 500,000 cubic metres of snow, from which an estimated 30,430 MWh was available. The study goes on to assume a 30-per-cent loss of snow before temperatures would necessitate cooling, based on the experience at the Sundsvall hospital. Even after the snow loss, the facility would possess an estimated 21,300 MWh of available energy.
The report also presented energy use data from a city-owned office building with 39,000 square metres of floor space, which was cooled during the warmer months by a pair of rooftop chillers. The
average annual energy consumption of the two chillers from 2005 to 2009 was 512 MWh, costing $51,200 based on the cost of energy in 2009.
Comparing energy consumption figures at the office building and stored energy at the Conroy SDF, the report states that the volume of snow stored at the Conroy SDF “represents the equivalent cooling energy for over 40 buildings similar to the one analyzed, with a total floor space of approximately 1.6 million square metres and an estimated annual energy value of over $2 million.” The value was again based on energy prices in 2009.
“If all city SDFs were filled to capacity—approximately three million M3 – the energy potential after a 30 percent per season loss allowance represents roughly 130,000 MWh of cooling energy, currently worth an estimated $12.5 million annually,” the report continues.
Although the City of Ottawa, citing issues of cost and space for snow storage, decided not to pursue the exploitation of snow and ice for its cold energy potential, Cipcigan and Michel’s report, along with successful examples in Sweden and elsewhere, highlights the possibilities available to those cities lucky enough to exist in a northern climate.

Canada’s Water Utilities in Trouble

The following article, Making Bail – Helping Canada’s water utilities out of a bad spot, by Elizabeth Brubaker is from the Jan/Feb 2010 issue of Water Canada magazine.

Canada’s municipal utilities are in trouble, and it seems increasingly unlikely that the provinces will bail them out. Federal aid seems equally unlikely, given the finance minister’s warnings that there will be no major new spending initiatives in the 2010 budget. But our utilities need not despair. Although public money may be scarce, private investment and pricing reforms can provide sustainable solutions to the problems they face. (Important Update Note – 11/19/2013:  “…Where there’s a well, there’s a way  These are just a few illustrations of innovative financial solutions to meeting the need for safe water and sanitation. In 2014 businesses will partner with global non-governmental organizations, assessing water risk, scarcity and opportunity…” – taken from ” The Future of Water Sustainability ” – http://www.huffingtonpost.com/matt-damon/water-sustainability_b_4303872.html )

 Municipal residential drinking water systems face a number of challenges. Ontario’s Chief Drinking Water Inspector John Stager reports that 199 systems exceeded provincial limits for total coliforms or E.coli at least once during the 2007-08 year, and 94 did so on multiple occasions. As well, 83 systems exceeded provincial limits for lead, trihalomethanes, nitrates, or other chemicals at least once, and 67 did so on multiple occasions.
Stager also reports that Ontario Ministry of Environment inspectors found areas of non-compliance at 348 systems during the reporting year. They observed problems with the sizing, installation, and operation of equipment; they detected inadequate sampling and reporting; they identified problems with operations and maintenance manuals; and they found unacceptable flow rates.
For these or other reasons, consumers do not trust the water coming out of their taps. In March 2009, Ipsos Reid probed consumer confidence in the safety and quality of Canada’s drinking water. Just 20 per cent of the Ontarians polled were very confident, while another 57 per cent were somewhat confident. The pollster also asked consumers about the source of the water they typically drink at home, and only 34 per cent of Ontarians replied that they drink water directly from the tap. The majority (63 per cent) filter their water or drink bottled water.
Meeting provincial and consumer water quality expectations is by no means the only challenge for water providers. The Residential and Civil Construction Alliance of Ontario estimates that the province is losing at least 327 million cubic metres of treated water a year. These losses cost ratepayers an estimated $700 million annually.
  Wastewater systems are also in disrepair. In 2008, 102 sewage facilities violated provincial standards or their certificates of approval. Some of Canada’s biggest cities—Toronto, Ottawa, Hamilton, London—failed to comply with the rules. And some communities failed again and again. Brockville
had 19 exceedances, Sarnia had 23, and Waterloo had 17. Under the Canada-wide Strategy for the Management of Municipal Wastewater Effluent approved by the Canadian Council of Ministers of the Environment last February, poorly performing wastewater utilities will soon face new regulatory requirements.
Fixing these and other problems will cost billions, as will expanding the systems to meet new demand. Even if billions were available in the form of provincial and/or federal grants, municipalities would be wise to forgo them. Grants and other subsidies create perverse incentives. According to the Ontario Water Works Association and the Ontario Municipal Water Association, subsidies are counterproductive, rewarding those who neglect their infrastructure and punishing those who operate effectively.

