These comments are provided…

These comments are provided by staff at the Region of Waterloo and are a copy of a report for Region of Waterloo Council that will be considered on August 11, 2020 as this was the first meeting that could consider the framework. If approved, a copy of this report will also be provided as comments.

Region of Waterloo
Transportation and Environmental Services
Water Services

To: Chair Tom Galloway and Members of Regional Council
Date: August 11, 2020 File Code: E06-01
Subject: Recommendations for the Ontario Ministry of the Environment, Conservation and Parks (MECP) on Proposed Changes to Ontario’s Water Quantity Management Framework

Recommendation:
That the Region of Waterloo provide the following recommendations to the Ministry of the Environment, Conservation and Parks (MECP) to support the update to Ontario’s water quantity management framework as summarized in TES-WAS-20-14 dated August 11, 2020.
That the Region of Waterloo forward a copy of this report to the Ontario Minister of the Environment, Conservation and Parks.
And That the Region of Waterloo forward a copy of this report to the Area Municipalities asking for their support of the recommendations.

Summary:
The Region is supportive of the findings of the recent assessment of Ontario’s Water Quantity Management Framework and the initiatives to enhance the framework in some key areas. The Ministry of the Environment, Conservation and Parks (MECP) has requested feedback on their proposed changes through a public consultation process. The initiatives include prioritization of types of water use, regulation changes to manage water takings on an area basis, making water supply data more available and giving host municipalities more input into water bottling decisions. Based on available information, the Region offers recommendations to align the approaches with existing plans under the Clean Water Act, and to make clarifications so municipalities can assess how changes will affect them.

Report:
Background
On June 18, 2020, the Province posted a proposal on the Environmental Registry to update Ontario’s Water Quantity Management Framework (ERO number 019-1340). This report provides the Region’s comments and recommendations on the Ministry of the Environment, Conservation and Parks (MECP) proposal paper.

Comments on the proposal are due by August 2, 2020. The proposal includes regulatory changes for managing water takings to protect the long-term sustainability of surface water and groundwater. In particular, the Province’s proposal paper outlines four key areas for action:
1. Establish clear provincial priorities of water use to guide decisions where there are competing demands for water.
2. Update the approach to managing water takings in water quantity-stressed areas.
3. Make water taking data, including data the Ministry collects from permitted water takers, more accessible to the public.
4. Give host municipalities more input into water bottling decisions.

The ERO posting also provided technical support documents including an assessment from a peer-review panel.

This MECP proposal follows the December 2016 temporary moratorium on new or increased permits to take water to produce bottled water in Ontario.

The Region of Waterloo is the largest municipality in Ontario to rely on groundwater resources for municipal water supply. Seventy-five percent of the drinking water is provided from a network of approximately 120 groundwater wells with the remaining 25 percent from a surface water intake on the Grand River in Kitchener. Each water supply intake, well or wellfield is issued a Provincial Permit to Take Water (PTTW) with associated monitoring and reporting provisions.

Since 1994, the Region has been implementing a Water Resources Protection Strategy to assess, monitor and develop programs to protect municipal drinking water sources including understanding the impact of the Region’s water taking on water resources. Since 2006, Ontario’s Clean Water Act requires the Region to participate in the development of a watershed-based Source Protection Plan to minimize the impact of prescribed activities on municipal water supplies.

In 2018, Regional Council received a report on the water budget assessment completed by Region and Grand River Conservation Authority staff in accordance with requirements under the Clean Water Act. The assessment concluded that the municipal water taking is sustainable now and into the future (up to 2031) including impacts from increased demand, land development and drought.

As a significant user of groundwater resources, the Region is an important stakeholder in MECP’s approach to water management and in particular the requirements for reporting and monitoring of water taking.

Overview of the MECP Proposal Paper
The Provincial resource assessment focussed on select water quantity study areas potentially vulnerable to the cumulative effects of water users, drought, climate change, population growth or changing land use. The main conclusions from the assessments on water management were:
• Ontario has an effective framework for managing water takings
• Bottled water takings are being managed sustainably under the existing framework
• Water resources in Ontario are generally sustainable, with a few local exceptions
• There are opportunities to enhance the current framework to be more resilient to current and future water quantity management challenges
To address the opportunities for improvement the MECP outlines four key areas of proposed action. These action areas are discussed in the subsequent paragraphs of this report.

Provincial Priorities of Water Use
The MECP is proposing to amend the regulations to identify priorities of water use, with the environment and drinking water uses as well as agricultural irrigation as the highest priority uses. Industrial/commercial and other non-essential uses would be a lower priority. Guidance would be created to provide direction on when and how the priorities could be considered and applied. An example is provided in the proposal that the MECP could apply the priorities to place temporary restrictions on existing water takings during drought conditions. Should temporary restrictions be necessary, the MECP would ensure that priority water users were taking reasonable optimization and efficiency measures before requiring lower priority water users to reduce their takings.
Staff support the prioritization of water uses and placing drinking water supply in the highest priority category. This priority is consistent with the Region’s emphasis on water management through the Source Water Protection Master Plan and other Provincial instruments such as the Clean Water Act.
This priority also provides important support for municipal long-term water supply planning. The Region’s current Water Supply Master Plan approved in 2015 identified the water demand to meet planned growth to 2031. Several new groundwater sources were identified and assessed in the Master Plan, based on the water resource information available at that time. These new wells are not yet in operation. The proposed framework could allow the Province to protect the future municipal water use, should the province receive an application for a PTTW from a low-priority water user. It is recommended that the Province use planned growth as the basis for establishing municipal water needs and ensure that the Provincial approval process consider the water taking of municipal sources for projects where Municipal Class Environmental Assessments or Master Plans have been completed.
It is recommended that the Province provide clear guidance as to what will be considered a “reasonable” amount of optimization and water efficiency measures for the higher-priority uses, recognizing that requiring lower-priority uses to reduce their taking could have economic consequences to those operations.

