Stay in the know on all things drinking water
Dr. William B. Anderson retired on January 1, 2025. He maintains a connection to the Water Science, Technology & Policy Group through an adjunct professorship to guide his remaining graduate students through to their degree completion. He was previously a Research Associate Professor and the Associate Director of the group. He has been active in drinking water quality and treatment research for over 45 years, more recently focusing on contaminant adsorption to microplastics, microplastic removal through chemically assisted filtration, pathogen removal, perfluorinated compounds, cyanobacteria and their toxins, and biological filtration. He has served on the Boards of Directors of the Ontario Water Works Association (OWWA) and the Walkerton Clean Water Centre and currently serves on the OWWA Advocacy Steering Committee and the Canadian Water and Wastewater Association Drinking Water Quality Committee. Please note that Dr. Anderson is no longer accepting graduate students.
The past 15 years, Bill has maintained an email service drawing attention to items of interest to drinking water professionals including, for example, the latest research articles, regulatory updates, outbreak reports, topical issues, and media stories. Bill’s email service has expanded over time to include all interested individuals. These emails are now also archived here in a blog format as they are released, which can be explored by category or simply by scrolling through the posts below.
If you would like to join Bill’s email list for updates straight to your inbox, you can send an email to Bill to be added to the list.
Health Canada drinking water guidelines and guidance documents
Health Canada continues to be active with requests for public comment on proposed drinking water guidelines and guidance documents. At present, there are 4 of these with due dates for comments in the next three months. I’ve listed them below along with the due dates for comments. Each is linked to the Health Canada website with PDF format documents which can be downloaded.
Estimates of healthcare utilisation and deaths from waterborne pathogen exposure in Ontario, Canada
The study estimated the disease burden attributable to nine enteric pathogens, unspecified pathogens leading to gastroenteritis, and three opportunistic pathogens leading primarily to respiratory illness.
Consultation: Guidance on Monitoring the Biological Stability of Drinking Water in Distribution Systems
The study estimated the disease burden attributable to nine enteric pathogens, unspecified pathogens leading to gastroenteritis, and three opportunistic pathogens leading primarily to respiratory illness.
MDPI Webinar- Sewage Screening as an Early Outbreak Alert Tool and SARS-Covid-2 Fate in the Aquatic Environment
There are COVID-19 (SARS-CoV-2) webinars almost weekly. While this one also has a wastewater focus, there will be some information on the fate of the virus in the aquatic environment.
Available for review and comment: Background document for microcystin
Draft revised background document for microcystin is now available for review. The documents will also inform the revision of the Guidelines for Safe Recreational Water Environments. Comments are welcome by April 17, 2020 to the following e-mail address: gdwq@who.int.
Coronavirus Research Update – Webcast March 12, 3:30pm EDT
Water Research Foundation free 1.5 hour webcast on coronavirus “with technical details, resources, and published public health recommendations as we continue to learn more about this ongoing outbreak.”