November 29, 2018 Water…

November 29, 2018

Water Policy
40 St. Clair Avenue West
10th Floor
Toronto ON M4V 1M2
Canada

Dear Shari Sookho,

RE: Comments on (EBR #013-3974)

Thank you for the opportunity to comment on the extending the moratorium on water bottling permits, EBR #013-3974.

Comments from the City of Guelph

The City of Guelph (the City) is supportive of the provincial government’s decision to extend the moratorium on water bottling permits. The City is also supportive of the provincial government examining in more detail their understanding of the water resources in the province, with a particular focus on groundwater takings by water bottling facilities.

As the government considers their next steps, the City would like to provide comments highlighting the following issues that should be considered in developing the rules and regulations on water taking in Ontario. These considerations include:

Make the Permit to Take Water (PTTW) process fair and equitable
For non-municipal water taking, if the MOECP’s intent is to manage consumptive use and to preserve water for more beneficial uses, the MOECP should ensure that the PTTW process is fair and equitable for all water takings and end use types.

In addition, City staff has concerns that this change in the process may affect the municipal sector and increase the burden for municipalities seeking a new PTTW for a new municipal water supply. There is already a rigorous process to be followed for municipalities to obtain new municipal water supply under the existing regime.

The regulation should apply to all non-municipal water sellers
Staff believes there is no distinction between water bottlers and the sellers of bulk water and that the regulation should apply to all sales of water, whether in small packaged containers or large water tankers. Furthermore, the regulation should apply to all takers of water for these purposes—including takers using less than 50,000 litres of water per day.

Restrict where bottled water takings are allowed
Water bottlers should only be allowed to obtain or maintain permits in locations with abundant, available groundwater that do not compete with municipalities for the same groundwater supply. Bottlers should not establish new permits or increased permits in areas already identified in source protection studies as quantity stressed. If the quantity risk ranking of a watershed changes to high risk, then the Province should have the ability to modify existing bottling permits to ensure water supply capacity is reserved for higher priority uses.

Furthermore, to initiate a new well, bottlers should be required to develop/model the wellhead protection area (WHPA) for the proposed taking to ensure the WHPA does not overlap with nearby current or future municipal water takings and the long-term water quantity of the aquifer. This information should also be included in any existing water quantity models for the watershed to ensure the long-term water quantity. In the case of overlap with existing or future municipal takings, the permit should be denied by the Province.

Include requirements for adaptive management of bottling permits
Water bottling permits should have monitoring requirements linked to annual reporting. Based on the results of the annual reporting, the MOECP should have the ability, with reasonable notice, to modify the permits to reduce negative environmental impacts or impacts on other permit holders.

Assessing a price for water extraction that covers costs
Water bottlers and bulk water sellers should be assessed a volumetric price by the province that, at a minimum, covers the following costs currently paid by the province and municipalities:
• MOECP costs to administer and enforce this regulation and related permits to take water;
• Provincial and municipal costs for scientific studies and computer modelling to better understand the resource and the potential impacts of climate change; and the
• Provincial and municipal costs of protecting the resource, including localized source water protection implementation costs currently paid by municipalities.

Encourage efficient water use
Water bottlers should follow industry best practices to minimize the amount of water used in production to produce a finished product. This requirement would ensure that a minimal amount of water is wasted and that Ontario’s finite groundwater supply is used efficiently.

Minimize waste and full producer responsibility
Water bottlers should be mandated to use more environmentally sustainable alternatives to single-use, recyclable plastic bottles and take steps to minimize the potential for waste wherever possible. In alignment with the Hierarchy of Waste, after waste minimization measures have been exhausted, water bottlers should be responsible for fully funding the costs to dispose of their products’ packaging. The costs should be inclusive of collection and disposal of materials that end up in the garbage stream including the cost of dealing with litter created by these same materials.

Producer responsibility should include all designated materials that enter the market place regardless of where they are placed for disposal (e.g. municipal collection, public consumption away from home and industrial, commercial and institutional collection). This also avoids any contradictory enticements for producers to not meet their diversion targets.

With respect to the actions planned during the moratorium, City Staff provided the following comments:

Set priorities for water use
At present, Ontario’s permit to take water process is based on fair sharing, conservation and preservation of our water resources. However, as Ontario continues to grow under provincial growth targets, there will be competition for the finite water resources available for municipal water supply. The MOECP should consider establishing priorities for water use and placing municipal water supply as a high priority use, particularly in areas where there may be documented risks to available groundwater quantities. This priority setting may be achieved through the application and enforcements of Section 33 of the Ontario Water Resources Act wherein the MOECP Director can define an area for protection of public water supply. In addition, the MOECP should work collaboratively with and enable municipalities to maintain existing and develop new water supplies in order to meet growth targets under Places to Grow.

Level the playing field
Water takings for municipal water are assessed differently than other permitted water takings. New municipal water takings are generally assessed through a Class Environmental Assessment where alternatives are evaluated and the preferred alternative(s) are determined based on minimizing potential environmental impacts, public consultation, and the requirements of a permit to take water process. Non-municipal water takings are generally not assessed in the same comprehensive manner with only limited assessments and public comment. Non-municipal water takings should be subject to the same scrutiny and open public consultation process as municipal water takings, in addition to the enforcement of more detailed and comprehensive operational practices as proposed for the bottled water industry by the MOECP.

