Environment and Climate Change

1.1 General

This standard provides a framework for an organization to use to enhance its performance of quality and environmental management. This standard is intended for use by organizations seeking to manage its wastewater systems’ performance in a systematic manner that contributes to system integrity and sustainability.

This standard provides organizations with a framework to facilitate the ability to consistently collect, treat and manage wastewater and associated environmental inputs and outputs in a way that meets applicable legislative, regulatory and the organization’s own requirements and to enhance environmental protection through the effective application and continual improvement of the wastewater management system.

1.2 Exclusions

1.2.1 General

The standard is not intended to apply to initial planning, new development, new expansions and construction or site closure / remediation and is not intended to apply to stormwater only systems, which is provided for in CSA W211 Management standard for stormwater systems.  The dotted line boxes in Figure 1, involve activities that are out of scope of this standard such as watershed planning, environmental assessments, engineering design for new development and expansions, and construction. Out of scope items are noted for awareness only, but organizations may choose to include those aspects to fit their scope needs.

1.2.2 Financial

This standard does not specify financial, accounting or related technical requirements for managing specific group of assets.

Figure 1

Scope of Wastewater Management System Standard

(See Clauses 1.1 and 1.2.)

Figure caption: Diagram of WWMS general scope

Accessibility: This standard is intended to apply to the operation of wastewater system assets, from initial commissioning until operation ceases including protecting the life cycle of infrastructure assets.  This scope is illustrated in Figure 1, depicting at the center, the three core operational processes: collections and conveyance; treatment; and biosolids and other emissions. These operational processes have on the front the inputs (i.e., sanitary sewer, combined sewer, rainfall (inflow and infiltration), and surface spills); as well as the outputs at the back (i.e., reclaimed wastewater to the environment, biosolids management, and odour and other emissions). This core framework is supported by a combination of support processes, some of which are in-scope, and others which are out-of-scope from this standard. The in-scope support process are grouped in three areas: 1) operational support (i.e., initial commissioning, compliance, emergency management, and monitoring); 2) infrastructure renewal (i.e., asset plan, inspection and maintenance, condition assessment, asset renewal and replacement, and asset life cycle); and 3) business support (i.e., risk management, personnel training, management review, continual improvement and audit). The out-of-scope support processes include: watershed planning, environmental assessments, occupational health and safety, engineering design for new development and expansions, construction and business continuity).

1.3 Application

This standard applies to the operation, management, and maintenance of wastewater systems. This standard draws elements from, but is not limited to:

a)   Ontario’s Drinking Water Quality Management Standard;

b)   ISO 9001 Quality management systems – Requirements;

c)   ISO 14001 Environmental management systems – Requirements with guidance for use; and

d)   ISO 31000 Risk management – Guidelines.

1.4 Operating authority and operational plan

This standard requires identifying an operating authority, which could also be the owner for some wastewater systems. Where an operating authority is operating multiple wastewater systems for a single owner, the operating authority may choose to develop a WWMS that combines the components that are common for all wastewater systems.

The operational plan for the wastewater system(s) would contain these common components or would reference separate documented information that would be available to users of the operational plan.  The common WWMS components would need to be implemented both at the operating authority level and at the owner level and the roles, responsibilities and authorities would need to be documented for each level.

1.5 Terminology

In this standard, “shall” is used to express a requirement, i.e., a provision that the user is obliged to satisfy in order to comply with the standard; “should” is used to express a recommendation or that which is advised but not required; and “may” is used to express an option or that which is permissible within the limits of the standard.

Notes accompanying clauses do not include requirements or alternative requirements; the purpose of a note accompanying a clause is to separate from the text explanatory or informative material.

Notes to tables and figures are considered part of the standard and may be written as requirements.

Annexes are designated normative (mandatory) or informative (non-mandatory) to define their application.

1.6 Operating principle

This standard follows the Plan-Do-Check-Act cycle as an operating principle for continual improvement similarly to most management system standards.

An organization that wishes to demonstrate conformity with this standard can do so by:

a)  making a self-determination and self-declaration; or

b)   seeking confirmation of its conformity by parties having an interest in the organization, such as owners; or

c)   seeking confirmation of its self-declaration by a party external to the organization; or

d)   seeking certification and or registration of its wastewater management system by an external organization.