A2. Water: Provincial Sources

6. WTP_WS_Water Filtration Plant

Legislation

n/a

Applies to

Greater Golden Horseshoe

Prepared by

Ministry of Municipal Affairs

Submitted to

Provided to the Neptis Foundation in 2016

Due date/ frequency

One-time: data is from 2005-2006.

Minimum data requirements

Fields include:

  • Drinking water system name
  • Drinking water system number
  • Drinking water system type
  • Municipality
  • Mapping coordinates
  • Number of wells
  • Last update date
  • Owner
  • Operator
  • Population served
  • Average daily flow
  • Maximum daily flow
  • GUDI status (groundwater under direct influence of surface water)

Issues/ drawbacks

Needs updating.

7. Drinking Water Information System (DWIS)

Legislation

n/a

Applies to

MOECC

Prepared by

MOECC

Submitted to

Internal to MOECC. MOECC has indicated that data/reports can be provided upon request

Due date/ frequency

Updated regularly

Minimum data requirements

Key fields include

  • Drinking Water System name
  • Drinking Water System number
  • Drinking Water System category (large or small)
  • Municipality: Upper or lower tier
  • Owner's legal name - usually the municipality
  • Surface water source name (e.g., Grand River, Lake Simcoe)
  • DWS Source Type (i.e. ground water/surface water/distribution system)
  • Population served
  • Rated capacity (litres/day)

Issues/ drawbacks

  • MOECC staff have described this internal database and indicated that data/reports can be provided upon request.
  • Does not capture quantity and flow rates.

8. Permit To Take Water (PTTW) database

Legislation

Ontario Water Resources Act, R.S.O. 1990 (OWRA)

Environmental Bill of Rights, C.28, Statutes of Ontario, 1993

Permit to Take Water as required by Section 34.1 (OWRA), Water Taking and Transfer Regulation

Applies to

Permit Holder

Prepared by

Municipality or owner/operator of water treatment facility

Submitted to/publication requirements

Permit to Take Water Director,

Environmental Assessment and Permissions Branch, MOECC

135 St. Clair Avenue West, Toronto ON M4V 1P5

Due date/ frequency

Permitted volume requested in PTTW application by applicant- for any water taking over 50,000L/day, with some exceptions (see OWRA)

Minimum data requirements

  • Fields in the public database include:
  • Permit number
  • Classification of WTP and/or well
  • Purpose
  • Municipality
  • Source of water (i.e., surface or groundwater)
  • Name of river, lake, or other source and exact location of water-taking source
  • Mapping coordinates
  • Maximum litres allowed per day
  • Number of days water takings allowed
  • Maximum water takings in hours per day

Issues/

drawbacks

  • Data do not include drinking water system numbers, so hard to match to other data sources.
  • No information on which aquifer the groundwater is drawn from.
  • Permits may overrepresent the amount of water actually being taken, to allow for future expansion of facility or for other reasons (e.g., safety).
  • May cover more than one well, but whether wells operate concurrently depends on site specific permit
  • Spatial location information may not be accurate.
  • Recent permit numbers may not be in the database.
  • Historic municipal water wells, which can be significant [takers of water], are "grandfathered" and do not require a permit (see Source Water Protection Plan for Credit Valley Conservation, pages 3-62).

Other information

For the PTTW application form, see: https://www.ontario.ca/document/application-permit-take-water

9. Water Takings Reporting System database

Legislation

Ontario Water Resources Act, R.S.O. 1990, c. O.40; O. Reg. 387/04

Applies to

All holders of Permits To Take Water are required to report takings. Permit holder "must collect and record the volumes of water taken daily and submit ... records each year to the ministry's online Water Taking and Reporting System (WTRS)."

Prepared by

Municipality or operator/owner.

Submitted to/publication requirements

Submitted to MOECC online. Users go to the Water Taking and Reporting System (https://www.lrcsde.lrc.gov.on.ca/wtrs/), log in using the password and user ID provided by the ministry, and record the amount of water taken each day for each source listed on the permit for each calendar year.

