City of North Bay exploring options to remove forever chemicals from drinking water
CBC
The northern Ontario city of North Bay says it is exploring options to upgrade its water treatment plant so it can treat per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), commonly referred to as forever chemicals, although there's no funding currently in place to do that.
The city has been remediating a site at the Jack Garland Airport that was contaminated with PFAS from the early 1970s to the mid-1990s, when firefighters trained there using aqueous film-forming foams that contain PFAS.
The Department of National Defence has covered most of the $20-million cost to remove and treat contaminated soil from the site. To date, contractors have removed around 23,000 tonnes of soil from the site, according to North Bay city spokesperson Gord Young.
The next phase of the cleanup, expected to start in early 2026, will be to add underground barriers to keep water from seeping out of the area.
But prior to recent remediation efforts, PFAS seeped into groundwater and made its way into Trout Lake, the source of North Bay's drinking water.
"We think it's great that the city and department and the federal government is moving ahead with cleaning up the contaminated site where the PFAS is coming from," said Liza Vandermeer, who lives in North Bay and sits on the board of the Trout Lake Conservation Association.
"The concern we have is that there are very high levels of PFAS in Trout Lake already and that PFAS is going straight into our municipal water supply. Our drinking water, which serves the City of North Bay, as well as all the people who live on Trout Lake who draw that water."
Canada is in the process of adding PFAS to its list of toxic substances. Certain PFAS chemicals have been linked to issues with the kidneys, liver, immune system and thyroid problems.
On Aug. 9, 2024, Health Canada updated its objective value for the sum concentration of 25 types of PFAS in drinking water to 30 nanograms per litre. Measurements taken in Trout Lake in 2023 reached an average of 56 nanograms per litre for 11 PFAS substances.
The measurements did adhere to Health Canada's recommendations at the time, which was for PFAS not to exceed 70 nanograms per litre – equivalent to around 3.5 drops in an Olympic-sized swimming pool.
In an email to CBC News, Health Canada said making sure Canadians have access to safe drinking water is a shared responsibility between federal, provincial and municipal governments.
"The day-to-day responsibility of providing safe drinking water to the public generally rests with the provinces and territories, while municipalities usually oversee the day-to-day operations of the treatment facilities," the email added.
Ontario Ministry of the Environment, Conservation and Parks spokesperson Lindsay Davidson said in an email that most provinces are in the "initial stages of planning/conduction monitoring programs" around Health Canada's new PFAS recommendations.
Davidson added that if Ontario adopts Health Canada's new standards "the ministry would expect the city [North Bay] to provide a plan of how they will meet the revised objective, and then implement that plan."
For the first time in 111 years, items once belonging to the late Albert Mullins were back in the hands of his family members thanks to the detective work of one Montreal historian.
The year that saw the remains of two First Nations women brought home from a Manitoba landfill and a search get underway for the remains of a third showed how far reconciliation efforts have come — and how far they still need to go, the families say
The RCMP has just released a warning stating there are dangerous, armed individuals on Big Island Cree Nation, near Meadow Lake.
A new land-use plan that Alberta’s government has for the province’s Upper Smoky region is drawing criticism from environmentalists who say they believe it lacks sufficient environmental safeguards, which poses a significant threat to the endangered southern woodland caribou.
Canadian officials made pains to show they were cracking down on illicit drug production in the country in 2025.
A year after the City of Hamilton cancelled its overnight warming bus, it is funding a new all-night warming centre for men at St. Paul’s Presbyterian Church on James Street S.
This year has, without a doubt, been a turbulent one for the Canadian auto industry. Uncertainty dominated the sector — both for auto workers hit with job changes and companies trying to manage a mix of tariffs and changing market conditions.
A woman died at a ski resort in the Canadian Rockies over the weekend, after falling into deep snow.
Two pregnant women who would otherwise be living in a cold tent. A man whose leg wound was so bad it required intravenous medication. Two young people who no longer need to couch surf to get by.
The province has added 12 kilometres of designated trails for all-terrain vehicles in western Prince Edward Island that will connect existing routes in O’Leary and Tignish.
Every year, CBC North publishes hundreds of stories online — breaking news, investigative reporting, political coverage, community features, longform storytelling, and much more.
After a wild year in Canadian politics that began with Justin Trudeau's resignation and ended with Conservative MPs crossing the floor to join Prime Minister Mark Carney's Liberal government, 2026 is shaping up to be just as action-packed.
It became a rallying cry, a cultural touchstone, a marketing strategy and — our favourite — often described in international media as "a hockey term" or "a Canadian phrase."