Walkerton, Ontario
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Walkerton is a small town on the Saugeen River in Bruce County, Ontario, 75 km southwest of Owen Sound. It is the county seat.
The town was incorporated in 1871 and was named after Joseph Walker, who settled in this area in 1850. On January 1 1999, it became part of the Municipality of Brockton.
The Walkerton Tragedy
The town of Walkerton became suddenly famous throughout Canada and the world in May 2000 after the town's water supply became contaminated with the highly dangerous O157:H7 strain of E. coli bacteria from farm runoff. Seven people died and at least 2,300 people, more than 40% of the population at the time, became ill.
Following a thorough inquiry by Justice Dennis O'Connor, much of the blame was laid at the door of the operators of the water supply. In particular:
- "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 hasty privatization of public water testing labs and for ignorning warnings that this move could put people's lives at risk.
A tightening of procedures for water supply was instituted throughout Ontario as a result. The many lessons learned from this incident were described by Kim Vicente in his book The Human Factor.
A similar outbreak struck North Battleford, Saskatchewan in 2001.
External links
- Town web site (http://town.walkerton.on.ca/)
- http://canadanews.about.com/cs/walkerton/
- Water Science and Technology article (http://www.iwaponline.com/wst/04703/wst047030001.htm)
- CBC Report on Wakerton tragedy (http://www.cbc.ca/news/background/walkerton/)