Guidance For Providing Safe Drinking Water in Areas of Federal
Jurisdiction - Version 1
Introduction
In Canada, the responsibility for providing clean, safe and reliable
drinking water to the public generally lies with the provincial
and territorial governments.
That said, the federal government has or shares responsibility
for ensuring the safety of drinking water supplies on federal lands,
in federal facilities, and in First Nations communities. While
most supplies and facilities are located on Canadian soil, others
such as military vessels and Canadian diplomatic missions may lie
outside of Canada's physical borders.
In some cases, departments may have responsibilities for drinking
water right from the source through to the tap. In others, departments
may only be responsible for the quality of drinking water after
it enters a federal building or facility and until it reaches the
consumer.
The goal of the federal drinking water program is to protect the
health of consumers by providing them with a clean, safe and reliable
supply of drinking water. As a matter of policy, the onus for making
sure these supplies are safe rests with each department.
Departments demonstrate the safety and reliability of their supplies
through their monitoring programs, developed through and complemented
by periodic sanitary surveys, vulnerabilities assessments and chemical
baseline analyses.
Departments, and other responsible authorities, accountable for
treating their own water, will have to develop more comprehensive
quality management programs than those that receive treated water
from a well-regulated outside agency (e.g., municipality).
In locations where the quality of tap water is unreliable or consistently
unsafe for consumption, a department or responsible authority may
choose to provide additional localised treatment through the use
of point-of-entry or point-of-use devices, or by providing an alternative
source to consumers, such as bottled water.
This document recognizes that federal government drinking water
purveyors face a number of challenges in carrying out their duties,
including:
- The size and location of drinking water systems: Most
federal drinking water systems are very small, serving fewer
than 500 people. In addition, many of these systems are located
in remote areas, in countries where water supplies may be unreliable2,
or on-board airplanes and ships, including Coast Guard and military
vessels.
- Jurisdiction(s) responsible for the source water: In
some cases, the federal government has jurisdiction over the
land which contains the source used for drinking water at a given
facility and is also the operator of the facility. In many situations,
though, the water source falls under the jurisdiction of a provincial
government and the drinking water treatment plant is operated
by a public or municipal utility. In remote locations, drinking
water may need to be hauled into a community by truck. In other
cases, the only practical water supply may be bottled water.
- Cost of infrastructure: Because the number
of people served by the federal government in each location is
often very small, the per capita cost of installing, operating
and maintaining the necessary infrastructure is extremely high.
This cost increases further with remote locations.
- Cost of water quality monitoring: The costs
associated with water quality monitoring are based on the number
of samples and the type and frequency of tests conducted, not
directly on the number of people served by a water system. Because
of the number of federal systems and the relatively small number
of people served by each one, the relative costs for water quality
monitoring are high.
- Jurisdictional issues: Because of challenges
related to the source water responsibilities or to cost issues,
the federal government may enter into agreements with other governments
or third parties to provide drinking water to its facilities.
In some cases, the lines of responsibility may not be clear.
- Funding: In order to ensure that federal drinking
water systems are properly designed, constructed, operated and
maintained, departments need to have adequate funds and program
management controls in place. On-going funding is also required
to cover employee training and infrastructure maintenance and
upgrades. Some departments may not have adequate funding structures
or agreements in place to cover these costs.
Purpose
The purpose of this document is to give clear, consistent guidance
on how to implement the Guidelines for Canadian Drinking Water
Quality and the Canada Occupational Health and Safety Regulations
of the Canada Labour Code. Guidance is directed to federal civil
servants and other responsible authorities whose jobs relate, either
directly or indirectly, to ensuring the safety of drinking water
on federal lands, in federal facilities and/or in First Nations
communities. These employees could be at a management or policy-setting
level, or could be directly responsible for drinking water supplies,
such as treatment plant operators or drinking water monitors.
Technical standards, benchmarks and targets for water quality
are provided to assist federal departments and responsible authorities
to meet the Guidelines for Canadian Drinking Water Quality and
drinking water-related regulations. Meeting these requirements
will ensure a more consistent approach to managing drinking water
systems across areas of federal jurisdiction.
All affected departments and authorities are encouraged to at
least meet the minimum guidance set out in this document in order
to protect the health of the people they serve. In some cases,
it may be preferable for a department to meet more stringent objectives
than those detailed in this document. This decision is left to
the discretion of each department or responsible authority.
It is recognized that departments operating unique facilities,
such as those in remote locations or in locations beyond Canadian
borders, may face challenges that prevent them from meeting all
the guidance contained in this document in a timely manner. In
such cases, these departments are encouraged to strive to meet
the guidance to the best of their ability.
Scope of this document
This document relates to the management of drinking water supplies
on federal lands and in federal government facilities. These supplies
include those serving:
- federal government employees working in Canada, as well as
Canadian Coast Guard, Canadian Forces personnel, and federal
government Canadian diplomatic mission staff working abroad
- inmates, staff, and visitors to federal correctional facilities
- Visitors to federal lands and facilities
- Residents of First Nations communities
The guidance in this document applies to facilities owned by and/or
leased to and/or funded by the federal government.
The document describes the requirements for conducting assessments;
for designing, operating, and maintaining drinking water treatment
and distribution systems; and for setting up, running, and evaluating
monitoring programs. Departments may have, or wish to develop,
more detailed protocols for their staff which address their department's
unique circumstances or requirements. This guidance document is
meant to complement such efforts.
Given that the majority of federal water systems supply drinking
water to fewer than 500 people, the guidance contained in this
document relates primarily to very small drinking water systems.
While this document recognizes the importance of managing drinking
water from source to tap, source water issues are touched on only
briefly. Waste water issues are considered to be beyond the scope
of this document.
How to use this document
The document is divided into two main parts: Part 1: The
Federal Framework (Sections 1 and 2) and Part
2: Application of the Federal Framework (Sections 3
to 8).
Part 1: The Federal Framework
Section 1: Setting
the Stage provides details about the multi-barrier
approach to safe drinking water and key jurisdictional issues
related to drinking water in Canada. The multi-barrier approach
is the overarching concept which ties together each of the
individual commitments and tasks outlined in the subsequent
sections.
Section 2: Federal
Legislation and Policies outlines the federal government's
legislated and policy-based responsibilities as a purveyor
of drinking water on federal lands and in First Nations communities,
as well as in facilities owned or leased by the federal government.
Part 2: Application of the Federal Framework
Section 3:
Surveys, Assessments and Monitoring outlines the steps
involved in developing a monitoring program, including the
choice of the source water, and conducting vulnerabilities
assessments, the sanitary survey and the baseline chemical
analysis.
Section 4:
Technical Standards, Benchmarks and Targets is a summary
of the standards, benchmarks and targets that federal drinking
water purveyors must strive to meet.
Section 5:
Treatment System Design and Maintenance looks at various
design and maintenance issues related to the treatment system.
Section 6: Distribution
System Design and Maintenance looks at various design
and maintenance issues related to the distribution system,
including the distribution of drinking water within buildings
and other federal facilities (i.e., plumbing systems).
Section
7: Operational Requirements provides guidance on a
range of issues, including operational planning, operator certification,
monitoring requirements, record-keeping, incident and emergency
response planning, and audits.
Section 8: Information
and Resources provides readers with further resources.
2 A
concern for Canadian diplomatic missions and Canadian Forces personnel
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