Ontario's drinking water protection regime exists to ensure Ontarians have access to safe drinking water.

At the Waterhole you can find out what you can do personally to help protect Ontario's drinking water, and locate groups who are working to protect water near you.

You also have access to our in-depth resources, and can stay up to date on the latest water-related news.

Water Features

Water Features

The Canadian Environmental Law Association and Environmental Defence have prepared nineteen educational pamphlets on source protection. These pamphlets were created to increase awareness of and to encourage citizen participation in Ontario's source protection planning process.

We would like to thank all the individuals from across the province who contributed to the development of these pamphlets.

The pamphlets can be downloaded here.


In this PollutionWatch report, facilities reporting to Canada's National Pollutant Release Inventory in each of Ontario's source protection areas and regions are mapped, and pollution releases to the air, water and land within these areas and regions are analyzed. Some of these releases may be threats to Ontario's drinking water, human health and the environment. Recommendations for incorporating these threats into Ontario's source protection planning process are also given.


A new report shows that federal pollution data would give valuable additional information to the program created to protect sources of Ontarians' drinking water. The report, released today by the Canadian Environmental Law Association (CELA) and Environmental Defence, tracks and maps pollution from facilities reporting to the federal government’s National Pollutant Release Inventory (NPRI) in Ontario source protection areas and regions. These facilities release large amounts of chemicals to the air and water and the report recommends that these sources of pollution be included in assessing drinking water threats. While water releases may have been considered in most of the source protection regions, air releases have likely not been considered to date.


Today, a coalition of water professionals, university think-tanks, environmental and citizen-based groups called on government to take immediate and aggressive action on water conservation. H2Ontario: A Blueprint for a Comprehensive Water Conservation Strategy outlines a strategy for making Ontario world-leaders in cutting wasteful water practices, and urges Ontarians to support development of a world-class action plan.