A fatal waterborne disease epidemic in Walkerton, Ontario: comparison with other waterborne outbreaks in the developed world

2003 ◽  
Vol 47 (3) ◽  
pp. 7-14 ◽  
Author(s):  
S.E. Hrudey ◽  
P. Payment ◽  
P.M. Huck ◽  
R.W. Gillham ◽  
E.J. Hrudey
Keyword(s):  
Drinking Water ◽  
Water Security ◽  
Reference Source ◽  
Water Safety ◽  
Drinking Water Safety ◽  
Public Inquiry ◽  
Contaminated Drinking Water ◽  
The Government ◽  
Safety Of Drinking Water ◽  
Developed World

An estimated 2,300 people became seriously ill and seven died from exposure to microbially contaminated drinking water in the town of Walkerton, Ontario, Canada in May 2000. The severity of this drinking water disaster resulted in the Government of Ontario calling a public inquiry by Mr. Justice Dennis O’Connor to address the cause of the outbreak, the role (if any) of government policies in contributing to this outbreak and, ultimately, the implications of this experience on the safety of drinking water across the Province of Ontario. The circumstances surrounding the Walkerton tragedy are an important reference source for those concerned with providing safe drinking water. Although some circumstances are obviously specific to this epidemic, others are uncomfortably reminiscent of waterborne outbreaks that have occurred elsewhere. These recurring themes suggested the need for attention to broad issues of drinking water security and they present the challenge for how drinking water safety can be managed to prevent such tragedies in the future.

Implementation of Alberta's drinking water safety plans

2013 ◽  
Vol 49 (1) ◽  
pp. 5-9 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. C. Reid ◽  
K. Abramowski ◽  
A. Beier ◽  
A. Janzen ◽  
D. Lok ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Drinking Water ◽  
Effective Action ◽  
Main Element ◽  
Quality And Safety ◽  
Biological Parameters ◽  
Water Safety ◽  
Drinking Water Safety ◽  
Regulatory Approach ◽  
Water Safety Plans ◽  
Safety Of Drinking Water

Traditionally, the regulatory approach to maintaining the quality and safety of drinking water has largely been a prescriptive one based on the ability of any given supply to meet standards set for a number of different chemical and biological parameters. There are a number of issues around the assumptions and the limitations of a sampling and analysis regime. The basis for such regimes is essentially reactive rather than proactive and, consequently, the cause of the concern may already have impacted consumers before any effective action can be taken. Environment and Sustainable Resource Development has developed a template for recording drinking water safety plans together with guidance notes to help complete them. The template has been developed in MS-Excel and has been designed in a straightforward step-wise manner with guidance on the completion of each sheet. It includes four main risk tables covering each main element of water supply which are pre-populated with commonly found ‘generic’ risks and these are carefully assessed before considering what action is required to deal with significant risks. Following completion of the risk tables, key risks are identified and the interventions required to bring them into control.

Study on Investors' Game Behavior in Rural Drinking Water Safety Project

2013 ◽  
Vol 807-809 ◽  
pp. 1628-1633
Author(s):  
Wei Li
Keyword(s):  
Mathematical Model ◽  
Decision Making ◽  
Drinking Water ◽  
Central Government ◽  
Behavioral Characteristics ◽  
Decision Making Process ◽  
Water Safety ◽  
Drinking Water Safety ◽  
Symmetric Information ◽  
The Government

The project of rural drinking water safety project mainly involves three types of investors as the government, market investors and farmers. Starting from the behavioral characteristics of the investors, using game method of symmetric information and asymmetric information, this paper constructs mathematical model describing decision-making process through game between government and farmers, government and market investors and central government and local government in rural drinking water safety project.

Pennsylvania Policy Database Project

2019 ◽  
pp. 210-216
Author(s):  
Jay Jennings ◽  
Stefanie Kasparek ◽  
Joseph McLaughlin
Keyword(s):  
Drinking Water ◽  
Public Opinion ◽  
Digital Archive ◽  
Historical Overview ◽  
Water Safety ◽  
Drinking Water Safety ◽  
Government Documents ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
The Government ◽  
Media Data

The Pennsylvania Policy Database Project is the first sub-national digital archive within the Comparative Agendas Project. It provides a wide range of government documents, public opinion records, and media data going back as far as 1979. This chapter provides a historical overview and the general political context to the government system of Pennsylvania. In addition to the information available at the Comparative Agendas Project websites, the Pennsylvania Policy Database Project website maintains further extensive supplementary datasets on Pennsylvania. To provide an example of how this data can be used, the chapter concludes with an analysis of drinking water safety records and how this policy area relates to natural gas fracking policies in Pennsylvania.

Rural Drinking Water Security Evaluation and Simulation Based on MATLAB Digital and Vector Processing Technology

2012 ◽  
Vol 238 ◽  
pp. 390-394
Author(s):  
Hong Wei Pan ◽  
Bei Dou Xi ◽  
Hong Jun Lei ◽  
Zi Min Wei ◽  
Xiao Song He ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Drinking Water ◽  
Fuzzy Ahp ◽  
Rapid Assessment ◽  
Water Security ◽  
Processing Technology ◽  
Security Evaluation ◽  
Water Safety ◽  
Drinking Water Safety ◽  
Vector Processing ◽  
New Ideas

MATLAB software is widely used in scientific computation and simulation area, and has also been increasingly used in the water science and related fields. In this paper, the FUZZY-AHP toolbox was developed based on MATLAB digital and Image processing technology. As an example the rural drinking water safety assessment was tested by the use of FUZZY-AHP toolbox. This study could also provide some new ideas for rapid assessment in drinking water safety & other related issues and a visualization method for evaluation results exhibition.

