Adam Bramburger
Beaver Staff
More than 300 people packed into the Strathcona Paper Centre banquet hall Jan. 15 to learn more about groundwater stewardship.
In the nearly four-hour presentation organized by the Lennox and Addington County Stewardship Council, audience members learned how management of their wells and septic systems can impact the water table they draw from for drinking and bathing.
They also learned they live in one of the most vulnerable parts of the province for the potential of water contamination.
Katrina Furlanetto, the sourcewater protection co-ordinator at the Cataraqui Region Conservation Authority (CRCA) indicated part of the reason for that is the presence of karst topography underground in this region.
“We see cracks and fractures in the bedrock that create a direct pathway from the surface to the ground. That’s a path for potential contamination,” she said. “There are inferred and known areas in the central and western part of our area. We have areas with less than a metre of overburden, so there’s not much area for saturation. In those areas, that might increase the areas of sensitivity for groundwater.”
Dr. Anna Majury, a clinician with Public Health Ontario and an assistant professor of biomedical and molecular sciences at Queen’s University also suggested hydrogeology can be a factor in contamination.
She presented research into the incidence of E. coli bacteria — a sign of fecal contamination of water — per 1,000 wells across the province. The findings suggest the Kingston-Belleville region is one of Ontario’s highest risk areas of contamination, along with Grey-Bruce and Niagara. Each has common hydrogeological features. Majury’s current research is delving into the question of whether there are other common links.
Majury said over two years, her team studied the contaminants present in those hot spots. While many people are concerned about agriculture-related contamination — particularly after the E. coli scare in Walkerton, a majority of the contamination here actually came from human sources.
“Humans have different pathogens than animals, cows have different pathogens than swine or chickens,” she said. “Bovine contamination is actually quite low. We tend to typically place blame on the farmer down the road, but we have to consider our own waste management sources.”
In addition to fecal contamination, she said there’s also concern about medication and other microbial contaminants in the water.
Since the Walkerton outbreak in 2001, Majury said Public Health Ontario has seen a decline in people submitting their well water to be tested for bacteria. She encouraged well owners to stay vigilant in submitting them several times a year.
“It’s no laughing matter. You should be testing your wells regularly,” she said. “About 80 per cent of the rural population gets its water from groundwater. It’s a concern. There are over 500,000 wells we know of in the province that serve households. We now water can become contaminated.”
Majury said there are 11 public health labs across the province that check water for bacteria — and well owners can submit treated or untreated water from their private wells for testing.
Asked about testing for chemical contents, Majury said that isn’t funded in Ontario but it is something worth doing and there are several private labs offering the service. She said bacteria is a more pressing concern.
“The risk is immediate typically with bacteria, you’ll get an acute illness from it. Monitoring your water for chemical parameters is also something you should do on an ongoing basis, but you’re not going to get immediately ill from it.”
Majury also said there are probably more incidents of human health outbreaks from contaminated well water than people realize, but they’re not always detected because they aren’t reported and they generally resolve themselves.
Gord Mitchell, a public health inspector with Kingston, Frontenac, Lennox and Addington Public Health spoke about septic systems and treatment units.
He spoke about how systems are designed to filter out solid waste and push liquid effluent from a tank to a drain field. Theoretically, the system works in the absence of air with bacteria consuming other bacteria.
Mitchell said the less that is put in septic systems the better.
“What don’t we want to put in our septic systems? Pretty much anything.”
He said the effluent and chemical components pushed through the system are transported down vertically until they reach groundwater and become part of that groundwater. More and more often, he said, there are containments of concern moving through systems that they’ weren’t designed to handle.
Mitchell raised concern about the provisions in the Ontario Building Code in relation to people building septic systems on fractured limestone beds.
“The land is shallow with cracks and rocks and fissures in the limestone. Currently, the Building Code allows you to install a sewage system right on top of that. We’ve been trying for the last 20 years to reverse that decision,” he said. “Prior to the building code, we had to have a minimum of .25 metres (or 10 inches of soil). You had to have a site with soil before you could build a sewage system on top of it. We lose every time because of the pressure of development and the feeling if we put it back in, we’ll reduce the amount of land available to develop. In certain parts of land, including ours, there’s not enough soil.”
Locally, he said inspectors still look for that much depth. According to Mitchell, there’s also been a push toward raised beds or alternative forms of treatment to protect groundwater.
The size of septic beds has also changed in recent years to promote development. Mitchell said inspectors used to require about 300 feet of pipe in the ground, while now they look for about half that. He said he’s not sure if that’s a good thing or a bad thing.
Asked about monitoring requirements for septic systems, Mitchell said there is currently nothing required by KFL&A Public Health, except to notify the office if a septic system fails.
He did indicate the province has introduced legislation that would allow municipalities to legislate mandatory re-inspection programs at their own discretion. He’s working with Central Frontenac Township on such a program now and it has 4,700 systems. Implementing programs across a wider geography would require extensive manpower.
Speaking about decommissioning old units, Mitchell said septic beds are usually fine to leave, but tanks should be pumped out and filled in.
CRCA watershed planning co-ordinator Holly Evans told audience members the conservation authority has created a workbook that will offer tracing sheets to keep well testing and septic system maintenance logs in one place as well as providing tips to keep them in good order. The Lennox and Addington Stewardship Council has arranged for copies to be placed at local library for workshop attendees. The information will also be available online.
Quinte Conservation and the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change also made presentations during the workshop.