Toronto Works and Emergency Services

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Toronto Works and Emergency Services street sweeper. Toronto Works Street Sweeper.jpg
Toronto Works and Emergency Services street sweeper.

The Toronto Works and Emergency Services department was responsible for a variety of services.

Contents

The department took over public works departments formerly managed by the former cities in Metro Toronto, as well as waste management portion of Metro Toronto Works.

The division reported to a deputy city manager and with the new executive committee it will report to Glenn De Baeremaeker, chair of Public Works and Infrastructure committee.

Water

Toronto maintains a network of water filtration plants, pumping stations and reservoirs providing water to the city of Toronto. Some facilities are located outside the city, there are two reservoirs and one water tank located in York Region.

Sewage

In the past[ when? ] waste water was dumped into the lake and thus caused the waters off Toronto to become polluted. Since then[ when? ] the city has treated water from households and industry and commercial consumers before it returns to Lake Ontario.

Most of the sewage treatment facilities are located along the lake and sludge is sent to dumps and to other facilities in the province:

Public works projects initiated by the city involves items like repairing sewers, water networks, and maintaining city facilities.

There are approximately 1600 storm sewers that drain rainwater to creeks in rivers in the city. Accidental runoff from sanitary sewers have led to severe pollution in a number of water ways.

Critical waterways used to drain water in the city include:

Solid Waste Management

The city's Solid Waste Management is responsible for picking up garbage and recycling in the city. Most of the services are public with Etobicoke contracted out due to previously signed by the former City of Etobicoke:

Garbage transfer stations

Public Works yards

The city once owned landfills in the Greater Toronto Area, but solid waste is now shipped to a landfill the city bought near St. Thomas, Ontario and another facility in Michigan. A list of some of the dumps being used or that were used in past:

A list of waste management programs applied in Toronto:

Snow Removal

Toronto has budget money and resources for salting and plowing city roads in winter. There are 600 snowplows and 300 sidewalk snow removal equipment run by 1300 personnel.

Fleet

Reorganization

The current structure is as follows:

Toronto Water is a new body responsible for water and sewage treatment in the city.

The department was formed the merger of the public works departments of each of the municipalities and with Metro Toronto Works Department).

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