What is it about?
In Canada, there is evidence of an increasing policy convergence in the Ontario municipal drinking water, wastewater, and stormwater sectors in the form of adopting risk-based management system approaches that draw on private (non-state) regulation such as that of the Environmental Management Systems from the ISO 14001. This convergence is supported with a critical mass of experience in applying the mandatory Drinking Water Quality Management System (DWQMS), which municipalities are also transferring such asset management tools proactively to their wastewater and stormwater systems.
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Why is it important?
Canadian organizations are increasingly being directly or indirectly encouraged by laws, and courts decisions to adopt EMS and in some cases, specifically to implement ISO 14001 certifications. Municipal wastewater and stormwater systems in Ontario, Canada, and in other jurisdictions have adopted ISO 14001 rather than ISO 9001 as the best suited standard. After ten years since the introduction of the provincially required DWQMS in 2006, a critical mass of knowledge has developed among municipal governments, with the effect that they now seem to be proactively transferring that knowledge to the wastewater and stormwater sectors and are choosing ISO 14001 (EMS) as their preferred choice for wastewater and stormwater systems.
Perspectives
Municipalities are in a unique position, as subjects of regulation and entities that regulate themselves, that are subject to more accountability, and transparency. Municipalities have a distinctive position to highlight particular regulatory gaps and limitations of current provincial (state) legislation. An increasing reliance upon EMS and certification can be seen as a partial response to address some of the existing gaps and limitations, and creating a form of conceptual “bridge” between public and private forms of regulation for the wastewater and stormwater sectors. There appears to be value in developing a provincial Wastewater and Stormwater Management Standard that is aligned with the Drinking Water Quality standard, ISO 9001 (QMS), and ISO 14001 (EMS), thus tending to ensure a harmonized and consistent approach across the drinking water, wastewater and stormwater contexts. Whether this new standard is mandatory or left to voluntary adoption of municipalities, is a question this research intends to answer on its next phase.
Edgar Tovilla
Ryerson University
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Examining the emerging environmental protection policy convergence in the Ontario municipal drinking water, wastewater and stormwater sectors, Water Quality Research Journal, July 2017, IWA Publishing,
DOI: 10.2166/wqrj.2017.043.
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