Drinking Water Stewardship

The Clean Water Act creates a drinking water support program to help farmers and small rural businesses take action to reduce threats to local drinking water sources. The Ontario Drinking Water Advisory Panel has provided advice on how the stewardship program should be administered and allocated.

Source Protection Program

Of the $7 million available through this program across the Province of Ontario, $5 million will support early action to protect municipal drinking water sources such as wellhead protection areas and intake protection zones. The $2 million will support education and outreach to ensure public awareness of the Clean Water Act and the availability of funds for early actions.

More specifically, across the Province, the $2 million portion of this program will provide for:

• Activities that will educate and encourage community action aimed at protecting municipal drinking water sources as defined under the Act. These activities include developing and distributing marketing and promotional materials, local mailings, workshops, advertising in trade magazines, signs, face-to-face visits, etc.
• Projects that inform and educate key stakeholder groups within vulnerable areas about the $5 million component of the program for early action to protect source water
• Activities that enhance the effectiveness of existing drinking water source protection alliances and that forge new ones to coordinate education and outreach programs on drinking water source protection issues
• New and innovative approaches to provide areas in need of education and outreach for drinking water source protection planning at the provincial level.

The anticipated outcomes of this funding component include printed materials (brochures, flyers etc), special events (information fairs etc.), and local media outputs.

Who is eligible for the Source Protection Program funding?

Any association or anyone administering public education and outreach programs that are related to drinking water source protection in their local community is eligible to apply for funding from the Program — Education and Outreach component. Preference will be given to partnership proposals that focus on the following areas:

• Rural Community
  Projects that educate the agricultural community on drinking water source protection practices and will encourage these protective actions.
• Business & Industry Sectors
  Projects that encourage business and industry province-wide to develop policies and practices that are consistent with drinking water source protection.
• Educational Initiatives for Institutions, Conferences and/or Programs
  Develop strategies, in consultation with the local community, to incorporate education on drinking water source protection into teaching programs and activities
• Municipalities, First Nations, and Local Conservation Authorities
  Develop outreach strategies that aim to inform their local communities on the Clean Water Act and encourage action and behaviours that support drinking water source protection initiatives.

Applications will be assessed by the Ministry of the Environment according to pre-determined evaluation criteria available in the application package. Evaluations will be conducted on an application-by-application basis. Projects will be assessed based on their consistency with the priorities and objectives as outlined in the Ontario Drinking Water Stewardship Advisory Panel Report; level of commitment of the applicants; and the demonstrated benefits to the community at large.

The objective of the $5 million component is to encourage implementation of early actions in wellhead protection zones and intake protection zones. Activities include:

• Decommissioning old abandoned wells and maintenance of existing wells.
• Septic systems education, upgrades and inspections.
• Pollution prevention audits aimed at better management of materials storage, handling and disposal.
• Overland runoff protection via buffers.

Additional Information

• Drinking Water Stewardship
• Protecting Drinking Water Sources