Approval to further protect sources of drinking water in the Mississippi-Rideau Source Protection Region

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 Rideau Valley Source Protection Authority prepared the amendments to help further protect sources of drinking water.

The amendments include:

• a water quality protection area around the new Richmond West drinking water system
• revision of the protection areas around the existing Munster and King’s Park drinking water systems
• updated source protection plan mapping

In the source protection plan, no changes to the policies were made, which means the existing policies will apply to the new and updated protection areas.

The source protection authority 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 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 authority received during consultation on the assessment report and source protection plan amendments have been adequately considered and addressed.

Other public consultation opportunities

The Rideau Valley source protection authority held consultations while the amendments were being developed. They invited comments from:

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

The source protection authority also held public consultation on the proposed amendments from August to September 2018.

The source protection authority 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 Mississippi-Rideau Source Protection Region website.

We have not made changes to the future review cycle of the Mississippi Valley and Rideau Valley Source Protection Plan. This review cycle was established when the initial plan was approved in August 2014 and is described in the EBR notice posted with that decision (available at the link provided in this notice).