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Back in the Middle Ages, people had a straightforward way of dealing with their sewage. They threw the contents of the chamber pot into the streets.
In the late 19th century and even into the early 20th century, the filth ran through pipes to a body of water where a current took it away.
Surely, we’ve come a long way from that in the ultra-modern 21st century. Or not.
The Sierra Legal Defence Fund, an organization with an obvious interest in the topic, has compiled figures from municipalities concerning how much raw sewage is poured into the Great Lakes, the world’s largest reservoir of formerly fresh water.
Leading the pack is Detroit, followed by Cleveland and Toronto. According to the report, untreated waste from the 20 cities studied amounted to about 98 billion litres a year being dumped into the lakes.
Why does this happen? Well, old sewage systems quite often collect both rainwater and sewage. So when a large rainfall occurs, sewage and storm water overwhelm treatment plants so municipal officials must release raw sewage into rivers and lakes to avoid having filth bubble up into city basements.
There are days when the chamber pot out the window looks like a better option.
The result is that millions of litres of raw waste cascade into the Great Lakes watershed. Major Canadian offenders include Hamilton, Windsor, Kingston, Sudbury and London.
The solution to this mess is to separate storm water and sanitary water mains. Seems simple enough, except that it costs hundreds of millions of dollars to repair infrastructure.
Just recently, former Ottawa Transition Board member David Muir, a chartered accountant, said it would take about $300 million to $400 million a year to keep this city’s infrastructure up to date. That would translate into about a 30- to 40-per-cent increase in municipal property-tax bills. Such a figure is simply untenable for municipal taxpayers.
Canada’s tax system is broken. The federal government has a $13.5-billion surplus while municipalities, strapped for cash, are pumping raw sewage into the Great Lakes for lack of revenue. This is unacceptable in the early 21st century. We don’t need more taxes, just better use of them.
Premier Dalton McGuinty is reviewing the municipal property-tax system. The condition of the Great Lakes shows how important this review is. The premier must take into account all reasonable suggestions, including a municipal income tax, to provide cash for municipalities.