Source Water Protection

Image of the 19 Source Protection Regions (SPRs) and Source Protection Areas (SPAs) in Ontario (Conservation Ontario, 2022). Visit the Map link here for a higher resolution image.

Overview

Spurred mainly by the Walkerton Tragedy in May of 2000, where 2,500 residents of the town fell ill due to ingesting high levels of E.coli bacteria and 7 individuals died due to poor monitoring and maintenance of the drinking water system, the province (Scarfone, 2020) took major overhauling actions to ensure Ontarians drinking water was adequately protected.

Following an inquiry into the Walkerton event, Justice, O'Connor at the time made over 120 recommendations to better protect the province's drinking water, which have now been implemented and are the foundation of the province's drinking water protection framework. The first of these recommendations was that drinking water should be protected by developing watershed-based source water protection plans, which have been in place since 2006 with the adoption of the Clean Water Act (Government of Ontario, 2021)

Source Water Protection in Ontario

Since the Clean Water Act, 2006 was adopted within the province the original recommendations of the "Walkerton Inquiry" were able to begin to be implemented. The legislation required municipalities protect their drinking water sources and supplies through prevention by developing collaborative large-scale watershed-based source protection plans or source water protection (SWPP) based on monitoring results and the latest science. When the Clean Water Act was first established the province paid for the cost of developing the preliminary SWPPs.

Under the Clean Water Act the legislation describes newly developed source water protection areas and source water protection regions.

• Source Protection Region (SPR): Encompass one or more source protection areas (ex. Credit Valley-Toronto and Region-Central Lake or simply the CTC Region).
• Source Protection Area (SPA): Smaller geographic areas generally based on the watershed boundaries of Ontario's 36 Conservation Authorities

Ontario’s Clean Water Act, 2006 is the primary piece of legislation within the province to ensure that there is a multi-barrier approach to ensure not only clean and safe drinking water, but by ensuring usage is sustainable and protects lakes, rivers, wells and other major sources of freshwater for ~14.5 million residents (Photo Source: Conservation Ontario, 2016)

Under the Clean Water Act local multi-stakeholder source protection committees were developed for each region. Each committee is comprised on the region's leading researchers, professionals and technical personnel that help identify significant current and potential future threats to their local municipal drinking water sources. Their job is to regularly meet and develop preventative plans to address identified and theorized threats (Lake Erie Source Protection Region, 2022)

Source Protection Plans (SPP)

Source protection plans (SPPs) contain a number of policies that are locally developed by their local technical committees aimed at protecting existing and future spruces of adequate drinking water sources for impacted municipalities.

The associations who are reporting and implementing SPP policies and progress annually include:

• Conservation Authorities;
• Municipalities;
• Source protection authorities;
• Local health boards;
• Indigenous groups, committees and governments;
• Local businesses
• The Province of Ontario; and,
• Others (Government of Ontario, 2021)

The Source Protection Committee generally uses varied approaches to protect drinking water sources within each SPR/SPA, which can include:

• Prescribed policy instruments (existing provincial approvals such as Environmental Compliance Approvals and Permits To Take Water);
• Requiring any owners/developers present a formalized risk management plan (negotiated individually);
• Specified land use planning;
• Prohibition of activities that may prove detrimental to SPZs; and/or,
• Current outreach and education activities (webinars, town meetings, pamphlets, online education hubs) (CTC SPR, 2019)

Under the Clean Water Act, 2006 a total of 19 SPRs and SPA's have been established across the province. Each of these 19 SPRs/SPAs contain their own local multi-stakeholder source protection committees across the province which have developed 38 local source protection plans. These specialized plans identify various actions to protect over 450 affected municipal drinking water systems (covering 95% of Ontario's population) (Government of Ontario, 2021).

Ultimately, SPPs are plans to help reduce or eliminate significant drinking water threats within its associated zone/area. These drinking water threats are listed in the following and the SPPS have policies place which must also be enforced. These policies when implemented help to both manage and/or prohibit significant threats as a result of various activities to ensure that they cannot pollute or deplete necessary sources of municipal drinking water within the zone/area.

