Good day,

I am excited to share that the Ministry of the Environment, Conservation and Parks has released best practices for source water protection to help ensure communities and landowners in areas not covered by provincially-approved source protection plans have the tools they need to protect their drinking water sources.

Types of drinking water systems not generally included in source protection plans include privately-owned wells or cottage lake intakes and communal well systems for places like hamlets or campgrounds.

The new user-friendly best practices provide easy to understand information and tips to help protect these drinking water sources from contamination, such as how to ensure a septic system is functioning properly and how to store on-site fuel tanks and pesticides safely. The best practices also provide municipalities with information on how to use existing regulatory and non-regulatory tools under the Planning Act, Municipal Act and septic inspection programs under the Ontario Building Code to protect sources of drinking water.

Let us know what you think about the best practices by taking part in our survey on ontario.ca and sharing it with your members, citizens, staff and committees as applicable. Your feedback will help us continually improve best practices and ensure they are a useful tool for protecting drinking water sources.

Sincerely,

Kirsten Corrigal, Director

Conservation and Source Protection Branch