Approved Amendments to the Grand River Source Protection Plan

The Ontario government is committed to protecting our lakes, waterways and groundwater supply, now and for future generations. To ensure that the quality of Ontario’s municipal drinking water sources continue to be protected in Wellington County and the Region of Waterloo, the Minister has approved amendments to the Grand River Assessment Report and Source Protection Plan. These amendments were recommended by the Grand River Conservation Authority, the lead source protection authority for the Lake Erie Source Protection Region.

These changes enhance protections for sources of drinking water by ensuring that water quality and quantity policies and protections are based on current science and modeling.

Working with our partners, our strong protection framework will continue to help ensure Ontario’s drinking water is held to high safety standards and that sources of drinking water in the province are protected for future generations.

Amendments to the assessment report and source protection plan

The Grand River Conservation Authority prepared these amendments to help further protect sources of drinking water.

Protection areas were updated based on new groundwater models that better identify the areas where activities could pose a low, moderate or significant risk to sources of drinking water. The amendments include:

• the completion of technical work to assess water quantity stress levels for Centre Wellington wellfields (Centre Wellington’s Creek Tier 3 water budget) which considered impacts from overuse, drought and reduced recharge
• a new water quantity protection area developed for Wellington County (Fergus and Elora wellfields), which also crosses into the Region of Waterloo (Township of Woolwich)
• new water quantity policies developed by Wellington County and the Region of Waterloo which apply to the new water quantity protection areas in their respective municipalities that rely on a number of policy approaches including provincial approvals (e.g. Permit to Take Water), municipal land use planning and education and outreach
• the incorporation of the Town of Halton Hills Tier 3 water budget for municipal drinking water systems in the communities of Acton and Georgetown which extends from Credit Valley Source Protection Area into the Grand River Source Protection Area (Town of Erin)
• revised water quality protection areas around existing wellfields in the Region of Waterloo (Kitchener – Mannheim, Pinebush and Clemens Mill wellfields) to incorporate new wells
• a new land use planning policy developed for Wellington County’s Risk Management Office to prepare Drinking Water Threat Disclosure Reports
• revisions to existing policies for land use planning, discharge from a stormwater management facility, and other minor administrative amendments for updates to terminology or area of applicability were made for other activities
• updated source protection plan mapping

The source protection authority completed the amendments in accordance with the legislative and regulatory requirements set out in the Clean Water Act, 2006 and Ontario Regulation 287/07 (General).

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

Other public consultation opportunities

The Grand River Conservation 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 Ministry of Northern Development, Mines, Natural Resources and Forestry

The source protection authority also held public consultation on the proposed amendments from January 25 to March 8, 2021.

The Clean Water Act, 2006 General Regulation 287/07 requires the source protection committee to send a notice to the chief of the band if any part of a First Nation reserve in located in the area affected by the proposed plan amendments. For this submission, engagement with First Nations communities located in the Grand River source protection area was not required because there are no First Nations with reserves impacted by this amendment.

The source protection authority considered comments and made appropriate revisions before submitting the proposed amendments to the ministry. We considered comments received during consultation as part of the review process in accordance with section 30 of the Clean Water Act, 2006.

The approved amendments to the Grand River Source Protection Plan are available:

• through the link provided in the Supporting materials section of this notice
• on the Lake Erie Source Protection Region website

Other information:

The Minister has concluded that the legislative and regulatory requirements under the Clean Water Act, 2006 have been met and that the comments the source protection authority received during consultation on the assessment report and source protection plan amendments have been adequately considered and addressed, as appropriate.