Protect Ontario's Drinking Water Sources

Our sources of drinking water all across Ontario could become contaminated by gravel pit operations, despite the creation of the Clean Water Act. Since March 2010 the Lake Erie Region Source Protection Committee has been requesting the Ministry of Environment to recognize the risks to water sources from aggregate extraction, however, those request have been denied, giving gravel pit operators free rein to contaminate our drinking water. Your signature will change that.

The Source Water Protection Committee’s last motion of November 6th 2014 states:

“That the Lake Erie Region Source Protection Committee continues to express their concerns with regard to land uses and activities that penetrate the municipal aquifer and or increase the vulnerability of wellhead protection areas or intake protection zones”.

The Walkerton Technical Expert Committee identified and the Ministry has acknowledged that the removal of aggregates made sources of drinking water more vulnerable to contamination and that any aggregate site has been identified as a potential pathway for contamination.

Despite this acknowledgement, and the requests by the Source Water Protection Committee, these land uses and activities continue to be allowed to put wellhead protection areas and intake protection zones at risk. Aggregate sites cannot be sealed after use, the pathway and the increased risk are permanent.

In their 2010 letter to the minister, the Source Water Protection Committee stated:

"There is no doubt that excavating the protective layer of a municipal aquifer affects or has the potential to adversely affect the quality of water used as a source of drinking water, and we believe that a source protection program is incomplete if it cannot address this."

With a new Minister of the Environment and Climate Change in place, the Source Water Protection Committee has the opportunity to have this dangerous activity listed as a threat to sources of drinking water, and this will give them the ability to take the required preventative measures necessary to protect or water. A province wide call will put pressure on Minister Murray and his party to stand up for Ontario's sources of drinking water, which most Ontario citizens depend on for survival.

Let's bring the voice of all Ontarians to Ontario's Minister of the Environment and Climate Change and force him to approve the request of the Source Water protection Committee. Sign the petition and then forward widely.