How will the Clean Water Act benefit users of privately-owned drinking water systems?
The act will benefit private users by identifying vulnerable aquifers and recharge areas and requiring the development of plans to protect them from becoming contaminated or depleted. A local municipality may pass a council resolution requiring that the source protection planning process include any existing or planned drinking water systems. Further, the legislation authorizes the Minister of the Environment to require that a source protection plan consider other drinking water systems. Who will be responsible for source protection planning and what will they do? One of the central principles of the act is that source protection plans are locally developed and implemented. Municipalities are already responsible for the delivery of municipal drinking water and land use planning within their boundaries. They have already done a great deal of work and the source protection process will build on this work. Municipalities will have a strong role in developing and implementing source protec
