b'FEATUREENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION REPORTany municipality from installingH OSWCA:Have governmentsPollution Prevention and Control 2new combined sewers. However, asrecognized the problem? WhatPlanrequiring every municipality of 2018, there are still 57 combinednew developments take effectwith a combined sewer system sewer systems in 44 municipalities. in 2019? to have a Plan outlining what it is going to do to reduce these And so, there was really quite aDIANNE SAXE:The Ministryoverflows. But, they havent put any strong media reaction to our officeeffort into enforcement, as far as I of the Environment [currentlycan tell. In 2018, according to the reporting the statistics about thethe Ministry of the Environment,MECP, only 23 of the 57 sewage 1,327 sewage spills last year. AtConservation and Parks (MECP)],treatment systems with combined least, thats the reported ones.recognized these overflows as asewer systems reported even having Some of these sewage spills aremajor problem 20 years ago, anda Plan. This needs to change. very large. Were talking aboutyet has done very little about it.hundreds of Olympic swimmingHeres one thing that may help. In pools worth of filth with all of itIn fact, the Ministry has its own2019, as a result of the Infrastructure being washed directly into lakesspecific guidance documentthefor Jobs and Prosperity Act, for the first and rivers.Its only going to get worse for a number of reasons. To begin with, we have more people in the province, so theres more sewage. And also, because we have paved so much of southern Ontario where theres hard surfaces, the water runs off faster. Then, there is climate change, which is increasing the ferocity of storms. The result is you get these large overflows.H 2 OSWCA Winter 2018-19 17'