Credit Valley, Toronto and Region, Central Lake Ontario
What is Source Water?
Source water is any untreated water found in rivers, lakes and underground aquifers, which is used for the supply of raw water for municipal drinking water systems.
Source protection is the action taken to protect that raw source of municipal drinking water from overuse and contamination.
Water is a resource we cannot live without
A woman drinking a glass of water
... and yet pollution and overuse are serious challenges to ensuring a safe and accessible source of water. Once a supply of water becomes contaminated, it is expensive, time-consuming and sometimes impossible to treat the water to allow for continued human use.
Ontario communities rely on safe and clean drinking water that can be passed onto future generations. Preventing the contamination and depletion of our lakes, rivers and groundwater sources is an important first step in protecting drinking water.
Apply appropriate policies to manage or eliminate threats
The Act establishes a locally-driven, science-based, multi-stakeholder process to protect municipal residential drinking water sources and designated private drinking water sources. This process was carefully developed to promote the shared responsibility of all stakeholders to protect local sources of drinking water.
Infographic about drinking water
Why Did Source Water Protection Begin in Ontario?
In May 2000, it was discovered that water contaminated with E.Coli bacteria had been distributed to the community of Walkerton, Ontario through municipal drinking water supplies.
This resulted in seven deaths and over 2,000 people becoming sick, often with long-term effects.
Map of southern Ontario showing location of Walkerton
News article about the E.coli crisis at the time
The Dennis O'Connor Report on the Walkerton Inquiry
A public inquiry was launched, led by Justice Dennis O'Connor, to investigate the events that lead to the tradegy and the impacts felt by the community. It also provided a path forward to ensure Ontario's drinking water was pure and plentiful by providing 121 recommendations - the basis of the Clean Water Act, 2006.
Quote from the Dennis O'Connor report
Moving Forward
Source Protection Areas and Regions
The Ministry of Environment, Conservation and Parks has organized Source Protection Areas (SPAs) using conservation authority boundaries (watershed-based). In many cases, SPAs are grouped to make one Source Protection Region (SPR).
Together, 19 local source protection committees were formed across Ontario with representatives from municipalities, First Nations, industry, the farming community and the general public. These committees identified local activities that could pose a risk to their municipal drinking water supplies and developed source protection plans to address those risks.
Cumulatively, they cover an area where over 95% of Ontarians live.
Map of Southern Ontario showing the Source Protection Regions and their watersheds
Source Protection Plan
The Province of Ontario has created a comprehensive safety net from source to tap, which puts in place a number of barriers to protect drinking water. The first step in ensuring pure and plentiful drinking water is to protect the sources we draw water from, including rivers, lakes and underground aquifers.
The elements of this multi-barrier approach include strong legislation, stringent standards, regular and reliable testing, licensing of drinking water systems, regular inspections of drinking water systems and the laboratories that test drinking water, public reporting, and the comprehensive source protection program.
Steps to protect drinking water
A source protection plan is a strategy and suite of policies developedby residents, businesses and municipalities, which outline how water quality and quantity will be protected.
It is based on a foundation of scientific knowledge and land use around municipal wells and surface water intakes and the impact that land use has on drinking water quality and quantity.
The plan sets out policies to safeguard human health, ensure adequate safe, clean water is available, and protect current and future sources of municipal drinking water from significant threats.
The CTC Source Protection Plan was approved by the Minister on July 28th, 2015 and came into effect on December 31st, 2015.
Drinking water threats are activities that adversely affect or have the potential to adversely affect the quality or quantity of any water that is or may be used as a source of drinking water, and is prescribed by source protection regulation as a drinking water threat.
There are two categories of threats: Chemical and Pathogens
Chemical Threats: Include things like solvents, fuels, fertilizers, pesticides, Dense Non-Aqueous Phase Liquids and similar products.
Pathogens: Dangerous bacteria, virus or other organism found in human or animal waste.
Not all threats are equal.
The danger posed by particular chemicals or pathogens depends on several factors including the amount, its toxicity, its relative location to the municipal water supply and how it behaves in the environment.
To decide which threats are significant, the Ministry of Environment, Conservation and Parks (MECP) has developed a methodology to calculate a risk score based on: The hazard rating of the threat (10-point scale) and the vulnerability of the water source (10-point scale).
The Province has identified 22 activities that, if they are present in vulnerable areas, now or in the future, could pose a threat to drinking water. Twenty of these threats relate to water quality, while two of the threats relate specifically to water quantity.
A 21-person committee, comprised of local representatives from Municipalities, local residents, agriculture, and other local industrial sectors, was responsible for developing Source Protection Plans for these areas.
Map showing the CTC jurisdiction and municipal boundaries
This Region consists of watersheds that span an area of over 10,000 km from the Oak Ridges Moraine in the north, to Lake Ontario in the south. It is also the most densely populated region of Canada!
Toronto skyline
Map showing the CTC jurisdiction and watershed boundaries
The CTC Region is complex and diverse in terms of geology, physiology, population, and development pressures, with many conflicting water uses including drinking water supply, recreation, irrigation, agriculture, commercial and industrial uses, as well as ecosystem needs. There are differing stresses on water resources related to development pressure and population growth across the region.