Due date/ frequency

Annual. Permit holders must report their daily water taking values to the Ministry for January 1 to December 31 on or before March 31 of the following year.

Minimum data requirements

Information includes:

  • Well Name and/or Well Record Number or Water Treatment System
  • Lake name/river name
  • Amount of water taken in litres

Issues/ drawbacks

Not yet available as open data.

Other information

The data contains actual daily water taking amounts as reported by holders of a permit to take water and submitted to the Ministry under the Water Taking and Transfer Regulation. Anyone taking more than 50,000 litres of water in a day (with some exceptions) must obtain a permit. See: https://www.ontario.ca/data/water-taking and https://www.ontario.ca/page/permits-take-water

10. Water Well Information System (WWIS) database

Legislation

Ontario Water Resources Act, 1990, as amended, O. Reg. 903

Applies to

All well owners and operators

Prepared by

All well owners and operators

Submitted to/publication requirements

Well records must be mailed to:

Wells Help Desk

Environmental Monitoring and Reporting Branch, MOECC

125 Resources Road, Toronto ON M9P 3V6

Due date/ frequency

To be submitted when constructing a new well or altering or repairing an existing well, unless it is a minor alteration or new pump installation.

Minimum data requirements

  • Well ID
  • Well Record Information (PDF/html)
  • Well tag number (for wells added since 2003)
  • Audit number
  • Contractor license number
  • Well depth
  • Date of completion

May also include

  • How the well was constructed
  • Its location
  • Results of the pumping test
  • General information on water quality

Issues/ drawbacks

  • Little information on water quantities involved; mainly indicates number and location of wells in a settlement area.
  • No information on which aquifer the well water comes from.

Other information

  • Data period: 1899 to September 30, 2016
  • Microsoft Access format
  • Metadata: https://www.javacoeapp.lrc.gov.on.ca/geonetwork/srv/en/metadata.show?id=7053
  • Oak Ridges Moraine Groundwater Program has updated the well records of MOECC within the geography: York, Peel, Durham, Toronto and The Conservation Authorities Moraine Coalition (YPDT-CAMC). CAMC is made up of TRCA, CVC, NVCA, LSRCA, KRCA, ORCA, LTRCA, GRCA, and CLOCA.

11a. Provincial Ground Water Quality Monitoring Network

Legislation

Authorized by a decision of the Ontario Cabinet in 2000, following the recommendations of an interministerial task force.

Applies to

474 wells throughout Ontario

Prepared by

MOECC staff, in partnership with Ontario's conservation authorities, some municipalities, and provincial parks

Submitted to/publication requirements

Part of the Ontario open data collection; information posted as interactive maps and database. See: https://www.ontario.ca/environment-and-energy/map-provincial-groundwater-monitoring-network

Frequency

"474 wells in the PGMN program...monitor groundwater levels on an hourly basis. These wells are not used to supply water and are used for monitoring groundwater conditions only." See: https://www.javacoeapp.lrc.gov.on.ca/geonetwork/srv/en/metadata.show?id=13677

Minimum data requirements

Groundwater: Information on each well and aquifer; includes water level and detailed chemistry report. Fields include:

  • Well ID
  • Conservation authority
  • Mapping coordinates
  • Well depth and construction details
  • Aquifer type, lithology, and stratigraphy
  • Well Water Record number
  • Chemical analysis
  • Confidence level

May also include

Information on precipitation available for 45 sites where rain gauges have been installed.

Issues/ drawbacks

Not linked to municipal drinking water system data.

Other information

Open data on groundwater from the province contains readings on wells, water levels, water chemistry, and precipitation from 2001-2014 in Excel spreadsheets. See: https://www.ontario.ca/data/provincial-groundwater-monitoring-network

11b. Provincial Stream Water Quality Monitoring Network

Legislation

n/a

Applies to

More than 400 locations on rivers and streams in Ontario

Prepared by

MOECC staff, in partnership with Ontario's conservation authorities, some municipalities, and provincial parks

Submitted to/publication requirements

Part of the Ontario open data collection; information posted as interactive maps and database. See:

https://www.ontario.ca/environment-and-energy/map-provincial-stream-water-quality-monitoring-network

Frequency

Samples collected once a month since 1964. Results published once a year.

