Although the quality of the Thames River has improved over the past 50 years - based
on a comparison of quality as reported in
1958 by the Ontario Water Resources Commission
to today's monitoring - some challenges remain. More detailed information can be
found in the following documents.
The Ministry of the Environment has asked the City of London to hire a
consultant to do some benthic monitoring of the Thames River and Dingman Creek
for the expansion of the Oxford Pollution Control Plant and the construction of
the Wonderland Pumping station. The reports for background conditions
prior to construction are the 2006 and 2007 reports done by Zeas.
Monitoring Program and Data
The Thames River is sampled on a regular monitoring
program at 10 locations. The sampling at the Clarke Bridge was moved
downstream to the Highbury Bridge in August 2008
due to staff safety concerns. The parameters analyzed include biochemical oxygen
demand (BOD), pH, temperature, dissolved oxygen, total phosphorous, ammonia,
bacteriological quality,
suspended solids, chlorides, nitrates, nitrites and conductivity. Heavy metals
are sampled at Clarke/Highbury, Whites, Byron and/or Komoka bridges.
Water quality in the Thames River has improved
significantly since river monitoring was initiated in 1963. The dissolved oxygen
levels have increased. Wastewater treatment has improved
from 90 per cent efficiency in the 1960s to the present where 98 per cent of the BOD is
removed. London's plants perform better than typical wastewater secondary
treatment processes that have a
removal efficiency of between 85 per cent and 95 per cent for BOD. Furthermore, in 2007, the
City of London Pollution Control Plants removed 99 per cent of the suspended solids and
90 per cent of the phosphorous.
Note: to view or print the information in the reports which are pdf documents you will need software such
as
Adobe Acrobat Reader. Use the link to obtain Acrobat Reader
free of charge.