Drinking Source Water Protection

Source Protection Plans

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NOTICE: under Ontario Clean Water Act, 2006, Ontario Regulation 287/07: drinking water source protection plan preparation  

February 22, 2011

Source Protection Committee commences plan policy development

The Ausable Bayfield Maitland Valley Drinking Water Source Protection Committee (SPC) has commenced the preparation of source protection planning policies.

Download Sample Notice of Commencement Letter

Download Fact Sheet on Source Protection Plan Policy Commencement now

Ausable Bayfield Maitland Valley Drinking Water Source Protection Committee is about to begin the preparation of source protection plans. Planning policies will be created by 2012 to address threats to drinking water in the Ausable Bayfield and Maitland Valley source protection areas. Letters of notice have been sent to affected property owners as per Ontario Regulation 287/07, the General Regulation of the Ontario Clean Water Act, 2006.

Information on drinking water source protection in this region is available online at sourcewaterinfo.on.ca and sourceprotectionstewardship.on.ca or by phoning 519-235-2610 and 1-888-286-2610.

 Background

The need to better protect drinking water sources through the Clean Water Act, 2006, and associated regulations, prompted the creation of the Ausable Bayfield Maitland Valley Source Protection Committee (SPC). The local committee’s goal is to develop science-based source protection plans to ensure protection of clean and plentiful municipal drinking water sources.

The terms of reference for the development and implementation of the source protection plans for this region were approved by the Ontario Minister of the Environment on June 8, 2009.  Assessment reports were then created to outline vulnerable areas in this region and to assess drinking water threats in these areas.  Approval is pending from the Director of the Ontario Ministry of the Environment’s Source Protection Branch.

 Source Protection Plans

Local source protection plans will have policies to manage activities (that could be significant drinking water threats); help achieve Great Lakes targets (future plans); and govern monitoring of threats. If you are located in a vulnerable area and have been assessed as having a significant drinking water threat on your property, these plans may affect you and/or activities on your property when they take effect in 2012.

Click on the ‘Assessment Reports’ page of this web site to view maps of your local community well to see if your property is located in a vulnerable area where a drinking water threat may be assessed as significant.

The source protection plans will contain policies to encourage best practices and guide stewardship funds to property owners. The plans may also request risk management plans, or prohibit or restrict an activity or land use in some cases. The committee encourages the public to ask questions, offer comments, and give input as it prepares plans over the coming months. Opportunities for the public to take part have been scheduled.

If you have any questions or comments on source protection planning policy development, we invite you to talk to Tim or Jenna at 519-235-2610 or 1-888-286-2610.

Your Source Protection Committee Chair, Larry Brown, looks forward to working with you over the coming year to answer your questions, convey your comments or concerns to the committee, and provide you with opportunities for financial incentives for projects that protect drinking water. 

 Thank you for the important role you play in keeping our drinking water sources clean.

 How will source protection planning impact property owners

An owner, resident, or tenant of a property or properties in a vulnerable area may have received a letter advising them they have a significant drinking water threat or threats on their property.

It does not mean there is an imminent threat to water on their property.

A drinking water threat in this case refers to activities or conditions that have the potential to hurt the quantity or quality of water used as a municipal drinking water source (such as a municipal well). Based on assessment report information, and information that property owners may have provided to us during previous consultation, the committee has identified the following drinking water threats (If you did not complete a household questionnaire or take part in an on-site survey with staff, the threats listed are those the committee believes are typically associated with a property’s land use, as identified in the assessment reports.)

Land use activities in a vulnerable area could, in certain circumstances, contaminate a municipal drinking water source, such as a well or intake, if the activities were not properly managed. There are 21 threats identified, under Ontario Regulation 287/07, which would be significant if they were to occur on your property (please see attached list of threats provided with sample letter). 

There are 21 land-use activities which, under certain circumstances, can (under the Ontario Clean Water Act, 2006 and its accompanying regulation, Ontario Regulation 287/07) have the potential to pose risks to municipal drinking water sources.

If any of the activities are governed by a provincial prescribed instrument, as outlined in Ontario Regulation 287/07, the source protection committee requests that the property owner provide the prescribed instrument number and a description of the provisions of the prescribed instrument that regulate this activity. (A description of provincial Prescribed Instruments is included in sample letter).

If information about your property or contact details have changed, or you would like to update our information, please contact staff member with our project, at the following contact information:

Phone: 519-235-2610 or toll-free 1-888-286-2610

Postal address: 71108 Morrison Line, RR 3 Exeter, Ontario, N0M 1S5 

E-mail: info@sourcewaterinfo.on.ca

News release

 Posted February 22, 2011

Drinking water source protection committee begins policy preparation: Committee for Maitland Valley, Ausable Bayfield areas commences important step towards source protection plans in 2012
       
Drinking water source protection is taking a big step forward in the Maitland Valley and Ausable Bayfield areas. The source protection committee (SPC) for the region has announced it is beginning to prepare source protection plan policies.
        “This is an important time for the protection of drinking water in this region as the members of the committee will begin to tackle the challenge of creating policies to reduce risk to drinking water,” said Larry Brown, Chair of the Ausable Bayfield Maitland Valley Drinking Water Source Protection Committee (SPC).
        The local committee is sending formal Notice of Commencement of Source Protection Plan Policy Preparation to municipal administrators, First Nations, and to owners of properties where potential significant drinking water threats may exist. The committee is also informing those landowners of opportunities for financial assistance for their voluntary projects to protect water, and of opportunities to provide comments as plans are developed over the coming year.
        Significant drinking water threats can exist in the 100-metre radius of a municipal 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 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 Port Blake/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 a septic system or home heating oil) that has the potential, in certain circumstances, to pose a threat to municipal drinking water sources, if not properly managed. The threats on parts of properties close to municipal wells have been included in proposed assessment reports.
        The committee can reduce risk to drinking water supplies through 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.
        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 may include well decommissioning and upgrades, septic system upgrades, pollution prevention reviews for industrial or commercial operations, runoff and erosion protection, 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).