Water Use

The waters of Lake Simcoe are extremely important to the surrounding community, and support a wide variety of uses, ranging from a source of drinking water and waste assimilation to summer and winter recreation. It is hard to put a price on the value of the lake as a natural resource that provides fish and wildlife habitat as well as possessing simple aesthetic beauty, but these uses are also important.

Drinking Water

Lake Simcoe provides a source of drinking water for the communities of Beaverton, Brechin, Sutton, Innisfil and Keswick with an average of 13,000 cubic metres being used each day. Keswick and Innisfil account for the bulk of this amount, combined using an estimated 8,500 cubic metres per day, followed by Sutton with cubic metres per day, Beaverton at 1,500 cubic metres per day and finally Brechin at 1,000 cubic metres per day.

Waste Assimilation

Seven communities use Lake Simcoe to assimilate treated wastewater from their sewage treatment plants. The communities of Barrie, Orillia, Innisfil, Keswick, Beaverton, Lagoon City and Sutton discharge their treated waste water directly to the lake. Another seven communities discharge to streams which eventually drain to Lake Simcoe.

Maps of Water Servicing Areas
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