scholarly journals Risky business : the role of risk perception in the Ontario source water protection planning process

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mary K Rollinson-Lorimer
Keyword(s):  
Drinking Water ◽  
Risk Perception ◽  
Planning Process ◽  
Clean Water Act ◽  
Clean Water ◽  
Source Water ◽  
Water Protection ◽  
The Public ◽  
Related Risk ◽  
Source Water Protection

The purpose of this research was: 1. to investigate whether the perception of drinking water-related risk differs between the public and a Source Protection Committee established under Ontario's new Clean Water Act to make decisions about source water protection, 2. to explore how the public makes risk-based decisions about drinking water-related risk, and, 3. to estimate how any differences in drinking water-related risk perception and decision making between the Committee and the public may affect the implementation of the Clean Water Act. Mail and telephone surveys were conducted in a Southern Ontario Region of Study, and were given to samples of the public and the Committee. The two groups had different perceptions of water risk, which could pose challenges for making collective decisions about water risks. Successful source water protection depends on the ability of the Committees and the public to make appropriate decisions about risks to drinking water sources.

scholarly journals Risky business : the role of risk perception in the Ontario source water protection planning process

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mary K Rollinson-Lorimer
Keyword(s):  
Drinking Water ◽  
Risk Perception ◽  
Planning Process ◽  
Clean Water Act ◽  
Clean Water ◽  
Source Water ◽  
Water Protection ◽  
The Public ◽  
Related Risk ◽  
Source Water Protection

The purpose of this research was: 1. to investigate whether the perception of drinking water-related risk differs between the public and a Source Protection Committee established under Ontario's new Clean Water Act to make decisions about source water protection, 2. to explore how the public makes risk-based decisions about drinking water-related risk, and, 3. to estimate how any differences in drinking water-related risk perception and decision making between the Committee and the public may affect the implementation of the Clean Water Act. Mail and telephone surveys were conducted in a Southern Ontario Region of Study, and were given to samples of the public and the Committee. The two groups had different perceptions of water risk, which could pose challenges for making collective decisions about water risks. Successful source water protection depends on the ability of the Committees and the public to make appropriate decisions about risks to drinking water sources.

scholarly journals Lessons Learned Through Community-Engaged Planning

2017 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert J Patrick ◽  
Laura Machial ◽  
Kendra Quinney ◽  
Len Quinney
Keyword(s):  
Drinking Water ◽  
Planning Process ◽  
Indigenous Communities ◽  
Lessons Learned ◽  
First Nation ◽  
Source Water ◽  
Water Protection ◽  
Source Water Protection ◽  
Western Values ◽  
Plan Making

This article explores the potential for community-engaged planning to empower Indigenous communities to take ownership of planning and plan-making. We do this through a source water protection planning process with a First Nation community in Alberta, Canada. Access to safe drinking water for many First Nation communities in Canada remains problematic. Source water protection planning seeks to better integrate land and water management to prevent contamination of the drinking water supply. We employ a community-based planning initiative to develop a source water protection plan. While the planning initiative developed a successful drinking water protection plan it also served to built trust between the participants, respected traditional and Western values, as well as empowered the community. Lessons learned from this initiative are shared.

scholarly journals Reclaiming Indigenous Planning as a Pathway to Local Water Security

Water ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (5) ◽  
pp. 936 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert J. Patrick ◽  
Kellie Grant ◽  
Lalita Bharadwaj
Keyword(s):  
Drinking Water ◽  
Planning Process ◽  
Water Security ◽  
First Nation ◽  
Source Water ◽  
Water Protection ◽  
Community Members ◽  
Indigenous Planning ◽  
Source Water Protection ◽  
Local Water

Access to drinkable water is essential to human life. The consequence of unsafe drinking water can be damaging to communities and catastrophic to human health. Today, one in five First Nation communities in Canada is on a boil water advisory, with some advisories lasting over 10 years. Factors contributing to this problem stretch back to colonial structures and institutional arrangement that reproduce woefully inadequate community drinking water systems. Notwithstanding these challenges, First Nation communities remain diligent, adaptive, and innovative in their efforts to provide drinkable water to their community members. One example is through the practice of source water protection planning. Source water is untreated water from groundwater or surface water that supplies drinking water for human consumption. Source water protection is operationalized through land and water planning activities aimed at reducing the risk of contamination from entering a public drinking water supply. Here, we introduce a source water protection planning process at Muskowekwan First Nation, Treaty 4, Saskatchewan. The planning process followed a community-based participatory approach guided by trust, respect, and reciprocity between community members and university researchers. Community members identified threats to the drinking water source followed by restorative land management actions to reduce those threats. The result of this process produced much more than a planning document but engaged multiple community members in a process of empowerment and self-determination. The process of plan-making produced many unintended results including human–land connectivity, reconnection with the water spirit, as well as the reclaiming of indigenous planning. Source water protection planning may not correct all the current water system inadequacies that exist on many First Nations, but it will empower communities to take action to protect their drinking water sources for future generations as a pathway to local water security.

