Module 1 – Introduction to Source Protection
This is Module 1 of the active learning program which was created, in the Ausable Bayfield Maitland Valley Drinking Water Source Protection Region, for community working groups.
Welcome to Protecting Our Water: An Integrated Training and Action Learning Program for Drinking Water Source Protection
We would like to acknowledge the support of the Government of Ontario. Such support does not indicate endorsement of the contents of this material.
Learning Expectations:
By the end of this session you should demonstrate understanding:
- … that local drinking water sources are made up of both groundwater and surface water.
- … that some drinking water sources come from aquifers that store water, like a sponge, underground.
- … that the multi-barrier approach to the protection of local municipal drinking water sources is important to public health.
- … that your fellow participants bring strengths to your group.
- … of why water treatment doesn’t solve all water quality problems.
- … of terms water table, unsaturated zone, saturated zone, and Vadose Zone.
- … of how mutually-respectful collaboration will work in this group.
Drinking Water Source Protection Planning
This program was designed by education professionals for community members and it has 17 learning modules:
List of Modules
- Introduction to Source Protection
- Watershed Descriptions – Maitland Valley and Ausable Bayfield source protection areas
- Water Quality
- Vulnerable Areas
- Threats to Drinking Water Sources – Threat Activities and Conditions
- Assessing Risks to Water Quality and Quantity – Assessment Reports
- Existing Source Protection Concerns, Impacts, and Issues: How to Find
Solutions - Existing Programs to Protect Drinking Water Sources
- The Water Budget in Concept (Conceptual Water Budget)
- Water Budgets for the Region – Tier 1; Tier 2; Tier 3
- Review
- Strategies for Action – Tools
- Monitoring and Tracking Progress
- Evaluation by Participants
- Summary
- Adopt a Vulnerable Area
- A module has been added (Module 17) with content suitable for review and for secondary school classrooms and community groups.
For links to Modules click on links at right side of page.
Overview of program
The Look and Feel of Each Learning Module
All the modules are laid out in a similar fashion.
1) Section One of each module outlines the learning expectations as well as
learning activities to achieve those expectations.
2) Section Two is called ‘Priming the Pump’ and it provides notes, definitions and fact sheets.
3) Section Three is reserved for handouts and additional readings as well as a place where you can keep track of your field assignments and findings.
“A picture is worth a thousand words.”
You will find icons appear frequently throughout your learning materials.
Following the old adage, “a picture is worth a thousand words,” the icons were designed to create clear and shared meaning at a glance for learners and facilitators, and conservation of 1,000 words.
These icons accompany the drinking water source protection learning program for community working-groups.
- Have a look or inspect the following icons or pictures and the intended meaning for each:
- Field Learning Lecture
- Individual Activity
- Group Activity
- Group Dialogue
- Personal Reflection
- Reading Activity
- Writing Activity
- Did you know? (Facts)
- Next Steps
- Summary
- Help, Support and Other Resources
You will find the icons are frequently used throughout your online curriculum manual to help to propel you into a learning activity (e.g., time to work individually, or provide the group direction to complete an exercise with others as in the group activity icon).
We hope that you will find these icons helpful in providing additional learning instruction as well as organization of the learning materials into recognizable formats (e.g., ‘Did you know?’ fact sheets, summary and conclusions or where to go for help, additional support or materials).
Module 1 – Introduction to Source Protection
“Keeping contaminants out of drinking water sources is an efficient way of keeping them out of drinking water.”
– Justice Dennis R. O’Connor, Associate Chief Justice of the Court of Appeal for Ontario, in Part II of the Walkerton Water Inquiry Report, 2001 (Item 1.4.1)
Section One – Module Content
Overview of Module 1
Unit 1 – Drinking water source protection — What we want and who we are
Why are we here?
How will we achieve the vision of protecting drinking water at its sources?
Chapter 1 of the Maitland Valley and Ausable Bayfield Assessment Reports is called Introduction.
The Source Protection Plans’ Chapter 1 is called Background.
These chapters offer introductions to drinking water source protection planning and assessment of activities which may pose a significant threat to drinking water sources.
Activity – Water Bingo
At your school, place of worship, community group, or other location, try out these activities:
Water-Bingo-Activities
Meet your new team members, here to support the vision of source protection.
