Grand river basin water management, Ontario, Canada - 50 years later
The Grand River basin is the largest (approximately 2600 square miles) in southern Ontario. Integrated river basin management has been evolving since the early thirties when the first basin agency was established. In Ontario, many agencies are involved in water management - not many or often on an integrated basis. In spite of the many problems arising from the morass of jurisdictional difficulties, considerable progress is evident in the management of water - quantity and quality. The river periodically floods in several locations (1974 damages - 8,000,000). The partially completed reservoir system is hard pressed to maintain adequate flows to receive the effluent from some two dozen secondary sewage treatment plants. The basin population (1979 - 560,000) is increasing its dependance on the river system for municipal water supply through direct taking, ground water recharge, and induced infiltration to augment the traditional drilled wells. Continuing industrial and urban expansion as well as a more intense use of agricultural land coupled with nation-wide environmental concerns, have opened up new opportunities to rationalize water management with and eye to the hydrologic cycle. The paper describes the present practices, as well as the current water management study. This latest review, employing results of an economic screening model and water quantity and quality simulation models, will be combined with environmental and social factors in evaluating future management strategies
| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Format: | biblioteca |
| Published: |
Minneapolis, Minn. (EUA)
1981
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| Subjects: | MANEJO DE CUENCAS, USO DE LA TIERRA, CUENCA RIO GRAND, CANADA, |
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| Summary: | The Grand River basin is the largest (approximately 2600 square miles) in southern Ontario. Integrated river basin management has been evolving since the early thirties when the first basin agency was established. In Ontario, many agencies are involved in water management - not many or often on an integrated basis. In spite of the many problems arising from the morass of jurisdictional difficulties, considerable progress is evident in the management of water - quantity and quality. The river periodically floods in several locations (1974 damages - 8,000,000). The partially completed reservoir system is hard pressed to maintain adequate flows to receive the effluent from some two dozen secondary sewage treatment plants. The basin population (1979 - 560,000) is increasing its dependance on the river system for municipal water supply through direct taking, ground water recharge, and induced infiltration to augment the traditional drilled wells. Continuing industrial and urban expansion as well as a more intense use of agricultural land coupled with nation-wide environmental concerns, have opened up new opportunities to rationalize water management with and eye to the hydrologic cycle. The paper describes the present practices, as well as the current water management study. This latest review, employing results of an economic screening model and water quantity and quality simulation models, will be combined with environmental and social factors in evaluating future management strategies |
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