The District of Muskoka is celebrating Drinking Water Week, May 6-12, with an invitation to “Protect the Source” throughout Muskoka. Communities across North America will celebrate Drinking Water Week by recognizing the vital role drinking water plays in daily lives. This year’s theme focuses on ways in which water consumers can take personal responsibility in caring for their tap water and protecting it at its source.
“When we get to know our local drinking water sources, it is easy to understand the important role we all have as consumers and community stewards to protect and preserve them,” said Fred Jahn, Commissioner of Engineering and Public Works at the District of Muskoka. “Drinking Water Week provides a great opportunity to learn the various ways in which we can each protect our source water so it’s available for future generations.”
The District works closely with the Muskoka Watershed Council to promote the preservation and protection of Muskoka’s watershed. As a non-profit, volunteer-based collaboration between the District of Muskoka and the Muskoka community, Muskoka Watershed Council volunteers tirelessly offer their time, ideas, and scientific expertise to promote greater awareness and understanding of the impact of human actions on our water quality.
As Christy Doyle, Director of Environmental & Watershed Programs for the District says: “Volunteers with the Muskoka Watershed Council contribute so much to the health of Muskoka’s shared watershed, and beyond. From restoring our shorelines and improving natural aquatic habitat for the hundreds of species that also call this area home, to researching and building awareness about crucial and local environmental matters, it’s certain that Muskoka’s environmental health is enhanced through their efforts.”
Information about the District’s Water and Wastewater Systems
The District Municipality of Muskoka’s Water and Wastewater Department owns and operates nine (9) drinking water treatment plants, nine (9) wastewater treatment plants, and nine (9) septage lagoons.
The Water and Wastewater team has just over 50 certified/licenced operators working on water and wastewater systems throughout Muskoka. The team is committed to producing and delivering safe drinking water to residents and businesses; collecting the wastewater from homes and businesses; treating it at our wastewater plants; and returning clean water back to our lakes and rivers. This returning clean water, with respect to pathogens, is cleaner than the water body it was taken from.
Due to the geography, Muskoka owns and operates many facilities based on the location of our permanent residents and year round businesses, unlike most municipalities that have one urban centre and as a consequence one water and one wastewater plant. The water in Muskoka, due to its natural chemical composition, can prove to be challenging to treat. This is why District staff strives to continually look for new and innovative cost-effective technologies to further our high standards. The majority of our wastewater treatment systems are state-of-the-art tertiary plants which include filtration and ultraviolet disinfection. They remove harmful pathogens and chemicals like phosphates and nitrates that can stimulate higher than normal algae and weed growth in the water shed.
Learn more about District Water and Wastewater operations here.
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Big shout out to the ‘volunteers’ work for FREE and help clean up our water ways!
Those un-named heroes of out community who actually get out there and make a difference.
Hats off to you my friends!!
Huntsville desperately needs education around litter. Tim Hortons cups, parts of coffee cup lids and those darn cigarette butts line every public place and sadly, it all ends up in our waterways.
If it’s in the street and small enough to fall into a water drain, guess where in ends up?
Wake up Huntsville!!!
Our lakes are turning into giant ash trays.
Underwater garbage dumps turning more toxic every year and then we add salted roads.
Education is easy and cheaper than the alternative. Nobody wants to pick up after smokers who flick their trash (butts) out their windows and dump ashtrays on the ground.
Shame them through an education programme aimed directly at our children.
Our kids are the one’s who’ll inherit this beautiful place we call home. They ought to know how to keep it safe and clean.
It would be fantastic if Ms. Wynne and her Liberal cohorts would celebrate “Protect the Source” week by initiating a comprehensive plan to clean up Grassy Narrows. Of course, both she and Mr. McGuinty have ignored this disgraceful situation for so long, that it’s probably not even on her radar. I’m sure that their extensive polling has shown them: either that natives do not vote in significant numbers provincially; or if they do, they do not vote Liberal. As far as I know, this is the most egregious problem that exists with respect to water source in the entire province. Government by polls: sounds like the old Mulroney days. And we all know how that worked out.