Choose a space and ask the person you are meeting if they can answer “yes” to one of the descriptions below.
If you get a “yes” response, have that person sign their name in the appropriate box.
Each person can only sign your sheet once – unless you have had every person in the group sign your sheet and still do not have a ‘water’ or ‘bingo.’ In that case, you can start asking around again.
The nearest person to get TWO STRAIGHT LINES in any direction shouts “Water BINGO” and is declared the winner!
- I believe “sinkholes” are a great thing in golf but a potential contaminant for groundwater.
- I am curious and need to know “why”?
- I enjoy reading a newspaper.
- I live on a farm.
- I am a strategic thinker.
- I love being on a boat.
- I am a watershed steward.
- I know what “GIS” means. What does it mean? __
- I enjoy watching the television program, ‘The Nature of Things’.
- I live on or near a lake.
- I drink bottled water.
- I enjoy learning technical or scientific data.
- I like walking on trails.
- I love to solve complicated problems.
- I am sensitive to the feelings and needs of others.
- I have a love of nature.
- My source of water at home is from a well.
- I love to fish.
- I practice conservation at home.
- I can read and understand a map.
- I love open spaces.
- My home is more than 100 years old.
- I have the same first or middle name as you.
- I attend my local council or watch them on TV.
- I drink tap water.
Unit 2 – We’re All About Collaboration
Working Together
Unit 3 – Drinking Water Source Protection Basics
Sources of Water
Early Thoughts on Source Protection — What is being done to protect our municipal sources of drinking water?
Multi-Barrier Approach
Under Your Feet
Saturated and Unsaturated Zones
Types of Aquifers
Recharge and Discharge Areas
‘Puzzled?’ Source Protection Terminology Game
Unit 4 – Wrapping It Up
Review Questions for this Module
Self-assessment on Learning Goals
More Help
Field learning activity.
Field Assignment – Field Learning Task
Field Learning Task to complete for next module:
There is one assignment to complete before the next module: Read, clip, and bring water articles – ready to discuss.
Read and clip the article.
Also, take note if the article contains any of the technical words you have learned in module one.
If so, are the use and meaning of these technical terms consistent with the
meanings we have attached to them? Bring the article with you to the next module for creation of a shared information resource.
Unit 1 – Drinking Water Source Protection: What We Want and Who We Are
We are here to bring ideas from, and take ideas back to, our organizations.
We are also here to…
Why are we here?
How will I help achieve the public health vision for clean, safe drinking water in my area?
We have a much-needed opportunity before us. The provincial government passed the Ontario Clean Water Act, 2006 to protect public health and the economy by adding further protection to our municipal sources of drinking water.
This drinking water source protection law makes it possible for the development of source protection plans for all of Ontario’s watersheds.
Unit 2 – We’re all about Collaboration
There are values in having variety of members in a committee, subcommittee
Success comes from collaboration, through openly sharing information and
resources and freely requesting input, feedback and help.
Collaboration – a definition for our learning and working group:
Collaboration is a principle-based process of working together which builds
trust and produces results.
What founding principles will allow your group to work effectively together?
Cooperation Principles:
Consider – individually or in a group – what cooperation principles are to you:
- What would we see or feel in a group where members’ rights, opinions and ideas are respected?
- What would we hear or feel in a group where mutual respect takes place?
- What will we do to express appreciation and honest concerns in a way that builds trust and positive working relationships?
- What principles of mutual respect will form the basis of our group’s approach to working constructively together?
- What actions will I take to support people working well together
(collaboration)?
If I want collaboration, what must I be willing to give up?
“Nothing new that is really interesting comes without collaboration.”
– James Watson, Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1962
Unit 3 – Basics of Protecting Drinking Water at its Sources
What are Our Sources of Water?
Early Thoughts on Protecting Drinking Water at its Sources …
Form in a group and make individual notes in the space provided for your own reference.
Choose one member of your group to present to the larger group or committee your smaller group’s shared thoughts.
Listen to the reports of other groups and expand your list by capturing their good ideas too:
You also contribute your skills, knowledge and abilities.