There is also remendous variability in the nature and density of drinking water quality and quantity threats. In particular, the majority of significant drinking water threats exist in the Credit Valley Source Protection Area, whereas in the Central Lake Ontario Source Protection Area there are no municipal groundwater systems, as all drinking water comes from Lake Ontario, meaning there are fewer drinking water threats present.
Within CTC, approximately...
7 million people depend on drinking water from Lake Ontario.
Because the lake is not vulnerable to the same kinds of threats that can impact groundwater, the science and policies that apply to this source are different.
Lake Ontario
Lake Ontario shoreline
Map of lake Ontario - wooden design, bathymetry
Vulnerable Areas
WELLHEAD PROTECTION AREA (WHPA)
The area around a well where land use activities have the potential to affect the quality of water that flows into the well.
Wells draw water from underground areas called aquifers. Aquifers are replenished when water from rain and melting snow soaks into the ground. Sometimes, this water carries pollutants.
Vulnerability scores, on a 10-point scale, are assigned within WHPAs to determine where and what policies apply. A higher score correlates to a higher risk of groundwater being contaminated and reaching the well.
The score takes into consideration how quickly water moves vertically from the surface through underlying soils and rock, and the number of years it takes groundwater travelling horizontally to reach the well. Typically, when water percolates slowly through the ground, there is less chance that contaminants will reach the aquifer.
WHPA map legend
WHPA Map Legend
The WHPA-A is the most vulnerable area. The WHPA-B is the area where contaminants can move to the well in 2 years or less. The WHPA-C is the area where contaminants can move to the well inbetween 2-5 years. WHPA-D is the area where contaminants can move to the well inbetween 5-25 years. WHPA-E is the area where surface water mixes with groundwater.
Zones are delinated around surface water intakes to understand where activities are likely to pose a risk. These zones map areas where pollutants may get into an intake too quickly for operators of the municipal water treatment plant to shutdown the intake before the pollutant reaches it.
River and lake intakes can be contaminated when pollutants are spilled into the water or on nearby land.
IPZ-1 is a 1 km radius around the intake. IPZ-2 is the area where a spilled contaminant might reach an intake within two hours time. This is determined by studying how water moves through wind and currents, the surrounding activities, and whether the intake is more susceptible to contamination. EBA (Event Based Area) is the area where a spill from a specific activity or extreme storm event may be transported to an intake, and poses a significant threat.
Where a drinking water issue is documented. And issue is an existing water quality problem associated with a drinking water source, or evidence of a trend that suggests a deterioration of water quality.
The water is/may still be safe to drink, but because the level of contaminant is rising, the cause must be determined and policies created to manage/prohibit the threat.
Evidence of an issue must be documented by municipal water system operators to be included in the source protection planning. Raw water is tested prior tp being treated.
ICAs are used to show where pathogens, nitrates, chloride, and sodium pose a greater risk to drinking water.
Road salt
Ex. Road salt and chloride application
WELLHEAD PROTECTION AREAS FOR QUANTITY (WHPA-Q)
Areas of moderate and significant water stress, determined by a 3-tiered water budget process. A water budget measures the amount of water available by analyzing how much water enters a watershed, how much is stored, and how much leaves.
There are four areas in the CTC Region that have shown potential for moderate and/or significant water stress:
Dufferin County
Halton Hills
York Region
Durham Region
Tier 1: Determine supply and demand and run stress assessments.
Tier 2: Subwatersheds that registered stress in Tier 1 advance to Tier 2. A flow model is used to refine supply and demand.
Tier 3: Areas that registered stress in Tier 2 advance to Tier 3. The results define where the demand to consume water and the ability to supply/store groundwater are stressed.
Water that seeps into an aquifer is called recharge. Recharge areas often have loose or permeable soil, such as sand or gravel, or fractured rock, which allows water to move easily into the ground. A recharge area is considered significant when it helps maintain the water level in an aquifer that supplies a community with drinking water.
It is also important as a source of cold water discharge into streams that sensitive ecosystems depend on.
Aquifers are considered highly vulnerable and more susceptible to contamination based on the depth of the aquifer, and the characteristics of soil and rock above/around the aquifer.
An HVA generally consists of granular material (sand and/or gravel) or fractured rock that has a high permeability and is near the ground surface.
The faster water is able to flow through the ground to an aquifer, the more vulnerable it is to contamination, such as chemicals or fuel that can be transported by flowing water across the landscape before it seeps into the ground.
In the CTC Source Protection Plan there are 165 policies directed at prescribed threats, local threats, required actions to protect sources of drinking water, and policy implementation monitoring. Some policies are implemented by one stakeholder while others are implemented by many.
When threats to drinking water sources were first documented in the CTC SPR assessment reports, there were 6,182 possible threats! Since the plan became effective on December 31, 2015, 95% of the threats have been addressed through policy implementation and threat verification. This includes 261 threats that are being managed through 131 Risk Management Plans negotiated for 156 properties.
