Greetings, On behalf of our…

Greetings,

On behalf of our municipality, I would like to submit the following comment on this proposal.

The proposed changes to Environmental Protection Act and the Ontario Water Resources Act to streamline permissions for low risk, short-term water taking activities is generally satisfactory.

In regard to the Proposed Modifications to Regulatory Requirements for Construction Site Dewatering Section, where requirements pertaining to the discharge report would be modified to include "any required consent or authorizations would need to be obtained from the owners of the works or location where the water is intended to be discharged, which may have stricter discharge quality criteria than stipulated above.", we would like to require a further clarification to this wording.

Some property owners or constructors may be under the impression that discharging construction dewatering water into a private catchbasin, vs. on a public right-of-way, would not require any further approvals based on the current language. Could there be further clarification to state that discharges to any drains or catchbasins that connect to municipal stormwater infrastructure will require consent or authorization from the local municipality?

Thank you for the opportunity to review and comment on this proposal.