Item - 2024.IE15.5

The Infrastructure and Environment Committee:

1. Received the report (June 18, 2024) from the General Manager, Toronto Water, for information.

This report summarizes Toronto Water’s administrative compliance and enforcement responsibilities and activities for 2023 under the City of Toronto's Municipal Code Chapter 681 ("Sewers By-law") and Municipal Code Chapter 851 ("Water Supply By-law").

In 2023, Toronto Water conducted 967 tasks under the Sewers By-law - including inspections, field / site analysis, stakeholder meetings and 177 inspections under the Water Supply By-law; completed 3,076 sampling events resulting in 15,478 laboratory analyses; issued 335 Notices of Violation for non-compliance with the Sewers By-law and 15 with the Water Supply By-law; and responded to 689 pollution complaints.

Legal action moved forward against 25 companies for violations of both By-laws. Under the Sewers By-law, 11 convictions led to $82,000 in fines, and under the Water Supply By-law, one conviction resulted in an $8,000 fine (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 with businesses increased in 2023, and Toronto Water recovered $10.9 million. The number of Sanitary Discharge Agreements also increased, with $8.2 million recovered in 2023.

The Outfall Monitoring Program identified six new cross connections (sanitary wastewater misdirected to storm sewer) and verified the correction of four cross connections, improving water quality at those outfalls and the receiving waters.