Ontarios drinking water quality is improving.
Over 100 people came to the 3rd Annual Drinking Water Education and Industry Forum at the Walkerton Clean Water Centre on Wednesday.
They heard the Chief Drinking Water Inspector — John Stager — deliver his 2008 report on the state of the provinces drinking water.
This is the 4th annual report, the first for Stager as Chief Inspector.
Stager says over 520 thousand samples were taken last year from 690 municipal systems and 190 private systems.
He says 99.8 percent of those samples came back meeting overall provincial standards while 94 percent met standards for lead.
He says the few samples that didn’t meet the standards were taken care of immediately.
Stager says it is a partnership between municipalities, water operators, the health unit, and the Ministry of the Environment that will make the 8 pillars of the safety net work.
He says if you want to protect drinking water there has to be cooperation from all parties not just one individual or one group.
Stager says they find smaller systems more challenging than large ones because of the operators lack of technical knowledge.
He says they need to be able to provide products and information in order to give them the knowledge to do something if a safety breach occurs.
Stager says there are no red flags in the report and is very confident that the safety measures in place will ensure safe clean drinking water for communities.
He says communities like Walkerton are dedicated to making sure that another tragedy doesn’t happen.
He says the more he learns about it the better he feels in his position.