1. INTRODUCTION Canada is a vast country containing a large portion of the world’s fresh water resources. This precious resource is vital to all life sustaining functions, human and ecological. Canadians respect and value this ‘Our most precious resource’. Within this framework, Ontario both population based and geographical land mass, is one of the largest provinces in Canada. Ontario geographically is a vast province, bordering the world’s largest fresh water body, the Great Lakes However there is still a great deal of ambiguity in regards to how Ontario manages this precious resource. Given the institutional infrastructure currently in place, can Ontario guarantee that the quality and quantity of water available will ensure that ecological and human systems remain healthy? In the field of water management, a number of approaches are starting to develop that address the whole hydrolic cycle, which focuses on watershed management. Lessons learned in the field of water management over the last decade, provide a framework that begins to clarify how and why the watershed management approach is gaining currency in a wide range of jurisdictions locally and globally. In 1997, the United States Environmental Protection undertook a study examining a review of the watershed management literature. The study identified nine key components of successful watershed management:1 1. Political endorsement 2. Enabling legislation and policy direction 3. Co-ordination and a co-ordinating body at the watershed/subwatershed level 4. Sustainable funding 5. A multidisciplinary, integrated approach to water management 6. Clear goals and objectives (related to watershed management) 7. Good data, appropriate technical and analytical skills; and useful decision-support tools 8. Public involvement and partner collaboration 9. Dynamic leadership Ontario is beginning to approach water management from a watershed basis and incorporate these principles, but given the historical state of Ontario’s water resources, is Ontario and Ontarians doing enough? In order to examine this question, this report begins with identifying Ontario’s watersheds and attempting to determine the ecological health of them, with particular focus on the Greater Toronto Area (GTA). Sources of water pollution and their effects on human and ecological 1 Committee on Watershed Management et al., 1999; Hooper, 1999; Born and Genskow, 2000; Born and Genskow, 2001; U.S EPA, 1997 in Muldoon and Mcculloch, 1999 1 systems will then be considered. In the following section, a brief look at different issues facing watershed management will be examined. At this point, the report turns to a regulatory approach, examing the laws, policies and institutions working on water management in an international, national, provincial and municipal level. The report concludes with a section on avenues for public support, and provides examples of regulatory tools and organizations that can aid people interested in improving Ontario’s water sources. 2 2. ONTARIO’S ECOLOGY AND WATERSHEDS 2.1 WHAT IS A WATERSHED? Example of a Watershed (Source: www.epa.gov/OWOW/win/what.html) As water flows downhill in small to progressively larger streams and rivers, it moves over land and provides water for urban, agricultural, and ecological needs. The watershed community is made up of everyone who lives there plus all other animal and plant life. The community of humans, plants, and animals depends on the watershed and influence it in some way. Flowing water carries organic debris and dissolved organic matter that provide food and shelter for aquatic life. At the same time, water may also carry pollutants like motor oil, fertilizers, and pesticides. Numerous activities in a watershed have the potential to degrade water quality. There is no "pure" water in nature; all water is "polluted" to some extent. Even in pristine watersheds where water quality is not affected by humans, "natural" pollutant sources are abundant. These include sediment from stream bank erosion, bacteria and nutrients from wildlife, and chemicals deposited by rainfall. A watershed has four important functions: 1. It stores water of various amounts and for different times; 2. It releases water as runoff; 3. It provides diverse sites for chemical reactions to take place; and 3 4. It provides habitat for flora and fauna. The first two functions are physical in nature and are termed hydrologic functions (Fig. 2). The last two are the ecological functions. Human activities affect all the functions of a watershed. 