Sewers and Water Supply By-laws 2020 Compliance and Enforcement Annual Report

The staff performed 5,079 sampling events, which resulted in 14,281 laboratory analyses. A total of 538 Notices of Violation were issued for non-compliance under the Sewers By-law and 16 issued for non-compliance under the Water Supply By-law. In 2020, cases involving 15 companies moved forward to prosecution for both the Sewers and Water Supply By-laws. Under the Sewers By-law, there were 2 convictions resulting in $16,000 in fines (convictions may include prosecution files started in previous years). This total does not include the Victim Fine Surcharge (which is collected and retained by the Ontario Provincial Government for victims of crime - for fines over $1,000; the surcharge is 25 percent of the fine). The remaining prosecution files are still before the courts. The number of Industrial Waste Surcharge Agreements entered into with businesses increased in 2020 and the total cost recovery for Toronto Water under this program was $9.7 million. Similarly, the total number of Sanitary Discharge Agreements increased, and there was a total cost recovery of $9.7 million. In 2020, the Outfall Monitoring Program identified 12 new cross connections (arising from sanitary wastewater misdirected to a storm sewer) and verified the correction of 13 cross connections (some were carried over from previous years). One (1) Priority Outfall within Toronto's watersheds was delisted, thereby seeing an improvement in water quality at that outfall and its receiving waters. All of the above noted activities and functions have been carried out under the impacts and challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic, during which Toronto Water's Environmental Monitoring and Protection Unit maintained and carried out all of its mandated functions and responsibilities including field related operations, inspections and investigations. Details are provided in this report.