Approved amendments to the Source Protection Plan for the Quinte Conservation Source Protection Area

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 the Village of Tweed, the Minister has approved amendments to the Quinte Conservation Source Protection Area’s Assessment Report and Source Protection Plan. These amendments were recommended by the Quinte Source Protection Authority.

These changes enhance protections for sources of drinking water by ensuring that water quality 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

We revised water quality protection areas around two wells for the Village of Tweed’s drinking water system to reflect the addition of a nitrate Issue Contributing Area (ICA). An ICA refers to the area of land where drinking water threat activities may be contributing to a known drinking water issue such as nitrate among others.

This amendment does not change the vulnerability scores of the existing water quality protection areas of the two wells, but does make all prescribed activities occurring within the nitrate Issue Contributing Area significant.

To ensure ongoing protection for sources of drinking water in this area:

• revisions were made to a previously approved prescribed instrument policy and a previously approved risk management plan policy to better manage agricultural activities
• minor updates were made to previously approved policies for land use planning, mandatory septic system inspections, risk management plan, and prescribed instruments to ensure they apply to activities occurring within the new nitrate Issue Contributing Area of the Tweed drinking water system

All water quality protection zones can be viewed on the Source Protection Information Atlas.

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

These amendments take effect upon this posting of the Minister’s approval on the Environmental Registry.

Other public consultation opportunities

The Quinte Conservation Authority, the source protection authority, held consultations while the amendments were being developed. They invited comments from:

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

The source protection authority held public consultation on the proposed amendments from July 26 to September 7, 2022.

General Regulation 287/07 issued under the Clean Water Act, 2006 requires the source protection committee to send a notice to the chief of the band if any part of a First Nation reserve is in the area affected by the proposed plan amendments. While the Mohawks of the Bay of Quinte have a reserve - the Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory - within the Quinte Conservation Source Protection Area, this amendment does not affect any part of their territory. Despite this, the Mohawks of the Bay of Quinte were notified and made aware of the amendments by the Quinte Conservation Authority.

More information about the consultation process can be found in the source protection plan’s explanatory document on the source protection authority’s website.

The source protection authority considered and addressed comments received and made appropriate revisions, where needed, before submitting the proposed amendments to the ministry for approval. The ministry also considered the comments received as part of the review process, including consulting with other provincial ministries.

The approved amendments to the Quinte Conservation Source Protection Area’s Assessment Report and Source Protection Plan are available on the Quinte Source Protection Authority’s 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.

Please see any related environmental registry notices in the ‘Related links’ section below.