Town council to look into ozone treatment at water plant

By Ron Giofu

Algae blooms in the western portion of Lake Erie was the subject of a delegation to town council at its most recent meeting.

As a result of the presentation, town council will consider adding ozone treatment to the water as part of its environmental assessment of the current water treatment plant.

Dr. Saad Y. Jasim, president of SJ Environmental Consultants and past president of the International Ozone Association, appeared before town council and stated water is the primary medium through which climate change influences the Earth’s eco-system and the livelihood and well-being of society. He stated in a presentation that higher temperatures and changes in extreme weather conditions are projected to affect availability and distribution of rainfall, snowmelt, river flows and groundwater and further deteriorate water quality.

Jasim believes that “water systems receiving their water from a source that is impacted by harmful algal blooms need to start serious evaluations to the potential impact on drinking water quality.” According to Jasim, excessive algal growth in Lake Erie “poses significant threats to the eco-system and human health,” which is a source of drinking water for 12 million people in Canada and the United States.

“Harmful and nuisance algal growth had a significant increase in the last decade, mainly due to high levels of nutrients, specifically phosphorus that is delivered from major rivers during spring storms,” his presentation stated. “Record setting algal blooms and associated ‘dead zones’ – oxygen depleted areas created when algae die and decompose – threaten drinking water quality and Lake Erie’s critical multi-billion dollar tourism industry and world class fishery. Immediate and strategic actions are needed to address this problem which impacts the Province of Ontario and five U.S. states.”

Jasim believed there is “no silver bullet to address the problem” with a combination of strategies addressing multiple sources required to address the matter.

“It is clear that ongoing efforts to limit excess phosphorus loading to Lake Erie through municipal sewage treatment, managing stormwater, and implementing best management practices on agricultural lands must continue and be accelerated,” he stated. “However, what worked in the past is no longer sufficient, so we must go further to find new opportunities to improve our effectiveness and ability to adapt to new challenges.”

Jasim’s presentation stated extreme weather events are more frequent and have the potential to increase the volume of runoff and associated phosphorus loads with current climate model projections suggesting that over the next 25 years, Lake Erie “will experience slightly greater precipitation during the winter, spring and fall.”

Harmful algal blooms are caused by cyanobacteria in waters with excess nutrients and warm surface temperatures, causes massive fish kills, creates problems with drinking water treatment, causes economic problems that can impact the fishing industry and recreational use of shorelines and lead to a production of a variety of toxic compounds that might be harmful to animal and human health, he noted.

Jasim called for “appropriate drinking water treatment strategies” to be developed to prevent human exposure to cyanotoxin contaminated water.

“Some algae is hidden under the water and you can’t see it,” he told town council.

Jasim also told town council that “it’s better to be one step forward” rather than wait until a problem develops. He added he was part of the process when Windsor added ozone treatment in 2001, noting they also draw from the Detroit River as does Amherstburg. He said ozone treatment cost $5 million at that time, split between Windsor, LaSalle and Tecumseh.

Town council was told by administration that water is tested weekly and while there have been issues with raw water that has to be reported, there has never been any issues with treated water. Town council still elected to have ozone treatment considered as part of the EA process for an updated Amherstburg water treatment plant.