New Drinking Water Regulation under the Safe Drinking Water Act, 2003
On June 1, 2003, O. Reg. 170/03, the new Drinking Water Systems Regulation (DWSR) under the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA), came into effect. The purpose of the DWSR is to provide safe drinking water to all residents of Ontario by stipulating minimum standard requirements for eight different categories of drinking water systems (see Categories of Drinking Water Systems Outlined in O. Reg. 170/03). The regulation consolidates the requirements from O. Reg. 459/00, Drinking Water Protection Regulation for Larger Waterworks, and O. Reg. 505/01, Drinking Water Protection Regulation for Smaller Waterworks serving Designated Facilities, both under the Ontario Water Resources Act (OWRA). The DWSR also covers other systems previously not regulated, including smaller residential systems and commercial and institutional systems serving drinking water to the public.
For each of the eight different categories of drinking water systems, the DWSR outlines drinking water quality standards, approvals, minimum levels of treatment, procedures for operational checks, sampling and testing, and requirements for posting warning notices when the regulation cannot be met. The key requirements for each category are outlined in the table on this page.
In Part Two of the Walkerton Inquiry Report, Justice O’Connor noted that the requirements under O. Reg. 459/00 may have been stricter then necessary. As a result, the Ministry of the Environment changed some of the requirements under the DWSR. They include:
- decreased frequency requirement for chemical sampling.
- move from quarterly to annual reporting.
- requirement that an engineering report be done every five years for surface water and every 10 years for ground water, as opposed to every three years.
- technical changes that address automated reporting systems.
Public participation and the EBR process
On January 14, 2003, MOE posted a notice about the proposed DWSR on the Environmental Registry and provided a 60-day comment period. In total, the proposal received 68 comments. They included concerns over the lack of cross-connection control to address the hazards of backflow from private plumbing systems connected to public water distribution systems.
There was also concern that an Advisory Council had not yet been established to make recommendations on risk-based standards, and that source protection policy and legislation had not yet been developed. Stakeholders were also concerned about the financial costs associated with the new approval and testing requirements, especially for small systems, and that because of the limited number of accredited labs and engineers, especially in remote areas, it would be difficult to meet testing and approval demands. None of these comments from the public led to changes in the proposed DWSR.
However, public comments did lead to changes in the proposed annual reporting calendar, which initially was to cover the period between August 1 and July 31 for all systems. Seasonal drinking water suppliers, especially, would have found it difficult to report according to this time period. Instead, under the changes, non-municipal seasonal residential and large non-municipal non-residential systems will report for the period November 1-October 31, and small non-municipal non-residential systems for the period April 1-March 31. Stakeholder comments also led to the creation of a new Drinking Water Systems category, Small Municipal Residential, with requirements tailored to small systems and reduced microbi- ological testing requirements. Furthermore, MOE provided additional clarification on the requirements of testing, monitoring, recording and reporting data, on the categories of systems, and on the corrective actions necessary when requirements are not met. MOE also clarified when secondary disinfection is not required for point of entry treatment, the point where water from the system enters a building or other structure.
In early 2004, some rural municipalities and operators of non-municipal drinking water systems such as community centres began to sound alarm bells in the media and with their MPP’s about the impact of O. Reg. 170/03 on their ability to continue to provide water supplies to their residents and clients. In June 2004, MOE amended O. Reg. 170/03 to provide some flexibility to certain system operators. For example, MOE is going to allow posting of signs in facilities like community centres until December 2004, warning potential consumers that the water has not been tested rather than requiring the facility to meet the strict testing requirements of O. Reg. 170/03.
ECO Comment
Ensuring that all Ontario waterworks supply safe drinking water is critical to the health and well-being of the residents of this province. The new Drinking Water Systems Regulation provides for the kind of sampling and testing of drinking water and reporting requirements that will allow the Ministry of the Environment to monitor Ontario’s drinking water treatment and distribution systems. MOE should be commended for developing this regulation under the SDWA, and in particular, for providing background materials that support the implementation of this complex regulation. In safeguarding all drinking water systems in Ontario, the DWSR responds to some of the compliance problems that arose out of O. Reg. 459/00 and O. Reg. 505/01 under the OWRA.
However, the ECO agrees with the stakeholders who expressed concern for the continued lack of source protection policy and legislation in Ontario. As Justice O’Connor pointed out in the Walkerton Inquiry Report, multiple-barrier systems, including source protection, are essential for providing long-term safe drinking water, in order to guard against the failure of any one barrier.
In the past, MOE has focused its attention on treatment, on securing the distribution system, and on monitoring and planning responses to adverse conditions. However, MOE has failed to tackle the most ecologically significant unit of water management – the watershed. A watershed includes all lands that drain into a particular body, and as articulated by Justice O’Connor, is the most appropriate level where human activities that affect watershed health should be managed. A healthful watershed promotes the natural assimilative capacity and filtration ability of an aquatic ecosystem. The ECO commends MOE for taking preliminary action to promote source protection, a subset of watershed management, with the release of the White Paper on Source Protection in February 2004.
Although the DWSR is essential to the implementation of the Safe Drinking Water Act, MOE must develop an integrated policy on drinking water that also addresses concerns about source protection. The ECO will continue to monitor the implementation of the SDWA regulations, as well as the development of source protection legislation.
| This is an article from the 2003/04 Annual Report to the Legislature from the Environmental Commissioner of Ontario. |
Citing This Article
Environmental Commissioner of Ontario. 2004. "New Drinking Water Regulation under the Safe Drinking Water Act, 2003." Choosing our Legacy, ECO Annual Report, 2003-04. Toronto, ON : Environmental Commissioner of Ontario. 85-88.
