Approval to further protect sources of drinking water in the Long Point Source Protection Area

The Clean Water Act, 2006 protects existing and future sources of drinking water.

The Act ensures communities are able to protect their drinking water sources through prevention - by developing collaborative, locally driven, watershed based drinking water source protection plans founded on science. Protecting local drinking water sources is an important first step in ensuring Ontario’s communities are confident in the quality and quantity of their drinking water.

Amendments to the assessment report and source protection plan

The Grand River Source Protection Authority, with support from the Long Point Source Protection Authority, prepared the amendments for submission. The amendments were submitted by the local source protection authority to help further protect sources of drinking water in the Long Point Source Protection Area.

In the assessment report, the amendments update wellhead protection areas for four municipal drinking water systems. They include:

• new water quantity protection areas and updated water quality protection areas around the Delhi-Courtland, Simcoe and Waterford groundwater systems within Norfolk County
• new protection areas around two new wells within the Delhi-Courtland groundwater drinking water system
• revision of a protection area to reflect decommissioning of one well in the Simcoe drinking water system
• addition of a protection zone where nitrates are elevated around the Richmond drinking water system within the Municipality of Bayham

In the source protection plan, the amendments add new policies to ensure water quantity is protected, and revise existing water quality policies for improved clarity. They include:

• establishing water quantity policies that apply to water quantity protection areas around the Chapel Street and Cedar Street wells at the Simcoe groundwater system
• policies to reduce nitrogen-based commercial fertilizer within the nitrate protection zone around the Richmond drinking water system
• minor change to an existing land use planning policy relating to septic systems to provide clarity for the municipality

The source protection authorities completed the amendments in accordance with the legislative and regulatory requirements set out in the Clean Water Act and Ontario Regulation 287/07(General).

The amendments take effect upon posting of the approval on the Environmental Registry.

Other information

The Minister has concluded that the legislative requirements under the Clean Water Act have been met and that comments the source protection authorities received during consultation on the assessment report and source protection plan amendments have been adequately considered and addressed.

Other public consultation opportunities

The local source protection authorities held consultations while the amendments were being developed. They invited comments from:

• the public
• implementing bodies affected by the changes to the protection zones and policies, including the provincial government and local municipalities
• the Ministry of the Environment, Conservation and Parks

The source protection authorities also held public consultation on the proposed amendments from October to November 2017.

The source protection authorities considered comments and made appropriate revisions. We considered comments received as part of the review process.

The approved amendments to the assessment report and source protection plan are available via the link provided in this notice and on the Lake Erie Source Protection Region website.

We have not made changes to the future review cycle of the Long Point source protection plan. This review cycle was established when the initial plan was approved in November 2015 and is described in the EBR notice posted with that decision (available at the link provided in this notice)