Water Supply and Sewage Infrastructure in Ontario, 1880–1990s: Legal and Institutional Aspects of Public Health and Environmental History
Walkerton Inquiry Commissioned Paper 1, Toronto, Ontario Ministry of the Attorney General (2002).
181 Pages Posted: 4 Jun 2013
Date Written: 2002
Abstract
Jamie Benidickson surveys the evolution of water supply and sewage treatment in Ontario from the late 1880s to the late 1990s. Dividing the period into historical segments, the author focuses on legislative and institutional development, provincial government activity, the growth of municipal infrastructure, international influences, and legal and enforcement considerations that resulted in Ontario’s water supply and sewage treatment arrangements at the end of the1990s.
The author describes and discusses key legislative initiatives and significant legal cases that influenced water delivery and sewage treatment in Ontario. In surveying the activity, the paper indicates attitudes and approaches to water and its uses, tracing the developing realization of the importance of maintaining a reliable supply of "pure and wholesome" water. This realization led to public health measures for water protection and, hence, government involvement, with the local level as the supplier of the water and the province as the responsible agent for supervising its distribution and protecting its quality.
Benidickson leads the reader through the development of boards of health, conservation organizations, and water management agencies, including the Pollution Control Board of Ontario and the Ontario Water Resources Commission, as well as federal (Canada Water Act) and international measures (Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement). In examining the instruments that protect our water and enable its distribution, and in outlining the activities – such as environmental court cases – that instigated those instruments, the author presents a context in which to understand the status quo of water supply and wastewater treatment in the Ontario of the early twenty-first century.
Keywords: history, historical, Ontario, Canada, Walkerton, water, water supply, sewage, treatment, health, government, local, province, infrastructure, Coli, contamination, law, legal, regulation, pollution, Pollution Control Board, Canada Water Act, Great Lakes, quality, environment, wastewater
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