The B.C. Ministry of Environment is currently holding a public review of draft Water Quality Guidelines prior to their final approval.
The guidance document notes that many of the B.C.’s ambient water quality guidelines (WQGs) for human health were published in the 1980’s and 1990’s. The numeric values or narrative statements reflect the most up to date source drinking WQGs for the province and replace the source drinking WQGs and recreation WQGs in B.C. WQG technical and overview documents.
The province has two approaches for developing ambient WQGs for drinking water sources:
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Adoption of Health Canada’s Guidelines for Canadian Drinking Water Quality; or
Development of a provincial guideline when none are available from Health Canada, or when only an operational treatment guideline is available. In these cases, ENV collaborates with HLTH and other pertinent groups to develop an appropriate guideline.
The Source Drinking Water Quality Guidelines documents can be reviewed on the Ministry’s website at the following links:
- Source Drinking Water Quality Guidelines Update Summary
- Source Drinking Water Quality Guideline Document
- Reviewer Comment Table
All public review comments received will be posted on the Ministry’s website and made available to all interested parties.
