Resource Consumption: Water Quality
Rivers, lakes and underground water supplies are a key part of the natural systems that are under stress from human activities in the Severn Sound Watershed. The watershed depends on quality water to sustain its human and wildlife populations in the future.
In the Severn Sound watershed:
- Residential development depends largely on municipal water supplies which come from either ground water or surface water. Rural residents and many private communal systems rely on private water wells or intakes.
- Groundwater supply is obtained from 87 municipal water wells at 39 systems and some 9,500 private (domestic) wells located across 9 municipalities.
- Municipal Groundwater and surface water supplies, municipal systems meet the health related Ontario Drinking Water Standards.
- Current groundwater use is considered sustainable, on the basis that calculated groundwater use is substantially less than the available recharge with some exceptions where watersheds may exceed this balance if future demand increases.
- Municipal Official Plans generally include policies that address the protection of surface and groundwater supplies and the quality of those supplies for wildlife and human use.
- The management of water resources is a federal, provincial, municipal and private responsibility. The Province has delegated the Severn Sound Environmental Association (SSEA) as one of three Source Protection Authorities forming the South Georgian Bay-Lake Simcoe Watershed Region. The Source Protection Authority is responsible for the production of a Source Water Protection Plan for the Severn Sound watershed. The Authority will ensure that these plans are integrated into the management of municipal drinking water supplies and water resources management in the area.