They also cause delays—municipalities put off making essential improvements, hoping that free money might someday flow in to pay for them. When and if the free money does come, it encourages overbuilding. Grants have resulted in serious overcapacity. In 1996, 44 per cent of the capacity in place was excess to Ontario’s needs. That represented more than $25 billion in premature—in some cases, unnecessary—spending. It also gave many municipalities systems that were needlessly costly to run.
 Grants also allow municipalities to under-price water. Cheap water deprives consumers of the incentives they need to conserve. It encourages waste and requires unnecessary capacity.

Private capital offers municipalities an attractive alternative to grants. Increasingly, investors such as the Canada Pension Plan and the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan want to put their money into water utilities, which offer steady, predictable, reliable revenue streams. According to Mira Shenker, editor of ReNew Canada magazine, “This is a sector that’s about to explode onto the marketplace.” Additionally, private dollars free up public funds for other purposes and transfer financial risks. And private money tends to be used efficiently—it comes with its own due diligence, enabling municipalities to get more for less.
Despite considerable theoretical support for private investment, and years of promotion by government agencies and consultants, Canada’s water and wastewater utilities have little experience with private capital. For a better idea of the possible extent of private investment, we can look to England and Wales, which privatized their water and wastewater systems in 1989. Since then, the private owners have invested about £3 billion (over C$5 billion) a year.
Private investment is not a magic wand. The investment will have to be recovered, and water rates across Canada are notoriously low—some of the lowest in the developed world. Low rates starve municipalities of capital and operating funds. Ontario alone has an unpaid bill of $11 billion in upkeep and repairs. In 2003, water revenues met just 64 per cent of the costs of providing services.
For these reasons, at least seven provincial bodies have advocated pricing reforms since the early 1990s. The Water Strategy Expert Panel concluded that “consumers should pay the full cost of the services they consume,” and the Environmental Commissioner of Ontario advocates full-cost recovery because it will enable systems to achieve financial sustainability and self-sufficiency, and it will encourage water conservation.
Businesspeople are also supporting pricing reforms. Last year, the CD Howe Institute released a commentary by economist Steven Renzetti, who recommended universal metering, full cost accounting, and seasonal pricing to reflect marginal costs. Shortly afterwards, Compas polled CEOs and business leaders for their responses to Renzetti’s proposals. It reported that “immense majorities back universal use of water meters, full-cost accounting, and adequate revenue to allow full updating of equipment and processes.”
Environmentalists also support full-cost pricing. In August, a  coalition that included Ecojustice, Environmental Defence, Great Lakes United, and the Canadian Environmental Law Association issued a report urging the province to mandate meters and to encourage volume-based, full-cost pricing. The full-cost analysis, it added, should include source protection and water conservation.
Even consumers support higher prices. Nanos Research polled
Ontarians on the issue last spring, asking them how willing they would be to pay more for water if it improved the supply of clean water for Canadians and the environment. Nearly half (47 per cent) of the respondents were very or somewhat willing to pay more for water. Only 22 per cent were somewhat or very unwilling to pay more.
Despite this extraordinarily broad support, the provinces have waffled on pricing. In Ontario, the Sustainable Water and Sewage Systems Act, 2002, mandating provincially approved cost-recovery plans, has never been proclaimed. The more recent Financial Plans Regulation is but a weak substitute that, according to Environmental Commissioner Gord Miller, “is unlikely to push most municipal systems towards achieving financial sustainability.”
There is reason for optimism. In their recent paper on safeguarding Ontario’s water resources, the Ministers of Environment and Natural Resources noted strong stakeholder support for metering and conservation-based pricing. In listing possible actions for their water strategy, they included requiring municipalities to have a pricing structure that charges all users the full cost of providing water and wastewater services. Full-cost pricing may at last be on its way, setting our water and wastewater utilities on the path to sustainability. 
~ Elizabeth Brubaker is the executive director of Environment Probe.

