A6. Wastewater: Provincial Sources

1. STP_Sewage Treatment Plant

Legislation

n/a

Applies to

Ministry of Municipal Affairs (MMA)

Prepared by

MMA

Submitted to/publication requirements

Provided to the Neptis Foundation in 2016

Due date/ frequency

One time

Minimum data requirements

Fields include:

  • Plant name
  • Owner/Operator
  • Works #
  • Certificate of Approval # (now called a ECA #)
  • Plant Type
  • Mapping coordinates

Issues/

drawbacks

One-time only. Needs updating.

2. Environmental Compliance Approvals

Legislation

Environmental Protection Act (EPA), Part II.1; Ontario Water Resources Act (OWRA); Environmental Bill of Rights (EBR)

O. Reg. 255/11: Applications for Environmental Compliance Approvals

Applies to

Municipality/owner/operator of WWTP

Prepared by

Municipality/owner/operator of WWTP

Submitted to/publication requirements

Client Services and Permissions Branch, MOECC

135 St Clair Ave W, Toronto, ON, M4V 1P5

Due date/ frequency

When applying for a new licence or amending an existing ECA (Environment Compliance Approval)

Minimum data requirements

Reporting requirements specified in letter of approval. Fields in electronic form include:

  • Applicant name/business name
  • Project name
  • Project description executive summary
  • Type: municipal government, federal, corporate, individual, etc.
  • Address
  • Geo-reference
  • ECA approval number - if modifying - or new number
  • Date of issue
  • Name of municipality
  • Source protection/drinking water threats
  • Name of source protection area
  • Receiver of effluent discharge (e.g., Great Lake, Lake Simcoe, Rouge River)
  • Type of sewage treatment plant (primary, secondary, tertiary, lagoon, etc.)
  • Type of pipe: storm sewer, combined sewer, sanitary sewer, ditches, forcemains, pumping stations
  • Maximum design capacity of plant (cubic metres)
  • Type of servicing: residential (breakdowns), commercial, industrial
  • Type of disposal to groundwater, surface water, leachate, etc.
  • Effluent limits

Issues/ drawbacks

Data is available through Access Environment, but queries lead to data in an unstandardized PDF format.

Other information

Electronic application form: https://dr6j45jk9xcmk.cloudfront.net/documents/4782/5-8-1-eca-application-en-2015-v6.pdf

3. Ontario Wastewater Inventory (OWI)

Legislation

n/a

Applies to

Municipalities

Prepared by

Municipalities

Submitted to/publication requirements

Ministry of the Environment and Climate Change

Due date/ frequency

Quarterly

Minimum data requirements

Dataset containing information of industrial and communal facilities that discharge wastewater and have been inspected or are regulated under Environmental Compliance Approvals in Ontario.

Issues/ drawbacks

Not yet available: Government of Ontario is reviewing this data set and may make it available on its open data portal.

Other information

https://www.ontario.ca/data/ontario-wastewater-inventory-owi

4. Municipal Wastewater Effluent Discharge Data

Legislation

n/a

Applies to

Municipalities

Prepared by

Municipalities

Submitted to/publication requirements

Ministry of the Environment and Climate Change

Due date/ frequency

Quarterly

Minimum data requirements

Effluent quality monitoring data for about 500 municipal wastewater treatment plants in Ontario.

Issues/ drawbacks

Not yet available: Government of Ontario is reviewing this data set and may make it available on its open data portal.

Other information

https://www.ontario.ca/data/municipal-wastewater

5. Wastewater information in the Drinking Water Information System (DWIS)

Legislation

n/a

Applies to

MOECC

Prepared by

MOECC

Submitted to/publication requirements

Internal use for MOECC. MOECC has indicated that data/reports can be provided upon request

Due date/ frequency

Updated regularly.

Minimum data requirements

Wastewater fields may include:

  • Name of the system
  • ECA #
  • Municipality
  • Owner
  • Level of treatment
  • Watershed
  • Source (discharge)
  • Population served
  • Certificate of Approval
  • Rated and design capacity

Issues/

drawbacks

MOECC staff have described this database to Neptis researchers.

Does not capture quantity and flow rates.