You are here

Tritium reductions in drinking water Ontario

Nuclear Monitor Issue: 
#414
24/06/1994
Article

(June 24 1994) An independent provincial advisory committee in Canada has recommended that tritium levels allowed in drinking water be drastically cut from the current 40,000 becquerels of tritium per litre (Bq/l) of water to 100 Bq/l, a reduction of 400 times.

(414.4106) WISE Amsterdam - The Advisory Committee on Environmental Standards (ACES) which advises Bud Wildman, Canadian Minister of Environment and Energy, released its recommendations on Friday, May 27. The ACES report breaks new ground in the control of radioactive pollution. The Committee has also recommended that the level be cut to 20 Bq/l within five years. This proposed standard would require a shift to alternative water supplies if exceeded.

Current levels of tritium normally found in the Great Lakes are under 10 Bq/l. Emissions and accidents at nuclear facilities result in tritium levels in local drinking water supplies exceeding 20 Bq/l regularly, and exceeding the 100 Bq/l level at least annually. The August 1992 spill at Pickering resulted in the Toronto, Scarborough, Ajax and Whitby water supply plants all exceeding the 100 Bq/l level. The peak level measured due to that accident was over 1,000 Bq/l at Ajax.

The ACES report makes additional recommendations about the need to include tritium and other persistent and toxic radioactive elements in the province's Priority Pollutant List; about the need for timely public reporting of tritium levels in drinking water; about the need for Ontario Hydro and Atomic Energy of Canada Limited (AECL) to reduce tritium emissions from their nuclear facilities; and about the need for additional health studies.

The ACES report notes that the proposed standard recommended by the Ministry of Environment and Energy Standards Branch of 7,000 Bq/l (based on the World Health Organization standard of 7,800 Bq/l) could result in 340 fatal cancers per million people exposed for a lifetime. The 100 Bq/l standard could result in 5 fatal cancers per million.

Tritium is a radioactive form of hydrogen which builds up as an unwanted by-product in CANDU reactors. Like all radioactive substances, tritium is carcinogenic - a cancer causing agent. Tritium is routinely released in huge quantities to the air and water at these facilities. Accidents can result in additional massive increases of tritium over a short period of time in down-stream community drinking water supplies.

In Ontario, communities in the vicinity of the Pickering and Darlington nuclear stations in Durham Region east of Toronto, as well as the Bruce Nuclear Power Development on Lake Huron, and the Chalk River Nuclear Laboratories on the Ottawa River all face elevated levels of tritium in their drinking water. Port Elgin, down-stream from the Bruce site, consistently has the highest tritium levels of any community in Ontario, followed by Ajax, downstream of Pickering; and by Pembroke, downstream of Chalk River. Pickering, Darlington and Bruce are operated by Ontario Hydro, while Chalk River is operated by AECL.

For more information, contact Irene Kock, Durham Nuclear Awareness (DNA) P.O. Box 2143 Oshawa, Ontario Canada L1H 7V4 phone /fax: + 1-905-7251565.E-mail: web:nucaware

For a copy of the ACES Report:
Advisory Committee on Environmental Standards (ACES) 40 St. Clair Avenue West, Suite # 401 Toronto, Ontario Canada M4V 1M2
phone + 1-416-314-9265; fax: + 1 416-314-9270