Groundwater programs and reports

Peel Region administers and participates in GTA groundwater monitoring programs.

The Oak Ridges Moraine Groundwater Program and mandate

Peel's Water Resources team jointly leads the Oak Ridges Moraine Ground Water Program (ORMGP) with the municipalities of York, Durham, Halton, and the City of Toronto.

Established in 2001, the ORMGP continues to be a leading source for ground and surface water data.

The ORMGP was founded in response to development encroaching on the Oak Ridges Moraine. These municipalities understood the magnitude a program to protect the Oak Ridges Moraine and its connected aquifers, and Peel continues to be a long-standing funding partner.

ORMGP mandate

The ORMGP's mandate is to provide a multiagency, collaborative approach to collecting, analyzing, and distributing water resource data. The ORMGP builds, maintains, and shares a geological and hydrogeological context with partner agencies for ongoing groundwater studies and management initiatives.

Visit Oak Ridges Moraine Groundwater Program for:

A map of borehole, climate station and surface water flow station maps.
Journal articles.
Conference papers about partner agencies' watersheds.

Groundwater monitoring reports

Peel Region administers the groundwater monitoring program for Peel’s municipal wells. We monitor water levels and quality in accordance with the Permit to Take Water (PTTW) conditions for our municipal wells. If you need access to groundwater monitoring reports, email us.

Peel has six groundwater-based drinking water systems supplied from 16 municipal pumping wells. In addition, Peel has 142 monitoring stations monitoring groundwater and surface water within Caledon. Annually, Peel retains a consultant to document the water level and water quality conditions at the six groundwater-based drinking water systems.

Occasionally, Peel’s monitoring network (non-potable) detects potential concerns relevant to domestic wells including but not limited to factors such as chlorides, sodium and/or nitrate. If you wish to access the groundwater monitoring reports and/or groundwater quality sampling reports, email us.

Water takings

'Water taking' is withdrawing new or increased amounts of groundwater from a water source.

Our Water Resources team ensures that any water takings for construction projects, municipal wells and lake-based systems are tracked and reported to the Ministry of the Environment, Conservation and Parks (MECP) every year by March 31.

In some cases, monitoring and discharge plans are also enforced by the Ministry to ensure that water takings have little or no impact on the surrounding natural environment.

The two types of permits that allow for water takings are called Permits to Take Water (PTTW) or Environmental Activity and Sector Registry (EASR).

The MECP grants and approves these permits before any water takings that exceed 50,000 L of dewatering per day can begin.

For more information about PTTWs and EASRs, visit MECP Permit to Take Water or MECP Environmental Activity and Sector Registry.

Resources

For teachers and educators

Peel's Environmental Education team has several resources for teachers:

For more educational resources and information, visit Environmental Education.

Additional resources

local, provincial, and federal agencies that also help protect and manage water resource initiatives in Ontario and Canada: