Great Lakes Basin Update - Ontario Side
The State of Stormwater
By Kevin Mercer, RiverSides Stewardship Alliance
Absent the leadership of federal legislation such as the U.S.
Clean Water Act, Canada’s provinces manage the protection of
freshwater ecosystems. In Ontario, home to the entire Great
Lakes Region in Canada, the new Liberal provincial government
is delivering an extensive legislative agenda on: drinking water
(Clean Water Act, Bill 43, Province of Ontario.), farm nutrient
runoff (Nutrient Management Act, 2002, Ontario Regulation
267/03, Amended to O.Reg. 511/05), managing development in
areas north of Toronto on the Oak Ridges Moraine ) Greenbelt
Act, 2005, S.o. 2005, chapter 1), and throughout the Greater
Toronto Area (Places to Grow Act, 2005.). Despite this gamut of
action, stormwater remains the poor cousin in Ontario’s
environmental galaxy with no effective standardized regulatory
structure to guide the implementation or enforcement of
stormwater management or to address the issue of nonpoint
(runoff) pollution associated with stormwater flows.
In Ontario, stormwater management is guided by voluntary
management plans such as the Stormwater Management
Planning and Design Manual (2003) or the Stormwater Pollution
Prevention Handbook. Although Ontario’s Planning Act refers to
requirements for stormwater management there are no requirements
for its design or the end results. This means that
stormwater management in Ontario becomes a routine process
of developers building almost exclusively end-of-pipe control
ponds.
However, it is not for a lack of knowledge that Ontario remains
mired in the past in terms of stormwater management.
The Great Lakes Cities
Initiative has identified
stormwater runoff and
sewer overflows as the
first of the six key
priorities for municipalities,
and yet even the most
advanced Ont a r i o
municipalities limit their
wet weather management
to ponds because
there is no requirement
for more stringent watershed
protection criteria.
It is necessary for watershed
protection advocates
to ensure that the
advancement of Low
Impact Development (LID)
becomes a primary element
of all development,
beyond just smart growth
and what are being
termed ‘green development
standards.’
Ontario grassroots groups have an opportunity through
good LID to engage their municipalities and the provincial
governments to demand standards for lot level measures
for true ecosystem management of wet weather. Some
municipalities are moving ahead on this front but there remains
a limited sphere of knowledge and capacity in the field due to
the lack of regulatory requirements.
Connected to the advancement of watershed smart growth
through low impact development is the emergence of stormwater
utilities in the province. These spin-off utilities allow for the
management and financing of stormwater to be hived off from
the municipal water rate, which heretofore covered water,
sewer and stormwater but had the effect of limiting spending
on the latter to a minimum, usually through the support of
local Conservation Authorities. Stormwater utilities allow
jurisdictions to allot funding on a more dedicated level, and to
off load their costs from tax roles or water rates, thus addressing
the growing need for stormwater management without the
associated political costs.
As more Ontario municipalities move toward wet weather
policies and explore the benefits of stormwater utilities, it is
hoped that we will be able to close the policy gap at the
provincial level by requiring planning authorities to implement
lot level LID source protection methodologies. Ontario deserves
to have the best development controls over its watersheds and
while we applaud the move to source protection of
drinking waters, it is well past time that Ontario engaged its
municipalities in real stormwater management for the
protection of our freshwater ecosystems against the largest
source of degradation.
For more information:
Kevin Mercer, RiverSides Stewardship Alliance
511 Richmond St.West, Toronto, Ontario M5V 1Y3
Ph: 416.868.1983 • F: 416.868.1320
E-mail: kmercer@riversides.org
Disclaimer:
The interpretations and conclusions presented in this newsletter represent the opinions of the individual authors. They in no way represent the views of the Tip of the Mitt Watershed Council, the C.S. Mott Foundation, subscribers, donors, or any organization mentioned in this publication.
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