The Corporation of the Municipality of Rideau Lakes - Order to prevent discharge of contaminants

The Maple Grove Mobile Home Park is a year-round mobile home park consisting of 19 mobile homes. The mobile home park is serviced by three on-site subsurface sewage works. Each sewage works has an approval issued under repealed part 8 of the Environmental Protection Act(EPA).

Ministry staff have confirmed the presence of wet and spongy areas on and near one of the sewage works, and black and sewage smelling material on the ground at the property. A licensed sewage system installer assessed the disposal bed of the sewage works and confirmed it requires replacement. Also, tenants have reported sewage smells in their homes. Based on this information, it appears that the sewage system has failed, and sewage is, or has the potential to, discharge to the environment and cause an adverse effect, impair surface water and groundwater, and impact public health.

Despite many requests, including the issuance of a Provincial Officer’s Order in June 2025, the owner of the property is no longer consistently taking steps to assess and address the failed sewage works.

On November 18, 2025, an Ontario Water Resources Act (OWRA) section 62 director’s report was issued to the Township of Rideau Lakes to monitor the sewage level in the septic tank at the Maple Grove Mobile Home Park and to retain a sewage hauler to pump out the septic tank when required, until a longer-term solution is implemented. On November 18, 2025, the ministry director issued an access order to 2677041 Ontario Inc., the current owner of the site, to require that they provide the Township of Rideau Lakes with access to the property.

It is of the opinion of the director that posting the instrument for public comment would increase the potential for harm or serious risk of harm to the environment, danger to health and safety, and/or damage or serious risk of damage to property, as outlined below:

• ministry observations and reports by tenants indicate the sewage system has failed, and that sewage is discharging to the environment without undergoing proper treatment/dispersion
• the owner previously hired a sewage hauler to pump out the septic tank of the failed system, but the pump outs were infrequent and the most recent pump outs were completed on October 18 and November 12, 2025. The sewage hauler has indicated that based on the usage, the tanks should be emptied once a week. Without weekly pump outs, sewage discharges to the environment without undergoing proper treatment/dispersion and/or backs up into the homes of tenants
• the owner has stopped responding to communication from the ministry and the owner is not taking action to prevent further discharge of sewage
• the sewage system is approximately 20 meters from the Maple Grove Mobile Home Park drinking water well that supplies the entire property
• further discharge of sewage could result in impacts to the groundwater, sewage backing up into homes, and/or further impacts to the environment
• posting on the Environmental Registry of Ontario for the 45-day commenting period, would result in an increased risk of these impacts. The proposal meets the requirements of the emergency exception