Theory, Lecture, Expert
Lecture: Under Your Feet
Your facilitator, or a guest speaker with a technical background, will present a brief overview of source water basics with illustrations to orient you to sub-surface water information (or what is under our feet).
The facilitator/speaker hopes you will have questions for them, so feel free to share with any questions or comments. Questions are great to help us to learn from each other!
Multi-Barrier Approach to Protection of Drinking Water
‘Puzzled?’ Source Protection Terminology Game!
Let’s collaborate!
The perfect solution to your puzzle pieces are in someone else’s hands. Seek out the terms and definitions that others have and see if one of their puzzle pieces
If it fits well with yours, and also that the definitions also makes sense.
If your definition belongs with a terminology piece, give it to the person who holds the terminology piece so that they have one complete puzzle in their hands. And, keep looking for the perfect one to complete your own.
When everyone has one complete puzzle, the facilitator will ask you share the technical term as well as its definition with the open group. Your facilitator will draw upon examples to further help draw the connections between the technical terms and their meanings.
Who wins? Everyone wins when we have reached the point where no one is puzzled over the drinking water source protection terminology.
Prizes? The real prize is … with a little time and practice, you will develop an extended vocabulary, using groundwater and surface water and drinking water source protection terms in meaningful ways.
Drinking water source protection planning
All the water that will ever be is, right now.
– National Geographic, October 1993
Clean drinking water is essential to human health, the economy and the
environment. However, over the past decade there have been incidents, large and small, locally and worldwide, of drinking water contamination. This contamination results in illness, costly clean-up and public health impacts or expensive changes to drinking water systems.
The drinking water tragedy which occurred in Walkerton in 2000 was a turning point in the Ontario approach to drinking water safety.
As a result of the O’Connor Report from the Walkerton Inquiry, the Province of Ontario developed a program for protecting drinking water sources as part of a multi-barrier approach for clean, safe drinking water.
Protection of water at the source is the first barrier in the multi-barrier
approach. That approach also includes barriers such as training, treatment,
testing, monitoring, and distribution.
Among many other actions, the Province of Ontario passed the Clean Water Act, 2006.
The Clean Water Act, 2006 provides the legislative framework for drinking water source protection planning in Ontario.
The intent of the Act is to ensure that Ontario’s drinking water is safeguarded from contamination or depletion.
To bring this about, the Act established source protection committees across the settled parts of the Province.
The Source Protection Committee is required to complete three tasks, as outlined in the Ontario Clean Water Act, 2006:
Write terms of reference to identify what work needs to be done and who is responsible to complete that work
Compile assessment reports for each source protection area that brings
together the science and technical information required to develop source
protection plans
Produce source protection plans for each source protection area that will
outline measures necessary to reduce or eliminate the threats identified in the assessment reports
Unit 4 – Summary
Complete these questions as assigned by your facilitator:
a) What is drinking water source protection?
b) What are the two main kinds of drinking water sources?
c) What is source water protection?
d) Why is protecting water sources important?
e) Why can we not just rely on treatment to protect our water supply?
Module One Self-Assessment
Complete a mini-self assessment of your learning thus far.
Place a… Plus sign
- (yes, true)
Minus sign
(no, not true)
or a Question Mark
? (uncertain)
…beside your Module One learning take-a-ways.
I have:
Acquired an understanding of the vision for drinking water source protection and recognize the important role I have as a member of the working group in achieving this vision.
Developed an appreciation for the uniqueness and diversity of working group members.
I feel optimistic that my contributions will be valued.
Developed an understanding of the collaborative framework we will be working within to study the curriculum and help to develop drinking water source protection plans that can be successfully implemented.
Developed and/or reinforced my knowledge of technical source protection
vocabulary and feel confident to use these terms in ways that other people
will understand and meaningful.
Covered the basic concepts of groundwater or source water protection.
Do you feel like you need a little extra learning?
Your facilitator is happy to discuss any of the next module content with you.
SECTION TWO – Priming the Pump
The following provides some of the information you need to complete the
activities and assessments above.
We’re all about collaboration.
You and everyone else comprising the committee, subcommittee or working group, are unique, representing a range of experiences and backgrounds.
The complexity and detail required in development of local drinking water source protection plans relies on committees, working groups and subcommittees being comprised of informed local residents, representing a diversity of perspectives and groups.
