Policy Text:
The Ministry of the Environment, Conservation and Parks will work in partnership with Environment Canada and municipalities responsible for providing water from systems with intakes in the western basin of Lake Ontario to establish and chair a Lake Ontario Collaborative Group (LOCG) focused on the western basin to undertake actions to support the implementation of policies to protect this source of drinking water.
Within one year of this plan coming into effect the LOCG should develop and approve Terms of Reference. The Terms of Reference should include but not be limited to defining roles, tasks, and responsibilities of the LOCG partners with respect to:
1) Sharing information about Lake Ontario circulation and water quality monitoring, and where technically feasible:
a) install permanent instrumentation (e.g., continuous recording current meters, with wireless telephone link to MECP Environment Monitoring and Reporting Branch and the LOCG members) to provide real-time monitoring of current speed, direction and temperature throughout the water column for use with a 3-D Hydrodynamic Circulation Model for future forecasting of spills impact assessments and assessing spill prevention strategies;
b) ensure that the real-time data are available to municipalities and conservation authorities; and
c) undertake annual Lake Ontario nearshore water quality monitoring, and make the data available to municipalities and conservation authorities;
2) Maintaining and further developing a 3-D Hydrodynamic Circulation Model or more advanced models as appropriate, with particular focus to the nearshore of Lake Ontario to assess activities to determine their potential to be significant drinking water threats, including:
a) maintaining specialized modelling expertise to undertake spills scenario modelling; and
b) leading the development of typical lake circulation spill base cases to provide tools for quick assessments of spills, in real time, to provide early warning for emergency response and remedial action, including determining the parties to be notified in the event of a spill;
3) Using the model as a consistent approach to assess potential drinking water threats from:
a) other existing activities which might be a drinking water threat to one or more municipal drinking water system;
b) assessing newly proposed activities which may pose a threat to one or more municipal drinking water systems at the proposal stage; and
c) assessing impacts of climate change;
4) In the event of a spill use the model to assess and respond to potential water quality impacts at municipal water treatment plant intakes;
5) Sharing environmental monitoring data and using modelling to inform research on topics such as, but not limited to:
a) the effectiveness of risk management measures and spill contingency measures;
b) cumulative impacts of point and non-point sources of contaminants on near shore water quality; and
c) the effectiveness of source protection plan policies in reducing the risk related to pathogens (not limited to E. coli), including identifying the pathogens and the respective densities at different times; assessing the associated risk at intakes due to pathogens in non-disinfected wastewater and other known specific sources of these pathogens; and undertaking quantitative microbial risk assessments, using a structured research and development design (such as based on the protocols established by the US EPA) to assess the threat and adequacy of existing treatment on a plant-by-plant basis.
Timeline: See policy