What is source water protection in Ontario?
Protecting drinking water sources More than 99.8% of water quality tests continue to meet Ontario’s strict health-based water quality standards. The first step is protecting the surface or ground water that supplies municipal drinking water systems. This is called source protection.
What is a water source protection plan?
The Source Water Protection (SWP) program strives to protect sources of drinking water by developing tools and supporting voluntary partnerships and approaches that can prevent contamination of sources of drinking water.
Who is responsible for water treatment in Ontario?
The Ministry of the Environment is responsible for protecting water. 1 This is the oversight agency for the protection of source water to municipal systems, not small drinking water systems. The operational agency for source water protection committees is local conservation authorities.
How can I protect my water source?
Easy Things You Can Do To Protect Drinking Water Sources
- Properly dispose of hazardous products Put up signs.
- Use and dispose of harmful materials properly.
- Volunteer in your community.
- Join in a beach, stream or wetland cleanup.
- Prepare a presentation about your watershed for a school or civic organization.
What is a source protection plan?
The Source Protection Plan (SPP) is a strategy and suite of policies designed to protect municipal sources of drinking water from contamination and overuse.
What is Ontario’s Safe Drinking Water Act?
The Act recognizes that the people of Ontario are entitled to expect their drinking water to be safe and provides for the protection of human health and the prevention of drinking-water health hazards through the control and regulation of drinking-water systems and drinking-water testing.
What level of government is responsible for water?
While the federal government has jurisdictional responsibility for water in certain areas such as navigation, fisheries and boundary waters, and shares responsibilities with the provinces in other areas such as agriculture and health, it is also responsible for managing water in its own “federal house”.
What level of government is responsible for clean water?
Standards and guidelines Alberta Environment and Parks is responsible for the drinking water and wastewater programs for large public systems in Alberta.
What happens if we do not take care of water resources?
Failing to conserve water can eventually lead to a lack of an adequate water supply, which can have drastic consequences. These include rising costs, reduced food supplies, health hazards, and political conflict. It helps to preserve our environment.
Is groundwater always cleaner than surface water?
Filtered Water Groundwater is a bit safer from pollution than surface water from some types of pollution because some pollutants are filtered out by the rock and soil that water travels through as it travels through the ground or once it is in the aquifer.
What is Source Protection Zone?
Source Protection Zones (SPZs) are defined around large and public potable groundwater abstraction sites. The purpose of SPZs is to provide additional protection to safeguard drinking water quality through constraining the proximity of an activity that may impact upon a drinking water abstraction.