Province of Ontario approves assessment reports for Maitland Valley,
Ausable Bayfield drinking water source protection areas
Report approval completes second of three major tasks for source protection committee:
SPC now focuses work on development of source protection planning policies
The Province of Ontario announced on January 9, 2012 that the Ministry of the Environment has approved assessment reports for the Maitland Valley and Ausable Bayfield source protection areas. The Ausable Bayfield Maitland Valley Drinking Water Source Protection Committee (SPC) will now focus its efforts on development of source protection planning policies in 2012.
“A lot of scientific study went into assessment report creation and refinement over the past three years,” said Laurence Brown, Chairman of the local SPC. “The successful completion of these reports now gives the committee the ability to devote our energies to the development of source protection planning policies to protect drinking water.”
He thanked everyone who contributed to the creation and refinement of the reports. “I would like to take this opportunity to thank the public and municipalities who, through public meetings and working groups, have provided valuable comments to the committee and staff during the assessment report preparation,” he said.
Maps and content of the approved assessment reports, and information on drinking water source protection planning in this region, is available online at sourcewaterinfo.on.ca or available for review at source protection authority offices. Assessment reports identify watersheds in source protection areas, characterize quality and quantity of water, and set out water budgets. The reports also identify significant groundwater recharge areas, highly vulnerable aquifers, surface water intake protection zones, and wellhead protection areas around municipal wellheads. The reports identify any drinking water issues and list land-use activities that are or would be drinking water threats in certain vulnerable areas in certain circumstances. The reports also list conditions resulting from past activities that are drinking water threats. Significant drinking water threats can exist in the 100-metre radius of a municipal groundwater drinking water source, in the most vulnerable parts of the two-year time-of-travel area around the municipal well, and (in the case of chemicals called dense non-aqueous phase liquids) in the five-year time-of-travel area around the municipal well. Significant threats can also exist around a surface water intake but no significant threats have been assessed near the two lake intakes (Goderich and the Lake Huron Primary Water Supply System near Grand Bend) in the Ausable Bayfield Maitland Valley region.
Reference to drinking water threats does not suggest there is an immediate threat to drinking water on a landowner’s property, according to the committee. The word threat in this case indicates one of 21 land use activities (such as sewage stored in a septic system or oil stored for home heating) that has the potential, in certain circumstances, to pose a threat to municipal drinking water sources, if not properly managed. For more information visit Ontario’s Drinking Water Ontario web site.
The first of three major tasks for the committee was completion of terms of reference in 2009. Completion of assessment reports was the second major task. The third major task is creation of source protection plans which take effect in the second half of 2012, following municipal and public consultation. Municipalities in the region are continuing to provide input into the development of policies to protect municipal drinking water sources in the Ausable Bayfield Maitland Valley Source Protection Region through the Ontario Clean Water Act, 2006. The public will have opportunities in the spring of 2012 to review and comment on draft policies when they are prepared and released.
The local committee can reduce risk to drinking water supplies through plan tools such as education and outreach, financial incentives, land use planning changes, monitoring, and provincial prescribed instruments. The committee may also require risk management plans in certain cases or restrict or prohibit some land use activities, on parts of some properties, if the members feels those actions are necessary to protect the community’s drinking water supply. The committee would use the stronger actions only when needed and only in the most vulnerable areas of the region near municipal wells.
Landowners can take positive action now to protect drinking water and may receive grants to cover the majority of the cost of their voluntary projects, through the Ontario Drinking Water Stewardship Program (ODWSP). Eligible projects in wellhead protection areas or intake protection zones may include well decommissioning and upgrades, septic system upgrades, runoff and erosion control projects, agricultural best management practices, fuel storage containment, and storage of dense non-aqueous phase liquids (harmful chemicals that are heavier than water and that are almost impossible to remove from a water source and may not be detected in water quality monitoring). For information on financial incentives for projects that protect drinking water in wellhead protection areas phone 519-335-3557 or visit sourceprotectionstewardship.on.ca
For more details on the approval of assessment reports in the Ausable Bayfield Maitland Valley Source Protection Region visit www.ebr.gov.on.ca
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE DATE OF ISSUE: January 10, 2012
FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT: Tim Cumming, Communications Specialist, Ausable Bayfield Maitland Valley Drinking Water Source Protection Region, at 519-235-2610 or 1-888-286-2610 or e-mail info@sourcewaterinfo.on.ca
For more information on drinking water source protection visit:
Drinking Water Ontario web site at:
http://www.ene.gov.on.ca/environment/en/legislation/clean_water_act/index.htm
Conservation Ontario web site at:
http://www.conservation-ontario.on.ca/source_protection/protection.html
Local source protection web sites:
http://www.sourcewaterinfo.on.ca
http://www.sourceprotectionstewardship.on.ca
Contact Ausable Bayfield Maitland Valley Source Protection Region:
c/o Ausable Bayfield Source Protection Authority,
71108 Morrison Line,
RR 3 Exeter, ON N0M 1S5
Ausable Bayfield Source Protection Authority: 519–235–2610
Maitland Valley Source Protection Authority: 519–335–3557
Toll-free: 1–888–286–2610
E-mail: info@sourcewaterinfo.on.ca
© 2012