Walkerton Water Crisis: Lessons and Future Outlook

Introduction

Walkerton a small town in Ontario was brought into the spotlight for all the wrong reasons. When a major rain storm caused E. coli from manure to seep into the towns drinking water contaminating it. This disaster happened because Walkerton has had a dark past with not following proper rules and regulations. However, the Walkerton Clean Water Centre (WCWC) makes the future look bright. The future looks bright because the Ontario government learned from its wrongs of the past. By firstly, how the Walkerton Public Utilities Commission (PUC) managed the drinking water systems prior to the 2000 E. coli outbreak. Secondly, how the E. coli outbreak happened and how it effected drinking water regulations across Ontario. Finally,

coli outbreak and how it changed drinking water regulations. At the turn of the century, things were about to get very bad for the Walkerton PUC. In May of 2000, one night heavy rains caused a runoff from a field that was filled with cow manure. The manure seeped into Well 5 contaminating the well with E. coli. Well 5 was Walkerton’s major drinking well that was in use at the time. Stan Koebel was the boss of PUC during the May 2000 outbreak of E coli. “Koebel received reports about unsafe levels of E coli on May 17, 2000” (The Sun Times 2010). He ignores them, does not report his findings to the Ministry of the Environment like what is required. By May 20, people were becoming very sick and were going to the hospital to find out they have an E. coli bacterial disease. Officials phoned Koebel but he does not release any information about the contamination. On May 21, a boiling water advisory is put into effect. May 22, Stan Koebel finally releases his reports about the well being contaminated with E coli 5 days after it was confirmed. By July 25, 2000 seven people have died and an additional 3000 people became ill, all because of Koebel’s decision to conceal information. With the Walkerton crisis happening it, “cost at least $64.5 million and an estimated $155 million” (CBC 2004). The crisis also led to new guidelines for water treatment and updating water treatment infrastructure, so that a Walkerton tragedy would never happen again. With the Walkerton E

After the E coli outbreak, Koebel was sentenced to only one year in prison. PUC lost control of Walkerton’s drinking water and the Ontario government constructed a brand-new state of the art water treatment facility in Walkerton. The facility cost the government of Ontario around 10 million dollars to construct. The construction of the new facility was completed in 2004. The new building is run by elected water treatment officials, who have Ph. D’s and a vast knowledge of water treatment. The Walkerton Clean Water Centre is a modern-day monument on how water treatment facilities should be run. In June of 2010, the Walkerton Clean Water Centre was honoured by the news of, “ moving into a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design Gold building” (Corporate Knights 2010). For the past 12 years, it has been training Ontario water technicians in the field of proper water management. It has had very successful 12 years and an even brighter looking future, with the high standards the facility holds. It has no problems but because of Walkerton’s bad past, it is still thought of as a bad place. Which today is the complete opposite it has the best drinking water facility in all of Ontario. The Ontario Government pays 5 million dollars each year to the Walkerton Clean water facility so it can educate the new water