The objective of the Act is to provide for the conservation, protection and management of Ontario’s waters and for their efficient and sustainable use, in order to promote Ontario’s long-term environmental, social and economic well-being.
The Ministry of the Environment has supervision over all surface waters and ground waters in the Province, which can include wells, lakes, rivers, ponds, springs, streams, and reservoirs.
The Act provides provincial officers assigned by the Ministry with extensive powers to inspect, without warrant or court order, any part of the “natural environment” (i.e., the air, land and water, or any combination or part thereof) to determine either the quality or quantity of water that may be present at that location. Additionally, an officer may enter any place or building to determine if toxic or polluting materials may be entering any part of the water system from that place or to determine whether documents related to any activity or undertaking that is in contravention of the Act may be held there.
The Act was designed in part to protect the province’s water resources from industrial and commercial users who might draw more water out of provincial aquifers than the aquifers can reasonably sustain. The Act, therefore, requires any person taking more than a total of 50,000 litres of water in a day, with some exceptions, to obtain a permit from the Ministry.
For the purposes of the Act, the Province is divided into the following three water basins:
1. The Great Lakes-St. Lawrence River Basin – water that drains into the Great Lakes or the St. Lawrence River.
2. The Nelson Basin – water that drains into the Nelson River in Northern Ontario.
3. The Hudson Bay Basin – water that drains into Hudson Bay or James Bay.
The Great Lakes-St. Lawrence River Basin is further divided into the following five watersheds:
1. The Lake Superior watershed.
2. The Lake Huron watershed.
3. The Lake Erie watershed.
4. The Lake Ontario watershed.
5. The St. Lawrence River watershed.
For the dual purposes of conservation and pollution control, transfer of water from or among any of the above basins or watersheds is either prohibited or strictly controlled by permits. Permits issued by the Ministry place conditions such as the amount of water that can be transferred, the amount of water to be returned after use, the rate at which water can be transferred, the prescribed uses for transferred water, and the quality of the water that is to be returned, among others.
The Act addresses the construction, use and monitoring of wells. Any individual or well contractor must first obtain a well construction permit before any construction can commence. The permit may be refused if it is deemed that water obtained from the proposed well could cause injury or illness or reduce the quantity of water available for any use.