The Municipality of Meaford provides water and wastewater services to approximately 2,300 residential, commercial and institutional customers. On this page, you can find more information on paying your water bill, water testing, winter water maintenance, current projects, and view annual reports on municipal water and wastewater services.
For after-hours urgent issues, call (888) 525-7024.
Interactive Map
Locate and understand how water and wastewater services and facilities work within the Municipality of Meaford with our interactive map.
Testing Private Drinking Water
Want to know how pure your water is? Grey Bruce Health Unit has partnered with the Municipality of Meaford to open a Well Water Sample Drop-Off Location in Meaford, located at 21 Trowbridge Street West.
Samples will be picked up weekly at 9:40 a.m. each Friday, and must be dropped off within 24 hours of the pick-up time. Sample bottles are available for pick up at the drop-off address.
Water testing is free, and part of a complimentary program offered by Public Health Ontario for residents with property on wells and with other private drinking systems. For more information, please visit Grey Bruce Public Health.
Hydrant and Sewer Flushing
Each year, we flush hydrants and sewer lines to keep systems clean and functioning properly.
Hydrant Flushing – Urban Meaford
Hydrant flushing is underway from 7:30 a.m. to 3:00 p.m., Monday to Thursday, and will continue through October.
You may notice:
- Slight water discoloration or cloudiness
- Reduced pressure during flushing
- Water on roads or puddles after flushing
If water is discoloured:
Run the cold tap in your bathtub until it clears. This tap is best as it has no screen to trap sediment.
Sewer Flushing & Blow-Back
As part of regular maintenance, the Municipality of Meaford cleans sanitary sewer mains using a Vactor truck. This process usually takes 30 to 45 minutes per section between maintenance chambers (manholes), typically located in the center of the road.
This work may be noisy and can create a temporary vacuum in the pipe, which may:
- Pull water from household plumbing traps (toilets, sinks, floor drains)
- Cause gurgling sounds, bubbling, or minor splashing in fixtures
- Lead to temporary sewage odours if trap water is lost
These effects are not harmful to your plumbing.
When the high-pressure nozzle passes your sewer lateral (on municipal property), it forces water and air a short distance up the pipe toward your home. In most homes, this air vents out through plumbing stacks. However, in some cases, especially in homes with limited venting, the air can disturb water in plumbing traps.
If you notice odours or low water levels after flushing, simply run cold water into affected drains to restore the traps.
Once flushing is complete, a CCTV camera will be used to inspect the sewer main. Residential service lines are not flushed or inspected.
Winter Water Line Maintenance
Homeowners are responsible for all water lines on their property.
It is important that homeowners take necessary precautions before freezing temperatures increase the possibility of frozen and/or broken water lines on their property. If this occurs, it can impact water service, cause property damage, and cause damage to water meters.
Any replacement of a frozen water meter will result in a service and replacement charge to the homeowner.
Below are some tips and precautionary measures to protect your water service and meter:
- Cover any exposed pipes in cold areas with insulating material and or heat tape
- Block air passages into crawl spaces
- Check crawl space to be sure pipes are protected
- Secure basements against cold
- Plug up drafty cracks and repair broken windowpanes
- Check outside faucets
- Remove hoses from outside faucets and check for leaks which could freeze and back up into the household plumbing.
If you have any concerns, please contact a licensed plumber to advise the best way to ensure your water lines and meter are protected from freezing.
Sewer Overflow
To ensure residents stay informed and aware, signs are posted at overflow sites, with additional red warning signs added to these signs in the event of an overflow. Here’s what else you need to know:
An overflow event happens when there is too much wastewater in the sanitary collection system, and the system can’t manage it all. If this were to happen, the extra water and sewage would flow into the environment from overflow points in the system.
Although overflow water is highly diluted, it still carries sewage and can pose health and environmental risks.
Overflows are designed to direct extra wastewater into the environment to reduce the risk of:
- Flooding basements of homeowners nearby
- Flooding lands around the Wastewater Treatment Plant
- Harming infrastructure
To reduce the risk of this, the overflow of wastewater is directed into Georgian Bay or the Bighead River, where it causes less harm.
While overflows contain mostly rainwater or snowmelt, they may still contain bacteria and should be avoided. Overflows can impact:
- Human health
- Fish and wildlife
- The environment
- Expanding the wastewater treatment plant so it can handle more flow
- Relining sewers to limit infiltration of groundwater into the sanitary sewer
- Parging maintenance hole chambers to limit excess infiltration of groundwater into the sanitary sewer
- Smoke testing to identify improper connections and defects in the sanitary system
- Disconnecting the roof leads from the sanitary cleanouts to direct storm water to the correct sewer system
- Disconnecting sump pumps and perimeter drains from the sanitary sewer system
The Municipality of Meaford recently received a new Consolidated Linear Infrastructure Environmental Compliance Approval (CLI-ECA). Previously, we would have reported overflows to the Ministry of Environment Conservation and Parks; we are now additionally required to identify the overflow locations with the following signs.
Any additional information will be shared through on-site signage, our website, social media, email alerts, and local media.