Water pollution in Canada
This is a long-term threat in Canada due to "population growth, economic development, climate change, and scarce fresh water supplies in certain parts of the country.
[5] While most Canadians have access to clean water, locally and regionally there are cases of "public beach closures, contaminated sediments, algal blooms, aquatic weed infestations, fish kills, shellfish harvesting closures, boil-water advisories, outbreaks of waterborne illnesses, and contaminated ground water", according to a 1998 report from British Columbia.
[9] By 1998, BC for example, reported that most "end of-pipe" point discharges from industrial and municipal outfalls" were generally regulated and controlled.
The major sources of NSP are urban and highway run off, the agricultural, forestry, and mining industries, marinas and boating activities.
The American Chemical Society reported in July 2020, that new forms of Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFOAs) were detected in the Arctic Ocean.
[15] According to Marq de Villiers in his 2003 non-fiction Water: The Fate of Our Most Precious Resource, until the 1970s approximately a third of Canadian municipalities dumped raw sewage into rivers with no waste-water treatment.
[23] In October 2015, Montreal intentionally dumped eight billion litres of raw sewage from an same interceptor sewer in the St. Lawrence River, the city made international headlines.
[24] In July 2013, a flash flood resulted in a billion litres of sewage and storm water overflowed onto city streets flowing into Toronto's harbour.
[24] Since 1894, Victoria, British Columbia began dumping raw sewage into waters that flow towards Puget Sound, United States.
[24] By 2015, the Victoria and Esquimalt region in British Columbia were dumping approximately 130-million litres of raw sewage every day into the Juan de Fuca Strait, which leads to the Pacific Ocean.
[24] This practice ended by January 2021, with the completion of a new $775 million sewage McLoughlin Point Wastewater Treatment Plant in Esquimalt that can treat the "equivalent of 43 Olympic-sized pools of waste daily".
[27] CBC's French-language service Radio-Canada reported that after heavy rainfall, Montreal's raw sewage mixes with rainwater and is allowed to flow directly into the St. Lawrence River and the Rivière des Prairies.
[31][30] According to a 2020 article in the journal Ambio, researchers have focused on the presence of "analytics compounds such as endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs) or pharmaceuticals" in our water systems.
The report noted that most Canadians in water-rich Canada—one of the world's wealthiest nations—have "access to sufficient, affordable, and safe drinking water and adequate sanitation."
[37] Human activities, including environmental disturbances in the Yamaska River basin, caused a deterioration in the quality of both surface and groundwater.
[38] On June 28, 2016, the City of Saint-Hyacinthe, Quebec dumped approximately 8,000 tonnes of raw sewage into the Yamaska River allegedly causing the deaths of thousands of fish.
Harris served from 1995 through 2002 whose program based on his "Common Sense Revolution" included privatization of water testing, deregulation and cuts to provincial services.
[39] During his time as premier the budget of the Ontario Department of the Environment was cut by 42% resulting in the layoffs of over 2000 staff members, including those involved in research, monitoring, enforcement, testing, and inspection.
[49] The oil sands tailings ponds are in close proximity to the river drastically which increases the likelihood of contamination due to ground water leakages.
It was revealed in 1997 that Suncor's tailing ponds had been leaking 1,600 cubic metres (57,000 cu ft) of toxic water into the Athabaska a day.
The Athabasca River is the largest freshwater delta in the world but concerns are raised about Suncor and Syncrude's leaking tail ponds.
[55] A 2010, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America article said that arsenic, cadmium, chromium, lead, mercury, nickel and other toxic metal elements enter the tributaries and rivers of the Athabasca from oil sands development.
From the 1970s to the 1990s, the province of Ontario worked to restore the Lakes by "cleaning up several highly polluted harbours, bays and waterfronts" and "dramatically reducing many toxic chemicals that were harming fish and wildlife.
"[60] Phosphate detergents were banned, sewage treatments were upgraded, more environmentally-friendly agricultural practices were adopted to "reduce nutrients entering the lake".
[62] Significant amendments made to the Agreement include "address[ing] aquatic invasive species, habitat degradation and the effects of climate change, and support continued work on existing threats to people's health and the environment in the Great Lakes Basin such as harmful algae, toxic chemicals, and discharges from other vessels".
