Watermark > Winter 2001 > Features: Drinking Water Protection What’s going on? What’s going on?

Features

• Drinking Water Protection What’s going on? What’s going on?—By Rick Corbett, BCWWA President
• The Controversy Over Efficient Utilities.com: What Should Be Done? AWWA Director’s Report—By Dennis Mitchell, P Eng.
• Small Water Systems Course Roll-out Small Water Systems Course Roll-out An Unqualified Success
• Bottled Water: A Suitable Alternative?

Drinking Water Protection What’s going on? What’s going on?

By Rick Corbett, BCWWA President

Our Summer 2001 issue gave you a status report of the legislative changes implemented by the provincial government in April – well folks it’s all changed again. You will recall that the former government introduced Bill 20, the Drinking Water Protection Act in the spring legislature. This Act received Royal assent on April 11, 2001. The next day, the Amended Safe Water Drinking Water Regulations under the Health Act came into force.

In a press release on September 25, 2001, the government announced that it was reviewing both the Drinking Water Protection Act and the Amended Safe Water Drinking Regulations. In the case of the later legislation, the changes brought in by the NDP in April were rescinded, restoring the original regulations. The Honorable Joyce Murray, the Minister of Water, Land and Air Protection, indicated in the press release that “current legislation was passed in haste by the previous government. This review is needed to guarantee we have strong and effective protection for our drinking water resource.”

The Drinking Water Review Panel

In conjunction with the above announcement, Minister Murray and the Honorable Colin Hansen, Minister of Health Services, appointed an independent nine person review panel to provide recommendations on the completeness, effectiveness and efficiency of the Drinking Water Protection Act (DWPA). David Marshall, the Executive Director of the Fraser Basin Council, is the chair of the Panel. The other eight panel members represent public health, environmental, industry and local government interests. In addition to reviewing the DWPA, the Panel was charged with reviewing amendments to the Water Act for groundwater protection and recommending principles for developing and revising regulations, including the Safe Water Drinking Regulation.

The Panel solicited comments from British Columbians via an interactive survey on their Web site and by written submissions. The Panel was to submit an interim report to the government by November 30, 2001 and a final report by January 15, 2002.

WHAT IS BCWWA DOING?

Following the appointment of the new Liberal government in the late spring, a delegation from our Board met with Minister Joyce Murray and her senior staff. The discussion centered on the partnership role that BCWWA had played with the previous government and on our views on the direction of drinking water protection legislation. The meeting culminated with a request from the Minister to provide her with our comments on revision of the legislation. We complied with her request and submitted a 24-page document on July 16. This submission was narrowly focused on specific concerns with the Drinking Water Protection Act and the Safe Water Drinking Regulations.

With the announcement in September of the formal review of the legislation by the Drinking Water Review Panel, we again regrouped and set about to provide additional comments. A submission team was formed following an e-mail broadcast to the Board, Committees and members specifically interested in drinking water legislation. A core group of four prime authors was appointed, along with a review team of about 20 members.

Our tact on this submission was to provide a concise brief that dealt with the overall issue of drinking water protection. The main thrust of the report was to document why change was required, what do we see as the principles of drinking water supply and what specific directions do we recommend?

WHAT WE SAID

Our response was submitted to the DWRP on November 2, 2001. The key messages were:

Multi-Barrier Approach

A multi-barrier approach to drinking water quality management has been adopted by many regulatory agencies around in North America and elsewhere.

This approach is based on the fact that any one element of the drinking water supply system may be vulnerable to events that cause deterioration in water quality. By implementing a multi-barrier approach, redundancy is provided to ensure that failure of one component does not significantly increase the risk to the consumer.

Incorporating this principle will require that the regulatory approach include watershed management, groundwater protection, water treatment goals and design guidelines, operational guidelines and operator training / certification, cross-connection control regulation and system monitoring.

Water Use Efficiency

Water use efficiency is key to longterm sustainable and fiscal management of the water resource.

Water use efficiency starts with an integrated approach to watershed management, where water is considered a resource with drinking water consumers being only one of the stakeholders. It extends from there throughout the water system, from the water treatment plant design to the consumer.

Water use efficiency, in many utilities, will result in a deferral in the need to expand the system components and to develop additional supplies. As additional water treatment is implemented, water use efficiency will reduce not only the capital costs but also the long-term operating costs.

