Item - 2026.IE30.9

The Infrastructure and Environment Committee:

1. Received the report (May 27, 2026) from the General Manager, Toronto Water, for information.

This report summarizes Toronto Water’s administrative compliance and enforcement responsibilities and activities for 2025 under the City of Toronto's Municipal Code Chapter 681 (Sewers By-law) and Municipal Code Chapter 851 (Water Supply By-law). These by-laws are in place to provide that the City’s distribution and collection systems are used responsibly, municipal infrastructure is safeguarded, the environment is protected, and regulatory compliance is maintained. 

Through proactive monitoring and enforcement, Toronto Water staff identify violations, work with industrial customers and residents on compliance issues, prevent contamination of drinking water, and advances nearshore water quality and pollution prevention objectives. These efforts have supported cleaner beaches, measurable reductions in pollutants, progress toward delisting areas of concern, and reduced regulatory risks.

In 2025, Toronto Water:

- Undertook over 2,900 compliance and enforcement activities, including investigations of 606 pollution complaints

- Completed over 4,400 sampling events, resulting in over 21,800 laboratory analyses

- Issued 371 Notices of Violation, involving 296 businesses and 4 residential households

- Identified 9 new cross-connections (sanitary wastewater being misdirected to a storm sewer) and verified the resolution of 9 existing cross-connections, improving water quality at affected outfalls

- Supported legal action against 9 companies, leading to 8 convictions and $199,000 in fines

- Recovered $18.3 million from Industrial Waste Surcharge Agreements and Sanitary Discharge Agreements to offset the impacts of discharges with higher-than-normal concentrations of treatable parameters on infrastructure and treatment processes