Study on Mechanism Design of Rural Drinking Water Safety Engineering Project Financing Guarantee

2013 ◽  
Vol 361-363 ◽  
pp. 674-681
Author(s):  
Wei Li
Keyword(s):  
Drinking Water ◽  
Mechanism Design ◽  
Safety Engineering ◽  
Project Financing ◽  
Water Safety ◽  
Public Fund ◽  
Engineering Project ◽  
Drinking Water Safety ◽  
Project Construction ◽  
Set Up

As more and more non-public fund entering rural drinking water safety engineering project market; it becomes very necessary to built rural drinking water safety engineering project guarantee mechanism. This paper proposes three steps of mechanism design. Firstly, history data is used to fit multivariate linear equation set up describing relationship between bank loss and key risk factors. Secondly, guarantee fee is calculated through model regression, which is threefold of possible bank loss. Thirdly, guarantee fee is adjusted according to variety of key risk factor in the process of project construction and operating.

Rapid drinking water safety estimation in cities: Piloting a globally scalable method in Cochabamba, Bolivia

2019 ◽  
Vol 654 ◽  
pp. 1132-1145 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lucas Rocha-Melogno ◽  
Rebecca Yoo ◽  
Osvaldo Broesicke ◽  
Achilles Kallergis ◽  
José Garcia ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Drinking Water ◽  
Water Safety ◽  
Drinking Water Safety ◽  
Safety Estimation

scholarly journals Arsenic in Water Resources of the Southern Pampa Plains, Argentina

2009 ◽  
Vol 2009 ◽  
pp. 1-7 ◽  
Author(s):  
Juan D. Paoloni ◽  
Mario E. Sequeira ◽  
Martín E. Espósito ◽  
Carmen E. Fiorentino ◽  
María del C. Blanco
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Drinking Water ◽  
Who Guidelines ◽  
Complementary Information ◽  
Guideline Value ◽  
Dissolved Ions ◽  
Contaminated Drinking Water ◽  
Quality Water ◽  
Safety Of Drinking Water ◽  
Complex Distribution

Confronted with the need for accessible sources of good quality water and in view of the fact that the threat to public health posed by arsenic occurs mainly through the ingestion of contaminated drinking water, the presence and distribution of arsenic was evaluated in the southern Pampa Plains of Bahía Blanca district in Argentina. The findings show variable concentrations of arsenic in a complex distribution pattern. Complementary information is provided on the behavior of the groundwater resource and its salinity in terms of dissolved ions. Groundwater is the most severely affected, 97% of the samples exceeding the guideline value for arsenic in drinking water as recommended by the WHO (Guidelines for Drinking Water Quality, 2004). and showing maximum concentrations of up to 0.30 mg/L. Informing those responsible for preventive medicine and alerting the community at large will facilitate measures to mitigate exposure and ensure the safety of drinking water.

scholarly journals One-step removal of lead from water using an electricity-free and sustainable membrane filtration

2021 ◽  
Vol 27 (4) ◽  
pp. 166-172
Author(s):  
Junwei Zhang ◽  
Yan Tung Lo ◽  
Hao Guo ◽  
Chuyang Tang
Keyword(s):  
Drinking Water ◽  
Removal Efficiency ◽  
Membrane Filtration ◽  
High Water ◽  
Water Safety ◽  
Drinking Water Contamination ◽  
Emergency Situations ◽  
Drinking Water Safety ◽  
Effective Removal ◽  
Volumetric Loading

Lead (Pb) is a typical contaminant in water with adverse effects on human health. Hong Kong’s incident of drinking water contamination by Pb in 2015 caused severe public concerns regarding drinking water safety. Conventional treatment methods for Pb removal generally require electricity, chemical dosage, and considerable time and space, which significantly restrict their use for rapid water purification under emergency situations. In this study, a polyvinyl alcohol/polyacrylic acid (PVA/PAA) composite nanofibrous membrane was developed for the rapid and effective removal of Pb from water. The PVA/PAA membrane had a high water permeability of 550 L/m2/h/kPa - 710 L/m2/h/kPa, which allowed the filtration to be driven by gravity (e.g. with a water height of 10.0 cm). The membrane showed consistently high removal efficiency of Pb (> 95%) with a volumetric loading up to 3000 L/m2. This high removal efficiency was attributed to the combined effects of complexing and electrostatic attraction between Pb and PAA. An esculent citric acid was used to regenerate the exhausted PVA/PAA membrane. The regenerated membrane maintained its removal efficiency of Pb over a five-cycle filtration. These results imply that the PVA/PAA composite membrane can be repeatedly used in electricity-free filtration devices for rapid elimination of Pb under emergency situations.

Off-flavor as the consumer's measure of drinking water safety

1995 ◽  
Vol 31 (11) ◽  
pp. 1-8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael J. McGuire
Keyword(s):  
Water Quality ◽  
Drinking Water ◽  
Water Utilities ◽  
Regulatory Environment ◽  
Safe Drinking Water ◽  
Water Safety ◽  
Safe Water ◽  
Drinking Water Safety ◽  
Off Flavors ◽  
Health Related

If consumers detect an off-flavor in their drinking water, they are likely to believe that it probably is not safe. Water utilities will be defeating their best efforts to provide safe drinking water if they only meet health-related regulations and do not provide water that is free of off-flavor problems. The purpose of this paper is to explore the current U.S. regulatory environment and discuss how these regulations can adversely impact the control of off-flavors in drinking water. Utilities should adopt a water quality goal that allows them to not only meet the minimums of the regulations, but also meet the customer's highest standards - water that is free of off-flavors.

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