One alarming example of bacteria levels in water exceeding the recommended level – Hamilton, Ontario
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/hamilton/news/alarming-bacteria-levels-in-major-hamilton-creek-1.1141484

Please feel free to call us with any concerns you may have about municipal or well water systems’ that may affect
you and your family’s health and well being:

Eternally Pure Water Systems, Inc.
5450 Canotek Road, Unit 66-67
Ottawa, Ontario
613-742-0058

Related links:

http://www.esemag.com/archive/0903/challenges.html

http://publications.gc.ca/Collection-R/LoPBdP/BP/bp333-e.htm

 

 

SUCCESS IN BATTLE WITH NESTLE OVER WATER RIGHTS!

“Battle with Nestle over water affects Pontiac” – Published in The LowDown Online, by William Amos and Carissa Wong November 27, 2013

Everyone needs water. Life exists because of it. In Canada, we expect water to be everywhere, accessible and clean. But the reality is that less than one per cent of the world’s freshwater is readily accessible for direct human use.

We also expect our governments to protect this resource and put a community’s need for drinking water ahead of a corporation’s desire to bottle and sell water for profit. But sometimes, governmental priorities get confused, as they did recently in Ontario.

Every day, Ontario permits Nestle Canada Inc. to take 1.13 million litres of water, which it then bottles and sells, from an aquifer in Wellington County near Guelph. Last year, the Ontario government — through the Ministry of the Environment (MOE) — renewed the permit on the condition that Nestle would take less water from the aquifer during serious droughts. But Nestle appealed these mandatory restrictions to the Ontario Environmental Review Tribunal, which has jurisdiction to determine disputes over groundwater permits. Then the MOE tried to cut a settlement deal with Nestle.

The deal would have allowed Nestle to avoid the mandatory drought restrictions. But in February, pro bono lawyers at Ecojustice challenged the deal on behalf of Wellington Water Watchers and Council of Canadians.

We filed a legal submission with the Ontario Environmental Review Tribunal, arguing that the proposed settlement was bad for the province and deserved closer scrutiny. Last month, the Tribunal agreed with our clients. It concluded that the proposed settlement deal was not in the public interest and was inconsistent with the Ontario Water Resources Act. The Tribunal ordered a full hearing so that the appropriateness of the drought-based restrictions could be thoroughly examined.  But recently, as a result of the Tribunal’s decision to order a hearing, Nestle withdrew its appeal of the mandatory drought restrictions. The deal is dead.

So Nestle must comply with the original permit conditions, reducing the amount of groundwater it takes from Wellington County during drought. Because these non-profit community groups took action, Nestle must leave more water for other users (in dry times) and the government must ensure they live up to that promise.       

Federal, provincial and municipal governments are each responsible, to the extent of their jurisdictions, for managing groundwater resources. But that’s not always what happens. Sometimes well-organized, dedicated members of the public must use the legal system to hold government accountable.

Our watersheds are vulnerable when governments roll out the red carpet for private companies who bristle at mandatory restrictions on their water takings.

In this case, the MOE had it right in the first place — drought-based restrictions should be applied to all future water takings for bottle water enterprises. All Ontarians, not just those who drink water from a well, need to be protected against those who would cut deals that limit the government’s ability to safeguard our shared water supplies. The same approach should apply in Quebec.

The example from Wellington County resonates throughout Canada. It hits home to those of us living in the Pontiac who depend on well-water for our basic needs. When making decisions about the water that sustains our communities, the government’s job is to put the greater public interest first.

Ed. note: William Amos is a Chelsea resident and is the Director of the Ecojustice Environmental Law Clinic at the University of Ottawa. Carissa Wong is an articling student at Ecojustice.

