Phase 1 desktop assessment: environment report: Municipality of Central Huron, Ontario

The Municipality of Central Huron in southern Ontario expressed interest in continuing to learn more about a facility to manage Canada's Used Nuclear Fuel through the Nuclear Waste Management Organization's (NWMO) Adaptive Phased Management Site Selection Process (NWMO, 2010). This process is seeking to find a site for a deep geological repository that will provide safe long-term containment and isolation of used nuclear fuel with an informed and willing host community. The process is presently at an early stage. Part of the process is focused on determining if there are environmental features that would preclude the potential for a facility to be constructed and operated in Central Huron. To this end, this report provides a general description of the environment in the Municipality of Central Huron. It is complemented by reports prepared in parallel that characterize the geoscientific conditions and community well-being profile of this area. These reports are summarized, with other information, in an integrated Preliminary Assessment Report. This report is not an environmental assessment. Its purpose is to provide a high level description of the current human and natural environment based on readily available sources of data. Additional detailed information for specific locations would be sought at subsequent phases of the work. The geographic area used here is the same as that used for the Phase 1 Geoscientific Desktop Assessment for the Municipality of Central Huron, and is shown on Figure 1. (author)