Farmers in Ontario are among those who can tap a new $4 million provincial government fund for water protection work in rural areas.
The funding was part of a $7 million water stewardship package announced Monday, also including money to promote awareness of what individuals can do and to fund new innovations or approaches to water quality protection.
Rural property owners, as well as small- and medium-sized businesses within a 100-metre radius of a municipal wellhead or 200 metres of a municipal surface water intake, may also apply for funding from the $4 million available.
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Qualifying projects include decommissioning abandoned wells and upgrading existing wells; repairing, upgrading or replacing faulty septic systems; building or restoring buffer strips and riparian zones to protect against runoff contamination and soil erosion in surface water sources; pollution prevention reviews of businesses; and land conservation measures to protect wellhead and water intake areas.
Landowners can access funds through their local conservation authorities, while farm owners would go through the Ontario Soil and Crop Improvement Association. Up to 70 per cent of the costs of such measures could be covered, the province noted, and funds received through this program may be combined with cash from other programs to “increase cost recovery.”
“We listened when farmers told us that they need financial assistance to implement source water protection,” said provincial Agriculture Minister Leona Dombrowsky in a release.
