Ontario names Matt Pearson as Chair of Source Protection Committee

New Chair has served on Province’s first committee since its start in 2007

The Province of Ontario has named Matt Pearson as the Chair of the Ausable Bayfield Maitland Valley Drinking Water Source Protection Committee (SPC). Pearson started as an environmental representative on the committee when it was formed in 2007 as Ontario’s first source protection committee. He served as interim chair in 2016 before being announced by the Province of Ontario, early in 2017, as the new Chair.
Pearson takes over from past Chair Laurence Brown who served in the role between 2007 and 2016 before retiring from the position. The source protection committee honoured Larry for his service with a tribute at the September 2016 SPC meeting.
The next regular meeting of the SPC is Wednesday, April 19, 2017 at the White Carnation Hall, 79867 Parr Line, Holmesville, at 9:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. The April 19 meeting will be Pearson’s first as provincially appointed Chair. It will also be the first meeting, as new Source Protection Program Supervisor, for Geoff Cade, who takes over from Jenna Allain, past program supervisor. Allain has moved to the position of Source Protection Coordinator at Upper Thames River Conservation Authority. She made this move after having served as Program Supervisor at the Ausable Bayfield Maitland Valley Source Protection Region since 2012. She had been Project Assistant, before that, since 2008. The committee will pay tribute to Allain for her past service at the April 19 meeting.
Pearson is an Environmental Planner and leads the Planning Group at B. M. Ross and Associates Limited. He is a founding member and Past Chair of the Board for the Lake Huron Centre for Coastal Conservation. He is also a member and past officer of the Ontario Professional Planners Institute, and a former member of the Huron County Water Coalition, Huron Stewardship Council, and Friends of the Bayfield River.
“It is an honour to serve as Chair of this committee,” said Pearson. “I have been proud to serve with this bright and dedicated group of community members.” The committee members have worked closely with people in the area to develop practical, effective, and local plans, he said. “Those plans are adding a new barrier of protection helping to keep our drinking water safe and clean,” according to Pearson. “We have now entered an important phase in protection of our water and we need to make sure planning policies are being implemented effectively.”
The new Chair said “I would like to commend all the people in our local communities who are adding protection to our drinking water sources through positive actions at home and work.”
The agenda for the April 19 meeting includes program updates; updates on monitoring of source protection plan implementation; a report on consultation on a proposed reduction in the size of the committee (from 15 to 12); reports from liaisons to the committee; and a report on changes to drinking water quality standards in Ontario.
Local citizens on the Ausable Bayfield Maitland Valley Drinking Water SPC have worked since 2007 to create terms of reference, assessment reports, and source protection plans. The Ontario Ministry of the Environment and Climate Change (MOECC) approved the locally developed 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 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 such as municipal wellhead protection areas 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, or 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.