Committees, subcommittees and working groups are challenged with the task to deal with the specifics of drinking water source protection issues in their watersheds. In so doing, team members will work closely and collaboratively with one another to study difficult problems of global concern and determine the best solutions for positive local action.
You will be given the time and resources needed to sufficiently probe local
concerns and issues related to protection of local municipal drinking water
sources. You will be given access to the most current scientific research and
technical data, and technical expertise to help you analyze and draw meaning from this data.
However, the most important ingredient to the group or committee success and achievement of the source protection vision is that you are successfully able to demonstrate the principles of true collaboration.
Collaboration Principles:
- People come first.
- People produce results.
- People must be motivated at the heart and spirit level.
- People are best motivated when their objectives are aligned with a strategic vision.
- Results are achieved by creating a learning environment grounded in a set of core values, using consensus-based processes to build ownership and alignment.
To continue to achieve collaboration as we work through more complex program study, we will require continued practice, encouraging active participation, listening, openness and personal vulnerability.
Try to be comfortable with a flexible learning program and the adaptability of collaboration that provides the safest atmosphere to encourage creativity,
learning and innovative solutions to occur.
About Drinking Water Source Protection Planning
Clean drinking water is essential to human health, the economy and the environment. However, over the past decade there have been incidents, large and small, of drinking water contamination. This contamination results in illness, costly clean-up and public health impacts or expensive changes to drinking water systems.
The drinking water tragedy which occurred in Walkerton in 2000 was a turning point in the Ontario approach to drinking water safety. As a result of the O’Connor Report from the Walkerton Inquiry, the Province of Ontario developed a program for protecting drinking water sources as part of a multi-barrier approach for clean, safe drinking water. Protection of water at the source is the first barrier in the multi-barrier approach. That multi-barrier approach also includes barriers such as training, treatment, testing, monitoring, management, and distribution.
Among many other actions, the Province of Ontario passed the Clean Water Act. The Clean Water Act, 2006 provides the legislative framework for drinking water source protection planning in Ontario. The intent of the Act is to ensure that Ontario’s drinking water is safeguarded from contamination or depletion. To bring this about, the Act established source protection committees across the settled parts of the Province.
Source Protection Committee Tasks
- The Source Protection Committee is required to complete three tasks, as outlined in the Clean Water Act, 2006:
- Write terms of reference to identify what work needs to be done and who is responsible to complete that work
- Compile assessment reports for each source protection area that brings together the science and technical information required to develop source protection plans
- Produce source protection plans for each source protection area that will outline measures necessary to reduce or eliminate the threats identified in the assessment reports.
It could be said that implementation of the source protection plans is the
fourth task and quite possibly the most important task.
The Province of Ontario has approved the Maitland Valley and Ausable Bayfield source protection plans which took effect in April of 2015.
An education and outreach program was developed and delivered between 2015 and 2016 and risk management officials and persons engaged in threat activities are working together to negotiate risk management plans and other measures to manage activities to reduce risk to municipal drinking water sources.
Water Sources Basics – The Water Cycle
What is protection of drinking water at its sources?
In March of 2000, the tragic events in Walkerton forced all Ontarians to begin a journey towards better protection of drinking water sources.
Justice Dennis O’Connor led an inquiry and in his report he said “keeping
contaminants out of drinking water sources is an efficient way of keeping them out of drinking water.”
Keeping sources of water clean is the first line of defence against unsafe
drinking water. It’s also much more expensive to clean up polluted water than to protect our water in the first place.
Protection of drinking water at its sources can be described as the actions
taken to prevent pollution of our water sources, including groundwater, creeks and rivers, and Lake Huron.
Source protection (SP) planning is development and implementation of plans to manage land uses and potential contaminants. To be effective, drinking water source protection should be directed at identified significant threats to the drinking water sources.
The Government of Ontario says it’s committed to implementing all 122
recommendations of the O’Connor report, including drinking water source
protection plans for every watershed in Ontario. All 22 plans in the Province are now approved.
The Walkerton Inquiry recommended a number of barriers of protection for drinking water safety.
What is the multi-barrier approach to safe drinking water?
The key to ensuring clean, safe and secure drinking water is to implement
multiple barriers throughout the drinking water system from source to tap.
