ENSC 201 Lecture Notes - Lecture 16: Improved Water Source, Veolia Water, Walkerton, Ontario
17 Aug 2016
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Document Summary
Total global supply of fresh water (precipitation) has been constant. Human use of fresh water has increased 6 fold. Not at global limit yet, but not distributed uniformly, have stress points. Increased water use also means increased discharge of wastewater back into fresh water feedback loop accelerates loss of water quality. Drinking water (potable: needs to be free of chemical and biological contaminants (toxic substances and pathogens) Currently growing suspicion that some general illnesses is water borne or water related (i. e stomach flu) Biological contamination still dominates: emerging concern that more illnesses in canada are waterborne than one though, will require significant changes to monitoring and treatment. Canada has best water resources in world: typically more than 1700 boil-orders across canada, additional ~90 boil-orders in first nations communities. Cause: agricultural runoff (manure) in faulty well, chlorinator broken, tested (takes 2 days), report ignored by water operator, contamination eventually reported from hospital.
