Significant Groundwater Recharge Areas: Supplemental Technical Guide

This supplemental technical guide summarizes the various approaches used by Ontario's Source Protection Authorities (SPAs) to delineate Signficant Groundwater Recharge Areas (SGRAs) under the Clean Water Act.  In preparing this supplemental technical guide, all of the province's Water Budget Reports and Assessment Reports have been reviewed along with other relevant documents provided by the Ministry of Natural Resources.  The review and summary focusses on the three main tasks associated with the delineation of SGRAs after groundwater recharge estimates have been made.  In this regard, methodologies for estimating groundwater recharge itself are not discussed within the document.  Rather, the guide discusses analysis used to confirm SGRA thresholds, considerations in the delineation of SGRAs and approaches used for refining SGRAs for Tier 2 and Tier 3 water budget assessments.