Source water protection

Source Water Protection is protecting source water (including water from lakes, rivers and underground aquifers) from overuse and contamination.

Source water protection is part of a multi-barrier approach to protecting municipal sources of drinking water that was recommended by the Canadian Justice Dennis O'Connor in his Walkerton reports. This study was released in 2002 as a response to the Walkerton Tragedy, in which the town of Walkerton, Ontario's drinking water became contaminated with E. coli bacteria.