Canadian Groundwater Quality Guidelines for the Protection of Environmental and Human Health

July 24, 2026 in New Documents

CCME’s has posted the Canadian Groundwater Quality Guidelines for the Protection of Environmental and Human Health.

Canadian Environmental Quality Guidelines typically consist of a factsheet and scientific criteria document (SCD) for each chemical. Canadian Groundwater Quality Guidelines were developed for 99 chemicals. As an alternative to producing SCDs and factsheets for each of the 99 chemicals, all Canadian Groundwater Quality Guideline values are presented in separate tables in a single document, with key assumptions and notes about characteristics of the chemicals included in footnotes for each table. The document also contains a summary of the protocol used to derive the Canadian Groundwater Quality Guidelines —including the use of a time-dependent model—and a description of limitations and assumptions of the models used to derive the groundwater guidelines. Appendices containing substance-specific chemical property information used to derive the guidelines are provided in a separate spreadsheet file.

The publication and appendices can be found here and here, respectively, or through CCME's searchable resource browser. The guidelines can be searched using the Canadian Environmental Quality Guidelines Summary Table.