At your place of work, or at your home, what are ways you can protect drinking water sources?
You are invited to view the third video in a three-part series. The video has now been released and can be viewed now at this link: Protecting drinking water sources at work or at home.
Feel free to share. This video offers special focus on some of the ways industrial and commercial operations can reduce risk to our municipal drinking water sources, including groundwater in aquifers under our feet and surface water from Lake Huron and other sources. There are best management practices here for industrial, commercial, and agricultural operations as well as some ways you can protect drinking water sources at your home.
We would like to thank the municipalities that participated in this video, including the Municipality of North Perth and the Municipality of Huron East.
We would also like to thank Bruce Godkin, industry representative on the source protection committee for the Ausable Bayfield Maitland Valley Drinking Water Source Protection Region.
Be sure to check out the other two videos in this series:
- Working together to protect drinking water sources (Video one)
- Drinking water source protection plans and you (Video two)
Some of the practical ideas in this video include:
- Bollards around fuel tanks
- Switching products – For instance, switching to road paint that poses less risk to water and finding alternatives to harmful chemicals
- Improved storage cabinets – Improved storage and containment of chemicals
- Spill pallets
- Municipal staff and risk management officials working together with people in the community to prepare risk management plans
- Self-containment in fuel tanks
- Spills kits and spills prevention plans
- Equipment on site to handle spills if they do occur
- Covering up floor drains if a spill takes place
- Reporting spills immediately to the Ontario Spills Action Centre
- Having absorbent kits that can be used to protect and contain any spill that does occur
Other ideas include:
- Training staff
- Reducing what is on site and storing only essential products
- Separating floor drains and contaminants
For more ideas download the industry and commerce best management practices fact sheet.
New video offers ways to protect drinking water sources through practical actions at work, home
Local municipal staff take part in production; Video third in three-part series
A new local information video offers practical ways people can protect our water supply with positive actions at work and at home. The new video is the third one in a three-part series. The three-minute video features water treatment and utility operators from two local municipalities. The production shares positive actions for homeowners and businesses to protect drinking water sources. The production gives special focus on best practices for industrial and commercial operations.
The new three-minute video is called Ways to Protect Drinking Water Sources at Work and Home. It is produced by the Ausable Bayfield Maitland Valley Source Protection Region in cooperation with local municipalities including the Municipality of North Perth and the Municipality of Huron East. The video is available online at sourcewaterinfo.on.ca and on the Ausable Bayfield YouTube channel at this link: Protect Drinking Water Sources at Work and Home
The three videos in the information series have received more than 600 views. The newest video received more than 60 views in its first week. “We appreciate the participation of local municipalities in this video,” said Geoff Cade, Program Supervisor with the Ausable Bayfield Maitland Valley Source Protection Region. “The municipal staff who took part in the video help to illustrate the importance of keeping our drinking water safe and clean. They also show some of the best practices they are putting in place that local businesses could consider in their own operations.”
The video offers ideas such as improved storage of chemicals; reducing the amount of chemicals on site and switching to less hazardous products; proper disposal of hazardous waste; inspection of home heating oil and septic systems; septic system pump-outs; decommissioning of old and unused wells by a licensed well technician; spills prevention kits and plans; best practices in the storage and application of pesticides, fertilizers, and nutrients; risk management; containment and reporting of spills if they do happen; self-containment and double-walled tanks for fuel; fuel pressure gauges; and protective bollards around fuel tanks.
The video isn’t the only information product available for local businesses. Practical ideas for industrial and commercial operations can be found in a fact sheet posted on the local source protection region website at this link:
Best management practices for industry and commerce – Fact sheet
The Ontario Ministry of the Environment and Climate Change (MOECC) approved source protection plans for the Maitland Valley and Ausable Bayfield source protection areas on January 19, 2015. The source protection plans took effect in April of 2015. The locally developed plans include policies to address 21 activities that can pose a threat to municipal drinking water sources in certain circumstances (for example, in certain locations and in certain quantities).
Source protection plan policies address activities in four types of vulnerable areas: wellhead protection areas (groundwater) around municipal wells; surface water intake protection zones; significant groundwater recharge areas; and highly vulnerable aquifers. People may find the maps of these areas by visiting sourcewaterinfo.on.ca.
Threat activities may be assessed as low, moderate or significant threats to municipal drinking water sources. In this region, significant threats to drinking water are only found in wellhead protection areas (WHPAs) A, B, and C. The policies in those relatively small vulnerable areas reduce risk by using tools ranging from education and outreach, to risk management plans, to restricted land uses, to prohibition of some activities.
To find out if you are in a vulnerable area near a municipal well, use the interactive map or read a fact sheet on one of the 25 municipal well systems of the region at sourcewaterinfo.on.ca. You are invited to review the page on your community’s well, consult a detailed map of wellhead protection areas, and a fact sheet to let you know about the water source and treatment, explain the wellhead protection areas, and provide ways to protect these local drinking water sources.
If you would like to learn if plan policies apply to you, or how you can protect local drinking water sources, visit the website at sourcewaterinfo.on.ca or phone toll-free 1-888-286-2610 or email info@sourcewaterinfo.on.ca.
Drinking Water Source Protection Video Series:
- Video One, Working together to protect drinking water sources
- Video Two, Drinking Water Source Protection Plans and You
- Video Three, Ways to Protect Drinking Water Sources at Work and Home
