Early history of wastewater treatment in Toronto
Can anything good be said about the cholera and typhus epidemic that swept the Toronto area in the mid-1800s? There was one very positive result: the threat of a fatal disease stopped residents from dumping their outhouse pails onto the street.
Up to this time, many people had no concern for where they put their wastewater. One of the earliest concepts involved dumping untreated wastewater into the nearest body of water where it was supposed to disperse naturally. Unfortunately, this did not always happen. Instead, much of the untreated wastewater ended up washing onto Lake Ontario's beaches to the dismay of tourists and residents. It also contaminated local bays from which drinking water was drawn. Once society was informed of the connection between these diseases and the accumulation of human waste, the need for a wastewater treatment system was at last recognized.
The construction of a wastewater treatment system did not occur immediately, even though systems were already in place in the United States and Britain. Progress was hindered, not only by the local government, hesitant to fund such an expensive project in poor economic times, but by the quibbles of wealthy residents reluctant to pay for wastewater systems in poor neighbourhoods.
Gradually an efficient wastewater treatment system became a necessity. If Toronto was to compete with other areas for new businesses and immigrants, it needed a good health record.
Toronto's first wastewater treatment plant was built in 1910 at the southern tip of Leslie Street. The Ashbridges Bay Treatment Plant (then known as the Main Treatment Plant) treated a capacity of 150,000 cubic metres of wastewater a day.
By 1953, Ashbridges Bay was one of 18 wastewater treatment plants scattered across the 13 municipalities that made up the Toronto area. Most of these plants were overloaded and ill-equipped to serve their drainage area in a period of dramatic population growth. Therefore, one of the first decisions made by the new Municipality of Metropolitan Toronto government in 1954 was to stop the construction of small wastewater treatment plants and replace them with larger ones that could handle the wastewater of several municipalities. Consequently, some of the smaller wastewater treatment plants were converted into wastewater pumping stations for the four large wastewater treatment plants which were in operation by 1960.
Current wastewater services
In addition to the Ashbridges Bay Wastewater Treatment Plant, three other wastewater treatment plants are in operation today: North Toronto, Highland Creek and the Humber. These plants are owned and operated by the City of Toronto.
Four plants
- Ashbridges Bay Wastewater Treatment Plant
- North Toronto Wastewater Treatment Plant
- Highland Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant
- Humber Wastewater Treatment Plant