Guelph-Eramosa recently held a public meeting to discuss a zoning bylaw amendment for a source water protection screening area.
On March 19 township planning consultant Rachel Martin told council and the public the updates will bring the township’s zoning bylaw into conformity with the Wellington County Official Plan and the Grand River Source Protection Plan.
“At the end of the day the province is bringing in a whole pile of water legislation,” Mayor Chris White said. “So they’ve passed source water protection … at the provincial level, which then filters down to the various municipal levels.
“So the county official plan has to embed in it these … bits of this legislation, which, for all intents and purposes at the end of the day is to protect (municipal drinking) water.”
In her report to council, Martin wrote the Grand River Source Protection Plan requires zoning bylaws of all member municipalities to:
– identify the vulnerable areas in which drinking water threats would be significant; and
– indicate that within these areas, any use or activity that is, or would be a significant threat is required to conform with all applicable Source Protection Plans and, as such, may be prohibited, restricted or otherwise regulated by those policies.”
Resident Gordon Thomson said he knows his farm is included in the source water protection area, but he was unsure of what each zone on the water map represented and how his property would be impacted.
Risk management official Kyle Davis explained the red area on the map will have the most impact on agriculture.
“If your property does have fields that are in the red area, that is where there could be some risk management plans around manure spreading, manure storage and possibility fertilizer and pesticide,” Davis said.
“If you’re in the orange and yellow areas there is no agricultural specific requirements.”
The yellow and orange areas apply more to chemical handling and chemicals that seep into groundwater.
“These tend to be brake cleaners, degreasers, things of that nature, and those types of chemical uses potentially could be in a drive shed or at a farm,” Davis said.
Thomson said he is worried about standard farm activities like cleaning up brush and tree maintenance.
“Effectively this is going to affect the overall value of the property moving forward,” Thomson said.
“We don’t currently run livestock on the farm so it’s not an issue for us, but for a future owners or another generation down the line it could be quite critical.”
He asked if plans by Wellington County or Guelph-Eramosa Township are in place to offer some compensation or relief on taxes for the potential risks to the property?
“So this is a provincial driven program,” White said. “Neither the township nor the county … we’re not going to be going out and giving folks compensation with their taxes and stuff.
“That’s not how it works.”
White added any compensation would have to come from the province because it’s their initiative.
Councillor Corey Woods said it looks like the source protection screening areas are all around municipal wells.
“So we’ve got wells in Rockwood and we’ve got wells in Cross Creek, so the majority of this map is to protect the municipal wells in the City of Guelph,” he said.
“So you’re (Davis) a county employee, you’ve got other county employees working on this, how’s it been trying to get compensation from the City of Guelph?”
Davis said they had meetings with the city risk management official and talked about the inspector salary associated with Guelph-Eramosa and Puslinch.
As of March 19 they had not heard back but there was discussion of addressing it in the 2019 budget cycle.
