Some good news in our mission to protect and preserve water quality: the Halls and Hawk Lakes Property Owners Association has been selected by the Federation of Ontario Cottagers’ Associations (FOCA) as one of only three lake associations in Ontario to participate in a Source Water Protection Program.
HHLPOA is taking steps to better understand and protect local sources of drinking water in this region, through this new project which launched in May. Did you know that this May was the 25th anniversary of the Walkerton drinking water tragedy?
To mark this, the Federation of Ontario Cottagers’ Associations (FOCA) and HHLPOA are excited to announce ‘Phase Two’ of a new rural drinking water protection initiative for 2025. HHLPOA is working with FOCA to develop a local citizen-led source water protection plan, and ultimately a ‘best practices’ volunteer-led protocol to make source water protection planning more accessible across rural Ontario.
The local project builds on the completed ‘Phase One’ of FOCA’s rural waterfront source water protection pilot project in 2024, which marked a critical step forward for protecting drinking water in small communities.
While municipal water systems are subject to many protocols, testing and safeguards, private water sources are an essential–yet often overlooked–part of Ontario’s water safety framework.
A special report by Ontario’s Auditor General released in late March 2025, “Safety of Non-Municipal Drinking Water,” identified ongoing gaps that affect drinking water safety for the nearly three million Ontario residents who rely for their drinking water on private wells or small systems, many of which remain untested and unregulated.
Over the past year with support from Ontario’s Ministry of Environment, Conservation and Parks (MECP), FOCA partnered with a lake association in the City of Kawartha Lakes to develop a source water protection plan for their waterfront community. Working with consulting engineers and local volunteers, the pilot project assessed threats to the community’s drinking water including risks posed by septic systems, fuel storage, and the area’s vulnerable fractured bedrock geology. The project provided practical recommendations to help the local community mitigate risks and safeguard private water sources, in keeping with FOCA’s longstanding commitment to healthy freshwater systems.
FOCA is putting the Walkerton Inquiry’s “multi-barrier approach” into practice where it is needed most, by adapting source water protection tools for small communities not serviced by municipal systems. We are proud to be selected to work with FOCA on this important initiative.
HHLPOA’s focus will be on Halls Lake. We are forming a group of volunteers who are passionate about water quality, so if you are interested in joining our Source Water Protection Program working group, please email president@hallshawklakes.ca
Photo Credit: Kate Rusnell