Regulation respecting the declaration of water withdrawals. Country/Territory Canada Territorial subdivision Québec Document type Regulation Date 2009 (2019) Source FAO, FAOLEX Subject Water Keyword Surface water Freshwater resources management Water abstraction Water rights Data collection/reporting Access-to-information Geographical area Americas, Arctic, Asia and the Pacific, East Pacific, North America, North Atlantic Abstract The purpose of this Regulation is to ensure a better knowledge and a better protection of the environment by allowing the Government to assess, through the declaration of water withdrawals, the impact of the withdrawals on water resources and ecosystems, and to allow the Government to establish measures to prevent conflicting uses of water resources. In addition, this Regulation, with a view to ensuring a better protection of the St. Lawrence River Basin water resources, provides for the implementation in Québec of the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence River Basin Sustainable Water Resources Agreement, referred to in section 31.88 of the Environment Quality Act (chapter Q-2). This Regulation also seeks to achieve more responsible water use through withdrawal accountability mechanisms by making the largest water withdrawers in Québec more acutely aware of (1) the intrinsic value of water resources; and (2) the responsibility each person has to preserve the quality of water and sufficient quantity of it to meet the needs of current and future generations. This Regulation applies to any water withdrawal. Unless indicated otherwise, it immediately applies to existing withdrawals and to new withdrawals. To determine if a water withdrawal capacity or if a water withdrawal reaches the volume from which the withdrawer is required, under a provision of this Regulation, to declare the volumes of water it withdraws or may withdraw, all the volumes of water withdrawn from each withdrawal site must be added up each time that more than one withdrawal site is connected to a single establishment or waterworks system. Establishments whose activities are related or complementary to one another and are under the responsibility of one withdrawer are considered part of the same establishment. Every withdrawer whose water withdrawals total an average daily volume of 75,000 litres or more per day, calculated on the basis of the monthly quantity of water withdrawn, divided by the number of withdrawal days in the month concerned, is required to send to the Minister of Sustainable Development, Environment and Parks an annual declaration describing the withdrawal activities by specifying the monthly volumes of water withdrawn. Full text English Website www.legisquebec.gouv.qc.ca