"The medical officer of health has failed to follow the accepted approach to identifying risks to public health and has identified as significant a risk which the literature ... says is very low," Dr. Richard Mathias said in court affidavits.

York and King councils have been battling over the York Durham Sewage System — dubbed the Big Pipe — since the region assumed responsibility for King Township's sewage collection.

The affidavits have been filed with the Ontario Superior Court of Justice for a mid-June court hearing into the Big Pipe sewer connection in King City.

Mathias is a physician, professor of public health practice at the University of British Columbia and former director of surveillance and field epidemiology at Ottawa's Laboratory Centre for Disease Control.

He was asked by King Township to review and comment on, among other things, documentation filed for the court hearing by York Region's medical officer of health Helena Jaczek.

Jaczek has consistently stated that leaking septic tanks in King City pose a serious health hazard and that sewage system overflow routinely contaminates the Humber River.

Her comments helped persuade York Region council to take control of King Township's sewage collection system and forge ahead with plans to connect King City to the Big Pipe, sparking the angry lawsuit by King council.

In his affidavits, Mathias said:

E. coli bacteria found in the Humber River is in such low concentrations that it presents "virtually no risk" to anyone who comes into contact, despite Jaczek's claims of "significant risk."

Various studies quoted by Jaczek to prove that elevated levels of E. coli in the Humber River originate from the leaking septic tanks in King City, instead show the very opposite.

In fact, Mathias said, the studies state that bacteria levels are higher in the Humber before it reaches King City and diminish upon flowing downstream. The studies also show higher elevations of bacteria in waters further downstream from King City.

York Region spokesperson Patrick Casey said yesterday that neither Jaczek nor the region "has any intention of debating the issue at this time.

"It will be debated in an Ontario court later this month as the matter proceeds to court," Casey said.

Mathias also said in his court affidavits that the medical officer of health showed an "inconsistency" when she failed to recommend an immediate cleanup to fix a serious health hazard.

"I can find no evidence of an intervention in support of this interim strategy by the medical officer of health," Mathias states.

"I also find no evidence that specific studies were done to find and remediate specific systems associated with the areas of bacterial contamination," the affidavit says.

York assumed responsibility for King Township's sewage collection in Oct. 2001. As part of the same deal, York proceeded with plans to connect King City to the Big Pipe.

The takeover — called "unprecedented, unwarranted and disrespectful" by King councillors — was precipitated by their vocal opposition to the sewer link, which they warned would spark unbridled growth in the tiny hamlet of 5,000.

King responded by filing a lawsuit demanding that control of their system be returned and the Big Pipe connection shelved.