Include optional drinking water sources in a source protection plan        

Overview

The Clean Water Act is one of many ways to protect drinking water. The purpose of the Clean Water Act is to protect existing and future sources of drinking water. The Clean Water Act requires source protection plans to include sources of water that supply municipal residential drinking water systems within established source protection areas. The Clean Water Act also allows for the protection of other drinking water sources within and outside established source protection areas.

Source protection plans under the Clean Water Act are locally developed and provincially-approved action plans. For drinking water systems that are not included in a source protection plan under the Clean Water Act, the province promotes using existing municipal and provincial regulatory tools, such as the Planning Act, Municipal Act, septic inspection programs under the Building Code and provincial environmental approvals and permits, along with incentive programs, education and outreach initiatives, and other direct actions, such as setting up secondary spill containment, inspecting your own septic system routinely, choosing alternatives to road salt and putting up a fence to keep cattle out of a stream, to ensure drinking water sources are protected.

If a drinking water system is brought into a source protection plan, it is subject to all the requirements of the Clean Water Act. This means that the system will undergo a rigorous scientific risk assessment, policy development and source protection plan implementation. This includes:

• Technical studies of the drinking water source
• Identifying activities that may pose a risk to the drinking water source
• Developing policies that manage activities that may pose a risk to the drinking water source
• Assessing uncertainty with the information used to support decision making
• Reporting annually to track implementation of policies
• Continuous improvement updates to the source protection plan

All property owners located in any delineated protection zones in a source protection plan are subject to all applicable plan polices. In some cases, a locally-directed source protection strategy for smaller or remote drinking water systems may be more appropriate to address very specialized and local considerations, instead of including the system in a source protection plan under the Clean Water Act. However, if you have tried an approach outside of the Clean Water Act and it isn’t working, you may be able to bring your drinking water system into a provincially-approved source protection plan if you are located within a source protection area, or develop a source protection plan under the Clean Water Act if you are located outside of a source protection area.

Source protection areas are set out in regulations under the Clean Water Act and largely based on conservation authority watershed boundaries, covering most of southern Ontario and several urban centres in the north. Use the interactive Source Protection Information Atlas tool to see if you are located in a source protection area.

If you are located within a source protection area

There are options available if your drinking water source is located within a source protection area, after considering an approach outside of the Clean Water Act.

For municipalities

Unlike municipal residential drinking water systems, you can choose to include other types of drinking water systems located in source protection areas in the source protection planning process. If you have already tried an approach using your existing tools and have determined that you need the enforcement tools under Part IV of the Clean Water Act or land use planning decision-making compliance, you may want to consider including other drinking water systems.

Sections 57, 58 and 59 of the Clean Water Act (“prohibited activities”, “regulated activities” and “restricted land uses”, respectively) establish regulatory tools to address activities that are, or would be, significant drinking water threats. These are sometimes called Part IV tools because their authority is established by Part IV of the Clean Water Act.

Subsection 39(1) of the Clean Water Act requires that decisions under the Planning Act or the Condominium Act must conform with applicable significant threat policies set out in the source protection plan. These policies are legally binding on decision-makers, including municipal councils, municipal planning authorities, planning boards, and the Local Planning Appeal Tribunal (formerly the Ontario Municipal Board) and cannot be appealed.

Generally, any drinking water systems that are not municipal residential drinking water systems serving or planned to serve major residential developments may be included in the source protection planning process. Other types of drinking water systems that can be included in source protection plans through municipal council resolution are prescribed in regulation. Section 4.1 of the General Regulation (Ontario Regulation 287/07 made under the Clean Water Act) allows for an existing non-municipal drinking water system that serves one private residence and no other facility to be included in a source protection plan if:

• the well or intake serving the system is one of a cluster of six or more wells or intakes,
• the system is in an area of settlement (as defined in the Planning Act), or
• the private residence is a designated facility or public facility (as defined in Ontario Regulation 170/03).

Ontario Regulation 287/07 under the Clean Water Act does not describe the relative distance of the wells or intakes that make up a cluster. The definition of a cluster is open to interpretation so that a wide variety of natural conditions can be considered.

There are two options to include other types of drinking water systems: municipal council resolution or minister’s designation.

• Subsection 8(3) of the Clean Water Act gives municipalities the authority to pass a municipal council resolution to add other drinking water systems to the terms of reference for local source protection plans.
• Subsection 10(6) of the Clean Water Act grants the Minister of the Environment, Conservation and Parks the authority to require other drinking water systems to be included in the source protection planning process.

For First Nations on reserve

The Clean Water Act allows drinking water systems serving reserves located within or adjacent to an existing source protection area to be considered as part of the source protection planning process.

There are several opportunities for your community to participate in the drinking water source protection process under the Clean Water Act, including: 

• participate as a member of a source protection committee (where seats are available and your community has identified a representative)
• review and comment on amendments to source protection plans
• submit a First Nation band council resolution requesting that an existing or planned drinking water system serving or planned to serve a reserve be included in a source protection plan

If protection under the Clean Water Act is the best choice for your community, the process of including your system would be initiated by resolution of a First Nation band council. The province would then have the authority to include (through amendment to Ontario Regulation 287/07) your drinking water system. The specific details of including your system in the source protection planning process would be determined through discussions with the source protection authority and ministry, including identifying who would conduct the technical studies (the First Nation, the source protection authority, etc.) and how traditional knowledge will be considered.

For local planning authorities, communities and private landowners

If you are concerned about your source water, consult with the local source protection authority to determine if the Clean Water Act legal framework will address your specific concerns before requesting a municipal council resolution to include the system in a provincially-approved source protection plan.

If you are located outside of a source protection area

There are options available if you are located outside of a source protection area, after considering an approach outside of the Clean Water Act.

The Minister of the Environment, Conservation and Parks has the authority under subsection 108(c) of the Clean Water Act to create a new source protection area through regulation and in doing so may also name a person or body to be the source protection authority under section 5 of the Clean Water Act. The Minister may also use this authority to address drinking water systems in unorganized territories.

For municipalities

Under section 26 of the Clean Water Act, you can develop a source protection plan via an agreement between your municipality, or group of municipalities, and the Minister of the Environment, Conservation and Parks. The Minister has wide authority under this provision to include any type of drinking water system in the agreement and to specify the nature and scope of the risk assessment and source protection plan (per subsection 26(4)).

Many municipalities in northern Ontario and other locations outside source protection areas have undertaken studies to help identify threats to their sources of drinking water. These studies, coupled with existing tools and legislation, can be used together to protect these sources of drinking water.

Contact us

For more information, email the Conservation and Source Protection Branch at the Ministry of the Environment, Conservation and Parks at source.protection@ontario.ca.