The cities of Guelph,…

The cities of Guelph, Kitchener-Waterloo, Cambridge, as well as farms, rural homes, and small businesses away from cities depend solely on groundwater to supply drinking water, and water for our food supply.

In Canada, Ontario has the highest reliance on ground water, both in terms of population and litres of water used (see Rutherford 7, 11). We must take our ground water protection very seriously.

Expansion of the Greenbelt to Wellington County and Waterloo Region would provide an important layer of protection for ground waters there (see Brooke). At the same time it would provide stability for agricultural land from the threat of urbanization, and clearly delineate where development can and cannot take place.

Ground water supply, and the effective treatment of waste water limits the size that these cities can take. The city of Brantford and the Six Nations Reserve drink water from the Grand River. Thus Kitchener-Waterloo, Cambridge and Guelph need to properly treat that water.

These "renewable" supplies are exhaustible, and should be protected into perpetuity. Changes in climate could bring droughts that exhaust groundwater supplies in the summer. When wells run dry, many residents will be left with little or no water, and will need to import water. As well, increased flooding may pollute downstream supplies of river water, if runoff is not reduced or correctly treated (see Brooke).

Plans need to be put into place to:
1. conserve existing water supplies through conservation measures, such as higher prices on municipal water, and incentives to catch valuable rain water.
2. protect all ground water sources from overuse, including drawdown by water bottlers.
3. protect all existing wetlands into perpetuity, and reduce runoff by ecological landscape changes.
4. price urban storm water treatment by the amount generated from each property. This would be an incentive for rain garden, retention ponds, and green roof formation, and perhaps a reduction of impermeable surfaces.
5. reduce sources of nitrogen and phosphorus into river and lake systems through some of above measures. (see Bunch).