What can the provincial government do to address source protection while a source protection regime is being developed?
The judicious use of existing legal tools can provide a reasonable degree of interim protection for drinking water sources while legislation to mandate watershed-based source protection plans is being developed. At the provincial level, the Advisory Committee identified the Ontario Water Resources Act as providing legal authority for designating interim drinking water sources for protection and prohibiting certain land uses and development within such areas. For example, section 33 empowers the Director, Ontario Ministry of the Environment to define areas of “sources of public water supply” in which “no material of any kind that may impair the quality of water therein shall be placed, discharged, or allowed to remain”, and in which “no act shall be done and no water shall be taken that may unduly diminish the amount of water available in such areas as a public water supply”. Similarly, section 36 of the Ontario Water Resources Act empowers the Director to control water well constructio