Minimum data requirements

Spatial fields include:

  • Station number
  • Name of water body
  • Location within water body
  • Mapping coordinates

The following data are collected in the field:

  • Water temperature
  • Field pH
  • Stream condition
  • Ambient conductivity
  • Dissolved oxygen

Chemical analysis is performed by a laboratory. Includes measurements of phosphates, nitrates, suspended solids, and chloride levels. Date of first sampling noted.

Issues/ drawbacks

No quantity or flow information.

Other information

Provincial open data on streams goes back to 1964. See:

https://www.ontario.ca/data/provincial-stream-water-quality-monitoring-network

12. Drinking Water Surveillance Program

Legislation

Voluntary program conducted by MOECC with municipalities

Applies to

Selected drinking water systems across Ontario

Prepared by

MOECC

Submitted to/publication requirements

Part of provincial open data catalogue: https://www.ontario.ca/data/drinking-water-surveillance-program

Due date/ frequency

Annual; data available for 1998-2012 online.

Minimum data requirements

Tests for metals, volatile organics, and other quality indicators.

  • Fields include:
  • Drinking Water System name
  • Drinking Water System number
  • Sample type
  • Sample location
  • Station number
  • Sample condition
  • Sample date and time

Issues/ drawbacks

  • No information on capacity or quantity.
  • Voluntary.
  • Only selected municipal drinking water systems.

Other information

"DWSP monitors inorganic, organic and radiological parameters, including emerging contaminants and parameters that are not regulated." See: https://www.javacoeapp.lrc.gov.on.ca/geonetwork/srv/en/metadata.show?id=12433

13. Oil, Gas and Salt Resources Library

Legislation

Oil, Gas and Salt Resources Act, R.S.O. 1990, c. P.12

Applies to

All petroleum wells drilled in Ontario

Who prepares it

Inspectors work in collaboration with the Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry, London office.

Submitted to/publication requirements

  • Maintains an online data access point.
  • All data owned by and housed in a provincial Oracle database within the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources.

Due date/ frequency

Ongoing.

Minimum data requirements

Mapped distribution of freshwater, brackish water, and salt water.

Issues/ drawbacks

Proprietary dataset available only through a user-pay membership arrangement.

Other information

http://www.ogsrlibrary.com/

https://www.ontario.ca/laws/statute/90p12

14. Southern Ontario Groundwater Project 2015-2019 (GSC-OGS)

Legislation

2003: Canadian Framework for Collaboration on Groundwater http://publications.gc.ca/site/eng/248380/publication.html

2005: Mandate was re-enforced by the Senate of Canada to map Canadian aquifers. See:

https://sencanada.ca/content/sen/committee/381/enrg/rep/rep13nov05-e.htm - Water_Under_Pressure

Prepared by

Ontario Geological Survey

Submitted to/publication requirements

All data and analysis available as government publications, peer-reviewed publications, or via the Groundwater Information Network (GIN), a national groundwater data portal.

Due date/ frequency

Published as work is completed.

Minimum data requirements

OGS has done quaternary geology mapping for almost all of southern Ontario. Municipalities and conservation authorities use these maps to locate aquifers and understand capacity.

Completed:

  1. GSC-Oak Ridges Moraine, which is includes not just the moraine, but a large swath of protected countryside beyond ORM
  2. Waterloo
  3. Barrie-Oro
  4. Bradford Woodstock
  5. Orangeville-Fergus
  6. South Simcoe County (includes (Innisfil, Alliston etc.)

In progress:

  1. Niagara Region - still drilling in 2017.
  2. Central Simcoe (Wasaga, etc.) Still drilling in 2017 - expected completion in 2018.
Southern Ontario Groundwater Project

OGS will study the area to the west around Mount Forest; no studies east of the areas shown are planned, because most of the landscape to the east is bedrock.

Issues/ drawbacks

Does not cover entire Greater Golden Horseshoe region.

Other information

Funding provided from Ontario Geological Survey base funding.