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this page | A Brief History of Drinking Water Source Protection in Ontario Scott MacRitchie, P.Geo. Environmental Geoscience Subcommittee 
The complete Source Water Protection legislation will be released
for comment in 2005. The following article gives a brief history of
this significant upcoming legislation. The potential content of the
legislation will be described in subsequent issues of Field Notes.
In May 2002, two years after the E. coli outbreak in Walkerton's water supply, the Walkerton Inquiry released its Part Two report entitled "A Strategy for Safe Drinking Water". The first recommendation made in the report was for Ontario to develop source water protection plans on a watershed basis. Source protection is the first barrier to degradation of water quality and quantity in a multi-barrier approach that includes treatment, securing the distribution system, monitoring programs, and emergency response. Of the 93 recommendations made in the Walkerton Part Two report, 22 were related to source protection. Using these 22 recommendations as a basis, a source protection planning framework for Ontario was developed by an 18-member Advisory Committee appointed by the Minister of the Environment. The Advisory Committee provided 55 recommendations for watershed-based source protection planning in their report released in April 2003. They recommended the forming of stand-alone source protection legislation, rather than amending existing legislation such as the Environmental Protection Act or the Ontario Water Resources Act. Another recommendation was to set up advisory subcommittees to deal with the technical and implementation challenges identified by the Advisory Committee. In November 2003, the MOE announced the formation of a technical experts committee and an implementation committee. The task of the technical experts committee was to develop a method to assess and categorize "water risks" or threats to the quality and quantity of drinking water. The implementation committee was asked to provide advice to the province on tools, approaches and funding mechanisms. Both of these committees were to report at the end of October 2004, however, it is understood that an extension has been requested. Eric Hodgins, P.Geo. is on the technical experts committee and Tim Lotimer, P.Geo. is on the implementation committee. Earlier this year in February 2004, the MOE released the "White Paper on Watershed-based Source Protection Planning". It describes the proposed planning components of source protection legislation, including the process for preparing plans, roles and responsibilities, and the associated approval process. The White Paper also describes the government's intent to improve the Permit to Take Water program as well as to consult with stakeholders on the principles and factors involved in charging for water. In June 2004, the province released the first part of the source protection legislation that deals with the development and approval of the source protection plan. Details were definitely absent as attested by the frequent occurrence of the phrase "as prescribed by regulation". There may be as many as 19 potential regulations listed at the end of the act. These developments in source protection have been reviewed and commented on by the APGO's Environment Committee. The next step will be the review of the two advisory subcommittees recommendations by the province. These recommendations will then be used to develop the complete source protection act. The focus of everyone involved in source protection will be how the very important issues of funding and implementation will be addressed. It is expected that the complete source protection act will be available for review sometime in the first six months of 2005. This is the first in a series of articles on source protection. It is anticipated that the recommendations of the two advisory subcommittees will be available for comment in the next issue of Field Notes. Sources: Walkerton Inquiry Part One of the Walkerton Inquiry, "The Events of May 2000 and Related Issues" Part Two of the Walkerton Inquiry "A Strategy for Safe Drinking Water" http://www.attorneygeneral.jus.gov.on.ca/english/about/pubs/walkerton/ Watershed-based Source Protection Planning Framework http://www.ene.gov.on.ca/envision/techdocs/4383.htm White Paper on Watershed-based Source Protection Planning http://www.ene.gov.on.ca/programs/3585e01.pdf Part One of the Drinking Water Source Protection Act, 2004 http://www.ene.gov.on.ca/envision/env_reg/er/documents/2004/aa04e0002.pdf |
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