{"id":20410,"date":"2018-04-18T20:33:31","date_gmt":"2018-04-19T00:33:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=20410"},"modified":"2018-04-18T20:33:31","modified_gmt":"2018-04-19T00:33:31","slug":"crackdown-on-discharging-pool-water-might-be-revisited","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/crackdown-on-discharging-pool-water-might-be-revisited\/","title":{"rendered":"Crackdown on discharging pool water might be revisited"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Brock Weir<\/strong><\/p>\n

Tougher bylaws on how homeowners can discharge the treated water from their swimming pools and hot tubs could soon be back on Council\u2019s agenda.
\nLast week, Council members signed off on a motion brought about by Councillor Wendy Gaertner tasking staff to come back with a series of recommendations on how existing sewer bylaws within Aurora could be changed to address environmental concerns stemming from the discharge of chemically treated water.
\nIt is an issue which should be treated with importance, she said, given Aurora\u2019s position on the Oak Ridges Moraine, as well as at the headwaters of the Holland River Watershed.
\n\u201cThe bottom line is when it may result in a hazard or other adverse effect to vegetation or the natural environment, that is what we need to take care of here,\u201d she said. \u201cI look forward to seeing what staff come back with. I am not just pulling this out of a hat; it is because we\u2019re at the headwaters, we\u2019re also on the Oak Ridges Moraine, and water that goes into our systems can adversely affect the natural environment and we need to take care of that.\u201d
\nHer motion was approved 7 \u2013 1 (Councillor John Abel was not at the meeting).
\nSpeaking in favour of the motion, Councillor Tom Mrakas said it was an important issue to look into addressing.
\n\u201cI know that other municipalities like Mississauga have set some regulatory measures in place in regards to pool discharge,\u201d he said. \u201cI look forward to seeing what staff come up with and present to us in a bylaw and I am looking forward to\u2026moving forward. \u201c
\nThis is not the first time Aurora has tried to tighten up measures surrounding the discharge of pool and hot tub water.
\nThe issue was first highlighted in the last term of by environmentalist Peter Piersoll and his concerns were subsequently addressed, at least in part, by the Town\u2019s Environmental Advisory Committee (EAC).
\nThe EAC recommended an education campaign throughout the Town, focusing on showing the public where \u2013 and how \u2013 to discharge pool water, including the neutralization of pool chemicals, but some of the advice was a bit impractical.
\n\u201cSome of the information we released back in 2016 did make reference to one option [being] to discharge pool water into the sanitary sewer system,\u201d said Marco Ramunno, Aurora\u2019s Director of Planning. \u201cWe did realise there is a complication there with respect to how homeowners can actually do that, running a line into their home. I think it is probably time to revisit\u2026the best approach to discharge pool water. We will do some additional investigation and I think the next step would be to report back to Council with suggested amendments to our current municipal sewer bylaw.
\n\u201cOur current bylaw does not speak specifically to where or how to discharge pool or hot tub water. It speaks in general terms with respect to discharging inappropriate substances directly into the sanitary or storm sewer, so our bylaw doesn\u2019t speak to discharge of pool water.\u201d
\nThe lone holdout voting against the motion was Councillor Paul Pirri, who said he just didn\u2019t see the merit.
\n\u201cMy parents have a pool, the condo I live in has a pool. From a practical standpoint for residents in Aurora who are lucky enough to have pools like I was growing up, there are some big problems with regulating that,\u201d he said, noting that pipes would need to go directly into the sewer line for proper discharge into the sanitary sewer system. \u201cI think the public awareness campaign is a great issue, I think finding a way to neutralize the chemicals is a great thing we can do from a communications standpoint, but I hesitate to over-regulate this and I don\u2019t think it is a massive problem.\u201d<\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tougher bylaws on how homeowners can discharge the treated water from their swimming pools and hot tubs could soon be back on Council\u2019s agenda. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20410","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-5jc","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-14 07:55:57","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20410","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20410"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20410\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20410"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20410"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20410"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}