Recognize the results of the Tier 3 Water Budget and Water Quantity Risk Assessments
Tier 3 Water Budget programs have identified areas of risk for Significant Drinking Water Threats (SDWT) for water quantity. The designated wellhead protection areas for water quantity should be identified in any new rules for permitting water takings and ensure that water takings comply with Source Protection Plans under the Clean Water Act to protect drinking water sources. New PTTW in the SDWT areas should be restricted and/or screened against the existing water takings in the area to ensure that new takings do not exacerbate the risks to municipal water sources. The screening of new water takings in the SDWT areas should consider application of the municipalities’ Tier 3 water budget integrated groundwater-surface water models to aid in the approval decision making process. To maintain the Tier 3 groundwater flow models, as part of the re-evaluation of the rules for water taking and the examination of pricing tools, the MOECP should consider establishing a financially sustainable source of funding for municipalities to maintain and continuously improve the computer models.

Support the Clean Water Act and source protection policies
The MOECP, in its review of the rules for water taking should consider providing more control to municipalities on water taking through the development of water quantity policies. For areas where Tier 3 studies have been completed, there is an opportunity to include new policies in the local source protection plan to manage water quantity threats and protect municipal drinking water sources. In some areas of the province, municipalities are competing for water supply capacity with bottled water and other industries. A comprehensive review and analysis of how such competing sectors can proportion and share groundwater resources needs to be completed as part of this review to ensure future municipal water supply capacity.

Improve the knowledge base of groundwater resources
MOECC should consider distributing existing and new information generated as part of the existing PTTW program. In the current program, the MOECC requires the reporting of daily water takings across the province and most permits may also include monitoring of potential impacts of the water taking and requirements for annual reports. When combined with the MOECC water well record database, this geological and hydrogeological information represents an extensive database of information on the groundwater resources but it is not collected in a way that it can be used to improve the knowledge or management of Ontario water resources. The MOECC should consider investing in data management and public data sharing so the existing and future data can be easily applied to improve the conservation and protection of water resources in Ontario.

Use new rules to protect municipal water supplies
If new rules are proposed, municipalities should be consulted in any discussions that may impact municipal permits; and the MOECP should provide fair consideration of all the facts it receives as comments regarding the maintenance and protection of municipal permits. New rules should be developed that offer municipalities the opportunity to provide sustainable supplies for the benefit of the local communities and should not add more constraints on municipal permits.

Achieve provincial growth targets by prioritizing municipal water supplies
The City of Guelph is a groundwater based community that relies on groundwater for its municipal water supply. Therefore, as noted in the City’s comments on the 2016 Provincial Co-ordinated Land Use Planning Review (specifically the proposed new Growth Plan for the Greater Horseshoe (Council Report 16-70), the availability of sustainable groundwater supplies must be a factor when allocating growth to the City, particularly for the 2031-2041 planning horizon.

The City must consider available and future municipal water supply when approving potential new non-municipal facilities, which requires water from the municipal water system for their operations. New rules for water taking should consider the economic value of the water taking, recognize constraints on available water taking and weigh the value against potential reductions in future municipal water supply capacity. Greater weight needs to be given to future municipal water supply requirements over non-municipal water-takings, in order to ensure groundwater based municipalities like Guelph, can achieve provincially mandated population and employment growth targets.

Study Climate Change and impacts on future water takings
The City of Guelph is required, as part of the Drinking Water Quality Management System Risk Assessment Process, to review potential climate change impacts to the drinking water system. This includes reviewing the risk to municipal drinking water supply from drought. In its review of water taking, the MOECP should consider conducting or funding research on the Ontario climate change effects on groundwater resources to establish climate change models that can be used to study potential changes to the management of groundwater resources.

Adequately resource support and enforcement of new rules on the issuance of permits
It may be expected that new rules for permits to take water may increase the level of effort for the issuance of permits and the MOECP should consider increasing its staff resources to support the increase in demand for new and renewed permits. In addition, new rules will place a higher burden on enforcement of permit terms and conditions and therefore, more resources may also be required to ensure compliance with the new rules.

Ensure timely and consistent response to drought
Staff agree that water bottlers, through their water taking permits, should comply with directives of the Ontario’s Low Water Response program that requires water takers to reduce their taking during times of drought.

Consistency of approach to managing permits
The Province should consider that many of the concerns and recommendations presented here would apply equally to other major permitted water users including but not limited to water takings for agriculture, golf courses, mining and aggregate, and other wet process industries.

Thank you again for the opportunity to provide comments on MOECP’s request to extend the moratorium on water bottling permits. The City of Guelph would be happy to discuss our comments further as the province works to develop rules and regulations regarding managing water takings across the province.

Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions regarding the City of Guelph’s feedback.

Sincerely,

Peter Busatto
General Manger of Environmental Services

T 519-822-1260 x 3430
E peter.busatto@guelph.ca

c’ Scott Stewart, Deputy CAO of Infrastructure Development