A series of public meetings will be held in May and June to give residents of the Grand River watershed an update on work being done to protect drinking water sources serving municipal and First Nations water systems.
All meetings are from 7 To 9pm and will be held:
– May 30, Aboyne Hall, 536 County Road 18, Aboyne;
– May 31, Best Western Brant Park Inn, 19 Holiday Drive, Brantford;
– June 1, GRCA Head Office, 400 Clyde Rd., Cambridge;
– June 7, Grand Valley community centre, 90 Main St. North, Grand Valley; and
– June 9 – Italian Canadian Club, 135 Ferguson Street, Guelph.
There are 49 municipal and First Nations water systems in the Grand River watershed providing drinking water to about 780,000 people.
Over the next year, a Drinking Water Source Protection Plan for the Grand River watershed will be developed to provide additional protection for the wells and surface water intakes supplying water to the systems. The plan will identify the policies and programs needed to reduce the risks to the wells and intakes posed by human activities. It is to be completed by August 2012.
The work is being led by the Lake Erie Region source protection committee and is being done under the Ontario Clean Water Act 2006.
The committee is working with the Grand River Conservation Authority, municipalities, and First Nations.
The plan will be based on scientific and technical research done over the past three years. The results of that research are contained in the assessment report for the Grand River Source Protection Area, available at www.sourcewater.ca.
The report describes the sources of water used by the municipal systems, how vulnerable they are to contamination, and the types of activities taking place in vulnerable areas that could contaminate the water sources.
