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"We are pleased to have Alyssa, who is on the ground as a water operator, be part of our Source Protection Committee. In these socially distanced times, Alyssa helps educate people about how water treatment works and protecting that source of water. This (video) is also an excellent resource for online learners."
– Matt Pearson, Chair of the Ausable Bayfield Maitland Valley Drinking Water Source Protection Committee (SPC)
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Magazine article shows ways Ontario’s drinking water has been protected in 20 years since Walkerton water tragedy
Environmental Science & Engineering Magazine shares some of the ways protection has been added to Ontario’s drinking water over past two decades, reducing risk to public health
The June-July 2020 issue of Environmental Science & Engineering Magazine included an article about how Ontario has added protection to drinking water sources over the past 20 years since the Walkerton water contamination tragedy of 2000.
To read the article please visit this link:
In May of 2000, seven people died and more than 2,300 people became ill after the drinking water supply in Walkerton, Ontario, was contaminated with Escherichia coli O157:H7 and Campylobacter jejuni bacteria. Severe long-term illnesses, from that contamination, have included kidney failure, arthritis, and neurological damage.
 The article documents many of the needed improvements put into place since the Walkerton Inquiry, an independent Commission presided over by Commissioner Dennis R. O’Connor, a Justice of the Court of Appeal for Ontario. The inquiry recommended improvements to “all aspects of the drinking water system in Ontario, including the protection of drinking water sources; the treatment, distribution, and monitoring of drinking water; the operation and management of water systems; and the full range of functions involved in the provincial regulatory role.”
The magazine article was co-authored by municipal and source protection staff (including program managers from local source protection regions and source protection authorities and Conservation Ontario). Elements to successful drinking water source protection, according to the article, include: sound technical information; support from landowners who understand the need for ongoing protection of our drinking water sources; and strong working relationships with local municipalities and provincial ministries.
The article focuses on one of the laws passed and enacted since the Walkerton tragedy, the Ontario Clean Water Act, 2006. The law mandates protection of drinking water sources for municipal residential drinking water systems. Nineteen local source protection committees in Ontario have put into action locally developed, provincially approved source protection plans to reduce risk to drinking water sources. The article explains some of the tools used to manage risk from activities that could pose a significant threat to drinking water. One of the ways water is protected, as outlined in the article, is through risk management plans required to manage and reduce risk from certain activities near municipal wells.
The June-July 2020 article also shares the science and technical work that has been completed over the past 20 years, including identification of water quality issues and mapping of municipal wellhead protection areas and surface water intake protection zones. The article shares some recent technical work including a climate change vulnerability assessment pilot study, led by Conservation Ontario, the network organization of Ontario’s 36 conservation authorities.
The Municipality of Huron East assisted with the study to help municipalities gain an understanding of climate change impacts on the source water quality of their wells.
Local drinking water source protection program co-supervisors Mary Lynn MacDonald and Donna Clarkson, of Ausable Bayfield Maitland Valley Source Protection Region, and Kyle Davis, Risk Management Official with Wellington County Source Water Protection, are among the article’s co-authors. The other authors are Carl Seider (Saugeen, Grey Sauble, Northern Bruce Peninsula Source Protection Region); David Ellingwood (North Bay-Mattawa Source Protection Authority); Amy Dickens (Quinte Conservation and Trent Conservation Coalition Source Protection Region); Melissa Carruthers (Severn Sound Environmental Association and Source Protection Authority); and Chitra Gowda (previously at Conservation Ontario).
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Ausable Bayfield Maitland Valley Source Protection Region submits third Annual Progress Report to Province of Ontario
The Ausable Bayfield Maitland Valley Drinking Water Source Protection Committee (SPC) has approved this source protection region’s annual progress report for submission to the Province of Ontario.
The annual progress report outlines achievements made in implementing the Ausable Bayfield and Maitland Valley source protection plans, which add protection to local municipal drinking water sources.
The report is available online, as a PDF file, at the following link:
The report is also available in other formats upon request.
The report highlights the drinking water source protection activities for the 2019 calendar year and work completed since 2015 when source protection plans (SPPs) came into effect. The outstanding efforts and ongoing support of the Source Protection Committee, municipalities, and partner agencies are greatly appreciated.
Highlights of the report include:
- Ninety-four per cent of the SPP policies that address significant drinking water threats have been fully implemented and the remainder are in progress.
- Municipalities with vulnerable areas where significant drinking water threat policies apply have processes in place to ensure that their day-to-day planning decisions conform with SPP policies. Sixty-two per cent Official Plan and zoning bylaws have been amended to conform with SPP policies. The remainder are in progress.
- There are 215 on-site sewage systems (septic systems) in this source protection region that are in the most vulnerable areas around municipal wells and subject to the mandatory re-inspection program. Ninety-nine per cent of these systems have been inspected in accordance with the Ontario Building Code.
- Ninety-nine risk management plans (RMPs) have been established in this source protection region and there is 100 per cent compliance by landowners with their individual plans.
- Ontario ministries have reviewed provincial approvals (i.e., prescribed instruments, such as environmental compliance approvals) where they have been identified as a tool in the source protection plans to address activities that pose a significant risk to sources of drinking water.
- Eighty-eight drinking water protection zone signs have been installed in the source protection region. The signs are installed on roads near municipal wells to alert citizens and emergency services that their actions in these zones can have an impact on a municipal drinking water source.
The Source Protection Committee held a virtual meeting in June of 2020 to review the implementation results, noting that significant progress has been made since the source protection plans came into effect in 2015. As the majority of the policies have been implemented, the SPC is confident that the objectives of the Plans are progressing well.
Visit the region’s local website at sourcewaterinfo.on.ca or the Province of Ontario web page at ontario.ca/page/source-protection to find out more.
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