No single barrier is 100 per cent effective.
Therefore, multiple barriers are required. The common barriers used in the
provision of safe drinking water are:
Source water protection and drinking water source protection – the first line of defence; the first barrier.
The Three Ts – treatment; testing; training.
The Two Ms – Monitoring and management.
Distribution.
Protecting municipal sources of drinking water (both surface water sources and groundwater) keeps raw water as clean as possible and lowers the risk that contaminants will get through and affect the treatment system.
When people drink treated water from the tap that water may come from Lake Huron (drawn through an intake at Goderich or at the Lake Huron Primary Water Supply system north of Grand Bend at Port Blake) or it may come from municipal wells, drawing water from underground (where the water is stored in aquifers that act much like a sponge does).
Treatment – there are many unit treatment processes used to remove or inactivate contaminants.
Distribution system – prevents the intrusion of contaminants and ensures
appropriate chlorine residual throughout the system.
Monitoring and management – system from source to tap is monitored and managed by trained personnel in accordance with industry legislation, standards, policies and guidelines. Problems are detected early so that corrective action can be taken quickly.
Automatic control systems are being incorporated into the water systems.
Emergency Procedures and Plans – responses to emergency and adverse conditions are thorough and effective to prevent health problems.
Why is protecting source water a concern if we can just treat our water later?
Studies have demonstrated time and time again that the cost of dealing with
contaminated water is many times greater than preventing their contamination in the first place.
Also, conventional water treatment may not remove all hazardous chemicals.
Finally, with clean water and healthy ecosystems in the Maitland Valley and
Ausable Bayfield watersheds there are benefits in terms of the quality of the public’s lives.
We live in a rural area. Half of the people living within the Maitland Valley
and Ausable Bayfield watersheds obtain their water from private wells.
We have to solve the problem at the source. This brings us to an important
question …
Is there anything that being done to protect local sources of municipal drinking water?
Yes, fortunately there is. Some positive acts of stewardship are happening right now.
More than $1 million was provided for drinking water source protection projects in this region, through the Ontario Drinking Water Stewardship Program (ODWSP).
Local people completed hundreds of projects in the region with support of the stewardship program.
Other water protection efforts are taking place thanks to participation by
landowners and community groups, and funding incentives from federal,
provincial, and county programs as well as other sources including Ontario Soil and Crop Improvement Association (OSCIA), national and international
foundations, corporations, and others.
Watersheds
Conservation authorities manage watersheds.
Watersheds are the areas of land drained by rivers, creeks or streams and all tributaries from source to mouth.
Water flows across that watershed, crossing forests, farmlands and towns. While the water is traveling across our land different activities affect it.
The more ways we limit harmful effects on our water as it travels, the better chance we have that the water coming out of your tap at home or work will be healthy.
What are the sources of our drinking water?
Drinking water could include private and municipal wells, municipal drinking water systems (including treated lake water) and other sources …
Under Your Feet
Water Sources
To understand the importance of protecting water sources, we must begin with a basic understanding of where our drinking water comes from and some of its scientific concepts.
Drinking water is either groundwater or surface water.
Drinking water sources are the lakes, rivers, streams and, underground aquifers that serve as the current and future source of a community’s drinking water.
Surface Water
Surface water is an open body of water, such as a river, stream, lake, or estuary. All of these surface-water sources receive water from precipitation, runoff from higher elevations, or recharge from groundwater moving below the stream or lake bed.
Groundwater
Groundwater on the other hand, is water that fills the open spaces, or pore
spaces, within the rock, sand, gravel or sediment materials lying below the
Earth’s surface.
GUDI – Groundwater Under the Direct Influence of surface water
When there are relatively rapid shifts in water characteristics such as
turbidity, temperature, conductivity or significant occurrences of
microorganisms in any water beneath the surface, this source is known as
Groundwater Under the Direct Influence of surface water. ‘GUDI’ for short!
An example of a GUDI would be a shallow dug well on the shore of a lake where the groundwater supply is in.uenced by the surface supply.
There are many who will argue that there is one other drinking water source today and that is bottled water! But please, be assured this supply originates with one of the sources above.
Consider drinking tap water: 2014 Annual Drinking Water Report
What Does It Look Like Underground?