The following are my thoughts and not part of this article:
I would think that the province of B.C. should be taking a very close look at this  outcome for many like Sheila Muxlow, pictured outside Nestle’s bottling plant near Hope, B.C. on Aug. 12, 2013, who have concerns about Nestle withdrawing millions of litres of water without payment.  According to the provincial Ministry of Environment, “B.C. is the only jurisdiction in Canada that doesn’t regulate groundwater use.”

http://www.lowdownonline.com/battle-with-nestle-over-water-affects-pontiac/

Interesting related link ~

https://www.foodandwaterwatch.org/blog_categories/bottled-water/blogs/

CHLORINATED WATER ~ PESTICIDES ~ FOOD ALLERGIES ~ LINKED

Excerpts from, “Chlorinated water, pesticides linked to food allergies”, Friday, April 19, 2013 by David Gutierrez:

A chemical used in pesticides, antibacterial soap and water chlorination increases people’s risk of developing food allergies, according to a study conducted by researchers from the American College of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology (ACAAI) and published in the college’s journal, Annals of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology.

“Our research shows that high levels of dichlorophenol-containing pesticides can possibly weaken food tolerance in some people, causing food allergy,” lead researcher Elina Jerschow said. “This chemical is commonly found in pesticides used by farmers and consumer insect and weed control products, as well as tap water.”

Approximately 15 million people suffer from food allergies in the United States alone. The number increased 18 percent between 1997 and 2007.  “Previous studies have shown that both food allergies and environmental pollution are increasing in the United States,” Jerschow said. “The results of our study suggest these two trends might be linked, and that increased use of pesticides and other chemicals is associated with a higher prevalence of food allergies.”
The most common food allergies are to eggs, fish, milk, peanuts, shellfish, soy, tree nuts and wheat. Reactions can range between mild (such as rashes or tingling in the mouth), moderate (such as hives, asthma or gastrointestinal problems) or extreme (such as anaphylaxis, which affects the whole body and includes a potentially life-threatening swelling of the throat and tongue). For that reason, ACAAI advises people who suffer from food allergies to carry two doses of prescription epinephrine with them at all times.

80 percent increased risk

The researchers examined data on 10,348 people who had participated in a U.S. National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. Of 2,211 people who had detectable urine levels of the chemicals known as dichlorophenols, 411 suffered from at least one food allergy and 1,016 from at least one environmental allergy. The rate of food allergies among participants with high urine levels of dichlorophenols was 80 percent higher than in the general population.

The findings point to the need for more research into the health and environmental effects of pesticides, said Kenneth Spaeth of North Shore University Hospital in Manhasset, N.Y., who was not involved in the study.

“The immune system begins developing in fetuses and continues its development through childhood,” he said. “Therefore, it is plausible that exposure to these pesticides during this development could alter the immune system in ways that could increase the risk of allergies.”

Avoiding chlorinated water could help reduce dichlorophenol exposure, but Jerschow warns that pesticides are probably a much more significant source. Therefore, he recommends eating fruits and vegetables that have been exposed to fewer chemicals.

Antibacterial products (such as soaps, toothpastes and cosmetics) containing the chemical triclosan are another significant source of dichlorophenol exposure for many people. Triclosan often breaks down into dichlorophenol.

The study is not the first to link chlorine chemicals to allergies. A 2010 study in the European Respiratory Journal found that exposure to chlorinated pools significantly increased children’s risk of respiratory allergies.

If you have concerns about your family’s exposure to chlorine,  other harmful chemicals, parmaceuticals, pesticides and herbicides that are present in your water, you would be wise to consider installing a Rainsoft Reverse Osmosis system. Not only will you enjoy the benefit of pure natural tasting water, but you will stop worrying about your family’s health.

Eternally Pure Water Systems Inc.
5450 Canotek Road, Unit 67
Ottawa, ON K1J 9G5
Phone: (613) 742-0058
Mon. – Fri. 9:00 – 5:00
http://www.naturalnews.com/039986_chlorine_food_allergies_pesticides.html

Sources:

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/12/121203081621.htm
http://www.cbsnews.com
http://www.dailymail.co.uk
http://www.naturalnews.com/028928_swimming_pools_chlorine.html

Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/039986_chlorine_food_allergies_pesticides.html#ixzz2RDeqonbX

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