Ontario Drinking Water Stewardship Program Funding

Early Actions funding to protect municipal drinking water sources:
Landowners near wells and intakes for municipal drinking water systems may be eligible for funding to undertake early actions to protect sources of drinking water.

Specifically, this funding will be available for the following four priorities:

• decommissioning abandoned or unused wells and maintenance of existing wells
• septic system inspections and upgrades
• runoff and erosion protection; and
• pollution prevention audits aimed at better management of materials storage, handling, and disposal

Note to potential applicants:
Funds are nearly exhausted in the Early Actions program. Complete applications will still be accepted until August 31, 2010. There is no guarantee that these projects will receive any funding. After September 1, it is anticipated that all funding will have been allocated.

PROGRAM DETAILS

Eligibility

• all or part of the property must be within:
  - Wellhead Protection Area Two-year Time-of-travel Zone for a municipal drinking water well
  - Intake Protection Zone 1 for a municipal drinking water intake
  
• the property owner or in some cases the lessee of land may apply
• applications must be approved and work concluded by September 30, 2010
• new projects, as well as projects where work was started after Sept. 19, 2006, are eligible; and
• in no instances are total funds from this and other grant programs to exceed 100% of the project cost

Decommissioning abandoned wells and upgrading of existing wells
Decommissioning abandoned or unused wells, including the testing, monitoring, and technical work on water wells, and upgrading drinking water wells, may prevent these wells and poorly maintained wellheads from becoming pollutant pathways to municipal drinking water sources.
Grant rate: 80%
Grant ceiling: $4,000
Application    Fact Sheet

Septic systems inspections and upgrades
The septic program will provide funding for the repair, upgrade, or replacement of faulty or malfunctioning septic systems.
Grant rate: 80%
Grant ceiling: $7,000 (or $15,00 for advanced septic systems)
Application    Fact Sheet

Runoff and erosion protection
The purpose of the overland runoff protection program is to protect municipal drinking water sources from runoff contamination and soil erosion through properly restoring buffer strips and riparian zones.
Grant rate: 25% to 70% depending on project type
Grant ceiling: $1,000 to $20,000 depending on project type
Application    Fact Sheet

Pollution prevention reviews aimed at better management of materials storage, handling, and disposal
Pollution prevention reviews will be made available to small and medium-sized businesses that manufacture, handle, store, and dispose of materials into water, land, or air, and will identify threats to sources of municipal drinking water.
Grant rate: 100%
Grant ceiling: $12,000 (exceptional circumstances may be considered)
- consultant will be retained and paid directly by Source Protection Authority
Application    Fact Sheet

About the funding:
Clean Water Act funding will be provided by the Ministry of the Environment to partnering Conservation Authorities under the Ontario Drinking Water Stewardship Program. A total of $21 million will be made available over three years through to spring of 2011. Of the $7 million available in 2008-2009, $5.0 million will support early actions by property owners to protect municipal drinking water sources, namely municipal wellheads and municipal surface water intakes. Special projects funding of $1.5 million will support innovative approaches to the protection of drinking water sources. The other $0.5 million will provide education about source protection and early actions.

For more information on the Clean Water Act, please visit the Ministry of the Environment website. Additional information is available on the Conservation Ontario website. Drinking Water Ontario is a web portal run by the Ministry of the Environment with information on Ontario's drinking water.