SOUTH HURON – A local committee has reached a milestone in its work to protect municipal drinking water sources in the Maitland Valley and Ausable Bayfield source protection areas.
The Ausable Bayfield Maitland Valley Drinking Water Source Protection Committee (SPC) has approved proposed source protection plans for submission to the province’s Minister of the Environment.
The plans offer policies to manage existing significant threats to drinking water and prohibit new significant drinking water threat activities from being established in the most vulnerable areas near municipal wells, according to a press release.
“I am pleased that the committee has been able to create practical policies to reduce the chance of contamination in local municipal drinking water,” said Laurence Brown, who is chair of the source protection committee.
“The committee also thanks the members of the public, municipalities, and working groups who commented on the policies as they were developed and improved,” she said.
The committee approved the proposed plans on Tuesday, Aug. 14. The Ausable Bayfield and Maitland Valley source protection authorities submitted the plans, along with public comments, to the province on Friday, Aug. 17. The MOE will review the plans with possible approval by next year.
The local committee is made up of representatives of municipalities, agriculture, the public-at-large, environmental sector, industry, commerce and property owner associations. The committee has been working for more than five years on source protection planning, with the province’s approval of its terms of reference and assessment reports. It began work on planning policies in early 2011 and consulted with municipalities and the public as the committee members developed proposed plans.
Proposed source protection plans say that if a significant drinking water threat exists today, in the most vulnerable areas around municipal wells, in most cases a risk management plan will be required, except in the case of septic systems, which will need to be inspected under the building code. The proposed plans also say, in most cases, if a significant threat activity does not exist today it cannot be established in the future in those wellhead protection areas.
Direct education to property owners will be part of the local threats management approach. The proposed plans may be found online at the local drinking water source protection website at http://www.sourcewaterinfo.on.ca/content/sourceProtectionPlans.php
The proposed source protection plans are also available for viewing during regular business hours, at the Maitland Valley and Ausable Bayfield source protection authority offices, which are located at 1093 Marietta Street in Wroxeter and at 71108 Morrison Line, east of Exeter. Phone 519-335-3557 or 519-235-2610 or 1-888-286-2610 for business hours.
The committee’s policies can only have ‘must conform to’ legal effect on properties where significant drinking water threats may be present. Drinking water threats are one of 21 landuse activities specified by the province such as the use of storage of sewage through a septic system at a home, farm, or business, storage of heating oil at a house, or storage of gas at a service station. These land uses can only be significant if they take place in the most vulnerable areas near municipal wells, such as the 100-metre radius of that well or the two-year time-of-travel area, and in circumstances (such as large quantities) that make the activity significant. More than 90 per cent of ratepayers in the Ausable Bayfield Maitland Valley Source Protection Region, do not have significant drinking water threat activities assessed on their properties.
The Ausable Bayfield Maitland Valley Source Protection Region includes parts of six counties (Wellington, Perth, Huron, Bruce, Lambton, Middlesex). There are 24 lower-tier municipalities within the region. There are no issues and no significant drinking water threat activities assessed near the region’s two lake intakes, in Goderich and the Lake Huron Primary Water Supply System at Port Blake, north of Grand Bend. Therefore, potential significant drinking water threat activities are only present in municipalities with groundwater drinking water systems. Fifteen of the region’s 24 lower-tier municipalities have no significant drinking water threats. There are nine municipalities in the region that have threat activities that can be significant around their wells. They are: Bluewater, Huron East, Central Huron, Ashfield-Colborne-Wawanosh, Huron-Kinloss, North Huron, North Perth, Morris-Turnberry, and Minto.
Landowners closest to municipal wells may be eligible now for funding incentives for their projects to protect drinking water, through the Ontario Drinking Water Stewardship Program of the Clean Water Act, 2006. The stewardship program offers grants for voluntary projects by eligible landowners to reduce threats to drinking water at their homes, businesses, farms, or other properties. Some funding is available to eligible landowners in the most vulnerable wellhead protection areas for projects that may include septic or well upgrades or decommissioning, agricultural best management practices, runoff and erosion protection, fuel storage, including home heating oil, manure storage, or chemical storage and containment. For more information on stewardship financial incentives visit www.sourceprotectionstewardship.on.ca or call 519-335-3557 or e-mail [email protected]. Current funding requires projects to be done by mid-December, 2012 so eligible property owners are encouraged to phone or e-mail.
Backgrounder
The Province of Ontario protects municipal drinking water through several barriers. Each barrier helps to keep harmful pollution or contaminants, like pathogens (such as E. coli and other bacteria) and chemicals (including harmful organic solvents and dense non-aqueous phase liquids), out of your drinking water. These walls of protection include the Three T’s (testing, treatment, and training). The barriers also include distribution, monitoring, and now – drinking water source protection.
The Province of Ontario passed the Clean Water Act in 2006. This new law added a new barrier of protection for municipal drinking water – the first barrier, which is drinking water source protection. The law uses watershed-based planning. It also provides financial incentives for landowners’ voluntary projects to protect drinking water through the Ontario Drinking Water Stewardship Program. The planning policies and stewardship grants combine to help protect municipal sources of drinking water.
Municipalities in the Ausable Bayfield Maitland Valley Source Protection Region draw their water from underground sources (wells drawing groundwater from aquifers), and surface sources (Lake Huron).
