Drinking water source protection
Drinking water source protection in Ontario:
- Is legislated through the Clean Water Act.
- Is part of the province's multi-barrier framework to ensure clean, safe, and sustainable drinking water from source to tap.
Our focus is on preventative and proactive planning.
Local source protection plans protect municipal drinking water from potential contamination and overuse. Municipalities, conservation authorities, and provincial ministries and agencies all share responsibility for safeguarding our drinking water sources.
Care and maintenance
We all have a role to play in caring for our drinking water. Learn about best management practices and steps you can take to ensure drinking water stays safe and clean.
Learn more about drinking water source protection:
Contact us
If you have a question, need more information, or think source protection plan policies might affect you, email us or call 905-795-7800, extension 4685.
Local watershed-based source protection plans include policies that address 22 activities identified by the province as threats to the quality and quantity of municipal drinking water sources.
For more information about the background science and the local source protection plans that apply to designated vulnerable areas in Peel, refer to:
A source protection plan protects the area around municipal wells and surface water intakes. These are called vulnerable areas.
Vulnerable areas around sources of municipal drinking water have been identified where certain activities could pose a water quality or quantity threat. Under specific circumstances, activities may be prohibited or need to be managed.
Use the Ministry of the Environment, Conservation and Parks interactive Source Protection Information Atlas to see if you’re in a designated vulnerable area where source protection plan policies apply. If you’re not sure if source protection plan policies affect you, email us or call 905-795-7800, extension 4685 for us to confirm.
Proposed development in vulnerable areas may be subject to source protection plan policies under specified circumstances. For that reason, a screening is required before an application can be approved.
If the property is located within a designated vulnerable area, you must complete and submit a Source Protection Plan Policy Applicability Screening Form. The building or planning office that’s responsible for assessing your application will tell you if a screening must take place. Email us for a copy of the screening form.
Our Risk Management Office will review the submission and communicate any source protection policy requirements. In some cases, we might ask for additional information about the proposed land use or activity.
Our Risk Management Office will provide you with a written statement confirming source protection clearance or a notice to proceed under Section 59 of the Clean Water Act. Some activities may be prohibited as proposed or require a risk management plan. Depending on the level of risk associated with the proposed development, you might need to provide additional documents or studies to support the application.
If proposed activities are prohibited or regulated through source protection plan policies, our Risk Management Office will provide you with detailed feedback to ensure source protection concerns are addressed.
The Region of Peel’s Risk Management Office carries out the duties and enforcement responsibilities of Part IV (Regulation of Drinking Water Threats of the Clean Water Act.
Our municipal staff are trained to standards set by provincial regulation, certified, and appointed as Risk Management Officials (RMOs) and Risk Management Inspectors (RMIs).
RMOs and RMIs ensure the requirements under the Clean Water Act are met and are responsible for administering and enforcing certain policies set out in the local source protection plans.
This includes:
- Reviewing development applications in vulnerable areas to ensure land use compatibility with source protection plan policies.
- Negotiating legally binding risk management plans to regulate how certain activities are undertaken on a specific property.
- Enforcing prohibition policies.
- Conducting site inspections.
- Facilitating education and outreach engagement initiatives.
- Ensuring that information about land use activities in vulnerable areas is accurate.
Related resources: Risk Management Officials and Inspectors: Regulation of Drinking Water Threats under Clean Water Act Part IV.