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The Clean Water Act, 2006, (formerly Bill 43), was introduced for First Reading on December 5th, 2005. Following Second Reading on May 18, 2006 the Bill proceeded to the Standing Committee on Social Policy. Public hearings were held August 21-25, 2006 in Walkerton, Toronto, Cornwall, Bath and Peterborough. Clause by clause review of the Bill took place September 11-12, 2006. The Clean Water Act, 2006 passed Third Reading on October 18, 2006 and received Royal Assent on October 19, 2006.
The goal of the Clean Water Act is to protect existing and future sources of drinking water, as part of an overall commitment to human health and the environment. A key focus of the legislation is the production of locally developed, science based assessment reports and source protection plans. Regulations to support the Clean Water Act are being developed in phases. The government is also developing guidance material to support the regulations. Once complete, this material will be posted for public comment on the Environmental Registry.
The first phase of regulations under the Clean Water Act, 2006 include the following topic areas, and proposed content:
1) Source Protection Areas and Regions
Section 4 of the Act provides that the area over which a conservation authority has jurisdiction is a source protection area. The draft regulation sets out the names of each of the source protection areas established under section 4 of the Act. The boundaries of these source protection areas may be altered by a Minister’s regulation. The draft regulation would alter the boundary of each source protection area established under section 4 of the Act and includes a map of the altered boundaries. The draft regulation would require that the maps must be available to the public through the Internet. The alterations to the boundaries would be relevant only for the purposes of the Clean Water Act.
The regulation also includes a list of each conservation authority, the name of the source protection area for each conservation authority, and a list of participating municipalities for the conservation authority. In some cases the list of participating municipalities for a conservation authority set out in the regulation would include municipalities that are not participating municipalities for the authority under the Conservation Authorities Act. The additional participating municipalities are included only for the purposes of activities the conservation authority as the source protection authority, will undertake under the Clean Water Act.
The Clean Water Act provides that additional source protection areas may be established by a Minister’s regulation. This regulation would establish two new source protection areas, includes maps of the boundaries of those new areas and designates a body to be the source protection authority for those areas. The regulation would provide that the maps of the new areas’ boundaries must be made available to the public through the Internet.
The regulation would also establish source protection regions, listing the names of each source protection region and the source protection areas that would be consolidated to form the region. The regulation would designate a source protection authority in each source protection region as the lead source protection authority for the region.
As well, the miscellaneous regulation would provide that the Minister has 120 days to make amendments to agreements (relating to relationship between the lead conservation authority and other conservation authorities within a region) submitted by the source protections authorities in a source protection region.
2) Source Protection Committees
This regulation and associated guidelines would provide for the establishment and operation of source protection committees including size of the committee, duties of the chair, composition of the source protection committee, rules of procedure, term of office, and exemptions from the provisions related to the duties of the chair and committee business. Each source protection committee would be comprised of watershed representatives, one third municipal members, one third agricultural, industrial or commercial sector members and one third other members. The source protection committee for some source protection areas or source protection regions would also have one seat for First Nations. The source protection committee is responsible for developing the terms of reference, assessment report and source protection plan. The Minister would appoint the chair through letter of appointment.
3) Terms of Reference
This draft regulation would set out requirements with respect to the development of terms of reference by source protection committees. The source protection committee would be required to include in the terms of reference a work plan identifying major tasks to be undertaken and assigning roles and responsibilities in the source protection planning process. An estimate of costs for the completion of the assessment report and source protection plan would also be required to be set out in the terms of reference.
4) Time Limits
This draft regulation would set out the time limits for submission of the terms of reference, assessment report and source protection plan. A cross-reference to this regulation would be included in the terms of reference regulation.
5) Planned Drinking Water Systems
For the purposes of the Clean Water Act, this component of a miscellaneous regulation would provide that a “planned” drinking water system is a drinking-water system to be established, and approval to proceed with it has been given under the Environmental Assessment Act or establishment of it has been identified as the preferred solution in a completed planning process conducted in accordance with an approved class environmental assessment.
6) Drinking Water Systems that cannot be included in a Terms of Reference
This component of the miscellaneous regulation would specify types of drinking-water systems that could not be brought into the source protection planning process by municipal council resolution under 8(3) of the Act or by the Minister under 10(6) of the Act. The regulation would preclude the designation of a non-municipal drinking water system that serves only one private residence unless the system is located within an area of settlement designated in a local municipal official plan or the well or intake that supplies the system is located within a cluster of six or more wells or intakes.
7) Imminent Drinking Water Hazard Notification
This component of the miscellaneous regulation and guideline set out the protocol for a person required to notify the Ministry, through the Ministry’s Spill Action Centre, of a drinking water health hazard provided under subsection 89(1) of the Act. Section 89 was included in the Act to provide a mechanism to deal with situations which arise during the assessment report development and source protection plan development and implementation phases where a threat to human health is discovered as a result of an existing or potential discharge. The regulation specifies that subsection 89(1) of the Act does not apply to a person unless they are exercising their statutory authority to enter property when they become aware of the existing or potential discharge. Subsection 89(1) also does not apply if the person has already notified the Ministry of the discharge, or if the person has reasonable grounds to believe that another person has notified the Ministry of the discharge.
8) Additional Great Lakes Agreements
This component of the miscellaneous regulation would prescribe the Great Lakes – St. Lawrence River Basin Sustainable Water Resources Agreement (signed in 2005, under the Great Lakes Charter Annex) as an agreement to which section 14 of the Clean Water Act applies. The terms of reference for the preparation of the assessment report and source protection plan would be deemed to require consideration of this agreement along with the agreements listed in section 14 of the Act.
9) Exemptions
This component of the miscellaneous regulation would exempt certain municipal drinking-water systems or wells or surface water intakes from consideration in an assessment report. Consequently, a work plan in a terms of reference and a source protection plan would not reflect this drinking-water system, well or intake. A municipal-drinking water system or a well or intake would not have to be considered under subclause 15(2)(e)(i) of the Act if a municipal council resolution is received indicating that the council has decided that the use of the drinking-water system/well/intake will be permanently discontinued and an application will be made to revoke all permits, approvals and licences related to the system/well/intake under the Ontario Water Resources Act or Safe Drinking Water Act within 5 years of the date of the resolution. As well, public notice of this resolution would have to be given in order for the exemption to be effective. If the conditions of the exemption described above were not fulfilled within 5 years of the date of the resolution, the exemption would cease to apply to the system/well/intake.
Consultation on the first phase of regulations began with a 30 day posting on the Environmental Registry of a Discussion Paper on Source Protection Committees on January 2, 2007. The comment period closed February 1, 2007, and 91 submissions were received. These submissions were considered during the development of the draft Source Protection Committee regulation described in this notice. Comments will also be considered during the development of guidelines that will support the Source Protection Committee regulation.
Contact information for submissions, as well as backgrounders are available on the original EBR posting.