Source Protection Plans will contain a combination of voluntary and mandatory policies to protect drinking water sources. Under the Clean Water Act, policies must moderate significant threats to municipal drinking water and prevent lesser threats from becoming significant.

Plans will set out:

• Policies to mitigate, reduce or prevent significant threats;
• Policies to prevent low or moderate threats from becoming significant;
• Who is responsible for taking action;
• Timelines; and
• How progress will be measured.

The Plan will propose a range of tools that can be used to accomplish these goals.

Source Protection Plans must be submitted to the Province for review and approval by August 2012. Source Protection Committees will work closely with municipalities to draft Plans with lots of input from the public and stakeholders.

The Province Wants Your Advice on Source Protection Plans

The Ontario Ministry of the Environment has released a draft regulation on Source Protection Plans for public comment. The Ministry wants your input on what should be in the Plans, how they should be developed, and what policy options should be available to address drinking water threats. The Province will consider your input when developing the final Source Protection Plan regulation later this year.

The draft regulation is posted on the Environmental Registry. The deadline for comments is March 26, 2010.

• To view the draft regulations and submit comments go to the Environmental Registry – enter registry number 010-8766