District steps toward program for source water protection

PROTECTING WATER: . Judi Brouse, director of watershed programs with the District of Muskoka, explains the importance of a source water protection program to district councillors. Alison Brownlee

MUSKOKA – The District of Muskoka is looking to partner with an environmental association to protect some of its municipal water sources.
Judi Brouse, director of watershed programs with the district, recommended the district approach the Severn Sound Environmental Association and ask it to prepare a source water management program for the district.
Brouse presented her report to the district engineering and public works committee.
She said the province developed a report on source water protection after the Walkerton tragedy of 2000, when E. Coli bacteria contaminated the town’s municipal water supply.
“We realized across the province that it is really important to protect our sources of drinking water,” she said.
At that time, the province identified source water protection areas across the province. Brouse said most of Muskoka falls outside of these areas, though Port Severn and a bit of southern Gravenhurst fall under the South Georgian Bay Lake Simcoe Source Protection Region.
“The Muskoka River Watershed for the most part is north of the area being looked at through source water protection authorities. However, the District of Muskoka felt it was important to also see if our water intakes within Muskoka were protected,” said Brouse.
A contractor completed a study for the district about seven years ago, she said, and found there were no significant threats to source water within the Muskoka River Watershed.
Brouse said some reasons for this may be that Muskoka’s water is clean, the lakes are deep, and the source water used is generally surface water.
And she noted that the district has had source water protection planning policies in place since 1991 insofar as development within a one-kilometer radius of a water source is regulated.
There are two areas within the district that have been identified as highly vulnerable and where activities pose a significant threat to municipal water intakes. These are within the Black Severn River Watershed.
The first site is the area surrounding the Port Severn municipal intake in Little Lake.
The second area is in the southern part of the Town of Gravenhurst along the Severn River.
Threats for both areas include septic systems, marina oils and gas, and outside storage of home heating oil.
Since the province identified its source water protection areas, it has been completing a number of background studies. The studies are now done, the province has put them into a plan, and now authorities such as the District of Muskoka are responsible for implementing that plan.
To implement the plan, the district needs to develop a risk management program and install a risk management officer and risk management inspectors.
Brouse recommended the district co-ordinate the development of its risk management program with the Township of Severn since the source water protection area is split between the two jurisdictions.
Brouse said the township has approached the Severn Sound Environmental Association to undertake its risk management responsibility. She recommended the district enlist the environmental association to do the same for Muskoka’s high-risk areas.
Brouse’s formal recommendation was that the district request the Severn Sound Environmental Association develop a source water implementation program for those areas.
The program would address the working relationship with area municipalities and the district, the responsibilities of the risk management officer and risk management inspectors, and proposed annual costs, she said.
Muskoka Lakes Coun. Phil Harding asked Brouse if the plans would eventually encompass all of Muskoka rather than just the two areas identified in her report.
She said source water has to be under threat before it is included in a protection area and as Muskoka does not have much industry around its source water the threat is non-existent.
District Chair John Klinck suggested that the protection of source water needed to have its roots in a national water policy and that the fractured provincial policy the province was implementing merely chipped away at the issue.
“The integrated nature is so very important and, although we’re well intentioned, quite frankly I’m not sure any policy or program in our catchments area would be successful if we didn’t have a truly integrated system and approach that gives consideration to all that water is and does,” said Klinck. “Without it, we’re in trouble.”
Committee approved Brouse’s recommendation and forwarded it to district council, which passed the recommendation on July 10.

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