AWWA ACE61841

This presentation draws on research undertaken for a paper produced for the Federation of Canadian Municipalities, Municipal Governments and the Protection of Water Sources. This work examined what municipalities could do to immediately protect watersheds and their source water, without waiting for changes to legislation. (It was commissioned as part of a larger work by the Canadian Council of Ministers of the Environment (CCME), From Source to Tap: Guidance on the Multi-Barrier Approach to Safe Drinking Water (2004)). Municipal government has considerable power and influence to protect the community asset of source drinking water. It will be argued that it is at the municipal level that there are the greatest opportunities to have a positive impact on water sources. This paper examines the broad range of practical examples of what municipalities can do to protect source water that include: tapping into existing networks; supporting existing watershed institutions and processes; undertaking education and awareness programs; dealing with existing threats; and, preventing or minimizing future threats. Municipalities can protect and improve their catchments and source water through a critical review and adjustment of their own operations. The paper also considers some difficult approaches such as giving drinking water quality primacy in development approvals. Includes abstract only.