Plans for the centre — where owners and operators of small water systems will be trained — were drafted after Walkerton’s E. coli disaster in May 2000.
The centre is scheduled to open next fall.
The groundbreaking comes one day after a final report into the health of people at the centre of the tainted water tragedy.
Study author Doctor Bill Clark says 88 per cent of people in Walkerton now rate their own health as good to excellent.
The E. coli outbreak killed seven people, made 25 hundred others sick and prompted sweeping changes to how municipal drinking water is handled.
