Ontario’s Auditor General is identifying some concerns with the inspection of small and rural drinking water systems.
In a special report, Shelley Spence says 52 percent of Public Health Units with small drinking-water systems in their region have not inspected all systems as required.
“Many owners of small drinking water systems did not sample and test their water as required, and the local public health units rarely enforced compliance,” says Spence.
“We found that 56% of the 1660 systems that we reviewed missed at least one test sample in the past five years, and that’s over half.”
Spence adds fines were issued in just 11 percent of cases where non-compliance was identified.
The Auditor General found similar issues with water systems that fall to the Ministry of Environment Parks and Conservation.
While noting the Ministry has effective processes to monitor and enforce complaince, Spence says it lacks the capacity to regularly inspect the systems.
Spence says 34% had not been inspected in over five years, with 9% not inspected in over seven years.
She also expressed concern with the lack of testing done by private property owners with wells to provide their drinking water.
Less than one-third of the 1.3 million Ontarians using well water test their water regularly.
Of those who do, 35% of samples tested positive for indicators of bacterial contamination.
Spence makes 17 recommendations for improvement.
The government has accepted all 17.
