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- Vulnerable Areas
- Wellhead Protection Areas
- Intake Protection Zones
- Significant Groundwater Recharge Areas
Vulnerable areas are locations within the City that are prone to impacting our sources of drinking water. There are two types of drinking water sources within the City, groundwater and surface water. The vulnerable areas are made up of the following classes:
- Wellhead Protection Areas (WHPA)
- Intake Protection Zones (IPZ)
- Significant Groundwater Recharge Areas (SGRA)
What makes them vulnerable?
Several factors impact how vulnerable areas are prone to contamination. These include but are not limited to the following conditions:
- Closeness from the well or surface water source
- The rate in which the contaminant can travel to the well or intake
- The soil properties within the area
- The type of aquifer that the contaminant can travel to
- Transport pathways within the area (storm sewers, lakes, wells)
- The how long the chemical or pathogen can last within the environment
- The amount of water being drawn at the source
- The geography of the land
Wellhead Protection Areas (WHPA):
Wells are utilities that extract groundwater from below the ground for use as drinkable water. The water initially comes from surface water that is gradually filtered through the soil until it is constrained within a storage area, known as an aquifer. These storage areas can be considered confined aquifers or unconfined aquifers. Unconfined aquifers are aquifers that have water levels that typically fluctuate with the groundwater table and are more susceptible to contaminants seeping into the ground. The City of Orillia's wells are drawn from confined aquifers, which mean a layer of containment surrounds the water making it harder to contaminate. Though the aquifers are confined, they are still susceptible to contamination.
The areas that can potentially impact the drinking water wells are divided into areas called Wellhead Protection Areas (WHPA). Within the Wellhead Protection Areas are designations for how long a contaminant may take to reach the well. These areas are then divided into sectional areas based on the time of travel or distance as follows:
- WHPA-A - 100 meters from the well
- WHPA-B - 2 year time of travel
- WHPA-C - 10 year time of travel
- WHPA-D - 25 year time of travel
There are currently three drinking water wells within the City of Orillia. One drinking water well is located on Mulcahy Court (West Orillia) and the other two wells are located near the Water Filtration Plant at the corner of Jarvis St. and Bay St (East Orillia). Each municipal drinking water well within the City of Orillia has a Well Head Protection Area around it.
What are the threats to Wellhead Protection Areas?
The Source Protection Plan focuses on significant threats to the Wellhead Protection Area. These threats vary based on the vulnerability scores associated with the Wellhead Protection Area. There are prescribed threats applicable to certain wellhead protection areas based on regulation from the Clean Water Act, 2006. These include:
- Establishment, operation or maintenance of a waste disposal site
- Establishment, operation or maintenance of a system that collects, stores, transmits, treats or disposes of sewage
- Application of agricultural source material (ASM) to land
- Storage of agricultural source material (ASM)
- Management of agricultural source material (ASM)
- Application of non-agricultural source material (NASM) to land
- Handling and Storage of non-agricultural source material (NASM)
- Application of commercial fertilizer to land
- Handling and storage of commercial fertilizer
- Application of pesticide to land
- Handling and storage of pesticide
- Application of road salt
- Handling and storage of road salt
- Storage of snow
- Handling and storage of fuel
- Handling and storage of dense non-aqueous phase liquid (DNAPL)
- Handling and storage of organic solvent
- Management of runoff that contains chemicals used in the de-icing of aircraft
- Consumptive water takings
- An activity that reduces the recharge of an aquifer
- Use of land as livestock grazing or pasturing land, an outdoor confinement area or a farm-animal yard
For more information on threats or the vulnerability scoring in your area please refer to the Vulnerability Score map found on the Source Protection Map page on the City of Orillia website.
Intake Protection Zones (IPZ):
The majority of drinkable water supplied in Orillia is extracted by an intake pipe located within Lake Couchiching. The area of land and water that could potentially supply contaminants into the intake is called the Intake Protection Zone. Intake protection zones within the City are currently divided into two zones called Intake Protection Zone 1 and Intake Protection Zone 2. Like the Well Head Protection Areas, the Intake Protection Zones are weighted with different vulnerability scores due to the time and distance of travel the contaminant has to travel to reach the intake. Intake Protection Zone 1 is an area that ranges 1000 m from the intake within the water, and 120 meters inland. Intake Protection Zone 2 is areas where a 2 hour travel time occurs to reach the intake. Many of these areas are inland due to the stormwater pathways leading to the lake.
What are the threats to Intake Protection Zones (IPZ)?
The Source Protection Plan focuses on significant threats to the Intake Protection Zone. These threats vary based on the vulnerability scores associated with the Intake Protection Zone. For more information on vulnerability scoring in your area please refer to the Vulnerability Score map found on the Source Protection Map page on the City of Orillia website.
Significant Groundwater Recharge Areas (SGRA):
Significant Groundwater Recharge Areas are areas that infiltrate / percolate water through their soils at an accelerated rate of 189 mm/year or greater. These areas are responsible to providing water to the groundwater areas and thus recharge the groundwater. Currently there are no potential significant threats within the Clean Water Acts Table of Threats that would exist in in Orillia. The City, as part of the Lake Simcoe Protection Plan has an obligation to try and avoid new development within these areas (within the Lake Simcoe Drainage Areas of the City). There are exemptions to this obligation as some development can't be avoided. In these cases a developer must provide an environmental impact study that demonstrates the quality and quantity of groundwater in these areas and how the function of the recharge areas will be protected, improved or restored.
Additional information on Significant Groundwater Recharge Areas can be found on the Lake Simcoe Region Conservation Authority Website at:
http://www.lsrca.on.ca/watershed-health/reports
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