What are the Subsurface Conditions?
Vadose Zone
As can be seen from the above diagram the subsurface is divided into zones or layers. The unsaturated zone is directly below the surface and contains some water.
In the unsaturated zone, water and air fill the voids between soil or rock
particles. In summary, the area between the land surface and the water table in which the pore spaces are only partially filled with water is the unsaturated zone. It is also called the ‘zone of aeration’ or ‘vadose zone.’ Soil pore space also typically contains air or other gases.
Deeper in the ground is the zone of saturation. In the zone of saturation, the
subsurface is completely saturated with water.
The point where the unsaturated zone meets the zone of saturation is known as the water table.
Water table levels fluctuate naturally throughout the year based on seasonal variations and are the reason why some wells go dry in the summer. In addition, the depth to the water table varies. For example, in (select an area in the watershed or community) the water table is “x” metres below the surface.
The saturated zone may form an aquifer. An aquifer is a geologic formation that contains water in quantities sufficient to support a well or spring.
Types of Aquifers
What are the types of aquifers?
Aquifers are generally classified into two types:
Confined
Unconfined
There is, however, a third that does not get mentioned often and that is the
perched aquifer.
A confined aquifer also commonly called an artesian aquifer. It is the saturated formation between impermeable layers that restrict movement of water vertically into or out of the saturated formation. In this layer, water is connected under pressure, similar to water in a pipeline. Drilling a well into this type of aquifer is similar to puncturing a pressurized pipeline. If the pressure is great enough, the well will flow, and this is called a flowing artesian well.
An unconfined aquifer (water table aquifer) is the saturated formation in which the upper surface fluctuates with the addition or removal of water. The upper surface of an unconfined aquifer is the water table that we talked about previously. Water, contained in an unconfined aquifer is free to move laterally in response to differences in the water table elevations. Unconfined aquifers are also often shallow. Wells constructed into them have a greater potential for contamination than wells constructed into the deeper or confined aquifers.
Perched aquifers occur where groundwater is perched above unsaturated formations as a result of a discontinuous impermeable layer. They also occur in formations where weathered layers or ancient soils have created impermeable zones. Wells drilled into these aquifers have been known to go dry because the water is mined.
Recharge and Discharge Areas
What are recharge and discharge areas?
When discussing groundwater basics, the terms recharge and discharge areas always appear.
Replenishment of groundwater is known as recharge. Almost all groundwater originates as surface water and primary sources of natural recharge include precipitation, streams, lakes, etc. Other conditions known as artificial recharge occur from excess irrigation or water purposely applied to augment groundwater supplies.
Water within the ground moves downward through the unsaturated zone, under the action of gravity, whereas in the saturated zone, it moves in a direction determined by the surrounding conditions. The zone of contribution is the area of the aquifer that recharges the well.
Discharge of groundwater occurs when the water emerges from the ground. Most natural discharge occurs as flow to surface water bodies such as lakes, streams, and oceans. Pumping from wells constitutes the major artificial discharge of groundwater.
It must be noted that streams may lose flow to aquifers (aquifer recharge)
during periods of high stream flow (such as spring runoff) but gain flow from aquifers (aquifer discharge) during periods of low streamflow (such as during the summer).
Unconfined aquifers are recharged primarily from precipitation percolating or infiltrating down from the surface, while confined aquifers are generally recharged when the aquifer materials are exposed at the lands surface.
Some of these terms will be presented in future modules.
Visit our glossary page (in development) by clicking on button on navigation bar.
Aquifer:
A natural underground layer of porous water–bearing materials, often sand or gravel that contains water. (The technical definition of an aquifer describes it as the saturated underground formation that will yield usable amounts of water to a well or spring.) The formation could be sand, gravel, limestone or sandstone. The water in an aquifer is called groundwater. A saturated formation that will not yield water in usable quantities is called an aquiclude.
Groundwater:
Water found in the spaces between soil particles and cracks in rocks beneath the Earth’s surface (usually located in aquifers a natural reservoir below the Earth’s surface in an aquifer). Groundwater is a natural resource that is used for drinking, recreation, industry, and growing crops.
Raw Water:
Water in its natural state, prior to any treatment.