scholarly journals Comparing drinking water treatment costs to source water protection costs using time series analysis

2015 ◽  
Vol 51 (11) ◽  
pp. 8741-8756 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew T. Heberling ◽  
Christopher T. Nietch ◽  
Hale W. Thurston ◽  
Michael Elovitz ◽  
Kelly H. Birkenhauer ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Time Series ◽  
Drinking Water ◽  
Water Treatment ◽  
Time Series Analysis ◽  
Drinking Water Treatment ◽  
Treatment Costs ◽  
Source Water ◽  
Water Protection ◽  
Source Water Protection ◽  
Protection Costs

scholarly journals A capacity assessment and legislative review of the Clean Water Act in Ontario : past, present and future

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrea Torok
Keyword(s):  
Clean Water Act ◽  
Provincial Government ◽  
Clean Water ◽  
Source Water ◽  
Political Capacity ◽  
Unequal Distribution ◽  
Local Municipalities ◽  
Source Water Protection ◽  
Conservation Authorities ◽  
Legislative Review

Historically an unequal distribution of capacity existed among local Municipalities and Conservation Authorities with regards to protecting water in Ontario, as well there was no specific legislation pertaining solely to source water protection. The aim of this research project is to present and analyze through a comparative assessment, the financial capacity requirements and the technical, institutional, social and political capacity progress observed among the 19 Source Protection Regions across Ontario in terms of protecting source water following the Walkerton event and the enactment of the Clean Water Act (CWA). The results indicate that through the enactment of the CWA, capacity building initiatives have taken place through a top-down model with the provincial governments' guidance, direction and support to local municipalities and CAs. When the provincial government takes control and provides capacity related assistance, the lower level municipal and CA governments become regulated; functioning more effectively and with a level of consistency across the province.

scholarly journals SOURCE WATER PROTECTION FROM PHARMACEUTICAL CONTAMINANTS: ASSESSMENT OF ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY ACT 1974 AND ITS REGULATIONS

2019 ◽  
Vol 17 (10) ◽  
Author(s):  
Adillah Othman ◽  
Mariani Ariffin
Keyword(s):  
Drinking Water ◽  
Content Analysis ◽  
Environmental Quality ◽  
Qualitative Approach ◽  
Source Water ◽  
Water Protection ◽  
Water Usage ◽  
Pharmaceutical Contaminants ◽  
Emerging Pollutant ◽  
Source Water Protection

Pharmaceutical contaminants have become a global “emerging pollutant”. Many countries developed various policies and technologies to deal with the problem. In Malaysia, there is no serious attention given to this problem in the Environmental Quality Act 1974 (EQA) and other regulations (Malaysian legislation). Therefore, pharmaceutical contaminants still enter the environment and affect human health through water consumption and water usage. In response to this problem, this study aims to analyse Malaysian legislation and to identify potential protection provided to protect source water from pharmaceutical contaminants. This study employed a qualitative approach. A systematic search was carried out on existing pharmaceutical-related Malaysian legislation. Later, content analysis was conducted to discover patterns and ideas within the existing legislation. This would determine the provisions that could assist the protection of source water from pharmaceutical contaminants. The findings of this study demonstrate only few provisions addressed the problem of pharmaceutical contaminants and thus, this type of contaminant continues to harm theenvironment. It is hoped that the result of this study could enhance Malaysian legislation pertaining to the problem and minimise the risk of pharmaceutical contaminant in drinking water.

scholarly journals Understanding Local Water Collaboration for the Potential to Enhance Community Source Water Protection at Chippewas of the Thames First Nation

2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Natalya Garrod
Keyword(s):  
Drinking Water ◽  
First Nations ◽  
Significant Risk ◽  
Water Security ◽  
Source Water ◽  
Water Protection ◽  
Water Insecurity ◽  
Source Water Protection ◽  
Local Water ◽  
Community Source

First Nations in Canada are disproportionately affected by chronic drinking water insecurity (Bakker, 2012). Aboriginal Affair and Northern Development Canada conducted an assessment of First Nations water and wastewater systems in 2001 and found significant risk to the quality and safety of drinking water on three- quarters of all systems (Johns and Rasmussen, 2008). Neegan Burnside (2011) classified four differentrisks that affect drinking water systems for First Nations, which include, no source water protection plan,deterioration of water quality over time, risk of contamination, and insufficient capacity to meet futurerequirements. This study found that the two highest risks were risk of source water contamination and thelack of a community source water protection plan (Neegan Burnside, 2011). Water security, sustainableaccess on a watershed basis to adequate quantities of water of acceptable quality to ensure human andecosystem health (Bakker, 2012), therefore requires source water protection and collaboration amongwater actors. Collaboration is defined as the pooling of resources by multiple stakeholders to solveproblems, which includes a balance of power among actors, mutually agreed upon objectives, is perceived as legitimate, and includes a wide variety of stakeholders (Ashlie, 2019; Van Der Porten, 2013; Spencer etal., 2016; Black & McBean, 2017).

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