Best Practices for Non-Municipal Drinking Water Systems
The Trent Conservation Coalition, Cataraqui, Rideau Valley, and Quinte Conservation have partnered to provide the Drinking Water Wise Webinar series. This is a FREE five-part Microsoft Teams webinar series to help educate landowners and realtors on the importance of drinking water protection through monitoring and maintaining household systems. Each webinar will have a presentation about the Best Practices for Source Water Protection and a presentation from an expert in the field. All webinars will be recorded and available to view on Youtube afterwards. The webinar topics and schedule are as follows:
- Harmful Algal Blooms and Drinking Water - September 26, 2023, 12:00-1:00 pm. - Link to recording.
- Well Care 101 - October 26, 2023, 6:00-7:30 pm. - Link to Recording.
- Septic Systems 101 - November 30, 2023, 6:30-8:00 pm
- Realty and Rural Source Water - January 2024 (final date to be determined).
- Rural Source Water and Human Health - March 2024 (final date to be determined).
You can visit our registration page for more information about each Drinking Water Wise Webinar, or contact any of the staff involved:
|
Trent Bos https://trentsourceprotection.on.ca/. Trent Conservation Coalition Source Water Protection |
Tessa Latchmore https://cleanwatercataraqui.ca/about-us/cataraqui-source-protection-area/. Cataraqui Conservation Source Water Protection |
Natasha Mathieu nmathieu@quinteconservation.ca https://www.quinteconservation.ca/en/watershed-management/source-water-protection.aspx. |
Bharti Yadav https://www.mrsourcewater.ca/en/. Mississippi-Rideau Source Water Protection |
What are the Best Practices for Source Water Protection?
Do you drink water from a private well or intake? Then this section is for you. While Ontario’s Drinking Water Source Protection Program is generally focused on protecting municipal water sources, over 50% of the population within the Trent Conservation Coalition Source Protection Region is on private wells or drawing water from lakes, including most cottagers. A recent initiative launched in 2022 in conjuction with the Ministry of the Environment, Conservation and Parks is intended to extend the Best Practices learned from the Source Protection Program and regional Source Protection Plans, to owners of private systems, to increase local knowledge about the threats to their water sources, and what steps they can all take to protect them.
The official webpage of the Best Practices guidance from the Ministry of the Environment, Conservation and Parks is available online here: https://www.ontario.ca/document/best-practices-source-water-protection
For a more indepth and engaging look at the Best Practices, we'd recommend the following storyboard walk-through of the guidance here, with helpful figures, images and quizes to best ensure your understanding: https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/1c2e125a15754cebbb9aa5dac4fa2202
It contains information that can help cottagers, homeowners, small villages and rural schools that don’t have the luxury of safe municipal water.
In conjunction with this effort launched by the Ministry of the Environment, Conservation and Parks, the Trent Conservation Coalition Source Protection aims to recognize the vulnerabilities of private wells, surface water intakes, and non-municipal drinking water systems, and seek to educate, provide resources and raise awareness of the threats to those drinking water sources and ways to mitigate the threats.
The Ontario well records map is also a useful resource for seeing where wells are located near you: https://www.ontario.ca/page/map-well-records
If you have any questions or concerns about this guidance, feel free to contact the Best Practices Coordinator, Trent Bos, at: trent.bos@ltc.on.ca
