Approved amendments to the South Georgian Bay Lake Simcoe Source Protection Plan and associated Lake Simcoe Assessment Report for the South Georgian Bay Lake Simcoe 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 Durham, the Minister has approved recent amendments to the South Georgian Bay Lake Simcoe Source Protection Plan and Lake Simcoe Assessment Report. These amendments were deemed advisable by the South Georgian Bay Lake Simcoe Source Protection Committee.

Working with our partners, our strong source 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

These changes approve the addition of three new municipal drinking water wells to the source protection plan and formally remove the vulnerable area mapping for two previously decommissioned wells that are no longer in use in the communities of Sunderland and Cannington in the Regional Municipality of Durham.

Revisions were made to update the vulnerable area mapping to reflect the addition of three new municipal drinking water wells (one in Sunderland and two new wells in Cannington) and the removal of vulnerable area mapping for two municipal wells decommissioned in 2016 and 2017.

Other assessment report changes enhance protections for sources of drinking water by revising vulnerable area mapping for existing wells across Sunderland and Cannington as the delineated areas have been made more accurate based on updated 2021 groundwater modeling. This amendment does not change the vulnerability scores of the existing water quality protection areas, just the geographical boundaries of the identified vulnerable areas.

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 Lakes Simcoe and Couchiching/Black River Source Protection Authority held consultations while the amendments were being developed. They invited comments from:

• implementing bodies (including the provincial government and local municipalities) of vulnerable area changes
• the public and implicated landowners
• the Ministry of the Environment, Conservation and Parks

The source protection authority held public consultation on the proposed amendments from January 3, 2023, to March 9, 2023.

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. As there are no First Nations reserves in the affected area, none were directly consulted.

The source protection authority considered and addressed comments received and made appropriate revisions 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 South Georgian Bay Lake Simcoe Source Protection Plan and Lake Simcoe Assessment Report are available on the South Georgian Bay Lake Simcoe Region’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 Lake Simcoe Assessment Report and South Georgian Bay Lake Simcoe Source Protection Plan amendments have been adequately considered and addressed.