Infographic 1
Municipal Wastewater Systems in Canada

Infographic description

The title of the infographic is "Municipal Wastewater Systems in Canada"

Subtitle is 'Volumes of provincial wastewater (sewage) discharged by treatment category, 2017 (millions of cubic metres). Below the titles is a legend that lists the categories of treatment and their corresponding colours used in the infographic for each province and Canada.

Light grey corresponds to: Combined Sewer Overflows (CSOs) are from sewers that convey both stormwater and wastewater (sewage) that overflow into receiving waters (lakes, rivers or oceans) without treatment.

Dark grey corresponds to: No treatment (NT) – wastewater (sewage) is discharged into receiving waters (lakes, rivers or oceans) without treatment.

Green corresponds to: Primary treatment (PT) removes a portion of suspended solids and organic matter by physical and/or chemical processes.

Teal corresponds to: Secondary treatment (ST) removes biodegradable organic matter and suspended solids using biological treatment processes and secondary settlement.

Light blue corresponds to: Tertiary treatment (TT) further removes residual suspended solids, nutrients and/or other contaminants using various physical, chemical or biological processes.

In the background is a map of Canada and provinces/territories with a column in each province with the colours representing the volume of wastewater (expressed in millions of cubic metres) discharged by treatment category. There is one large column in the centre left of the infographic that represents the aggregate totals for each treatment category for all of Canada.

The Canada column, CSOs=164, NT=106, PT=1535, ST=2827, TT=1442.

The Newfoundland and Labrador column, CSOs=0, NT=42, PT=56, ST=15, TT=1.

The Prince Edward Island Column, CSOs=0, NT=0, PT=0, ST=11, TT=3.

The Nova Scotia Column, CSOs=24, NT=19, PT=71, ST=44, TT=17.

The New Brunswick column, CSOs=14, NT=0, PT=23, ST=82, TT=1.

The Quebec column, CSOs=54, NT=7, PT=1114, ST=887, TT=165.

The Ontario column, CSOs=21, NT=0, PT=13, ST=1237, TT=811.

The Manitoba column, CSOs=7, NT=0, PT=3, ST=113, TT=28.

The Saskatchewan column, CSOs=0, NT=0, PT=0, ST=47, TT=39.

The Alberta column, CSOs=5, NT=0, PT=1, ST=69, TT=325.

The British Columbia column, CSOs=40, NT=38, PT=256, ST=315, TT=51.

The Yukon column, CSOs=0, NT=0, PT=0, ST=4, TT=0.

There are 3 footnotes at the bottom of the page. 1) Source: Statistics Canada, Environment, Energy and Transportation Statistics Division, Municipal Wastewater Systems in Canada. 2) Units of measurement — data is published in millions of cubic metres, there are 1 000 litres in a cubic metre. 3) Data for Nunavut and Northwest Territories is not available.