Chances are that the world of source water protection contains terms and abbreviations that you may not be familiar with. The glossary below offers a description of some of the key terms for understanding source water protection in the CTC.

What is the CTC?

The CTC is a source protection region as described in O. Reg. 284/07 under the Clean Water Act. The CTC region gets its name from the first letter of each of its three source protection areas: Credit Valley, Toronto and Region, and Central Lake Ontario. The CTC Source Protection Region is one of 19 source protection regions in Ontario.

Credit Valley Conservation, Toronto and Region Conservation, and Central Lake Ontario Conservation Authority have been working together on drinking water source protection (DWSP) activities under memoranda of agreement since 2004 when draft legislation for source protection planning first appeared. Under the regulations of the Clean Water Act the three conservation authorities now become source protection authorities and will continue to work collaboratively on DWSP.

What is a source protection authority?

Source protection authority refers to the role that conservation authorities play in source water protection. Generally, where a conservation authority exists it becomes the source protection authority for the area, but they have additional Roles and Responsibilities as laid out in the Clean Water Act. O. Reg. 284/07 establishes source protection authorities across Ontario.

What is a source protection region? What is a source protection area?

Generally, source protection areas are based on the existing 36 conservation authority boundaries (however there are exceptions). For administrative efficiency, some source protection areas (SPAs) have been grouped together to form source protection regions. Source protection areas and regions have been defined in O. Reg. 284/07. The CTC source protection region is lead by the CTC Source Protection Committee, who's work it is to develop individual source protection plans for each of the CTC source protection areas.

What is a lead source protection authority?

O. Reg. 284/07 designates a lead source protection authority (SPA) for each source protection region. The lead SPA coordinates the efforts of all the source protection authorities within that region and takes on unique roles and responsibilities, some of which are outlined in the Clean Water Act and regulations and some of which are set out in an agreement between the source protection authorities in the region. The Act requires that there be an agreement between the source protection authorities in a region to govern the relationship between the lead and the other source protection authorities. In the CTC Source Protection Region, Toronto and Region plays the role of lead source protection authority.

 Source Water Key Technical Terms

·         Aquifer

• Aquifers are underground stores of water. It can be found in the crevices and cracks in the rocks under the ground. Aquifers can be layered, and, generally speaking, the deeper the aquifer the more protected it is. Most municipal wells draw from very deep aquifers.

·         Hazard Rating

• This is the score that is associated with the threat activities. It is determined by threats tables provided to the committee by the Ministry of the Enviroment.

·         HVA

• Highly Vulnerable Aquifers – These are aquifers that are more susceptible to contamination because of their location.  In general, an HVA will consist of source granular aquifer materials or fractured rock that has a high permeability and is exposed near the ground surface with a relatively shallow water table.

·         IPZ

• Intake Protection Zone – The area on the water and land surrounding a municipal water intake. It’s size is determined by how quickly water flows to the intake, in hours.
  

·         SGRA

• Significant Groundwater Recharge Areas – An area where rain or snow seeps into the ground and flows to an aquifer is called a recharge area. Recharge areas tend to be areas that are characterized by permeable soils, such as sand or gravel that allow the water to seep easily into the ground. A recharge area is considered significant when it helps maintain the water level in an aquifer that supplies a community with drinking water, or supplies groundwater recharge to a cold water ecosystem that is dependent on this recharge to maintain its ecological function.

·         Significant (moderate, low) Drinking Water Threat

• A drinking water threats is scored as significant if its threat score is over 80. This is determined by multiplying the hazard ranking by the vulnerability score. Scores between 60-79 are determined to be moderate drinking water threats with anything between 40-59 being a low drinking water threat. The source protection plan must make policies to reduce all significant drinking water threats.

·         Source Protection Plan

• The Source Protection Plan is the culmination of all the work to date. It outlines policies that will outline how drinking water threats are to be mitigated. This can include existing legislation, risk management plans, education and outreach policies, and, in certain cases the committee can prohibit existing or future activities in a particular location.

·         Threat Score

• The threat score is the product of the hazard score (how bad is the threat) and the vulnerability score (how vulnerable is the land)

·         Vulnerability Score

• The vulnerability score of a parcel of land is determined by looking at how close it is to a well, how easily water can travel through it as well as if there are any transport pathways (ie an improperly decommissioned well is a conduit to the aquifer and would be considered a “transport pathway”)

·         Vulnerable Area

• The Clean Water Act states that there are four vulnerably areas which we must map as part of the source water protection process. These are: Wellhead Protection Areas (WHPAs), Intake Protection Zones (IPZ), Highly Vulnerable Aquifers (HVA) and Significant Groundwater Recharge Areas (SGRAs)

·         Water Budget

• The Water Budget is a tool that helps us ensure we have enough water: it measures how much water enters the system, how much leaves via natural processes (evapotranspiration) and how much is used by humans in order to determine if there are water quantity stresses in a watershed.

·         WHPA

• Wellhead Protection Area – The area on the land around a municipal well, the size of which is determined by how quickly water travels underground to the well, measured in years.