Air and Water

Canadians rely on high-quality fresh water for drinking water, recreation, livestock watering, and crop irrigation. Fresh water is also vital for aquatic life. Canadians consider protecting water quality and maintaining the integrity of aquatic ecosystems to be important environmental issues.

Human activity affects the quality of water resources throughout the country. Threats to water quality come from municipal wastewater discharges (sewage, combined sewer overflows, and stormwater runoff), effluent from septic systems, industrial effluent, waste from intensive livestock operations, agricultural runoff, and the deposition of atmospheric pollution.

What do we know?

Municipal wastewater discharges represent one of the largest sources of pollutant releases by volume to Canadian waters. Progress is being made, however. The percentage of the municipal population in Canada receiving some form of sewage treatment has risen dramatically in the last two decades, from 72% of the population on municipal sewage systems in 1983 to 97% in 1999. Quebec experienced the largest improvements, moving from very little treatment in 1983 to mostly primary and secondary wastewater treatment by 1999.

Treatment plants can remove significant amounts of contaminants from municipal wastewater, which can contain grit, debris, suspended solids, pathogens, oxygen-depleting wastes, nutrients, and about 200 different metals, persistent organic compounds, and other chemicals. There are generally up to three different levels of wastewater treatment:

Primary: Removal of debris and suspended solids by screening and settling.

Secondary: Use of biological processes to break down organic material and remove additional suspended solids.

Tertiary: Advanced treatment that uses additional filtering or chemical or biological processes to remove specific compounds or materials that remain after secondary treatment.

Industries across Canada also discharge hundreds of substances into rivers and lakes daily. The impact of these discharges depends on the nature of the substances and the volumes released. Since 1993, the National Pollutant Release Inventory has been reporting the amounts of over 100 pollutants released to surface waters, as well as to air and land, from selected facilities across Canada, under the authority of the Canadian Environmental Protection Act. However, the impacts of these releases, if any, are generally not known.

A number of jurisdictions provide information on water quality to their citizens. These take the form of water quality summaries or indices for selected sites, bacteria counts on beaches, and boil water advisories. Usually the information focuses on known potential trouble spots with histories of deterioration in water quality.

Although the state of water quality data today does not allow for a comprehensive national picture, trends can be reported for some regions of the country. British Columbia is one of the jurisdictions most active in monitoring and reporting on its water quality. A recent federal–provincial report (March 2000) on the surface water quality of 63 water bodies in areas of intense human activity in British Columbia reported that water quality has remained stable for 59% of the water bodies (37/63), has improved for 32% (20/63), and has deteriorated for 10% (6/63) since 1985. Several other jurisdictions show comparable results, although the data analyses are not as complete as in British Columbia.

Under the 1972 Canada–U.S. Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement, 17 Canadian Areas of Concern were identified in the Canadian Great Lakes because of high levels of contamination. Remedial action plans were developed for each area. In spite of progress, only one Area of Concern has been removed from this list.

What additional information do we need?

Management of water resources in Canada is a shared responsibility among municipal, provincial, territorial, and federal governments. This can mean difficulty in putting together a regional or national overview of water quality information. While governments collectively monitor water quality for known and potential "hot spots," the complexity of the ecosystems means that there is only rudimentary knowledge about the status and trends in ecosystem health. Monitoring efforts related to changes in aquatic ecosystem health are insufficient to provide an adequate early warning of the potential effects of climate change, long-range transport of air pollutants, increased ultraviolet radiation, acid rain, toxic chemicals, and impacts from various land uses.

To improve our knowledge base, we need standardized information that can be reported to Canadians about:

What are we doing based on the information we have?

Environment Canada and other federal departments conduct considerable research on the quality of Canada's waters. Canadian water quality guidelines have been developed cooperatively by Canadian governments to provide limits that protect the beneficial uses of water and measure quality. In November 1999, the Canadian Council of Ministers of the Environment (CCME) released national water quality guidelines for over 100 substances of concern in the Canadian environment. Canadian industry, government, and other stakeholders are working together to monitor the environmental effects of pulp and paper effluents. A similar environmental effects monitoring program for the metal mining sector is being established. The continued development of the National Water Quality Index by the CCME will help to standardize the communication of information on water quality trends at regional and national levels.

In the spring of 2000, the federal government announced a six-year, $2.6 billion investment in Canada's physical infrastructure. This money, along with matching funds from municipal and provincial/territorial governments, will total over $6 billion in investments. A portion is for "green infrastructure" projects, such as municipal wastewater sewage initiatives.

The federal, provincial, and territorial governments, communities and community groups, industry, and Aboriginal peoples have been working together through Ecosystem Initiatives to protect and restore targeted ecosystems across the country. There are currently five Ecosystem Initiatives across Canada: Georgia Basin, Northern Rivers, Great Lakes, St. Lawrence Vision 2000, and the Atlantic Coastal Action Program. Environment Canada is able to address priority areas and issues of concern—ensuring that Canadians have clean air and water, protecting and conserving nature, and taking action on climate change.

Many volunteers monitor the quality of water in our lakes, rivers, and streams. One example is the Clean Annapolis River Project, in which some 100 volunteers perform regular water quality tests and observations at sites on the Annapolis River and its tributaries in an effort to chart water quality changes in the watershed and determine the origin of pollutants.

In February 2000, the Government of Canada announced an additional $8 million annually to continue its part to clean up the Great Lakes Areas of Concern. More recently, Environment Canada announced the $30 million five-year Great Lakes Sustainability Fund for community projects essential to restoring the environment in Areas of Concern. Examples include cleanup of contaminated sediments and stewardship projects to reduce urban and agricultural sources of pollution.

Further information

*Note: Information found on some sites is presented only in the language in which it was written. We apologize for any inconvenience.

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What is the issue?

What do we know?

What additional information do we need?

What are we doing based on the information we have?

Further information