Sinkhole:
A sinkhole is a depression in the land surface resulting from the dissolution of the underlying soluble bedrock, and the subsequent collapse of overlying soil and rock. Essentially, dissolved bedrock creates a cave which eventually
collapses, with soil moving into the bedrock and a large sinkhole depression sometimes forming on the surface. Sinkholes represent conduits where potentially unsafe surface waters have a higher potential to be quickly transmitted to the groundwater system. Sinkholes are circular or elliptical closed depressions. A landowner may view sinkholes as naturally forming holes that occasionally open up in the fields. Some people see sinkholes as sites for dumping trash without thinking of the potential impact on groundwater sources. In urban areas, the sudden appearance of a sinkhole is a hazard that can disrupt utility services, hamper transportation, and cause severe damage to nearby structures. Sinkholes
are generally depressions on the surface of the land where water can collect and seep into the groundwater. Sinkholes are typical features of Karst regions (Karst topography is the name given to an area underlain by rocks such as limestone and is characterized by caves, sinkholes, and depressions), and provide a direct pathway for surface water to move into the subsurface. The runoff that enters through sinkholes is not filtered as it joins the groundwater system. Sinkholes occur singly, or in groups in close proximity to one another. Sinkholes range from less than a metre to more than thirty metres in depth. Not all topographical depressions are sinkholes.
Source Water Protection:
Action taken to prevent the pollution of drinking water sources, including
groundwater, lakes, rivers, and streams. Source water protection is developing and implementing a plan to manage land uses and potential contaminants. To be effective, source water protection should include drinking water source protection planning for vulnerable areas with the potential to affect municipal drinking water sources and manage significant threats to drinking water.
Surface Water Intake:
Drinking at least eight glasses of water a day is a fair definition of water
intake, but not for students of source water protection! Our definition is: A
surface water intake is an important feature of the surface-water collection
works employed to withdraw water from a body of water. The raw water collection facilities generally consist of an intake structure located in the water, an intake conduit, and a pumping station to convey the water to a treatment facility. The intake is designed to prevent the access of debris and other objects.
Turbidity:
The cloudy appearance of water caused by the presence of tiny particles. High levels of turbidity may interfere with proper water treatment and monitoring.
Water-borne disease:
An infectious illness associated with the ingestion of water from a water system that is deficient in treatment.
Water Budget:
The summation of inputs, outputs, and net changes to a particular water resource system over a fixed period.
Water Contaminants:
Any physical, chemical, biological, or radiological substance or matter that has an adverse effect on water.
Watershed:
The land area from which water drains into a stream, river, lake, or reservoir. There will be a lot more information on watersheds presented in the next session.
Watershed management: is the first and most fundamental step in a
multiple-barrier approach to protecting drinking water.
Healthy, functioning watersheds naturally filter pollutants and moderate water quantity by slowing surface runoff and increasing the infiltration of water into the soil. The result is less flooding and soil erosion, cleaner water
downstream, and greater groundwater reserves.
Watershed management is a multi-faceted discipline that involves conservation and restoration, land use monitoring, proactive land use regulations, on-site field inspections, education, planning, and emergency spill response.
Watershed Assessment:
A watershed assessment is a process for evaluating how well a watershed is
working.
A watershed-based assessment provides a comprehensive evaluation of conditions and trends in the entire watershed and can be used to:
Characterize watershed conditions and trends in water quality
Determine causes of existing and future water quality problems
Aid in the development, prioritization, and implementation of an overall
watershed management program to prevent or correct the identified water quality problems;
Establish a baseline and assess progress of overall watershed management activities or effectiveness of pollution prevention and control practices;
Provide data to verify watershed conditions;
Educate and inform the public.
SECTION 3 – Additional Sources
Visit Ontario.ca and sourcewaterinfo.on.ca.
Field Assignment:
Find, read, share article on water.
Review:
Watch or listen to the video included here:
For more information visit sourcewaterinfo.on.ca and contact staff.
Information here is provisional, subject to change, and posted for local
information and education purposes. For current information visit Ontario.ca and sourcewaterinfo.on.ca. We would like to acknowledge the support of the Government of Ontario. Such support does not indicate endorsement of the contents of this material.
© Active Learning Program 2019