Province Planning To Phase Out Private Water Well Ecoli Testing

Jeff Green | Mar 20, 2024

A provincial audit report, prepared by the Office of the Auditor General of Ontario, and released this past December, could have major implications throughout rural Ontario, if implemented.

The report, which is called a “Value for Money Audit – Public Health Ontario” looks in detail at the operations of Public Health Ontario.

Public Health Ontario has a relatively short history, having been founded in 2007 in response to the challenges faced by SARS.

In the words of the audit report, “Public Health Ontario’s role is chiefly in disease surveillance, disease prevention and outbreak preparedness, as opposed to clinical treatment.”

It operates independently of the Office of the Chief Medical Officer of Health and the 34 Public Health Units in the province, one of which is Kingston Frontenac Lennox and Addington Public Health (KFLAPH).

The largest part of Public Health Ontario's budget, 71%, is spent operating Public Health Laboratories in the province, which includes the main lab in Toronto as well as 10 other regional labs, including the lab in Kingston.

KFLAPH helps Public Health Ontario carry out water testing of private wells by handing out water sampling kits and receiving completed tests at all KFLAPH offices. The samples are sent to the Public Health Ontario Lab on Barrie Street in Kingston, where they are tested for E. coli and total coliform.

But all of that is slated to change.

As the audit report points out, Public Health was poised to close several of its labs, including the lab in Kingston, and cease doing water tests, in 2017.

“In 2017, Public Health Ontario proposed a joint modernisation plan to update its public health laboratory, collaboratively with ministry staff at the request of the deputy minister, that would have resulted in: gradually closing six of its 11 public health laboratory sites, (Hamilton, Kingston, Orillia, Peterborough, Sault Ste. Marie and Timmins) while maintaining coverage across the province through five geographic areas; and changing the types of tests offered at the Public Health Ontario laboratory that would remove 20 tests and restrict eligibility for 12 additional tests, as well as the gradual discontinuation of private drinking water testing.”

These changes did not take place prior to the onset of COVID, and were then put on hold during the peak years of the COVID pandemic.

The new report not only recommends that the 2017 plan be resurrected, but that it be done quickly.

“We recommend that Public Health Ontario, in conjunction with the Ministry of Health, update and implement a plan within 12 months to streamline public health laboratory operations.”

A table in the report indicates that the Kingston lab completed the 2nd most tests in the province in the periods between 2019 and 2023, 3.24 million, including 1.7 million that were generated locally, and 1.55 million that were transferred from other labs in the province that did not have the necessary capacity to complete those particular tests.

The labs complete a variety of tests, and in 2020 the labs took on the added burden of COVID testing.

In their response, Public Health accepted the Auditor General’s recommendation, and said that as soon as the Ministry of Health gives them 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 minimise service disruptions.”

In response to a query from the Frontenac News, Dr. Piotr Oglaza, the Medical Officer of Health for Kingston Frontenac Lennox and Addington and Chief Executive Officer of KFLAPH, said that “KFL&A Public Health cannot comment on the likelihood of the closure of the Kingston Public Health Ontario (PHO) laboratory.

He also said that the lab is an important community asset.

“The Kingston PHO laboratory plays a vital role in detecting infectious diseases, monitoring health trends and informing public health actions. Its closure would impact access to timely diagnostic services, influencing the timeliness of decision making to inform local public health response.”

At a meeting on February 28, the KFLAPH Board passed a motion strongly opposing the closure of the Kingston Lab, according to a report by Michelle Dorey Forestall that was posted on the Kingstonist website.

As for the plan to cease providing water tests for private wells, Oglaza underlined how important the tests are for the health of rural Ontarians.

“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.”

In the Frontenac News readership area alone, there are over 12,000 households, and with the exception of a few hundred residents within the Village of Sydenham, they all rely on private wells for their drinking water.

When the KFLAPH office in Sharbot Lake closed last October, the township of Central Frontenac and KFLAPH quickly came to an agreement for the township to distribute test kits and receive water samples for transfer to the Kingston Public Health Ontario Lab for testing.