The following words and definitions will assist you in understanding the more technical aspects of Source Protection.
- Agricultural Source Material (ASM) – Agricultural source material is treated or untreated material that is capable of being applied to land as a nutrient, but does not include compost that meets the Compost Guidelines, or a commercial fertilizer. Some examples of ASM are manure produced by farm animals, runoff from farm-animal yards and manure storages, and milking center wash water.
- Assessment Report – An Assessment Report is a science-based report generated locally for each Source Protection Area to comply with the Clean Water Act, 2006. The Assessment Report will identify the watersheds and the vulnerable areas within the Source Protection Area. Threats to the vulnerable areas will be assessed and determined whether they pose a significant threat to municipal residential drinking water supplies. They are the basis for developing Source Protection Plans and making local policy decisions for protecting drinking water. Each Assessment Report is approved by the Director of the Ontario Ministry of the Environment and Climate Change.
- Clean Water Act – The Clean Water Act, 2006 was passed as Bill 43 to protect drinking water at the source. The Act requires the development of a watershed based Source Protection Plan.
- Dense Non Aqueous Phase Liquid (DNAPL) – An organic chemical that is more dense than water and only slightly soluble in water. Such a chemical will sink in groundwater and accumulate in aquifer depressions.
- Drinking Water Threat – An activity or condition that adversely affects or has the potential to adversely affect the quality or quantity of any water that is or may be used as a source of drinking water, and includes an activity or condition that is prescribed by the regulations as a drinking water threat. Regulation 287/07 sets out in Section 1.1 a prescribed list of drinking water threats.
- Events-based Area (EBA) – EBAs are determined by modelling and other forms of analysis of spills that could cause an exceedance at an intake. This area allows potential significant drinking water threats to be identified for surface water intakes. The identification of activities as significant drinking water threats is done under Technical Rule 130.
- Groundwater – Subsurface water that occurs beneath the water table in soils and geological formations that are fully saturated.
- GUDI – Groundwater Under the Direct Influence of surface water. There are municipal wells in this Source Protection Region where surface water has been detected in the groundwater supply. This makes the activities that occur near the closest water source more likely to impact the well water.
- Intake Protection Zone (IPZ) – A zone established around a surface water intake of drinking water as prescribed in the Technical Rules: Clean Water Act, 2006.
- IPZ-1 is a circle that has a radius of 1000 metres (1 km) from the centre point of every intake that serves as the source or entry point of raw water supply for the system. The Assessment Report identified that where the area delineated includes land, the IPZ-1 only included a setback on the land of up to 120 metres or the regulated limit.
- IPZ-2 is delineated in the Assessment Report based on a two hour time of travel to the centre point including surface water and drainage that would contribute to the two hour time of travel up to 120 metres in land.
- In some cases an IPZ-3 is delineated where there are activities further away from the intake which could have an
impact on water quality. - IPZ-Q, corresponds to the drainage area that contributes surface water to an intake, and the area that provides
recharge to an aquifer that contributes groundwater discharge to the drainage area. Part VI.7 of the Technical
Rules specifies the rules with respect to the delineation of IPZ-Q (Matrix, 2016).
- Municipal Drinking Water System – A drinking water system or part of a drinking water system that is owned by a municipality or by a municipal service board, or from which a municipality obtains or will obtain water under the terms of a contract between the municipality and the owner of the system.
- Non-agricultural source material (NASM) – Same meaning as in section 1 of O. Reg. 276/03 (General) made under the Nutrient Management Act, 2002; such as pulp and paper biosolids, sewage biosolids, anaerobic digestion output, and any other material that is not from an agricultural source and that is capable of being applied to land as a nutrient.
- Source Protection Plan – A plan prepared under the Clean Water Act, 2006 intended to protect existing and future sources of drinking water. The Source Protection Plan for each Source Protection Area (watershed) must set out policies intended to ensure that all significant drinking water threats cease to be significant and that potential threats are managed in such a way that they will never become significant drinking water threats. In general, a Source Protection Plan builds on the information collected in the Assessment Report to establish policies to protect drinking water supplies. Each Plan is approved by the Ontario Ministry of the Environment and Climate Change.
- Terms of Reference – The work plan and budget, the Terms of Reference outlines the responsibilities assigned to the Source Protection Committee, Source Protection Authority, Conservation Authority and Member Municipalities in each Source Protection Area, in order to produce the Assessment Report and Source Protection Plan.
- Wellhead Protection Area (WHPA) – The surface and underground area surrounding a water well or well field that supplies a municipal residential system or other designated system through which contaminants are reasonably likely to move so as to eventually reach the water well or wells.
- WHPA-A is the 100 metre circle centred on the wellhead.
- WHPA-B is the two year time of travel.
- WHPA-C is the five year time of travel.
- WHPA-D is the 25 year time of travel.
- WHPA-E is associated with a GUDI well, is the area within which the surface water could reach the well within two hours.
- WHPA-Q is associated with an area that has a water quantity threat; WHPA-Q1 is mapped as the combined area of the cone of influence of the well and the whole of the cones of influence of all other wells that intersect that area.