Water publication honours former local project manager
Water Canada names Cathie Brown as one of five people making a difference
A national magazine dedicated to Canadian water quality and stewardship named a former local drinking water source protection project manager as one of “the people and ideas that are making a difference in Canada’s waterscape and beyond.”
Water Canada magazine announced, in January of 2011, its first Water’s Next list of water achievements.
The list recognizes people, businesses, innovations, and projects helping to protect water.
The 2011 list of people included Cathie Brown, former Project Manager for the Ausable Bayfield Maitland Valley Drinking Water Source Protection Region (now Senior Advisor with the Association of Municipalities of Ontario – AMO).
Other recognized individuals in the People category (2011) included Bob Dell, of The Water School; Peter Huck, University of Waterloo; Karen Kun, Waterlution; and Tim Morris, The Walter and Duncan Gordon Foundation.
Nominations for the featured achievements were submitted between July and October, 2010. A selection committee included water experts from across the country.
Brown was primarily recognized for her efforts to foster in-depth public engagement and education about water and drinking water source protection. She achieved this through development of six local, community-based community working groups, a municipal sub-committee, and a professionally designed learning program. (The content of the learning program forms the basis for the website: protectwater.ca)
Close to 100 people joined the working groups and more than 75 citizens completed the 15-module training program by 2009. Young people, water treatment managers, service station and business owners, agricultural producers, shoreline and inland residents, county, library and health workers, and other interested citizens learned together, discussed issues side by side in a frank and positive manner, and worked on policy suggestions together.
The magazine quoted Larry Moore, then Chief Administrative Officer of the Walkerton Clean Water Centre, as saying Brown “doesn’t just take a two-dimensional view of what communication and outreach can be.”
The former Chair of the Ausable Bayfield Maitland Valley Source Protection Committee, Larry Brown (no relation), said “Cathie’s unique approach to drinking water source protection planning has fostered a high level of understanding and support in our rural communities for the importance of protecting drinking water.” He said she is “well deserving of the recognition that this award brings to her as well as to the committee and people of the Ausable Bayfield Maitland Valley Source Protection Region.”
The community working group program was educational for the participants but the working group participants also educated the source protection committee and the region about local concerns and suggested policies. Cathie Brown told the magazine that, “It sharpened our ability to understand what people were thinking, and the things that maybe we’d overlooked in terms of issues and perspectives that we were going to have to address.”
The magazine article about Brown said she believed watershed residents had to be involved from the beginning if they were going to have deep understanding of drinking water source protection and that a “community development model” was needed. The former project manager said there was interest in electronic means of communication but “face-to-face” dialogue is the way to go and is worth the extra effort.
The magazine quotes Brown as saying that “what we’ve found through these working groups is that there’s movement, the finding of common ground, and the creation of relationships which will also create the potential for negotiation as things move forward.”
Brown is now a Senior Advisor with the Association of Municipalities of Ontario. She has served as a member of the Walkerton Clean Water Centre’s board of directors and has lectured on rural health issues at the University of Western Ontario’s Faculty of Health Sciences.
The Water’s Next achievements were featured in the Water Canada magazine’s first-ever supplemental publication dedicated to recognizing Canadian innovation and leadership in water and wastewater projects.
“There are great achievements happening in water and water management,” said Kerry Freek, Editor, Water Canada and co-author of Water’s Next: Celebrating Canada’s Best and Brightest in Water. “Canada has energized leaders, innovative technologies, quality research, and unique solutions for water challenges—all of which is making a difference in the country’s waterscape.”
Water’s Next achievements (2011) in the business world included: ENBALA Power, Enermodal Engineering, and SMART Watering Systems.
Innovation recognition (2011) went to the City of Moncton’s Fixed Network AMR System, Ontario’s Water Opportunities and Water Conservation Act , and the Proficiency Three-Litre Toilet.
Projects recognition (2011) went to Alberta WaterSMART, Living Lakes Canada, and The City of Dawson Creek Reuse Project.
Water Canada is published six times a year and is read by more than 15,000 water professionals. It offers news and information on drinking water, residential and commercial water treatment, protection of drinking water sources, water conservation, wastewater treatment, stormwater management, water resource management, technology advancement, policy and governance, business and investment, and waterworks infrastructure.
For detailed listings of the water achievements, visit watersnext.ca and watercanada.net
Drinking water source protection is a Province of Ontario initiative to protect your drinking water. It has helped to 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 developed locally and approved by the Province of Ontario. 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.
For more information visit sourcewaterinfo.on.ca or phone 519-335-3557 or 519-235-2610 or 1-888-286-2610.
To learn more visit: Cathie Brown