Potable Groundwater Criteria Use in the Regional Municipality of Waterloo. ‘The Region of Waterloo has developed guidelines for identifying potential contaminated sites in the Region and incorporating the Ministry of Environment (MOE) Guideline for Use at Contaminated Sites in Ontario (June, 1996) into the development application review process. The document entitled “Regional Procedures for Contaminated Site Identification during the Planning Act Application Review Process” establishes the procedure and minimum reporting required to obtain approvals from the Region for applications which fall under the Planning Act. This document also states that for the purposes of the implementation of the MOE Guideline, all aquifers within the region are to be defined as potable, The rationale for this definition is described below. As stated above, staff at the Regional Municipality of Waterloo will not accept the use of generic, non-potable groundwater criteria for subsurface contamination assessment or remediation within the Region. The Regional Municipality has the responsibility of meeting the current and future water supply needs for all municipal systems in the Region, and is the appropriate municipal tier for consultation on the use of non-potable groundwater criteria for sites within the Regional boundaries. ‘This position is based on the Regional Municfpality’s commitmentto protecting water resources and on several technical considerations, namely: the inherent good quality of groundwater throughout the Region; the widespread and diffuse nature of groundwater recharge to regional aquifers; and the complex, interconnected geology of the aquifers throughout the Region, Several regional-scale studies of the hydrogeology of Waterloo Region have been completed. These studies have shown that, unlike in some other areas of Ontario, groundwater throughout the Region is good quality water which is suitable for drinking water. From place to place within the Region, groundwater may be treated for aesthetic reasons to reduce the amount of naturally occurring dissolved minerals, but this natural mineralization does not pose a health risk. In all areas of the Region, natural groundwater is safe and appropriate for use as drinking water. Much of the municipal water in the Regional Municipality of Waterloo is derived from buried, “semi-confined” aquifers. Thesc aquifers are recharged primarily by leakage through overlying and underlying aquitards. The leakage occurs at relatively low rates over large areas; much of this “diffuse” leakage has been induced by years of groundwater extraction from municipal wells. There are few well-defined groundwater recharge areas, in essence, the entire Region is a groundwater recharge area. Because of the complex nature of the layered geologic materials in the Region and the wide use of groundwater resources in the area, shallow and deep groundwater regimes within the Region tend to be connected through the “leaky” aquitards mentioned above. Shallow and deep groundwaterPotable Groundwater Criteria Use April 2001, in the Regional Municipality of Waterloo Page 2. regimes are both part of the regional hydrogeologic system and are not hydraulically isolated from each other. Most of the water supply in the Kitchencr- Waterloo area is derived from sand and gravel aquifers associated with the Waterloo Moraine, the major glacial landform in the area, Near the centre of the moraine, geologic layers of sand, gravel and tll are relatively continuous. However, on the flanks of the moraine, the geology is more complex and in some cases there is no clear separation of shallow and deep aquifers. In the Cambridge area, municipal supplies are taken mainly from fractured bedrock aquifers. Over most of the area, sand and gravel sediments overly the bedrock and provide recharge to the bedrock and municipal supply wells. Geological studies of the area indicate only irregular and discontinuous aquitard zones within the overburden and the bedrock; these zones do not consistently separate shallow and deep aquifers. Groundwater may potentially be used as a source of potable water in any area of the Region. The Regional Municipality of Waterloo has recently updated the Long Term Water Supply Strategy. Increased groundwater extraction is planned within the next several decades, in which case new ‘groundwater supply wells will be installed in previously unexploited areas. In addition, domestic wells are used for potable water supply in all areas of the Region, including within the urban areas. ‘There is no legislation or guideline specifically preventing the current or future use of individual domestic wells within any area of the Region. To ensure adequate protection over existing and future groundwater supplies in the Region, Regional staff considerall groundwater within the Region to be ‘potable water”. Accordingly, staif will not accept the use of generic environmental criteria for non-potable water. Risk-based criteria derived through a site-specific risk assessment is acceptable, providing the assessment considers the local groundwater system in detail and uses site-specific hydrogeologic data. Site-specific environmental criteria will be assessed by Region staff on a site by site basis, in consultation with the site owners,