Find a summary of key terminology, definitions and features present in your Ontario Wastewater Dashboard.
What is the Ontario Wastewater Dashboard?
The Ontario Wastewater Dashboard provides a view of effluent emissions for wastewater treatment facilities across Ontario. The dashboard can be used to identify cases of effluent discharges which exceed environmental compliance approval.
Key Terms
Effluent Terms
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BOD - Biochemical oxygen demand, the amount of oxygen consumed by bacteria and other microorganisms while they decompose organic matter under aerobic conditions.
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CBOD - Carbonaceous biochemical oxygen demand, measures dissolved oxygen depletion only from carbonaceous sources. When applied to wastewater, CBOD measures the potential of wastewater to deplete the oxygen level in the receiving water.
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E.coli - Escherichia coli bacterial colony-forming units (CFUs) per 100ml
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Phosphorus - total phosphorus (TP) measures all phosphorus forms (inorganic and organic).
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TKN - Total Kjeldahl Nitrogen, measures organic nitrogen and ammonia nitrogen.
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TAN - Total Ammonia Nitrogen, measures unionized ammonia and ionized ammonium.
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TSS - Total suspended solids, measures waterborne particles that exceed 2 microns in size.
Facility Name
The name of wastewater facility as per Environment and Climate Change Canada’s Wastewater Systems Effluent Regulations Reported Data.
Owner Name
The name of the public entity which owns the wastewater facility.
Operator Type
A classification of the owner based on the level of governance. Facilities can be operated on a municipal or provincial level.
Compliance Status
This is a label of overall compliance. If the facility did not exceed the effluent limit across all measured effluents, it is considered compliant. If any of the measured effluent values are above the limit, this is considered non-compliant.
Discharge water Body
The name the associated water body which the facility discharges effluent into. This is the water body frequented by fish which is reported in Environment and Climate Change Canada’s Wastewater Systems Effluent Regulations Data.
Pictures/Guides
Geo Chart
A map of wastewater facilities across Ontario. The chart measures the Average Daily Effluent Volume of facilities, dark orange indicates higher volume. This chart is interactive, click on individual facilities to filter the dashboard.
Facility Table
A table view of the Average Daily Effluent Volume. Dark blue values indicate high Effluent Volume. This table is interactive, click on individual facilities to filter the dashboard. The table can be sorted by clicking on any of the column names.
Treatment Chart
An area chart which shows the distribution of treatment methods among the facilities included in the dashboard. This chart is interactive, click on individual treatment types to filter the dashboard.
Chlorine Use Graph
A pie chart which shows the proportion of facilities which use chlorine in their treatment process. This chart is interactive, click on on the yellow section to filter for facilities which use chlorine or on the blue section to filter for sections which do not use chlorine.
Facility Compliance Table
A table view of Compliance Status for each facility. This is an interactive table, click on a facility to filter the dashboard. The table can also be sorted by clicking on each of the column names. The Table displays the following:
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Overall Compliance: If the facility effluent discharge was below the ECA limit throughout the year of 2024, it is considered compliant. If any of the measured effluent values are above the ECA limit, this is considered non-compliant.
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Months in Non-Compliance: The number of months where at least one case of non-compliance occurred in 2024.
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Months in Non-Compliance - Effluent Level: The number of months where a specific effluent value was non-compliance in 2024. The following effluent values are tracked
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BOD
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CBOD
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pH - Lower and Upper Limits
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TKN
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TAN
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E.Coli
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TSS
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Historic Violations: The number of violations reported to the Ministry of Environment Conservation and Parks between 2017-2023.
Effluent Graphs
Graphs which displaymeasured effluent values for the year of 2024. The Graph can be hovered to view the specific values in each month. The overall Compliance status for each effluent value will be provided in the top right label of each graph.
