Monday, November 2, 2026
Day one of the National Water and Wastewater Conference kicked off in Halifax with an unmistakable message for operators, directors, and municipal leaders: utility technology is moving at breakneck speed, but shiny dashboards won’t save us without reliable data, human judgment, and cross-boundary teamwork. Speakers cut through the tech-conference buzzwords to tackle the gritty realities of plant sensors, regional pipelines, staffing numbers, and the hidden environmental price tag of artificial intelligence.
Toronto Water gets real about dirty data
If your raw plant data is out of whack, automating it just helps you make mistakes faster. Presenting on behalf of Eli Avini, Mohsen Karizma shared how Toronto Water tackled data drift at the Ashbridge’s Bay Treatment Plant. The hard truth: real-world sensor accuracy was hovering around 50 per cent to 60 per cent. To fix it, Toronto Water built a low-effort verification process inside its ERIS platform, pairing SCADA numbers against hands-on lab and operator logs for vital parameters like RAS, MLSS, and sludge density. Automated monthly control charts caught sensor degradation and sampling quirks early, proving that simple cross-checks beat blind faith in raw telemetry.
Finding hidden water in Kingsville and Leamington
Across southwestern Ontario, the Union Water Supply System covers 750 square kilometres and the continent’s largest greenhouse hub. General Manager Rodney Bouchard, alongside Tim Southerns from CIMA+, walked attendees through how they pulled together scattered field data into operational wins. Using a secure one-way data diode to protect their SCADA network, the utility tied together AMI metering, pressure loggers, and acoustic hydrant AI monitoring. The payoff was immediate: they caught automated flushers running twice a day by mistake, spotted damaging 40-plus PSI pressure transients, and proved tank-level control runs far smoother than hunting on pressure alone.
York Region proves neighbouring utilities can share
When distribution mains break or storms hit, municipal borders mean nothing to moving water. Adam Plumstead explained how York Region built a clean, secure SCADA-to-SCADA sharing setup with nine area municipalities. Rather than tangling up direct PLC hardware links, York used vendor-neutral OPC UA protocols over dedicated, encrypted DMZ tunnels. It’s strictly look-don’t-touch monitoring, zero remote-control risk. By keeping legal data-sharing agreements focused on just ~100 essential points instead of thousands, the region gained live visibility into wet-weather surges and trunk outages without infringing on local municipal autonomy.
Field realities, bad Ratios, and future-proofing staff
In back-to-back presentations, veteran consultant Jim Courchaine and James (Jim) Cooper from Arcadis reminded delegates that utilities are ultimately human institutions. Courchaine took aim at outdated staffing formulas, pointing out that municipal crews average only 5.4 productive work hours a day. If you want justified headcounts and elected-official buy-in, you have to get into the field, walk the jobs, and build service levels with the operators who actually turn the wrenches. Cooper backed this up with global research: while 80 per cent of tech-curious staff are already experimenting with unsanctioned tools on their own time, utilities are spending big on hardware while neglecting leadership development, succession pipelines, and culture.
A much-needed reality check on generative AI
Kicking off the conference with the opening keynote address “Where the AI Industry Meets Fiction,” Teresa Heffernan delivered an unflinching critique of Silicon Valley’s latest gold rush. Peeling back the curtain on the marketing hype behind large language models, Heffernan highlighted the steep costs our sector can’t afford to ignore: massive energy consumption and colossal data-centre water demands. Her takeaway for water stewards was clear: before betting municipal funds on speculative tech, our collective focus belongs on proven, sustainable ecological solutions.
