Policy Development

In 2011, the Source Protection Committee began discussing policy concepts for the Source Protection Plan. Committee members and local residents serving on expert working groups, provided feedback on those concepts as they evolved into draft policies. Working Group members had local expertise in agriculture, municipal planning, fuel, septic systems and emergency planning and system operation.

The Source Protection Committee and the working groups developed concepts to protect the water sources and sent them back and forth to develop these draft policies. These groups improved on each draft until every policy reached a final draft. In October 2011, the pre-consultation period started, giving 42 policy implementers time to review the final draft policies and provide comments.

Throughout 2011, Quinte Conservation presented this information to municipal councils and met with municipal staff to keep them informed of the Committee's progress.

Pre-Consultation

Pre-consultation helped the Committee obtain feedback from municipalities and government ministries on whether draft policies were implementable, prior to taking the draft policies to the public in 2012. A Policy Review Backgrounder was included in the pre-consultation packages. Draft policies and background information were circulated to the implementers. By December 2011, the Committee received comments. The comments were considered in the final policy drafts, developed early in 2012. When the final drafts of the policies were ready for public comment, meetings were held in May, 2012.

The development of each policy in the Source Protection Plan is chronicled in the Explanatory Document.

Drinking Water Threats

Drinking Water Threats to drinking water sources in the Quinte Area are explained in fact sheets. These include the policy approach taken by the Source Protection Committee in developing policies to address the threat. For more information on threats see the Policy Review Backgrounder and the Assessment Report.