The process of negotiating Risk Management Plans is actively continuing. Risk Management Officials and Inspectors have until December 31, 2023 to complete risk management plans in the CTC Source Protection Region as outlined in the Source Protection Plan.
Business and landowners with negotiated risk management plans take their responsibilities seriously. In 2018, 44 inspections took place to ensure that prohibited activities were not taking place on properties close to wells that supply drinking water and 69 inspections took place to ensure that the contents of risk management plans were being followed. Of these inspections, there were NO VIOLATIONS.
In 2020-2021, 99.87% of the 505,281 drinking water test results from 656 Municipal Residential Drinking Water Systems met the standards.
Significant drinking water threats are also addressed through Provincial implementation of source protection policies. Many threats to drinking water identified under the Clean Water Act, 2006 are already regulated through Provincial instruments. Instruments are specific to the activity being carried out and include requirements designed to protect the environment and human health.
The CTC Source Protection Plan has a number of policies that direct the Province to manage a particular activity using a prescribed instrument. In some cases, existing instruments for activities that pose a significant threat to drinking water may need to be amended to ensure they conform with source protection plan policies. Since the Plan became effective, Provincial Ministries responsible for implementing prescribed instrument policies have been creating processes to screen and amend instruments to ensure the protection of drinking water sources.
Legal agreements that outline the protective measures that will be undertaken on a property to reduce the risk posed by a siginificant drinking water threat activity.
RMPs allow potentially harmful activities to continue, as long as the measures in the RMP are followed. Once a RMP is established, the landowner or business operator is legally required to implement it and comply with all outlined terms and provisions.
A RMP is negotiatied between a person or business and the Town's Risk Management Official (RMO). They work together to determine the appropriate measures to address the risk to drinking water posed by the significant threat activity.
Introducing your Risk Management Official
Man signing document
The RMP Process
The RMP Process - 6 steps
Prohibition
Prohibit, by law, certain activities in vulnerable areas to prevent new significant threats from developing. Only used as a last resort.
Chain link fence with a pad lock
Restricted Land Uses
Restrictions could be placed on land in vulnerable areas to limit the establishment or expansion of activities that could create a significant threat in the future.
The restrictions would help municipalities decide what types of development to allow and which could not take place.
Land Use Planning
Municipalities use zoning by-laws and official plans to direct new development to appropriate areas. For example, a municipality might ban new waste disposal sites near municipal wells, or chemical storage facilities near a lake intake.
Prescribed Instruments
A legal document issued by the Provincial government allowing an activity to take place. They can include permits, licenses, approvals, authorizations, and directions or orders and are specific to the activity being carried out and are designed to protect the environment and human health.
A Source Protection Plan could require additional terms for permits and licenses issued for activities that are, or could be, significant drinking water threats.
Policies in the CTC Source Protection Plan require prescribed instruments to be reviewed, and if necessary, amended, within 3 years of the plan having been made effective.
Incentive Programs
Financial incentives could be offered to landowners to address significant threats on their property.
Education and Outreach
Educational programs show landowners how to manage a significant threat on their property. Fact sheets are provided to the general public on various topics.
Not only is conserving water helpful to maintaining a constant supply of drinking water, too little water in a source can mean contaminants are more concentrated and, therefore, may be above acceptable levels.
Dispose of Hazardous Waste Properly
Take all unused paints, cleaners, pesticides, and medical prescriptions to your local hazardous waste facility. Take used engine oil to recycling facilities. Use drop cloths or tarps when working with hazardous materials to prevent spills from leaking into the ground. If a spill occurs, clean it up with an absorbent material such as kitty litter or sawdust and scoop up the contaminant.
Use Non-Toxic Products for Cleaning and Personal Care
Use environmentally-friendly soaps, shampoos, cleaners and personal care products. What you put down the drain goes into the water!
Clean Up Pet Waste
Animal waste contains nutrients and pathogens that can run into storm sewers during a rain storm if not picked up.
Reduce or Eliminate the Use of Pesticides, Fertilizers and Salt
Prevent pollutants from entering into runoff. Consider a Nutrient Management Plan if you run an agricultural operation.
Take Care When Refueling Gas Tanks
Avoid spilling fuel on the ground or in the water when refueling cars, lawn mowers, chainsaws, weed trimmers, boats, tractors or other machinery. Also, take care when changing engine oil. One litre of gas or oil can contaminate a million litres of water!
Take Your Car to Commercial Car Washes
Use commercial car washes that use water efficient sprays and are designed to prevent pollutant runoff from entering storm sewers.
Stay Informed and Get Involved!
Do You Live on a Rural Property?
Septic System Maintenance
Keep your septic system in working order and empty the tank regularly.
Protect and Maintain Your Private Well
Wells provide pathways for contaminants to enter groundwater. Be sure your well is sealed properly and test it regularly to ensure it is safe to drink. Decommission old wells by a licensed well technician.
Protect Vegetation Along Banks of Waterways
Helps to control erosion of ponds, lakes or stream banks and maintains cooler water temperatures for some fish species.
