The Clean Water Act requires that a Source Protection Committee be established for each Source Protection Region. Ontario Regulation 288/07 (Source Protection Committees), made under the Clean Water Act, 2006, sets out the requirements for establishing a Source Protection Committee for each Source Protection Region in the Province. The Source Protection Committee for the Trent Conservation Coalition Source Protection Region is comprised of 21 members, plus the Chair. The committee will oversee the process of gathering information about the watershed, assessing threats and assembling this information into a comprehensive source protection plan.
The committee is made up of local stakeholders such as municipalities, agriculture, landowners, industry, business, First Nations, community groups and the general public.
For the first time, communities will be required to create and carry out a plan to protect the sources of their municipal drinking water supplies. The Clean Water Act will:
- Require local communities to look at the existing and potential threats to their water and set out and implement the actions necessary to reduce or eliminate significant threats.
- Empower communities to take action to prevent threats from becoming significant.
- Require public participation on every local source protection plan. This means everyone in the community gets a chance to contribute to the planning process.
- Require that all plans and actions are based on sound science
This legislation is designed to promote voluntary initiatives but does require mandatory action where needed. The legislation sets out a basic framework for communities to follow in developing an approach to protecting their water supplies that works for them:
Identify and assess risks to the quality and quantity of drinking water sources and decide which risks are significant and need immediate action, which need monitoring to ensure they do not become significant, or which pose a low or negligible risk.
Develop a source protection plan that sets out how the risks will be addressed. Broad consultation will involve municipalities, conservation authorities, property owners, farmers, industry, businesses, community groups, public health officials, First Nations and the public in coming up with workable, effective solutions.
Carry out the plan through existing land use planning and regulatory requirements or approvals, or voluntary initiatives. Activities that pose a significant risk to drinking water sources may be prohibited or may require a site specific risk management plan. This plan will set out the measures that a property owner will take to ensure the activity is no longer a threat.
Stay vigilant through ongoing monitoring and reporting to measure the effectiveness of the actions taken to protect drinking water sources and ensure they are protected in the future.