Add Authority in Regulation to Manage Water Takings on an Area Basis
MECP is proposing to replace the high use watershed maps and associated new water taking prohibition on some industrial/commercial water taking with an approach to managing areas with water supply sustainability concerns that is adaptive to changing conditions and that can tailor assessment and management actions to local circumstances. This approach would be in the form of guidance provided to Permit To Take Water Directors for exercising their authority to make permitting decisions on an area basis including the circumstances where this would be taken, methods for undertaking related technical studies, stakeholder engagement and coordination with other programs such as drinking water source protection and Ontario Low Water Response.
Staff agree that current high-use mapping is out of date and no longer valuable given the advancements in understanding developed through the Water Budgets completed during the implementation steps of the Clean Water Act.
The MECP has not yet clarified under what circumstances the area-based approach would apply. The assessments in the accompanying technical support document were based on areas established as having significant water quantity risk under the Clean Water Act. It is not clear if this would be the threshold for area-based assessments in the future. It is recommended that water taking assessment areas be based on vulnerable areas (“WHPA-Q”) established under the Clean Water Act as this represents the areas within which new water taking could affect sustainability of municipal water supplies.
Small amounts of water taking result in impacts to surface water or other groundwater users that are so small they sometimes cannot be measured. If impacts are small and do not limit other users in meeting their requirements, then the taking is considered sustainable. Thresholds for impacts to surface water resulting from groundwater taking were detailed in the Technical Rules of the Clean Water Act. It is recommended that the Province use the same threshold of predicted 10 per cent reduction in measured surface water flow as a measurable impact.
The Region has invested in a sophisticated computer model of wells and groundwater flow, developed as part of the “Tier 3” water quantity assessment under the Clean Water Act. The Region, and several other municipalities, continue to develop and update these models as part of their water supply responsibilities. It is not clear whether these models would be used for assessing the cumulative impact of water taking, and what role the municipalities would have in assessing or providing this information.
Mandated use of the Tier 3 computer model would provide a benefit to the Region and the Province, but depending on the Provincial mandate, there could be considerable cost to the Region to maintain the model files and supply and interpret information. It is recommended that the MECP clarify municipal involvement, responsibilities, and funding associated with maintenance, assessment or provision of groundwater numerical models for the purpose of area-based assessments.
MECP has not clearly stated how the Ontario Low Water Response framework would be integrated into area-based assessments. The Region and other municipalities have effectively managed peak water demands in the summer through once-a-week outdoor water use restrictions and ongoing implementation of water efficiency programs. These are not formally considered in the Ontario Low Water Response framework but have been very effective. It is not clear the extent to which other non-municipal voluntary action is currently taken.
In applicable areas, it is recommended that permit applicants identify proactive reduction approaches to achieve the Level 1 restrictions (10 per cent reduction in use) and Level 2 restrictions (20 per cent reduction in use) as quantitative ways to reduce water taking as required. For municipalities, drought management could occur through strategic use of water storage, water conservation bylaws, awareness programs, or changing supply sources to reduce water taking from surface water features and/or shallower groundwater sources to reduce impact on surface water flows.

Make water taking data more accessible
MECP has proposed to build a public-facing online resource that would house data and analysis tools related to water taking and water levels.
Staff is supportive of the initiative to make pumping data available to the public through the Open Data Catalogue. MECP has also suggested water level, flow monitoring and survey data associated with permits would be shared with water managers and interested parties by request, with a longer-term goal of making the data available publicly.
The methods of data submission and presentation of water level information to the public is critical to the implementation of this initiative. The method to submit the data to the Province will need to be streamlined and simple to avoid administrative burden to water takers. Providing the public with the hydrogeologic setting when presenting monitoring results encourages science-based decision making and prevents public misinterpretation.
This is particularly true of groundwater information, where (1) water movement can be very slow and associated impacts are subtle, and (2) water moves in complex 3-dimensional ways. For groundwater systems, it is recommended that graphs of trends over extended periods of time be used to demonstrate sustainability of the supply sources and that the information be conveyed to the public in report formats.

Give host municipalities more input into water bottling decisions
In addition to all other requirements of the PTTW process, MECP is proposing water bottling companies be required to report whether they have support from the host municipality when applying for a new or expanded water taking of greater than 379,000 L/day.

MECP has proposed the “host municipality” would be considered the single-tier or lower-tier municipality where the proposed water taking is located. Region staff believe the public would be better served if the local municipality that manages drinking water sources were defined as the “host municipality”. While supportive of this initiative, it is recommended that the MECP align the definition of host municipality to that used in the Clean Water Act which gives responsibility for negotiation of risk management plans to “… the council of an upper-tier municipality or lower-tier municipality that has authority to pass by-laws respecting water production, treatment and storage under the Municipal Act.”

Next Steps
Comments on the proposal paper are due to the Province on August 2, 2020. To meet this deadline, staff have submitted an advance copy of this report to the Province as a placeholder until Council has considered it.

Corporate Strategic Plan:
The recommendations in this report support the Region’s 2019-2023 Strategic Plan Strategic Objective 3.4: Protect our water resources (drinking water and wastewater treatment).
Financial Implications:
Nil
Other Department Consultations/Concurrence:
Nil
Attachments
Nil

Prepared By: Eric Hodgins, Manager Hydrogeology and Source Water

Approved By: Thomas Schmidt, Commissioner Transportation and Environmental Services