The Ausable Bayfield Maitland Valley Drinking Water Source Protection Committee (SPC) was formed in 2007. This local committee is made up of 15 voting members plus the Chairperson and non-voting liaison members. The voting members come from the public-at-large (one for Maitland Valley area, one for Ausable Bayfield area); municipalities (five members, from northern, southern, eastern, western, and central parts of the region); economic sectors (three agriculture representatives, one industry representative, and one commercial representative); environmental sector (two members); and property/landowner associations (including shoreline and seasonal residents – one member). There are also non-voting liaisons from the Ontario Ministry of the Environment, source protection authorities, and the Health sector.
Source protection planning policies with ‘must conform to’ legal effect, like risk management plans or prohibition, apply, in this region, only to property owners with threat activities assessed as ‘significant.’ Significant drinking water threats are only found in the most vulnerable wellhead protection areas. Those most vulnerable areas are:
A) The 100-metre radius of the municipal well,
B) The most vulnerable parts of the two-year time-of-travel capture area around a municipal well, and;
C) The five-year time-of travel area (this applies only in cases of dense non-aqueous phase liquids in quantities of more than 25 litres).
Prescribed Drinking Water Threats
The list of 21 prescribed drinking water threat activities can be found in Section 1.1 of the General Regulation (Ontario Regulation 287/07), which is available at: http://www.e-laws.gov.on.ca/html/regs/english/elaws_regs_070287_e.htm#BK31
These threat activities could become significant in certain circumstances, such as large quantities. For more information consult the Province of Ontario’s Tables of Circumstances, found online at:
http://www.ene.gov.on.ca/environment/en/legislation/clean_water_act/STDPROD_081301.html
Prescribed drinking water threats include:
1) Establishment, operation or maintenance of a waste disposal site;
2) Establishment, operation or maintenance of a system that collects, stores, transmits, treats or disposes of sewage (this includes septic systems);
3) Application of agricultural source material to land;
4) The storage of agricultural source material;
5) Management of agricultural source material;
6) Application of non-agricultural source material to land;
7) Handling and storage of non-agricultural source material;
8) Application of commercial fertilizer to land;
9) Handling and storage of commercial fertilizer;
10) Application of pesticide to land;
11) Handling and storage of pesticide;
12) Application of road salt;
13) Handling and storage of road salt;
14) Storage of snow;
15) Handling and storage of fuel;
16) Handling and storage of a dense non-aqueous phase liquid;
17) Handling and storage of an organic solvent;
18) Management of runoff that contains chemicals used in the de-icing of aircraft;
19) Activity that takes water from an aquifer or a surface water body without returning the water taken to the same aquifer or surface water body;
20) Activity that reduces the recharge of an aquifer;
21) Use of land as livestock grazing or pasturing land, an outdoor confinement area or a farm-animal yard.
Regulatory Tools
When a drinking water threat activity is significant the source protection committee can use these regulatory tools:
- Land use planning and other municipal tools
- Prescribed Instruments (such as Certificates of Approvals, Permits, Nutrient Management Plans)
- Risk Management Plans – to be negotiated between a risk management official and a landowner
- Prohibition
Non-Regulatory Tools
The source protection committee can also use tools that don’t have regulatory effect. These include:
- Research programs
- Pilot projects
- Stewardship programs
- Incentives
- Education and outreach
- Best management practices
For information on drinking water source protection in Ausable Bayfield Maitland Valley source protection region visit: www.sourcewaterinfo.on.ca. For information on financial incentives for voluntary stewardship projects by eligible landowners visit: www.sourceprotectionstewardship.on.ca
What do the proposed plans say?
Proposed source protection plans, for the Maitland Valley and Ausable Bayfield source protection areas, say that if a significant drinking water threat exists today, in the most vulnerable areas around municipal wells, in most cases a risk management plan will be required (except in the case of septic systems, which will need to be inspected under the building code.) The proposed plans also say, in most cases, that if a significant threat does activity does not exist today it cannot be established in the future in those wellhead protection areas. Direct education to property owners will be part of the local threats management approach.
For more information see proposed plans at http://sourcewaterinfo.on.ca/content/sourceProtectionPlans.php
What kinds of activities could pose a threat to drinking water if not properly managed?
Residential activities
The most common residential activities that could pose a threat to municipal drinking water, if not properly managed, are:
• Septic systems
• Storing fuel like home heating oil
• Storing more than 25 litres of chemicals such as organic solvents or dense non-aqueous phase liquids or DNAPLs (for example, certain kinds of paint)
• Applying fertilizers
Business activities
Threat activities in non-residential, non-agricultural land uses (such as industrial, commercial, institutional, and other) include:
• Septic systems
• Storing lots of fuel like service stations, or oil heat, or for equipment
• Storing and applying chemical fertilizers, pesticides, agricultural or non-agricultural source materials
• Storing more than 25 litres of chemicals like organic solvents or dense non-aqueous phase liquids (DNAPLs)
Farm activities
Activities on farms, in the most vulnerable areas of the region, that could pose threats to municipal drinking water, if not properly managed, include:
• Septic systems
• Storing lots of fuel like oil heat or for equipment
• Storing and applying chemical fertilizers, pesticides, and applying agricultural or non-agricultural
• source materials
• Storing more than 25 litres of chemicals like organic solvents or dense non-aqueous phase liquids
There are 35 or fewer agricultural properties in the entire region impacted by significant-threat policies. In most cases, only part of a farm is subject to policies and the policies most often use management solutions to reduce the risk of current threat activities.
