Exploring Ontario small drinking water system data: A 10-year revie · 2017. 11. 18. · resources...

Exploring Ontario small

drinking water system data:

A 10-year review

Elaina MacIntyre, Public Health Ontario

Tony Amalfa, Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care

PublicHealthOntario.ca 2

An Opportunity for Public Health Leadership

"While it is not possible to utterly remove all risk

from a water system, the overall goal is to ensure

that Ontario's drinking water systems deliver

water with a level of risk so negligible that a

reasonable and informed person would feel safe

drinking the water."

Report of the Walkerton Inquiry:

Strategy for Safe Drinking Water, 2002

PublicHealthOntario.ca

What Happened in Walkerton – May 2000?

3

• Storm water infiltrated the municipal well resulting in pathogen contamination

• Adverse test results of the drinking water supply were not acted upon immediately,

and the community was exposed to

contaminated drinking water

• People began reporting illness on May 11th

• Local medical officer of health issued boil water advisory on May 21st

2,500 people

became ill

7 people died


Ontario Drinking Water Advisory Council

4

Recommendations

“After this careful review of the current Regulation (170/03) as it

applies to smaller, private systems, the Council has concluded the

problems with the Regulation cannot be remedied through

specific changes to the current Regulation.”

• Health units would evaluate risks at individual systems and develop a system-specific water protection plan to ensure

compliance with the drinking water quality standards.

• The Small Drinking Water Systems (SDWS) Program was implemented in 2008 and consisted of regulations, tools,

resources and training for public health inspectors and

operators


PHO/MOHLTC Project

5

• The Environmental & Occupational Health team at Public Health Ontario (PHO) is engaged in numerous

environmental health surveillance projects

• Many health units have asked us to include SDWS!

• Collaboration to review RCat (Risk Categorization Tool)• Objective: Identify how RCat could be used to support

environmental health surveillance

• Data was transferred to PHO summer 2017

• Technical report expected spring 2018


Preliminary description of data

6

• RCat data: ~400 questions divided into 8 sections• Premises• Unit • General • Source • Treatment • Distribution • Sampling requirements• Calculations

• Data extracted for all 36 health units

• Approximate date range: December 2008 - May 2017


7

Date range in RCat, by health unit

2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016


Number of SDWS, by health unit (1)

0

200

400

600

800

1000

1200H

KP

NW

R

NP

S

LGL

SM

D

GB

O

KF

L

HP

E

TH

B

PT

C

RE

N

SU

D

HD

N

EO

H

YR

K

DU

R

OT

T

ALG

WD

G

HA

L

HA

M

MS

L

HU

R

NIA

WA

T

OX

F

BR

N

PD

H

TS

K

PE

E

ELG

PQ

P

WE

C

LAM

CH

K

TO

R

Nu

mb

er

of

Sy

ste

ms

Health Unit

Total Count: 17,260


Southern Ontario

Number of small drinking water

systems as captured by ID number

Number of SDWS, by health unit (2)


SDWS premise types

11%

11%

33%5%

18%

4%

4%

14%

Restaurant

Other Premise Type

Public spaces (community

centres, place of worship, etc.)

Parks and Marinas

Campgrounds/Cottages/Cabins

Trailer park, migrant housing

Commercial & Airport

Hotel/Motel/Resort/B&Bs

N = 16,087


53%

30%

4%13%

Source Classification

Secure

Groundwater

Non-Secure

Groundwater

Non-Secure

Conditional

Groundwater

Surface water

n = 7,445*

53%

47%

Secure groundwater systems: Does

the system provide primary

disinfection?

Yes

No

n = 3,917

*Systems may report having more than one source (i.e.,

double-counted). There are 7,080 unique system IDs.

Source water classification & treatment


Total number of users across all systems

• Important variable for health surveillance

• Premises with a reported high number of users (>100,000):• Campgrounds• Golf courses• Restaurants• Recreational facilities

• Premises with a reported low number of users (


Mapping data for use in

surveillance


Telling a story with surveillance data

14

A campsite with 5 risk assessments:

Understanding the importance of source water:

• Additional improvements over time:• Record keeping • Qualifications of the owner/operator

2011 2012 2013 2015 2016

High Risk High Risk High Risk High Risk Low Risk

Surface

water

Non-secure

conditional

groundwater

Non-secure

conditional

groundwater

Non-secure

conditional

groundwater

Secure

groundwater

2011 2012 2013 2015 2016


Final risk category based on earliest risk assessment

0

200

400

600

800

1000

1200

ALG

BR

N

CH

K

HA

M

OT

T

DU

R

EO

H

ELG

GB

O

HD

N

HK

P

HA

L

HP

E

HU

R

KF

L

LAM

LGL

MS

L

NIA

NP

S

NW

R

OX

F

PD

H

PE

E

PQ

P

PT

C

RE

N

SM

D

SU

D

TH

B

TS

K

TO

R

WA

T

WD

G

WE

C

YR

K

Nu

mb

er

of

Sy

ste

ms

Low

Medium

High


Final risk category based on latest risk assessment

0

200

400

600

800

1000

1200

ALG

BR

N

CH

K

HA

M

OT

T

DU

R

EO

H

ELG

GB

O

HD

N

HK

P

HA

L

HP

E

HU

R

KF

L

LAM

LGL

MS

L

NIA

NP

S

NW

R

OX

F

PD

H

PE

E

PQ

P

PT

C

RE

N

SM

D

SU

D

TH

B

TS

K

TO

R

WA

T

WD

G

WE

C

YR

K

Nu

mb

er

of

Sy

ste

ms

Low

Medium

High


812

1110

1489

12801326

1115

891939

819

266

341

224

164165

145

129137

95

10

39

33

95 49

44

68

73

46

0

200

400

600

800

1000

1200

1400

1600

1800

2000

2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017*

Nu

mb

er

of

Ad

ve

rse

Wa

ter

Qu

ali

ty I

nci

de

nts

Year*

Number of SDWS Program Adverse Water Quality

Incidents, 2009-2017*

INORGANIC

ORGANIC

Others

MICROBIOLOGICAL

*2017 data up to Aug 31, 2017


Acknowledgements

18

• Public Health Ontario: Chantal Burnett, John Minnery, Rena Chung & Ray Copes

• Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care: Vanessa Robicheau, Cheryl Szikita

Thank you

We welcome your feedback on this project:

Elaina MacIntyre, 647-260-7506

[email protected]

Exploring Ontario small drinking water system data: A 10-year revie · 2017. 11. 18. · resources...

Documents

Transcript of Exploring Ontario small drinking water system data: A 10-year revie · 2017. 11. 18. · resources...