Water Capacity

This group meets bi-weekly to allow Regional staff to update Area Municipalities on upcoming activities and gather feedback on potential priority agenda items. It also provides an opportunity for Area Municipalities to ask questions and increase alignment on joint priorities.

Membership:

• Region of Waterloo staff
• All Area CAO’s
• Area Municipal staff  

This group provides a forum to discuss matters related to development application reviews and approvals in light of the Mannheim water capacity constraint. In this group, the Region shares information and updates, including solutions and associated timelines. It also allows discussion and consultation on other initiatives related to the Mannheim water capacity constraint matter such as conservation, white papers and communications.

Membership:

• Regional technical and planning staff
• Representatives from Build Urban
• Representatives from Waterloo Region Home Builders Association
• Representatives from the Industrial Commercial Institution Industry
• Area Municipal Planning staff

Regional technical staff meet to evaluate the specific short-, medium- and long-term solutions, helping work through the technical steps, challenges and decisions needed to move solutions forward.

Membership:

• Region of Waterloo technical staff 

This group meets to evaluate the proposed short, medium and long term water capacity solutions, to brainstorm new ideas to streamline these ideas and to look at alternate solutions. This group provides an opportunity to share information with municipal technical counterparts and to work on solutions together.

Membership:

• Region of Waterloo and Area Municipal staff
• Representatives from CIMA+
• Associated Engineering
• Colliers Project Leaders
• Dillon Consulting Limited
• R.V. Anderson Associates Limited
• Sahely Water Engineering Ltd. (SWEL)
• SLR Consulting
• Stantec
• Tree Frog Environmental

This group is being led by Regional Planning staff with support from Dillon Consulting to facilitate Planning discussions and action items with Area Municipalities.

This group facilitates a comprehensive understanding of the technical review and ongoing work informing the understanding of water capacity. The group coordinates and collaborates on planning, development and data matters related to the water capacity constraint in the Mannheim Service Areas and associated communications.

Discussions are also facilitates on Planning Act tools and the interim approach to development application approvals in the Mannheim Service Area with an effort to establishing a consistent approach across the Area Municipalities.

Membership:

• Region of Waterloo planning staff
• Area Municipal planning staff 

This group provides background research and evaluation of all possible water conservation measures. It seeks input and ideas from the stakeholders around conservation ideas and provides recommendations and options on new water conservation policy.

Membership:

• Region of Waterloo staff
• Area Municipal staff
• Waterloo Region Home Builders Association
• Build Urban
• REEP Green Solutions
• Sustainable Waterloo Region
• Grand River Conservation Authority
• Grand River Environmental Network

The objective of this group is develop a risk-based interim approach that allows staged development to continue once certain thresholds or operational targets are met and the water system is operating sustainably with adequate operational resiliency.

Membership:

• Region of Waterloo staff
• Area Municipal staff from the City of Cambridge, the City of Kitchener, the City of Waterloo and the Township of Woolwich 

This group is designed to ensure that communications work moves ahead collaboratively, effectively and at pace. The group works to create clear messaging for the community through a variety of methods, responds to issues and requests, creates materials to ensure stakeholders are updated and ensures information is accessible.

Membership:

• Region of Waterloo communications staff

This group is established to share communications information with Area Municipalities and identify Area Municipal communications issues and address where possible.

Membership:

• Region of Waterloo communications
• Area Municipal communications leads 

Kitchener, Waterloo and parts of Cambridge, Wilmot and Woolwich are affected. These are the areas supplied by the Mannheim Service Area. View a larger version of the map.

The first step was to revise how we assess remaining water supply capacity to better suit our groundwater-based system. The revised methodology will accurately assess capacity for future development in Waterloo Region. 

Steps have also been taken to work towards short and medium/long-term solutions to the constraint. This includes expediting timelines for new infrastructure and repairing aging assets, while engaging all partners to ensure a secure, sustainable water supply now and for the future.  

As we move forward, we will continue to work with area municipal partners to find ways to advance development. If you are a member of the development community, visit the Q&As related to development applications for more information. 

If you’re looking to discuss a specific project, please contact regionaldevelopment@regionofwaterloo.ca or 519-501-6619.  

Due to the urgent nature of the Mannheim Service Area water capacity issue, firms with considerable local knowledge of our water supply system, knowledge of water supply and treatment design, and knowledge of project delivery were approached to participate on an industry panel to help develop solutions. The panel includes the following firms:     

• Associated Engineering
• CIMA+
• Colliers Project Leaders
• Dillon Consulting Limited
• R.V. Anderson Associates Limited
• Sahely Water Engineering Ltd. (SWEL)
• SLR Consulting
• Stantec
• Tree Frog Environmental

We previously assessed water capacity by using a methodology that looked at the Integrated Urban System (Mannheim and Middleton Service Areas) as a whole. This also looked at the maximum system capacity (the peak performance of a system) to determine the remaining water capacity in the system. 

Moving forward, we will look at the capacity in the Mannheim and Middleton Service Areas individually, using both maximum system capacity and average sustainable capacity (the amount of water a system can reliably produce on an ongoing basis). It will also set an operational resiliency target (i.e. capacity buffer) of 20 per cent supply capacity.  

A combination of factors impacts water supply capacity, including increasing frequency and duration of infrastructure shutdowns, a shift to increasing year-over-year water demand, plateauing of conservation efforts, and others.     

The Region of Waterloo owns and operates 13 wastewater treatment plants that serve cities and towns across the region. These facilities treat the water entering the sewer collection systems before it is released back into local rivers. The Region's annual monitoring report, which details the capacity of these wastewater treatment plants, is available here: Region of Waterloo Water and Wastewater. As part of the upcoming Wastewater Treatment Strategy Update (WWTSU), staff will develop a plan to 2051 for upgrading or expanding the region's wastewater treatment infrastructure.

This page will continue to be updated to provide the most current information to the community. See the FAQs related to development applications for answers to common questions from the development community. 

For those in the development industry looking to discuss existing and upcoming projects, please contact regionaldevelopment@regionofwaterloo.ca or 519-501-6619.