Director’s Directions for Operational Plans
The Ministry of the Environment, Conservation and Parks recently posted a decision notice on the Environmental Registry regarding the Director’s Directions for Operational Plans: https://ero.ontario.ca/notice/019-2787. While the updated Director’s Directions, dated May 2021 come into effect immediately, you will have until April 1 2022 to make any updates (if necessary) to your operational plan(s). The updated Director’s Directions should not impact any existing applications you have in-process with the Ministry (e.g., licence renewal) or any in-process activities relating to your accreditation to the requirements of the Drinking Water Quality Management Standard.
The updates to Director’s Directions are administrative in nature, intended to reflect current practice in municipal residential drinking water systems and improvements in technology that have occurred since the directions were first published in 2007, and include:
- clarification of content requirements that apply when a single Operating Authority operates multiple, distinct, drinking water systems for the same owner
- removal of reference to accreditation options that were used during initial roll-out of the Municipal Drinking Water Licensing Program
- updates to reflect more prevalent use of operational plans that can be made available to the public on the internet and can be electronically version controlled
If you have questions about the updated Director’s Directions or applicability of any updates to your operational plans, please contact Christopher Manning at Christopher.Manning@ontario.ca or by phone at 647-982-8740.
Requirements when Making Changes to Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition Systems (SCADA)
A new technical bulletin has been released that provides high-level information about what is and is not required by the ministry when making changes to a SCADA system in a municipal residential drinking water system. The examples included in this bulletin will help owners and operators identify the types of changes that may be considered repair and maintenance that are not subject to approval requirements under the act or an alteration to the system that is pre-authorized by conditions in Schedule B of a drinking water works permit.
The bulletin is available at Ontario.ca/drinkingwater under the heading “municipal drinking water systems” , or directly at:
https://www.ontario.ca/page/technical-bulletin-making-changes-supervisory-control-and-data-acquisition-systems-municipal