2.2 WHAT ARE ONTARIO’S WATERSEHDS? The Ministry of Natural Resources (MNR) identifies Ontario’s three primary watersheds in the province of Ontario. As Primary evident from the map to the right, these include: the Great Watersheds Lakes, Nelson River and Hudson Bay. These three primary divisions have been divided into 17 secondary divisions. Most secondary divisions are either large river systems or groupings of small coastal streams. Ontario’s secondary watershed divisions range in size from 4,000 to 150,000 square kilometers. These secondary divisions are further sub- divided into 144 tertiary divisions ranging in size from 700 to 31,000 square kilometers.2 (Source: MNR 2004) THE OAK RIDGES MORAINE The Oak Ridges Moraine is a 106 km long ridge of rolling hills and porous soils and gravels from which the headwaters for some 30 rivers in the province originate. The headwaters of the main and east branches of the Humber are located on the moraine. One-quarter of the Humber's total land area is located on the Oak Ridges Moraine. It is also forms the headwaters for over 65 rivers and streams including the Don, Duffins Creek and the Rough, provides critical habitat (wetlands, kettle lakes, kettle bogs and natural and planted forests) for many species. The Moraine also provides a direct source of clean drinking water for more than a quarter of a million people and indirectly for millions more.3 The Oak Ridges Moraine is currently threatened by developers wanting to extend Toronto’s urban sprawl. However, too much development on the Moraine 2 http://www.mnr.gov.on.ca/MNR/water/watershed.html (downloaded June 12, 2004). 3 The information regarding Oak Ridges Moraine is compiled from: http://www.oakridgesmoraine.com/ (downloaded July 20th 2004). 4 means habitat loss for hundreds of plant and animal species. Currently, 30% of the Moraine is still forested; this represents one of Ontario’s last remaining ‘large’ forested areas in southern Ontario. The Moraine is one of the last continuous corridors of green space left in southern Ontario. There is a strong public movement to protect the Moraine currently underway. A coalition of NGOs and citizens groups has collaborated to put pressure on municipal and Provincial governments to stop development in the area. This coalition consists of Earthroots, S.T.O.R.M. (Save The Oak Ridges Moraine), The Federation of Ontario Naturalists and Save the Rouge Valley System Inc. The campaign was strongly supported by the Greater Toronto Services Board (representing all GTA municipalities), the Don Watershed Council, the Waterfront Generation Trust, the Conservation Authorities Moraine Coalition, 465 scientists and over 100 citizens groups across (Source: Howard, 2001) southern Ontario.4 The health of streams and rivers originating in the moraine depends on the hydrological functions of the moraine. When natural spring-fed sources of water are replaced by urbanized sources of water, rivers and streams are invariably less healthy. The future of the moraine will have a significant impact on the ultimate health of our watersheds and communities.5 4 For further information on the Oak Ridges Moraine see: www.oakridgesmoraine.com or contact one of the mentioned organizations, contact information can be found in Appendix: 5 http://www.trca.on.ca/water_protection/strategies/humber/#healthy (downloaded June 12, 2004) 5 PROVINCIALLY DETERMINED WATERSHEDS The following chart outlines the watersheds identified by both Conservation Ontario and the Ministry of Environment (MOE). As can be there are some discrepancies between the regions identified. Recently, the Provincial government has decided to approach water management from a watershed basis and is implementing The Source Water Protection Act.6 The MOE has “organize(d) watershed(s) into regions for the purpose of timely and efficient delivery of source water protection plans across Ontario’s 36 conservation authorities”7 White Paper Conservation Ontario Lead CA Comments/Rationale Proposals Proposals Essex Same Essex Lower Thames, Lower Thames, Upper Upper Thames Lake St. Clair Upper Thames, Thames, St. Clair watersheds kept Catfish, Kettle together St. Clair Included above Long Point, Catfish, Kettle, Long Grand Lake Erie watersheds Grand Point, Grand kept together Ausable Bayfield, Same Ausable Bayfield Maitland Saugeen, Grey same Saugeen Sauble Nottawasage, Lake Same Lake Simcoe Simcoe Niagara, Hamilton Niagara Niagara Halton, Credit Halton, Hamilton Halton Burlington Bay watersheds kept together/historical working relationship Toronto Credit, Toronto, Central Toronto Oak Ridges Moraine Lake Ontario and Peel/York/Durham Groundwater Study Central Lake Ont, none Included above and Ganaraska below Otonabee, Otonobee, Kawartha, Lower Trent Trent River watershed Kawartha, Crow, Crowe, Lower Trent, CAs kept together Lower Trent Ganaraska Quinte, Cataraqui Quinte Quinti Quinti is already an amalgamation of 3 CAs Cataraqui Options still being 6 Further information on this Act is provided