Permits to Take Water in Ontario: Regulatory Update
By Stephen Kajan, P.Eng, Manager, Golf Services, Water Resources Engineer, R.J. Burnside & Associates Limited.
W
e are blessed in Ontario with the riches of freshwater. The Great Lakes Basin is home to 21% of the world’s surface fresh water and 84% of North America’s freshwater. Worthy of protecting. As I am sure many of you are aware, our provincial government has taken steps to help manage that bounty of freshwater riches. In Ontario, any water taking of 50,000 L/day (combined for all sources on any day in a given year) requires a Permit to Take Water (PTTW), under the Ontario Water Resources Act (OWRA) and Ontario Regulation 387/04. The OWRA and its regulations are managed and enforced by the Ministry of the Environment, Conservation and Parks (MECP). History of the PTTW regulations dates all the way back to 1956. Initially formed as the Ontario Water Resources Commission Act, its primary purpose was to finance, build and manage water treatment facilities, with a secondary focus on managing the province’s water
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resources (through PTTWs). At the time population growth and industrial development combined with inadequate sewage treatment/disposal was impacting the water quality of the Great Lakes. Wastewater had traditionally been directed to surface water as a means of disposal. As towns and cities grew, increased discharge of wastewater lead to bacterial pollution. Things got so bad that the phrase “Lake Erie is dead” became common parlance. Lake Erie was most susceptible due to the heavy presence of industrial processes and population density along its shores. By the 1970s the provincial government had financed, built and managed over 450 water supply and treatment facilities. Bacteria levels in the Great Lakes had decreased, and water quality began to improve. Who doesn’t love a good government legislation success story? In the mid-1970s, with the infrastructure now in place, Ontario shifted the costs of operation and management to the various municipalities and became focused more on policy and enforcement. The OWRA as we know it today began to take shape. Changes in the 1990s strengthened the regulations and added mechanisms to
