Muskoka Watershed Council

 


Water is critical to all aspects of our lives. Protecting the sources of our water is important to ensure that there is enough safe water for all our uses - now and in the future. Source water protection is simply protecting water resources such as lakes, rivers and groundwater, from contamination or overuse. Bill 43, The Clean Water Act is intended to provide a framework on how best to protect Ontario's sources of drinking water at its sources.

After the Walkerton tragedy, the Ontario government made a commitment to adopt a multi-barrier approach to protect drinking water. Although many Ontarians rely on water treatment to give them clean water, Justice Dennis O’Connor, who led the inquiry into the tragedy, concluded that protecting water at its sources is one of the most effective and efficient means of safeguarding this critical natural resource, calling it the “first line of defense”.

The Walkerton Inquiry concluded that protection of water resources must be done on a watershed basis. For administrative purposes, the Province has indicated that a watershed region will be created encompassing the Nottawasaga Valley Conservation Authority, the Lake Simcoe Region Conservation Authority, the Severn Sound Environmental Association and Black River watersheds for Source Water Protection under the Clean Water Act.  The Muskoka River watershed will be a separate watershed region.

 

For More Information

Source Protection Committee Members Announced

The South Georgian Bay Lake Simcoe Source Protection Committee members have been selected.

The Source Protection Committee, a group of local stakeholders, will be responsible for directing the program, which involves the safeguarding of municipal drinking water supplies through the process described in the Province of Ontario’s Clean Water Act. This legislation requires the mapping of significant water resource areas, the identification of risks to the quality or quantity of drinking water, and the development of policies and strategies to minimize those risks.

For more information about the South Georgian Bay Lake Simcoe Watershed Region, visit the website at www.ourwatershed.ca.