Ontario provides new funds for property owners near municipal wells in Maitland Valley, Ausable Bayfield areas
Owners of business, farm, residential properties close to municipal water sources
to receive grants for projects such as well, septic upgrades, fuel and chemical storage
        More owners of business, farm, and residential properties closest to municipal wells can receive grants for their projects that protect drinking water sources, thanks to new funding announced for the Maitland Valley and Ausable Bayfield areas.
        The Province of Ontario has announced Early Response, the second phase of the Ontario Drinking Water Stewardship Program (ODWSP). Ausable Bayfield Conservation Authority (ABCA), in partnership with Maitland Valley Conservation Authority (MVCA), will receive $315,400 to help fund eligible projects that address specific local drinking water threats in the region. The new provincial funding will help reduce the potential for drinking water contamination through financial incentives to landowners for voluntary projects. Eligible projects may include upgrades to private wells and septic systems, decommissioning of wells or septics, fuel storage, containment and storage of harmful chemicals (dense non-aqueous phase liquids), manure storage, runoff and erosion control projects, and other best management practices.   
        Seaforth’s Bill Scott is one of those landowners who has taken the initiative to protect water through the Ontario Drinking Water Stewardship Program. One of his projects was to upgrade his family’s well to reduce the chance a contaminant might enter the well. His other project was to decommission a shallow well on his property. Properly capping an unused well can eliminate a pathway for a contaminant to reach the groundwater source. “Decommissioning the shallow well on my property helps protect my own family’s drinking water source and it also helps protect the municipal wells which are the Seaforth community’s drinking water source,” he said.
        The Province of Ontario has committed $28 million over four years through ODWSP to help owners of industrial, commercial, agricultural and residential properties to protect municipal drinking water. The local conservation authorities have been delivering the grant program, in partnership with the Ontario Soil and Crop Improvement Association (OSCIA), since 2007. Landowners near municipal wells in this region have received close to $600,000 since that time to assist their stewardship projects that protect their community’s drinking water.  “Conservation Ontario and local conservation authorities are extremely pleased to continue this important partnership with property owners and with the Ontario Ministry of Environment,” said Kate Monk, ABCA Supervisor of Stewardship and Conservation Lands.
        The Ontario Minister of the Environment, Hon. John Wilkinson, said “safe, clean drinking water is vital to our well-being and good for Ontario’s economy.  That is why we are helping Ontarians take measures to protect the sources of drinking water for our children and grandchildren.”   
        Hon. Carol Mitchell, MPP Huron-Bruce, said “the work that is being done here in the Ausable Bayfield and Maitland Valley Source Protection Region will help our community protect drinking water sources for years to come.”
        The new funds for eligible landowners are in addition to existing Early Actions provincial funding for early actions by property owners within 100 metres of a municipal well, or in the two-year time-of-travel capture area of that well, or within one kilometre of the surface water intake in Goderich. Eligible projects through Early Actions include confidential, fully-funded pollution prevention reviews for industrial and commercial properties and other projects, in addition to some of the projects already mentioned.
        Drinking water threats were identified by the Ausable Bayfield Maitland Valley Drinking Water Source Protection Committee through proposed assessment reports. Drinking water source protection is a Province of Ontario initiative to protect your drinking water. It helps protect water from contamination at the source, through financial incentives to eligible landowners through the Ontario Drinking Water Stewardship Program (ODWSP), and through source protection plans to be developed, by 2012, by the source protection committee for this region. These efforts are through the Clean Water Act, 2006. They implement key recommendations of the O’Connor Inquiry. Source protection, combined with testing, training, treatment, monitoring, and distribution, reduce risk to your drinking water by providing multiple barriers of protection.
More information on ODWSP eligibility and grant rates is available locally at sourceprotectionstewardship.on.ca and sourcewaterinfo.on.ca or by phoning 519-335-3557 or toll-free 1-888-286-2610 or e-mailing info@sourcewaterinfo.on.ca.