The requirements for source protection planning are stipulated in the Clean Water Act, 2006 and its regulations. The key focus of the legislation is the preparation of locally-developed, collaborative, science-based assessment reports and source protection plans for each source protection area. The Act and regulations include who’s responsible, the requirements for technical studies and policy development, and the content of the documents.
The objective of the planning exercise is to assess existing and future conditions in the source protection areas and to develop strategies that when implemented will ensure activities that pose significant risk to drinking water sources are managed or prevented from taking place.
Most required studies have now been completed in the Halton-Hamilton Source Protection Region, and the findings are included in the assessment reports for the Halton Region and the Hamilton Region Source Protection Areas. The source protection plans build on the results of the assessments through policies developed to manage or prevent identified potential significant risks to the drinking water sources. The findings of ongoing technical work and new information that arises will be added to the documents through future amendments.
Source protection planning builds on and compliments the work that many municipalities, conservation authorities and stakeholders are already doing to protect water resources in general or drinking water specifically. Source protection planning is a collaborative community program and broad consultation is carried out so that everyone has the opportunity to provide their input.