A road sign to alert motorists that they are entering a provincially protected Drinking Water Protection Zone (SWPZ) to help raise awareness (Photo Source: Conservation Ontario, 2018)

SPRs & SPAs in Ontario

Listed below are 19 different SPRs and SPAs in Ontario, where you can visit each Region's/Area's dedicated Sourcewater protection website for information on their committee members, recent reports, helpful documents, informational videos and the like:

1. Ausable Bayfield Maitland Valley Source Protection Region
2. Cataraqui Source Protection Area
3. CTC Source Protection Region
4. Essex Region Source Protection Area
5. Greater Sudbury Source Protection Area
6. Halton-Hamilton Source Protection Region
7. Lake Erie Source Protection Region
8. Lakehead Source Protection Area
9. Mattagami Region Source Protection Area
10. Mississippi-Rideau Source protection Region
11. Niagara Peninsula Source Protection Area
12. North Bay-Mattawa Source Protection Area
13. Quinte Region Source Protection Area
14. Raisin-South Nation Source Protection Region
15. Saugeen, Grey Sauble, Northern Bruce Peninsula Source Protection Region
16. Sault Ste. Marie Region Source Protection Area
17. South Georgian Bay Lake Simcoe Source Protection Region
18. Thames-Sydenham Source Protection Region
19. Trent Conservation Coalition Source Protection Region

Source Protection Assessment Reports

Each of the 19 aforementioned SPRs & SPAs has an Assessment Report that acts as a 'living technical document' for that given region. The Assessment report includes:

• Recent research findings and scientific information regarding source water protection;
• A brief overview of each impacted watershed within the SPR/SPA;
• Provides a water budget (which is a way to measure the amount of freshwater water enters, is stored, and leaves a watershed);
• Identifies vulnerable areas near key freshwater sources (municipal wells and intakes);
• Identifies the number of significant threats (agricultural practices, sewage sources, fertilizers, etc.) to water quality near wells and intakes; and,
• Identifies areas that could have varied threat levels (low, moderate, high) (CTC SPR, 2019)

Planning Considerations

Inclusion of the tools and atlas

• Recommendations - refer to SPP (pull from B.C's recommended practices)
• Top lessons and maintenance (setback distances / replacing media)

Talk about pretreatment - filtration before being sent directly to groundwater source (bioretention/swale -> infiltration trench) Online vaults from minor system flows (filter and target specific pollutants) - before infiltration.

Site Considerations

Site considerations

The drainage area of a river.

An area of land that drains into a river or a lake. The boundary of a watershed is based on the elevation (natural contours) of a landscape.

Any person, agency or group who has a direct interest in the purpose of a proposed undertaking.

The mathematical expression of the water balance.

The liquid waste from domestic, commercial and industrial establishments. City of Toronto Wet Weather Flow Management Guidelines November 2006 49

Initial capturing and removal of unwanted contaminants, such as debris, sediment, leaves and pollutants, from stormwater before reaching a best management practice; Examples include, settling forebays, vegetated filter strips and gravel diaphragms.

The technique of removing pollutants from runoff as it infiltrates through the soil.

A shallow excavated surface depression containing prepared filter media, mulch, and planted with selected vegetation.

A shallow constructed channel, often grass-lined, which is used as an alternative to curb and channel, or as a pretreatment to other measures. Swales are generally characterized by a broad top width to depth ratio and gentle grades.

That storm drainage system which is frequently used for collecting, transporting, and disposing of snowmelt, miscellaneous minor flows, and storm runoff up to the capacity of the system. The capacity should be equal to the maximum rate of runoff to be expected from the minor design storm which may have a frequency of occurrence of one in 2, or 5 years. The minor system may include many features ranging from curbs and gutters to storm sewer pipes and open drainage ways.

The slow movement of water into or through a soil or drainage system.

Penetration of water through the ground surface.

Initial capturing and removal of unwanted contaminants, such as debris, sediment, leaves and pollutants, from stormwater before reaching a best management practice; Examples include, settling forebays, vegetated filter strips and gravel diaphragms.

Refers to the conditions in which an organism lives and survives or the conditions in which an organism resides. These conditions can be described as aspects of a “physical”, “social” or an “economic” environment, depending on the perspective perceived by the observer.