We welcome Allan Rothwell and Dave Frayne to source protection committee
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Two new municipal representatives join Ausable Bayfield Maitland Valley Source Protection Committee
Two new municipal representatives have joined the Ausable Bayfield Maitland Valley Drinking Water Source Protection Committee (SPC).
The new committee members are Dave Frayne and Allan Rothwell.
Dave represents the West group of municipalities which consists of Bluewater; Central Huron; Perth South; South Huron; and West Perth.
Allan represents the East group of municipalities which consists of Howick; Mapleton; Minto; North Perth; Perth East; and Wellington North.
The new members replace two municipal members who have retired from the committee, Don Jones (West) and Mark MacKenzie (East).
Allan Rothwell is Councillor for Elma Ward on the Council of the Municipality of North Perth. An active volunteer in his community, he recently retired from a 32-year career in public service (27 of those years with the County of Perth) as a professional land use planner. He is a member of a number of committees including the: Elma Logan Arena and Park Committee; Recreation Advisory Committee; Elma Memorial Community Centre Rejuvenation Committee; and the Affordable Housing Task Force; as well as a Director for the Bluewater Recycling Association. He and his wife Nancy have four grown children and live on their farm near Listowel. Allan has been actively involved in coaching in the community assisting with hockey and soccer teams, as well as working with other members of the community and local schools and churches. He was on the original municipal working group which provided input into the creation of the Ausable Bayfield and Maitland Valley Source Protection Plans. Allan is interested in reducing risk to municipal drinking water sources and supports the ongoing implementation of the source protection plans.
Dave Frayne is an agricultural producer from the Exeter area. He is a former South Huron Deputy Mayor, and two-term councillor before that, who is active in his community. Dave and his wife Cathy live east of Exeter. Dave graduated from University of Western Ontario (UWO/Western University) in 1972 with a Bachelor of the Arts (B.A.) in geography. He worked in retail sales for many years, including The Beer Store (until 1985); working with his parents at their store (Stan Frayne General Store in Exeter, until 2005); and with LCBO, part-time, until 2016. Dave has had a long-time interest in water and soil conservation and in protection of municipal drinking water sources. He was a member of the Municipal Subcommittee which provided input to the source protection committee. He has a long-time interest in agriculture as his parents and uncle owned farms and he moved to the home farm in 2006 and he has planted many trees at the farm. He has worked with the Strang family in a share-crop operation that implements new crop production methods such as no-till, strip-tilling, and cover crops. Dave serves as a Director on the Ausable Bayfield Conservation Foundation, is Chair of the Friends of the South Huron Trail, and the Chair of the Pedestrian Bridge on the South Huron Trail Community Working Group.
There are five municipal representatives on the source protection committee. The two new municipal reps attended their first committee meeting on March 22, 2019.
“This committee will benefit greatly from the experience Allan and Dave bring,” said Matt Pearson, Chairman of the Source Protection Committee. “They will be an asset in ensuring source protection planning policies are implemented in a practical and effective way, and in considering future policy changes, as they bring the municipal voice to the committee table.”
The Chair thanked the two members who are retiring from the committee: “I would like to thank Don and Mark for their years of service to the committee and their work which has helped to keep our municipal drinking water safe and clean,” he said.
The makeup of the source protection committee is shaped by the source protection committee regulation (Ontario Regulation 288/07) and by a local process that took place to decide how to best include diverse voices at the committee table. One third of the committee is from municipalities. One third (five members) comes from economic sectors. Locally, three of those five economic member seats are from agriculture and the other two are from industry and commerce. The other third of the committee represents Other – Environmental; Property owner association representation; and public representatives from each of the two source protection areas.
“The diverse voices on the source protection committee help to ensure our local municipal drinking water stays safe and clean by adding the first barrier of prevention through protection of our water at the source,” according to the Chair. “Locally-based input has been critical to the success of source protection,” Matt said.
The Ausable Bayfield Maitland Valley Drinking Water Source Protection Committee is a 15-member committee in addition to the Chair. The committee was Ontario’s first SPC. The members have worked with the public since 2007 to create local terms of reference, assessment reports, and source protection plans, which have been implemented since April of 2015. This work is made possible by the Ontario Clean Water Act, 2006. Source protection planning policies help to reduce risk from 22 activities (such as fuel or chemical storage) that can pose a significant threat to municipal drinking water sources in certain circumstances (for example, in certain quantities and in the most vulnerable locations such as municipal wellhead protection areas).
Plan policies focus on reducing risk from 22 activities that could pose a significant threat to drinking water in municipal wellhead protection areas A, B, and C. Policies in those relatively small areas reduce risk with tools including education and outreach, risk management plans, restrictions on land uses, or the prohibition of some activities in some cases.
To find out about wellhead protection areas, and source protection plans, visit the local source protection region website at sourcewaterinfo.on.ca.
