Grand River Source Protection Area

The Grand River watershed is the largest inland river system in Southern Ontario. It has a total area of 6,800 square kilometers.

The Grand River is about 300 kilometres long and starts near the village of Dundalk in Grey County. It empties into Lake Erie at Port Maitland in Haldimand County. The Grand has four major rivers: the Nith, Conestogo, Speed and Eramosa.

About 70 per cent of the land of the watershed is farmland. About five per cent of the land is in cities, towns and villages.

The watershed has a population of about one million people. Most of them live in the five cities of Waterloo, Kitchener, Cambridge, Guelph and Brantford. Among the larger towns are Grand Valley, Fergus, Elora, Elmira, New Hamburg, Paris, Caledonia, and Dunnville.

There are 50 municipal drinking water systems providing water to over 900,000 people, and one system providing water to Six Nations of the Grand River. About 70 per cent of the water comes from wells, another 28 per cent from the Grand and Eramosa rivers, and about three per cent from the Great Lakes.

Explore the Grand River Source Protection Area

• Read the Grand River Source Protection Plan
• Read the Assessment Report
• Review a current update of the Grand River Source Protection Plan
• Read background reports
• Use the Province's mapping tool to search a specific location and see if it is in a vulnerable area
• Learn about Tier 3 water budget and risk assessments