Item - 2022.IE30.14

The Infrastructure and Environment Committee received the report (May 9, 2022) from the General Manager, Toronto Water for information.

This report provides a summary of the activities performed in 2021 by Toronto Water's Environmental Monitoring and Protection Unit, which is responsible for administrative compliance and enforcement of the City of Toronto's Municipal Code Chapter 681 ("Sewers By-Law") and Municipal Code Chapter 851 ("Water Supply By-Law").

In 2021, Toronto Water's Environmental Monitoring and Protection Unit performed 811 tasks such as company inspections, dye tests, meetings with businesses, storm sewer outfall inspections under the Sewers By-law and 133 inspections under the Water Supply By-law. The staff performed 5,235 sampling events, which resulted in 22,658 laboratory analyses. A total of 428 Notices of Violation were issued for non-compliance under the Sewers By-law and 8 issued for non-compliance under the Water Supply By-law.

In 2021, cases involving 13 companies moved forward to prosecution for both the Sewers and Water Supply By-laws. Under the Sewers By-law, there were 11 convictions resulting in $79,500 in fines (convictions may include prosecution files started in previous years). This total does not include the Victim Fine Surcharge (which is collected and retained by the Ontario Provincial Government for victims of crime – for fines over $1,000; the surcharge is 25 percent of the fine). The remaining prosecution files are still before the courts.

The number of Industrial Waste Surcharge Agreements entered into with businesses decreased in 2021, yet Toronto Water recovered $9.9 million in total cost for this program. Similarly, the total number of Sanitary Discharge Agreements grew, but overall cost recovery decreased to $7.6 million in 2021, down $2.1 million from 2020.
 

In 2021, the Outfall Monitoring Program identified 8 new cross connections (as a result of sanitary wastewater being misdirected to a storm sewer) and verified the correction of 8 cross connections (some were carried over from previous years). Three (3) priority Outfall within Toronto's watersheds were delisted, thereby seeing an improvement in water quality at those outfalls and the receiving waters.

All of the above noted activities and functions have been carried out under the impacts and challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic, during which Toronto Water's Environmental Monitoring and Protection Unit maintained and carried out all of its mandated functions and responsibilities including field related operations, inspections and investigations. Details are provided in this report.