Goals & Successes
Protect and Conserve
What are the benefits of protecting and conserving water?
A Healthier Environment
The more water you use, the more energy it takes to treat, deliver and heat your water. Energy is also required to treat your wastewater so it can be safely put back into the environment. Most electricity produced in Ontario comes with an environmental cost such as pollution, which means the more water you use, the more stress you are putting on the environment. If a water source runs low or dry, communities are forced to find new sources of drinking water. The result can be drilling more wells, withdrawing more water from natural water bodies, seeking new sources of water, or creating dams and reservoirs. Solutions such as these can stress the environment by altering natural ecosystems, draining aquifers, and draining or altering wetlands which help supply and replenish our water.
A Healthier Bank Account
Not only will your water bill go down if you conserve water, but your gas or electricity bill will also decline because you are heating less water. Even if your water comes from a private well, it costs money to pump water to your tap, so you too will save. In addition, the more water you use in your home, the greater the burden on your septic system, which also costs money to upgrade or replace. Taking the initiative to protect source water makes good economic sense. It’s far more efficient to keep water clean and protected, as opposed to footing a bill for its restoration.
A Heathier Community
Protecting drinking water from contamination is the first step in safeguarding the health of all living creatures. Clean, safe water lends to good health and longevity. Also, by conserving water, you ease the burden on your community’s drinking and wastewater treatment plants – the less water you use and send down the drain, the less work these plants have to do to make your water clean again.
A Healthier Future
In some areas of Ontario, we use water faster than it can be naturally replenished, which can lead to long-term water shortages. However, smart water use stretches our water resources, helping avoid seasonal and long-term shortages, and saving thousands of litres of water per person each year! Protecting sources of water will allow our communities to plan properly for future development and ensure opportunity for economic growth.
Successes
Implementation
On January 1st, 2015 the Trent and Ganaraska Source Protection Plans came into effect. Implementation of plan polices is currently underway. These policies include a variety of approaches to education and outreach, the development of risk management plans, prohibitions of future instances of certain high-risk activities, land use planning, and more.
From the success of the Annual Reporting program, it can be seen that the majority of these policies have been implemented by municipalities, planning approval authorities, provincial ministries, and others. The Source Protection Committee has routinely given a score of “Progressing Well / On Target” in regards to policy implementation.
The Trent and Ganaraska Source Protection Plans are currently undergoing a Section 36 Amendment to improve and update these policies.
Outreach
Every year regional and local source protection staff and risk management officials from across the Region engage the public in education and outreach initiatives. Ten (10) policies in the Trent Source Protection Plan utilize the education and outreach tool to influence behavior and encourage the voluntary adoption of practices to better protect sources of municipal drinking water.
In both regions, information related to specific drinking water threats such as Road Salt, Snow Storage, DNAPLs and Organic Solvents, Fuel, Sewage, and Pesticide is communicated through social media posts and in person at public events throughout the year.
Fuel threats, and specifically fuel oil tanks have been a key focus of education and outreach in recent years. This includes information products related to fuel storage and handling, and information provided to local fuel suppliers.
Road signage continues to be an effective E and O tool. To date, all required DWPZ signs have been installed in the four Source Protection Authorities, including 255 under the Trent Source Protection Plan, and 8 in Ganaraska.
The Best Practices initiative has been using the science and knowledge acquired from the Source Protection Program to provide owners of private drinking water systems with information about how to protect their sources of drinking water. Six free webinars were conducted in 2024 in partnership with our neighbouring Source Protection Regions to provide helpful information for the public, reaching over 800 views online.