b'FEATUREENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION REPORTtime, all Ontario municipalities must plan to fund and maintain their key municipal assets, including water and sewage infrastructure. They are going to be required to consider operating costs, including energy costs.This is a hugely important improvement, because up until now, municipalities were required to make their capital funding decisions primarily on initial capital costs. And if you build only considering upfront costs, things that are cheapest to build at the beginning, you can end up with things that are very expensive over the long term and require high amounts of energy to run. THE ENVIRONMENTAL Also, if the municipality doesnt check the conditionsBILL OF RIGHTS (EBR)of its infrastructure, but just makes assumptions by age, they may not accurately identify where the problems are, including leaks and infiltration, and where moneyCreated in 1993, the Environmental Bill of should be directed. Rights (EBR) provides for public participation, transparency and accountability in the Ontario Another big piece is that municipalities are nowgovernments environmental decisions. Since allowed to consider green infrastructure as part ofit came into force on February 15, 1994, says their infrastructure. One of the things that municipali- Dr. Dianne Saxe, former Environmental ties can do, and generally are not doing very well, isCommissioner of Ontario, it has been an looking upstream at their watersheds to say, how do weimportant tool for allowing citizens to bring keep water from going into these combined sewers inoverlooked issues to the Ontario government.the first place?Successes of particular interest to OSWCA members and stakeholders in the sewer and watermain industry include:THE MAIN SOURCE OF PATHOGENS THAT Lake Ontario Waterkeeper submitted an POLLUTE MANY ONTARIO BEACHES ISapplication for review under the EBR, regarding public notification of combined TYPICALLY OVERFLOWS AND BYPASSESsewer overflows in two Toronto plants. Following the environment ministrys review in 2015, it agreed with Lake Ontario Waterkeeper FROM MUNICIPAL WASTEWATERthat there should be public notification of overflows. The City of Toronto started public INFRASTRUCTURE, PRIMARILY FROMnotifications of sewage bypasses on Twitter in COMBINED SEWAGE OVERFLOWS June 2017.Due to public comments on the Environmental MIXTURES OF UNTREATED SEWAGE ANDRegistry, the Clean Water Act was strengthened.STORMWATER FROM COMBINED SEWERS.There have been large improvements in the publics access to real information about realFROM ECOS ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION REPORT environmental impacts in Ontario through the BACK TO BASICS, VOLUME 2: CLEAN WATER. Environmental Registry. The inclusion of green infrastructure and operating costs in the municipal asset manage-ment planning regulation, that aligned with an ECO report recommendation. The EBR has brought increased awareness and understanding of climate change impacts in Ontario.The EBR serves Ontarians well, says Saxe, offering an opportunity for citizens to voice their concerns on environmental issues they consider important.18H 2 OSWCA Winter 2018-19'