Great Lakes Consumptive Water Demand Project

AquaResource, in partnership with Kinkead Consulting, has recently been awarded the Great Lakes Consumptive Water Demand Project from the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources. Estimates of consumptive water demand (the portion of water withdrawn and not discharged after use) are fundamental to understanding the magnitude of water taking-related stress experienced by a watershed.  To better understand water losses from the Great Lakes Basin, all Great Lake States and Provinces are obligated by the newly signed Great Lakes-St Lawrence River Basin Sustainable Water Resources Agreement to estimate, and regularly report, consumptive demand for the Great Lakes Basin.

To meet this obligation, the Ministry of Natural Resources has contracted AquaResource and Kinkead Consulting to develop a framework that will allow the Province of Ontario to estimate consumptive water demand for the Ontario portion of the Great Lakes Basin.  The final framework will utilize existing Provincial programs to minimize effort and cost to both the Province and water users.  In addition to developing this framework, the project includes a review of existing methods for calculating consumptive demand, and a next steps strategy to implement the recommended framework. For more information about this project, please contact Sam Bellamy.