We believe that water use efficiency will ultimately be driven by market reality, once water utilities adopt full-cost accounting practices. Until this occurs, the government needs to encourage efficient water use approaches through legislative approaches, such as changes to the Plumbing Code to require water efficient fixtures. The government should also fund educational programs to educate water purveyors in sound water use planning and water use efficiency options.

Technical Flexibility and Innovation

The water treatment issues that we face in British Columbia are not unique. Other regulatory bodies in Canada and the United States are well ahead of our province in developing drinking water protection approaches. While we can learn from experience elsewhere, we also need to consider our specific situation. The technical solutions that apply to a heavily urbanized watershed may be quite different from the solutions for a protected watershed.

We need to be careful of adopting a “single standard” approach that would apply across the Province. This approach can lead to the use of inappropriate application of technologies and excessive costs. In British Columbia, we need to be able to adopt a variety of existing and emerging water treatment technologies to deal with specific water quality problems. An example of this is the application of ultraviolet (UV) disinfection to low turbidity surface waters, where a “single standard” approach might call for a more costly filtration process.

In applying this principle to the regulations, the government should consider a “rule” based approach, similar to that adopted by the US EPA.

Maintenance of Water Quality in the Distribution System

Maintenance of the water quality in the distribution system is of equal importance to the treatment of the source water at a water treatment plant. This is achieved in three ways: maintenance of an adequate chlorine residual, regular cleaning of the distribution pipes and cross-connection control.

Maintenance of a free or combined chlorine residual in the distribution system will help to preserve the quality of the water, once it has received source water treatment. While maintenance of a chlorine residual is already practiced by most, well-managed utilities, there is a continued need to educate system operators on the importance of a chlorine residual as part of a multi-barrier management approach.

The need for adequate cross-connection control is paramount in protecting distribution system water quality. While the initial installation of cross-connection control devices is covered under the Plumbing Code, there is a need to take the legislation a step further to ensure the devices function as intended through the life of the system. This requires that communities and water utilities put in place a cross-connection control program that requires ongoing testing and maintenance of cross-connection control equipment. This needs to be addressed by the new legislation.

Operator Training and Certification

As documented by the tragic events at Walkerton, the protection of drinking water quality is highly dependent upon the proper operation of the water system. While there are many well-trained and certified water system operators in the province, these are mostly with the larger utilities. With the introduction of more sophisticated water treatment processes, the need for well-trained operators will be even greater.

BCWWA has been involved in professional operator training for decades and has recently introduced a program aimed at non-professional small water system operators. Certification in the province is provided by the Environmental Operators Certification Program (EOCP), a nonprofit organization independent of BCWWA. Although certification is mandatory for wastewater treatment plant operators in British Columbia, certification for water treatment plant operators is currently voluntary.

The new legislation needs to support operator education in the province and introduce mandatory certification for water system operators.

Accountability

Just as important as giving drinking water professionals flexibility to provide innovative solutions, they must also be accountable for their actions. Water purveyors and water supply managers have a duty to protect their water users and should ensure their water meets the regulatory objectives. They must ensure that sufficient funds are allocated for proper management of the utility. They must also be accountable to the public and the regulators to ensure the system is properly operated and maintained. Water utilities should be accountable to the regulators to ensure that water quality is accurately monitored and results reported.

The legislation needs to ensure that proper monitoring and reporting takes place and that laboratories used for testing drinking water are accredited.

Affordability

The goal of providing safe drinking water will not be met unless it is affordable and cost effective. The keys to affordability are allowing the flexibility to provide solutions that fit the specific needs of the community and a time frame that balances economics with health risk.

The legislation and the funding provided by senior governments need to recognize the starting point of the communities and the fact that many will incur high initial costs. This will require some level of funding assistance as systems are upgrading and accounting procedures are changed to reflect an asset management philosophy.

WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE?

At the time of writing, we expect that the government may announce the results of its review in early spring 2002. Changes in legislation could occur by late spring. We have invited the Minister of Water, Land and Air Protection to be a keynote speaker at our AGM in April 2002, in anticipation that this may be an opportune time for a major announcement. Come to the Conference in Whistler and find out.