Newsletter - February 2001
ARTICLES OF INTEREST FROM THIS ISSUE
Top Water Quality Award presented
Top Water Quality Award presented
David Bagley (left), with Rhonda Harris, of the Water Environment Federation, and Toby Brodkorb. Photo - Oscar & Associates David Bagley, of the University of Toronto, and Toby Brodkorb, CH2M Hill Canada, received the Harrison Prescott Eddy Medal from the Water Environment Federation October 17 in Anaheim, California, at WEFTEC 2000. They were honored for their paper: "Modeling Microbial Kinetics in an Anaerobic Sequencing Batch Reactor Model Development and Experimental Validation", which was published in Water Environment Research.
CWWA Highlights of the year 2000
The mission of the Canadian Water and Wastewater Association (CWWA) is three-fold: to be the national voice of the water and wastewater industry in Canada, to ensure a pan-Canadian information flow, and to provide international representation for the Canadian water and wastewater industry.
National voice
During the year 2000, CWWA tracked and provided summaries of, collected comments on, and formulated and presented positions as necessary on the following federal or national legislative initiatives:
- Bill C-8: An Act respecting marine conservation areas,
- Bill C-10: An Act to amend the Municipal Grants Act,
- Bill C-12: An Act to amend the Canada Labour Code,
- Bill C-13: An Act to establish the Canadian Institutes of Health Research,
- Bill C-15: An Act to amend the International Boundary Waters Treaty Act,
- Bill C-31: An Act respecting the protection of species at risk in Canada.
CWWA also tracked the activities of the Canadian Council of Ministers of Environment on the implementation of the Harmonization Agreement signed by the federal and provincial/territorial Ministers of the Environment, and on the development of standards for benzene, dioxins and furans, mercury, particulate matter and ground level ozone, and petroleum hydrocarbons in soil.
Regulatory activities of the federal government that were intensively followed, and for which Association positions were presented, included the following Canadian Environmental Protection Act initiatives (including particularly Priority Substances Assessments) of: Aluminum Salts, Ammonia in the Aquatic Environment, Chloramines, Chlorinated Municipal Wastewater Effluents, Chloroforms, Dioxins and Furans, Environmental Emergency Planning Guidelines, Environmental Performance Agreements Guidelines, National Municipal Wastewater Effluents Management Plan, Persistence and Bioaccumulation Regulations, Prevention of Pollution Planning Guidelines, Port Authority Operating Regulations (affecting municipal outfalls into harbours), N-Nitros odimethylamine (NDMA), Road Salts and Textile Mill Effluents. Support and CWWA information was given to Health Canada's Chlorinated Disinfection By-Products Task Force and its Working Groups and on several drinking water parameters under review.
Finally, the CWWA Members' Briefing Book was amended by the preparation of a number of new items and the revision of others, and six Policy and Position Statements were approved and published in the Briefing Book and on the CWWA Web Site.
Pan-Canadian Information Flow
The objective in this mission component is to make sure that Canadian water and wastewater sector knows what is happening in Canada in water and wastewater matters, along with key information coming from other countries. This was achieved by continuing to publish the CWWA Bulletin ten times per year, by issuing Communiqués and Fax and E-mail Alerts and by keeping the Members' Briefing Book up to date.
The CWWA Web site (www.cwwa.ca) is also an information exchange mechanism. In addition to providing this to CWWA Members, the Association developed an out-reach program to supply key information to non-members and, to this end, an extensive data-base of contact points and means was developed to ensure that a greater portion of the sector know of the key developments, concerns and issues.
The Association also provides regular information to other municipally oriented communication mechanisms such as the Environmental Science and Engineering Magazine, the Municipal World, the Canadian Association of Municipal Administrators' Newsletter, and the Federation of Canadian Municipalities Forum Magazine. Information is also supplied to member Associations of CWWA for inclusion in their own Newsletters and Bulletins.
International Representation
The objective in this mission component is to ensure that Canadian water and wastewater interests and activities are known in other countries and that developments in other countries are known within Canada.
In this area, CWWA prepared and contributed the Canadian National Report to the World Health Organization's Water and Sanitation 2000 project; signed a partnering agreement with WEF (parallel to the one with AWWA signed in 1999); assisted in the formation, along with the International Water Association (IWA), of national water and wastewater Associations in Zimbabwe, Zambia and Botswana; has maintained linkages with AIDIS International (the Pan-American Association of Environmental and Sanitary Engineers); established contact with the other CWWA - the Caribbean Water and Wastewater Association; has established relationships with the Union of African Water Suppliers based in Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire; and is a member of the International Water Association's Forum (an activity under IWA).
Finally, CWWA has facilitated the welcoming of foreign trade and technical missions to Canada and has provided information on Team Canada missions abroad.
This report was submitted by Peter Nicol, CH2M Hill Canada, who is WEAO's representative to CWWA. We hope to inform you, on a fairly regular basis, about the activities of this Association.
Peter Nicol, CH2M Hill Canada
