Wellington North council got its first full look at a preliminary source water protection plan that will eventually affect the township as a drinking water provider.
Wellington County’s risk management official (RMO) Kyle Davis outlined work that has been done on a local plan to council at its May 12 meeting. Davis, who was hired and is funded by the county, works for all seven lower tier municipalities.
Appointment of an RMO was a requirement under the provincial Clean Water Act, which came into force in 2013. Source protection plans are required in each watershed, with five such plans applying to Wellington County, Davis explained in his report. The conservation authorities are involved in planning information in Wellington North; the Saugeen Valley Conservation Authority (SVCA), Grand River Conservation Authority (GRCA) and to a lesser extent Maitland Valley Conservation Authority.
Criteria used to put the preliminary plan together included plotting possible contaminant locations and their proximity to source water wells. The contamination threat on wells is based on the distance between the source and the well.
Initially in Mount Forest some 1,800 potential contaminating sites were identified in a source protection area provided by SVCA, but according to Davis that has been trimmed down to 189 after data was reviewed. In Arthur the GRCA has identified 70 locations, but Davis said that number is also expected to go down.
“Once updated data received from the Source Protection Authorities (SPAs), municipal activity verification will involve a combination of ongoing desktop analysis and future field verification, letters and door-to-door outreach to owners and tenants,” he said in his report.
The township is eligible for a $94,608 base grant plus $15,000 in a collaboration incentive for municipalities with four or more municipalities that share information.
“In total, the municipalities within Wellington County are eligible for $483,173 in base grants and a total of $603,173 including the collaboration incentive,” he said in his report.
Councillor Andy Lennox raised concern about the time available to municipalities to put the plans in place once they are approved.
Davis said final approval of the plans is expected some time next year with municipalities given three to five years to work out final details.
“The plans don’t take effect until the minister of the environment approves them,” he told council.
Mayor Ray Tout raised concern that this “becomes another burden on our budget.”
Council received the report.
