The Corporation of the City of Cornwall owns and operates the Cornwall Drinking Water System, a Large Municipal Residential system.

Our system is made up of the Raw Water Intake and Zebra Mussel Control Facilities located at the base of the R.H. Saunders Power Generating Station Dam; the Water Purification Plant, a class 3 water treatment facility, located at 861 Second Street West; the Boundary Road Reservoir; the Elevated Storage Tank located on Tollgate Road; and the City’s Class 3 Distribution System.

We take water from the Saint Lawrence River and treat it according to standard surface water treatment methods before it’s distributed to your homes and businesses.

The Water Purification Plant uses chemically assisted coagulation and flocculation to remove particles suspended in the raw water.  The water is then filtered and treated with UV light and chlorine for disinfection.

Our system is rigorously inspected annually and in 2022 earned another 100% compliance rating from the Ministry of the Environment, Conservation and Parks.

In accordance with the Ontario Drinking Water System Regulation (O.Reg. 170/03) under the Safe Drinking Water Act; we continue to deliver safe, high quality drinking water to the residents and businesses of our community. In order to ensure that we continue to do so the NSF accredited Cornwall Drinking Water Quality Management System (DWQMS) and policy has been created and implemented.

The DWQMS Policy states that the City of Cornwall is committed to:

• Continually providing safe and clean drinking-water to City customers;
• Legislative compliance with the Safe Drinking Water Act and related regulations;
• Establishing, maintaining, and continually improving its Drinking Water Quality Management System;
• Acting to resolve any issues relating to drinking-water quality; and
• Reviewing and improving its drinking-water system infrastructure.

The quality of our drinking water is continuously monitored and tested by advanced on-line instrumentation, a state-of-the-art automated control system, and is operated and maintained by qualified City staff members who have successfully completed rigorous training and testing to become certified Drinking Water Operators.

You can have complete confidence in the quality of the drinking water delivered to you through the City's Water Distribution System.

For additional information on the City of Cornwall's DWQMS you can view the Ministry of the Environment, Conservation and Parks' Drinking Water Quality Management Standard or the City of Cornwall DWQMS Operational Plan by clicking on the links below.

MECP: Drinking Water Quality Management Standard 

City of Cornwall DWQMS Operational Plan 

City of Cornwall's Water and Wastewater Financial Plan 

Cornwall's drinking water infrastructure consists of the Raw Water Intake and Zebra Mussel Control Facility located at the R.H. Saunders Power Generating Station Dam, the Water Purification Plant located at 861 Second Street West, the Boundary Road Reservoir, as well as the Elevated Storage Tank located on Tollgate Road.

Over 11 million cubic metres of fresh clean water are pumped annually through over 272 kilometres of watermains to efficiently distribute the City's abundant drinking water supply.

The water is treated according to standard water purification methods using chemical assisted coagulation for flocculation and sedimentation, water filtration, chlorine and Ultra-Violet light for disinfection. Our Drinking Water System undergoes rigorous inspections and consistently earns top ratings from the Ministry of the Environment, Conservation and Parks.

For additional information on the Water Purification Plant you can contact the Plant Supervisor Owen O'keefe at telephone number 613-930-2787 ext. 2573.

For additional information on the Water Distribution System you can contact Dan Drouin, the Water Distribution & Wastewater Collection Supervisor at 613-930-2787 ext. 2264.

As required by the Province of Ontario's Drinking Water Protection Regulations the City of Cornwall publishes its Drinking Water Quality Reports once a year.

These reports confirm that the City has continued to deliver safe, clean drinking water to its customers throughout the reported year. They contain detailed descriptions of the City's water sampling parameters and list all of the City's drinking water sampling & testing results.

The reports also contain short descriptions of the Water Purification and Distribution Systems, flow summaries and limits, and they also update readers on the status of the Drinking Water Quality Management System (DWQMS), and Residential Water Metering Programs.

NEW - 2022 Drinking Water Quality Report

2021 Drinking Water Quality Report

Source Water Protection

Our source water comes from the Saint Lawrence River, and to keep it as clean as possible a plan has been put into place through the Ontario Clean Water Act. In order to keep contaminants away from our water intake an Assessment Report and Source Water Protection Plan was developed by the Raisin-South Nation Source Protection Committee and implemented in 2015.

The Assessment Report identifies our Source Protection Area and the activities which could potentially pose a threat to either our water quality or quantity.  Our Source Protection Area includes two Intake Protection Zones, and these two zones are classified by their distance from our raw water intake, and the time it would take for contaminated water to travel to it.

In 2015, we also developed a Source Water Protection Implementation Guide to ensure that we have the tools we need to meet all of the obligations of the Clean Water Act.

Protecting our source water is one of the most important things we can do to keep our environment clean, and all who use the St. Lawrence River healthy.

Safe Drinking Water Act

We operate our Water Treatment and Distribution Systems under the laws and regulations created under Ontario’s Safe Drinking Water Act of 2002. 

The Act clearly recognizes that people are entitled to expect safe drinking water, and provides for the protection of human health from drinking water health hazards through controls, testing, and regulations.

Water Conservation and Demand Management

Under the guidance of Cornwall City Council, our administration, in coordination with Watson and Associates Economists Ltd and the St. Lawrence River Institute of Environmental Sciences, have developed a Water Conservation and Servicing Master Plan which was completed in 2021.

Demand management, water conservation and sustainability are key components to our plan, and as part of this effort, we’ve implemented a volunteer residential water meter program.

Although the “flat rate” water billing framework hasn’t changed, our administration is currently reviewing the policies, consumptions and financial aspects of water metering, as part of our Demand Management approach.

To date, we’ve installed 1,897 water meters free of-charge in single and multi-residential units. This provides residents with an opportunity to monitor and adapt to more water conserving habits.