Approved updates to the Mississippi-Rideau Source Protection Plan including the Mississippi Valley and Rideau Valley Assessment Reports for the Mississippi-Rideau Source Protection Region.

The Clean Water Act, 2006 supports communities in protecting their drinking water sources from contamination and depletion. It does this by encouraging the development of collaborative, science-based watershed protection plans that are locally driven and focused on prevention.

The changes to the Source Protection Plan, including the Mississippi Valley and Rideau Valley Assessment Reports include:

• new and revised measures to manage threats reflecting revised thresholds for threats (e.g., from the application, handling and storage of salt, the storage of snow, the handling and storage of fuel, etc.) and the identification of liquid hydrocarbon pipelines as a prescribed threat under the technical rules
• updates to significant groundwater recharge area (SGRA) vulnerability scores and references to align with the amended technical rules
• updates to the protection zone for the Carleton Place municipal drinking water system to reflect how water drains into the protected area

Changes to the policy approaches taken to mitigate threats include:

• the addition of four new policies and revisions to 16 existing policies to align the plan with the latest version of the technical rules and to address threats related to:
  • sewage systems;
  • the application, handling, and storage of non-agricultural source material;
  • the handling and storage of commercial fertilizers;
  • the application, handling, and storage of road salt;
  • the storage of snow; and
  • the establishment of liquid hydrocarbon pipelines
• a policy related to the application, handling, and storage of non-agricultural source material (NASM) was deemed ineffective and removed from the source protection plan because the activity it manages is no longer administered by MECP. Responsibility for managing these types of activities now falls under the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Agribusiness (OMAFA)
• the addition of a new policy requires the Mississippi-Rideau Source Protection Region to establish a multidisciplinary working group focused on protecting private drinking water sources

The Mississippi Valley and Rideau Valley Source Protection Authorities conducted public consultation from October 10, 2024, to November 22, 2024. In accordance with the Clean Water Act, 2006, feedback was sought from:

• bodies responsible for implementing plan policies (including provincial government ministries and local municipalities)
• the public and affected landowners

The source protection authority considered and addressed all comments from the Ministry of Environment, Conservation and Parks, municipalities, and landowners before submitting the proposed updates for approval.

The minister has concluded that the comments the source protection authorities received during consultation on the updates to the assessment reports and source protection plans have been adequately considered and addressed, and that the legislative and regulatory requirements under the Clean Water Act, 2006 relating to the updates have been met.

These updates take effect upon this posting of the minister’s approval on the Environmental Registry of Ontario. The approved Mississippi-Rideau Source Protection Plan and the Mississippi-Valley and Rideau Valley Assessment Reports are available on the Mississippi-Rideau Source Protection Region’s website.