Experts Condemn “Phase Out” Of Free Private Well Water Testing

Jeff Green | Apr 03, 2024

Dennis O'Grady, the Managing Director of the Ontario Groundwater Association, did not mince words when asked about the proposal to “phase out” private well water tests that are currently done, free of charge, at Public Health Ontario labs.

“It does not make any sense to me,” he said. “It doesn’t make any sense for the province to say 'we will not help out those 3 million in our province, when we essentially provide free testing for the other 12 million people in our province, who are on municipal systems.”

The first Ontario Groundwater Act was written in 1947, and the Ontario Groundwater Association was created in 1952. The association is a “not-for-profit organisation to facilitate the various sectors of the ground water industry coming together for the delivery of safe and clean water supplies, throughout the Province,” says its website, and its members include licensed well technicians, across Ontario.

O'Grady said that the concerns over maintaining a safe drinking water supply that are at the centre of the O'Connor report, and recommendations following the Walkerton water crisis, which resulted in the death of 7 people, in the year 2000, should apply equally in rural Ontario as it does in urban Ontario.

“Our members take our responsibility seriously to provide a safe drinking water supply when they drill or maintain a well, and when they turn over the well to individual homeowners, that responsibility passes over to them. Free tests for well water is the only way the province supports those people, to help them keep their water supply safe.

In her “Annual Report on Drinking Water for 2023” Minister of Environment, Conservation and Parks Andrea Khanjin, wrote “Preserving clean, safe drinking water, and making sure all Ontarians can access it, continues to be a top priority for this government. In this report, I am pleased to share the actions our government has taken as part of our ongoing commitment to safeguarding this vital resource.”

The report then discussed municipal water testing and regulation in detail, with scant reference to private well testing by Public Health Ontario, with the exception of a reference to using some data collected as part of that testing to look at the impact of landfill on water quality. The report did not refer to the phase out of private well testing.

John Williamson is the chair of the Cataraqui Region Water Source Protection Committee, and a long time executive member with the Frontenac Federation of Agriculture. Before that, he had a long career as a biologist with the Ministry of Natural Resources and the Canadian Wildlife Service.

He contacted the Frontenac News this week to say that he also finds it hard to “fathom why the government would consider phasing out the testing. A safe drinking water supply is the most important Public Health concern there is.”

He also said that as part of their work to protect the source water for municipal systems in the Cataraqui watershed, the committee uses randomised water sample data from private wells, provided by the public health lab in Kingston, to help the committee understand which areas or communities, where there are problems.

As reported in the Frontenac News two weeks ago, Dr.Piotr Oglaza, Medical Officer of Health for Kingston, Frontenac, Lennox and Addington, expressed his concerns about changes which will create an impediment for private well owners to test their water supply.

“KFL&A Public Health recommends private homeowners test their drinking water regularly. Individuals living in rural or remote areas in Ontario are not served by municipal drinking water systems and rely on private drinking water wells. Private wells are inherently vulnerable to contamination risks including failing onsite sewage systems, incompatible land uses, flooding, and extreme rainfall events. Access to free and readily available private well water sampling is an important public health approach for private well users. Any increase in cost or reduction in access to drinking water sampling services may inadvertently increase health inequalities for rural Ontarians.”

KFL&A Public Health facilitates private well testing by collecting and transporting samples to the Ontario Public Health Laboratory in Kingston, but they are not involved in the operation of the lab, which is done by Public Health Ontario, an independent agency under direct provincial control.

Testmark Solutions is a private water testing service based in Mississauga, that also operates labs in Sudbury and other locations in north and northwestern Ontario.

Sylvia Rennie, Director of Marketing and Business Development at Testmark, said that people sometimes approach the company looking for testing of rural wells.

“We tell them that we can provide the test, but our minimum charge for a test is $40 and the test is free from public health,” she said. “We established our minimum charge a few years ago, and I believe it is on the low end for water testing services across the province.”

She said that her company does not see the end of publicly funded water testing as a boon to their business, since it is a market they have been planning to get into.

“The public testing is a good service,” she said.

Each spring, Conservation Authorities throughout the province run information programs designed to help rural landowners maintain their wells and ensure their water remains safe to drink.

Kelsey Guerette, the Coordinator for Source Protection with CRCA, said that testing should be done throughout the year.

“The water from your well is not static, it is impacted by activities around the well and it moves underground carrying any contamination with it and could end up affecting your drinking water quality. If you are drinking it today, it’s not going to be the same exact water quality a year, or month or week from now. This is why it’s important to test frequently, and to do it at different times of the year to assess any changes in the quality of your drinking water,” she explained.

“One recommended time of the year to test your water is in the spring, because there is a lot of melt and heavy rainfall leading to lots of runoff, which has so many impurities and material that could impact the quality of the water coming from your well.”

John Williamson pointed out that, even with free testing, “it is sometimes hard to convince rural property owners to get their water tested, even once a year. Removing the free testing service will only make that more difficult.”

The proposed phase out was included in a report by the Auditor General of Ontario that was released in November of 2023. Among other things, the report calls for the closure of 6 of the 11 Public Health labs in Ontario, including the lab in Kingston, as well as the “phase out of private well water testing”. Public Health Ontario, the agency that runs the labs, immediately said that it accepts those recommendations, and then discussed how to implement them.

“Upon receipt of Ministry approval to proceed, Public Health Ontario will commence the phased implementation of the plan. We will work closely with our stakeholders throughout the implementation process to communicate changes in service delivery and minimize service disruptions,” said the response.

By contrast, the Province of Ontario is continuing to invest in municipal water infrastructure.

In January of this year, as part of its plan to promote new housing starts in Ontario, the government announced the creation of the “Housing Enabling Water Systems Fund”.

“The Housing-Enabling Water Systems Fund will help municipalities repair, rehabilitate and expand critical drinking water, wastewater and stormwater infrastructure. We are investing $825 million over three years,” according to the posting on the Ontario.ca