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Revision as of 18:45, 22 December 2005
The Walkerton Tragedy is a series of tragic events that accompanied the contamination of the water supply of Walkerton, Ontario by E. coli bacteria in May 2000.
Summary
The water supply for the town of Walkerton was operated by the Walkerton Public Utilities Commission, with Stan Koebel as supervisor. The water supply became contaminated with the highly dangerous O157:H7 strain of E. coli bacteria, likely from farm runoff. Starting May 15, 2000, many of the residents of the town of about 5,000 began to experience bloody diarrhea and other symptoms of E. coli infection. For days the Walkerton Public Utilities Commission insisted that the water supply was safe. On May 21, an escalation in the number of patients with similar symptoms finally spurned the region's Medical Health Office to warn residents not to drink the water.
Seven people died directly from E.coli, another 14 elderly people died of E.coli complications, and at least 2,300 people (more than 40% of the population at the time) became ill.
Aftermath
An inquiry, led by by Justice Dennis O'Connor, was held in Walkerton in October, 2000. The inquiry report, released in November 2001 estimated that the Walkerton water tragedy cost between 64.5 and 155 million dollars and laid much of the blame at the door of the Walkerton Public Utilities Commission.
From the report:
- For years, the Walkerton Public Utilities Commission operators engaged in a host of improper operating practices, including failing to use adequate doses of chlorine, failing to monitor chlorine residuals daily, making false entries about residuals in daily operating records, and misstating the locations at which microbiological samples were taken. The operators knew that these practices were unacceptable and contrary to Ministry of Environment guidelines and directives.
The Ontario provincial government was also blamed for this incident for their privatization of public water testing labs and for ignoring warnings that this move could put people's lives at risk.
From the tragegy, a new Drinking Water Protection Regulation was enacted that requires all water system operators to produce an independent Professional Engineers' Report.
The many lessons learned from this incident were described by Kim Vicente in his book The Human Factor.
A 2005 CBC Television documentary called Betrayed was based loosely upon the Walkerton tragedy.
A similar outbreak in North Battleford, Saskatchewan in 2001 caused illness in 200 people.
External Link
- CBC background article
- Water Science and Technology article
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