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"The lessons are not learned and not just in Walkerton either," said Hrudey to a packed Hagey Hall at UW‘s Humanities Theatre. Hrudey. a professor of environmental health sciâ€" ence in the Faculty of Mediâ€" cine and Dentistry at the University of Alberta, served on the research panel of the Walkerton inquiry, and said that while he attended events to commemorate the tragedy last year he found out a town near Walkerton had commissioned a well with features much like the one that was the root of the problem in 2000. A hydrologist report told the town‘s council the well He didn‘t waste anytime in proving how little has been done, citing example after example where even the simplest steps could have been taken to prevent tragedies such as Walkerton, where Eâ€"coli contamination of the town‘s water supply in May 2000 made 2.300 peoâ€" ple ill and led to the deaths of seven people. "150 Years and Counting: Drinking Water. Safety Lessons are Learned Slowâ€" Iy." n _ internationally A:‘cnm\‘ncd drinking vater safety expert says the best way to prevent tragedies like Walkerton is not with more technology but rather better monitorâ€" ing and training for water systems operators. Steven Hrudey, the Uniâ€" versity of Waterloo‘s 2006 TD Canada Trust/Walter Bean Visiting Professor in the Environment, gave his first public lecture last Thursday, Water safety expert says better practices are needed to prevent future tragedies By Bos Vrsinac Chronicle Staff Walkerton isn‘t the only example as he looked at other waterborn disease outbreaks in places like North Battleford. Sask., which took place 11 months after While most of the recomâ€" mendations of the Walkerâ€" ton water inquiry are being acted on, they‘re being addressed in almost a mechanical manner instead of changing the fundamenâ€" tal behaviour behind the failures in properly adminâ€" istering the drinking water system, he said Even more damning, when Hrudey sent a group of graduate students to surâ€" vey the surrounding municâ€" ipal water system of comâ€" munities near Walkerton last year, cne team brought back a photo of a running toilet right in the pump house of a well. Obviously the message isn‘t sinking in, said Hrudey, and he can‘t understand why. But local politicians said the approval process was already too far along and went ahead with it anyway, and even got it licensed through Ontario‘s Ministry of the Environment. was too close to active farmâ€" ing, shallow and susceptible to storm runoff like Walkerâ€" ton‘s Well No. 5. "There are knowledgeable people... who are dedicated to producing safe drinking water." â€" Steven Hrudey visiting professor Sure there were commuâ€" nication failures. and there are still failures in coordiâ€" nating all the ministries in If those recommendaâ€" tions were acted on they would have prevented the 2000 Walkerton tragedy. which was just 60 km. away. said Hrudev. Ihe Ministry of the Enviâ€" ronment is still investigating whether to press charges like it did in a similar spil in Elmira a few years ago. Before Walkerton, a simiâ€" lar situation occurred with a shallow well in Orangeville in April 1985, which proâ€" duced its own list of recom:â€" mendations. Kitchener is now talking about having a backup genâ€" crator in place in case the power is cut again to pumpâ€" ing stationsâ€"as it was in the latest caseâ€"to have some redundancy in the system. City officials were even proud of the lack of money spent in proper training. And it‘s still happening. There was a untreated sewage discharge into the Grand River in Kitchener just a couple of weeks ago. but luckily water officials were able to warn commuâ€" nities downstream to close their water intakes as the effluent passed by. Despite repeated warnâ€" ings, and some acknowledgâ€" ments of problems by sucâ€" cessive city councils in the Saskatchewan _ farming community, nothing was done to address the situaâ€" tion. When untreated sewage escaped in the river it was no surprise it ended up in the drinking water system, because the sewage treatâ€" ment plant was down river from a drinking water intake for the city. But Hrudey said the solution is as simple as havâ€" ing better trained water operators on the lookout for D Ontario responsible for safe drinking wager. 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