WSER 2016 Annual Report - Executive Summary

Executive Summary

This report provides a summary of the information submitted by owners and operators of Canadian wastewater systems under the Wastewater Systems Effluent Regulations (WSER) for the 2016 calendar year. This is the first annual report since the publication of the Regulations.

The WSER came into force in 2012 under the Fisheries Act to manage wastewater releases by systems designed to collect an average daily influent volume of 100 m³ or more. An identification report was required to allow the department to identify all wastewater systems covered under the WSER. The deadline to submit identification reports for wastewater systems in operation was May 2013. The WSER set national baseline effluent quality standards that are achievable through secondary wastewater treatment and prohibit the discharge of effluent that is acutely lethal to rainbow trout^{Footnote 1}. These standards came into effect in January 2015. The regulations also specify requirements for carrying out effluent monitoring, reporting and record keeping.

Owners or operators of wastewater systems requiring time to upgrade in order to meet the WSER effluent quality standards had until June 2014 to apply for a transitional authorization to exceed the WSER effluent quality limits for a limited time. These authorizations were issued to 65 systems, expiring in 2020, 2030, or 2040 based on a systems level of risk determined by criteria set out in the WSER.

By the end of 2016, 1737 wastewater systems out of an estimated 2314 had submitted an identification report under the WSER. The majority (89%) of wastewater systems are owned by municipalities or other local governments. Lagoons make up more than half of the wastewater systems in Canada (56%), mechanical systems make up around a third (34%) and the remaining systems (10%) have no treatment.

Of the 1737 systems that submitted identification reports, 1377 submitted all required monitoring reports, with 360 systems failing to submit one or more monitoring report. A total of 1169 systems did not report any exceedances of the effluent quality limits, while 350 systems reported at least one exceedance. A total of 491 systems tested for acute lethality with 406 systems reporting no failures and 85 systems reporting an acute lethality test failure.

A total volume of 5.2 billion m³ of effluent was discharged from a final discharge point for the 2016 calendar year. Of this total, 3.4 billion m³ (66%) met the WSER effluent quality limits, 1.7 billion m³ (33%) was undertreated and did not meet the limits, and 0.076 billion m³ (1%) of the effluent discharged underwent no treatment. These volumes do not include releases from combined sewer overflows (CSO), sanitary sewer overflows, or any other discharges occurring at a point other than the final discharge point.

In Canada, as of 2016, 269 systems had at least one CSO. A total reported volume of 0.12 billion m³ of effluent was released from CSOs in 2016.

The WSER are enforced by Environment and Climate Change Canada. Compliance issues are followed-up on and enforcement action is taken in accordance with the Compliance and Enforcement Policy for the Habitat Protection and Pollution Prevention Provisions of the Fisheries Act (Environment Canada 2001c). As part of the quality review of this report, the data and information in the report were reviewed by Enforcement Branch personnel.

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Date modified:: 2024-12-02

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WSER 2016 Annual Report - Executive Summary

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