Ontario residents are being asked to help set a course for the future of water management across the province.

For residents from Brockville to Napanee, Frontenac Islands to Newboro, that will mean making contact with the Cataraqui Source Protection Committee.

The ministry appointed group, consisting of business, finance, agricultural, education and general public representatives, is hosting 12 roundtable consultations across the region as they develop a report and a list of “best practices” to be adopted by the Ministry of Environment.

Meeting attendees are shown the results of recent studies on how water flows in the area, and are then asked to identify potential sources of drinking water pollution, says Rob McRae, the committee’s regional project manager.

McRae said the community-based approach to watershed management is largely a response to the Walkerton crisis.

“That was a turning point in Ontario in how we look at where we get our drinking water from,” McRae said.

“There’s always been an emphasis on protecting water at its source, but before we relied more heavily on the final step,” at the water treatment plant and testing facility.

The 2006 Clean Water Act, which takes “a more balanced approach” to water management, McRae said, employing what he calls “a source to tap approach.”

Twenty-five people came out to a meeting hosted by the Cataraqui Source Protection Committee in Sydenham on Monday night, with residents from Lansdowne assembling for a second round on Tuesday.

Home septic systems, McRae said, which can leak into source water if not properly maintained, were a particular concern for attendees at the Sydenham and Lansdowne meetings.

“Knowing that septic systems usually cost $15,000 to $25,000 for a full replacement, it’s something that can be either a bit of a surprise or a burden for rural constituents,” he said. “We need to make sure these systems are properly maintained and updated.”

Kate Laird is a professor in the biology department at Queen’s, and represents the interest of the general public on the committee.

She attended the first round table meeting in Gananoque in January, and said agriculture has long been perceived by the public as a drinking water contamination threat.

“I think a lot of that comes from Walkerton,” she said, an Ontario city where, in 2000, seven people died from E. coli bacteria contaminating the drinking water.

Kingston’s agricultural community, she said, is very conscientious.

“I have nothing to do with farming,” she said, “but I’ve been quite impressed from what I’ve seen from farmers coming in to our committee.

“They are quite heavily regulated already, but on top of that, they are trying to whatever they can voluntarily, both in terms of conservation and protection.”

McRae agrees.

“We’re finding that the farming community are strong leaders in environmental stewardship in our community,” McRae said. “Some of the (pollutants) that we’re looking at do come from farming, such as fertilizer and pesticides.”

Some local farmers have been storing manure in cement pits, leaving natural “buffer zones” and building fences between fields and waterways, and installing solar-powered alternative watering systems for cattle, he said, that keep them out of the streams.

McRae said the Ontario government established 19 water districts under the 2006 Clean Water Act with 19 parallel source protection committees doing similar studies and consultations.

In Kingston, McRae said, the committee has identified three areas of vulnerability to drinking water contamination.

Anything within a two-hour flowing water distance from Kingston’s two Lake Ontario intake pipes is considered a pollution risk, he said.

“Would there be enough time to close the intake pipe and warn people to reduce their water use? That’s the main concern in those instances,” he said.

There’s also a large groundwater source near Kingston Mills Road, at the Cana Well Supply.

“On the groundwater side of things, we’ve identified the whole Cataraqui area as being highly vulnerable to pollution,” he said.

While it can take up to 25 years for pollution from a landfill, road salt or a dry cleaning operation, for instance, to infiltrate an underwater aquifer, McRae said “we need to be very careful with what we’re doing in the region.”

When consultations are over, McRae said, the committee will post a draft of suggested policies and “best practices” on its website.

The committee will also release a source protection master plan in early 2012, which incorporates research from 20 practical studies across the watershed, looking at river flow and pollution sources.

Once approved by the Ministry of Environment, McRae said the plan can be distributed to regional municipalities.

“They can apply it in their only planning processes, or it might be used to amend an existing master plan. It could also be taught to people at a workshop.”

Ultimately, he said, a source-to-tap approach will have co-benefits in health care, recreation and wildlife management.

“If you’re protecting the cleanliness of the water in Sydenham Lake,” he said, “that’s addressing the very first barrier to clean drinking water,” and improves the overall environment health.

Roundtable meetings in Kings ton and Wolfe Island are scheduled for May, with Napanee and Amherst view meetings slated for June. Research and developments in the project can be found at cleanwatercataraqui.ca.

via Water plan on tap – The Whig Standard – Ontario, CA.