Resolving Roles and Risk in a Rapidly Changing Regulatory Environment

摘要

Ontario introduced new drinking water regulations (The Drinking Water Protection Regulation) in August 2000. One of the provisions was the requirement that every municipal water system in the Province (approx 625) produce an "Engineers' Report" on their system. The emphasis was on disinfection and filtration, including:1. a full system description2. assessment of the potential for microbial contamination3. characterization of the raw water source (surface, ground or ground under the influence)4. assessment of operational procedures5. determination of a system specific monitoring programThe need was driven by the Walkerton tragedy, so the accuracy and reliability of the reports was critical. The nature of their preparation produced some equally critical evaluation of individual roles.The utilities were mandated by regulation to complete the reports by a specific date and are paying for the Reports. The work had to be done by a registered professional engineer who is not an employee of the owner or the operator. The engineer had to sign a sworn declaration that the Regulator could rely on the accuracy of the Report. The Regulator had the final say in the acceptability of the Reports.The paper outlines the management challenges faced and solved as each party cooperated to balance their respective responsibilities.