Ontario is home to more than 13 million people and located next to Lake Ontario, which spans 18,960 km2 and contains 1,640 km3 of fresh water. As a part of Ontario’s Source Water Protection program, a group called the Lake Ontario Collaborative was formed to study the potential threats to the drinking water.

Lake Ontario Collaborative investigated potential impacts that activities on land such as potential spills from surrounding waste water treatment plants, nuclear power plants, petroleum pipelines, and industrial facilities could have on the contamination of the water quality at the areas of intakes. For this purpose, they used an events-based approach, where potential spills were modelled by calculating the hydrodynamics as well as different aspects of the water quality. By using a full three dimensional illustration of water motion, including thermodynamics, it was possible to make accurate simulations and predictions of water currents in the lake and simulate the potential damage of a spill scenario.

As a result, they were able to develop intake protection zones. The zones were used to help raise awareness of the potential environmental and health risks that potential spills could entail as well as guide the preparation of emergency response planning in the event of a spill in the future.