New figures from Environment Canada show that aging and old-fashioned municipal sewer systems dumped nearly 900 billion litres of raw sewage into Canada’s waterways from 2013 to 2018.
That’s the equivalent of filling an Olympic-sized swimming pool more than 355,000 times.
And, according to a report by Canadian Press’s Mia Rabson, the dumping is getting worse.
A sign warns to avoid contact with the water along the shore of the St. Lawrence River in Montreal in 2015. (Ryan Remiorz/The Canadian Press)
Overflow amounts in 2018 were up 44 per cent over 2013.
Mark Mattson, the president of Swim Drink Fish Canada, says those numbers are not the end of it.
Mattson says the actual amount of polluted water that Canada produces is far worse because data isn’t collected from all municipal water systems–but only from systems that combine sewer and stormwater pipes.
Environment Canada data posted earlier this month shows that wastewater treatment plants across the country failed tests of their water quality thousands of times between 2013 to 2018.
With files from CP (Mia Rabson)
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