A panel of experts is pushing for a more comprehensive and localized approach to wastewater management as the list of potential pollutants flowing to the national sewage treatment plant continues to expand.
The team was supported by the Canadian environmental and climate change and the Canadian water network for 6-
Review pollutants in urban wastewater on a monthly basis and study how the community can address them.
A senior copy of the final report will be released on Tuesday at the annual Blue City conference and provided to StarMetro.
It outlines the main challenges faced by wastewater treatment facilities, which are responsible for the treatment of increasingly complex "chemical soups ".
Read more: untreated sewage has contaminated water across Canada, and over the years Canada has made significant progress in wastewater treatment, which the report calls "important success in protecting human health and the environment"
"The European Union and the United States have beenS.
According to the report, wastewater standards are stricter than those in Canada.
Canada strengthened its requirements as of 2012, but some communities did not make them until 2040.
"We are already behind and we have to start catching up and getting back on track," said Don mavinich, chair of the group and professor of civil engineering at Columbia University in the UK.
Maavanic said that the treatment plant originally developed for the treatment of organic waste was "just to keep its own" and worked to keep up with the growing
More and more new chemicals may pose a threat to human and environmental health.
Environment Canada, which provides $400,000 for the work of the panel, looks forward to reviewing the panel's findings, said Caroline cerrio, spokesman for federal Environment Minister Catherine McKenna, in a statement
"Canadians rely on our waterways to swim, drink and fish: water is critical to our health, our environment and our economy," she said . " The government is committed to protecting fresh water, she added.
While treatment plants reduce many health risks, concerns related to pathogens, viruses, parasites and bacteria --
Including concerns like salmonella and parasitesremain.
Other risks come from chemicals such as mercury, which accumulates and pollutes fish in the environment, as well as new contaminants that may expose people and wildlife to antibiotics
Resistant organisms
Mark Servos said that traditionally, treatment plants focus on organic waste and nutrients, sometimes leading to excessive growth of algae, "choking oxygen in rivers and causing all deaths downstream ", member of the water quality protection team at the University of Waterloo and chairman of Canadian Studies.
In the past few decades, other chemicals have washed down the toilet or washed down the sink.
Including medicines and skincare products
'I got more attention,' he said.
But every year there are new contaminants that can threaten the environment and human health, and sewage treatment plants and regulators are trying to keep up.
In addition to Canada's current approach to regulating individual contaminants, the panel concluded that there was a need to strengthen environmental monitoring and to adopt a flexible approach that would allow the system to adapt to new threats.
Existing regulations should be considered as minimum.
"Each processing plant is unique and each processing plant is discharged into a unique environment," said Servos . ".
"They need to meet the environmental standards you are trying to protect.
This will require a holistic and localized approach.
In some cases, it will need to upgrade the treatment plant or separate the sewer system to solve the problem of the overflow of untreated wastewater.
But "not everything can be addressed through the wastewater treatment system itself," said Theresa maclenhan, executive director of the Canadian Environmental Law Association and one of the panel members.
The report calls for a comprehensive approach to wastewater management with the aim of preventing pollutants from flowing into the basin first --
A substance such as chlorine San, a substance used to resist
Bacterial products such as mouthwash and micro-plastic are difficult to handle and have potential risks.
Micro plastic is small particles, beads and fibers with a diameter of less than 5mm.
Many of them come from beauty products and cleaning supplies. even clothing —
When the consumer flushes the water into the sewer, the water enters the water body.
For these types of products, "we should focus on source code management," added McClenaghan . ".
"Maybe it's a chemical that shouldn't even be used in business.
When the product was launched, no one expected it to have problems in the environment.
"The federal government banned the production and import of beauty products containing beads this year, but the fibers in washed polyester clothing still flow into the water body.
A recent study mentioned in the report shows that a wool garment can release more than 100,000 microfibers during each wash.
When these plastics are eaten by marine organisms such as mussels, they accumulate in tissues and affect the immune system.
The risk of other potential contaminants is not known, so the panelists also called for enhanced environmental research and monitoring to ensure the accidental impact of new contaminants detected.
Without this kind of work, the risk of estrogen on fish in contraceptives may never be realized, Servos said.
He explained that estrogen, which eventually enters the waterway, can be "feminine" fish, prompting male fish to behave as females and spawn in the testicles.
Servos says the impact is observed in the environment and scientists are trying to find the situation.
Cecelia, a panelist and indigenous grandmother working with the Canadian Rivers Institute, said she was pleased with the call for a more holistic approach.
She says people need to know more about what they are flushing the toilet.
"Flush is really good.
"People like it because they can rinse it and forget it," she said . ".
But what they forget is that the water will flow to a treatment plant that may not have the capacity needed to remove all the contaminants.
The situation varies widely across Canada, from communities where there is no treatment at all to cities like Vancouver, where primary and secondary treatment is mixed --
According to Mavanic, there is still a lot of room for improvement.
Meanwhile, the report says Calgary is "positioning itself as an industry leader ".
At present, the city has collected data on 60 compounds, including flame retardant, hormones, medicines and commonly used cleaners.
The city has also partnered with the University of Calgary to invest, called "advance Canadian wastewater assets", to test the impact of new technologies and certain substances on the watershed.
More than 1.
2 million people snuggle in relative-
Little Bow Elbow River-
More living in downstream communities
Calgary's water quality supervisor, Nancy Tracker, said the city is more willing to be vigilant about its impact on the basin.
"This is a river that is heavily used," she said . ".
"We need to be very careful and very cautious.
The biggest challenge for Calgary, the tracker says, is to keep technology ahead.
Sometimes, what the law needs.
With the development of the city, new pollutants enter the waterway.
But new systems for managing these substances have also been under development, and cities must try new things in order to be ready when new situations arise.
"We are following all the rules," Stalker said . ".
"The unknown is what will happen next.
