[All] FW: Dead Salamanders off Wideman Road

Wed Oct 7 11:54:30 EDT 2009

Hi Randy!

The letter is the burden of proof needed to hold these folks legally accountable. By no means will it negate the need to scrutinize their activities. 

I've already photographed them salting the routes along this roadway last winter in spite of the fact they committed to keeping the salt only at the "points of intersection" with the connecting streets of Laurelwood Village. I caught them and let me tell you salt in the snow shows up pretty darn well in the photos. If they try this crap in light of the amphibian crossing being identified it ups the ante significantly. Salt and amphibians don't mix.

It's the same thing for the amphibian monitoring. There's nothing to stop me from doing the drive by frog counting or  monitoring the roadkill for rare critters if need be. The good thing is we've identified the key area and we've got a committment from the city in writing to do something about this. They will absolutely have to provide a bona fide report of their efforts.

I'm praising them in front of everyone as a means of motivating them into doing things right. The more faith I display in their efforts, the higher they are raised and the harder they will fall should they fail.  That was the key that made the difference in the OMB. The nicer you are, the nastier they look should they not return the respect. 

It's too soon to put the squeeze on the logistics. They know damn well they have to ante up with me or I'll call them on it.  If there's no documentations after the spring migrations, they'll most certainly have hell to pay. 

You should see the videos I took today re: the Ira Needles mall area. I'll update you on those goodies later. I've got a SWM pond online conferance at noon so I've got to log in. From what I've gleened so far from the paperwork provided, the SWM concepts have no regard to chloride issues or the PAH's from exhaust, motor oil etc. It might be workable if we lived in a world of electric cars without salted roadways but until then were looking at major water risks. If your curious check out the PDF files, visit here:

http://www.sustainablecommunities.fcm.ca/Webinars/2009Webinars/October-7-2009.asp

The way I see it, they can spin this as a cheep alternative to sewers but I see it as a way for municipalities to bury the evidence of contamination issues related to non sustainable development practices. It's harder to get the toxic measurements if the stuff is burried than is to monitor this crap flowing into a creek. If I lived in a climate without snow and ice with all electric cars, it's awesome. Are there ideas we can use from this? Absolutely but it should not negate the need to do proper road salt assessments. 

Talk to you later

Lulu :0)

--- On Wed, 10/7/09, Randy B. McLean <randybmclean at rogers.com> wrote:

From: Randy B. McLean <randybmclean at rogers.com>
Subject: Re: [All] FW: Dead Salamanders off Wideman Road
To: "Louisette Lanteigne" <butterflybluelu at rogers.com>, all at gren.ca, "Dean Fitzgerald" <deanfishy at hotmail.com>, "Neil E. Taylor" <neiletaylor at sympatico.ca>
Received: Wednesday, October 7, 2009, 6:27 AM

Lulu:

That is nice but they are just saying this to shut you up.  The MNR has already made their stand that all studies are complete and the results show no significant precautions are required.  The utilities department is going to look into it?  They are blaming their oversight on a weather anomaly.

Sorry for my pessimism.  You have worked incredibly hard.  Don't set yourself up for a big disappointment. 

On the high side.  Find out who is going to scope the study, what are their methods, objectives, time table.  Find out what will be held up in the development to allow for the study, after all we don't want to have something like a bulldozer interfere with the study.

You have a fantastic resource of people at your side to do small things to be sure this is not just a wool blanket being pulled over.

Cheers 

Randy

----- Original Message ----- 
From: Louisette Lanteigne 
To: all at gren.ca ; Dean Fitzgerald ; Neil E. Taylor 
Sent: Tuesday, October 06, 2009 7:54 PM
Subject: [All] FW: Dead Salamanders off Wideman Road

Great news!

This was just sent to me from the City of Waterloo. The MNR and GRCA are going to monitor the amphibians crossing along Wideman Road. Check it out. Very good stuff. I'm sending my thanks to the city for their response.

Louisette

--- On Tue, 10/6/09, Tim Anderson <Tim.Anderson at waterloo.ca> wrote:

From: Tim Anderson <Tim.Anderson at waterloo.ca>
Subject: FW: Dead Salamanders off Wideman Road
To: "Louisette Lanteigne" <butterflybluelu at rogers.com>
Cc: "COUNCIL" <COUNCIL at waterloo.ca>, "dschultz at grandriver.ca" <dschultz at grandriver.ca>, "Karen Moyer" <Karen.Moyer at waterloo.ca>
Received: Tuesday, October 6, 2009, 4:51 PM

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Hello Ms Lanteigne,
I am responding to your email on behalf of the City of Waterloo.  
First we would like to thank-you for bringing this information to our attention.   The amphibian migration unfortunately was not isolated to Wideman Road as it occurrs on various roads across the Region and throughout the Province as you have noted.   

Prompted by your inquiry we have been in consultation with the MNR and GRCA on this matter.  It is understood that the weather patterns this year played a role in the timing of the movement.  Most of August there was very little precipitation then starting on Sunday September 20 it started to really warm up then September 21-22st it was humid and warm, excellent conditions for amphibians to move.    In the fall, amphibians are generally moving to overwintering sites, and spring is when they move to breeding locations.    

Specifically as it relates to Wideman Road the City of Waterloo is going to continue to work with the GRCA and MNR to investigate migration zones along this road section.   Further research will indicate what steps should be taken to mitigate this occurance in future.  

Thanks 

Tim Anderson, P.Eng. 

General Manager of Public Works Services 

265 Lexington Court 

Waterloo, ON, N2J4A8 

519-747-8627 

From: Louisette Lanteigne <butterflybluelu at rogers.com> 
To: dschultz at grandriver.ca <dschultz at grandriver.ca>; Jan dAilly; Diane Freeman; Brenda Halloran; Ian McLean; Karen Scian; Angela Vieth; Mark Whaley; Scott Witmer 
Sent: Wed Sep 23 16:52:48 2009
Subject: Dead Salamanders off Wideman Road 

Hello everyone

A large number of amphibians including frogs, salamanders, newts and turtles have been killed off Wideman Road in the last few days. I personally delivered a total of 13 dead salamanders taken from Wideman Road to Dr. Jim Bogart at the University of Guelph for positive identification.

To view the range of species currently crossing the roadway please visit the following web link. It shows the photos I took last night around midnight.

http://www.waterloomoraineact.com/widemanroad

CKCO release a report of how the City of Guelph closed Laird's road for amphibians and I highly recommend we shut down Wideman Road in the evenings until the migratory period has passed. To view the story regarding the issues of amphibian crossings in Guelph visit here:

http://www.southwesternontario.ctv.ca/news.php?id=5785&PHPSESSID=2c1ebbbb927fb6f11834e342545c76a3

I have identified road kill hot spots. The PDF file attached shows the line of where all the dead salamanders were picked up and the circled area represents the location where 70% of them were found. 

If you would like more information, I have video, photos and Dr. Bogart will provide me with the results of the identification in the near future. At this point I can confirm the presence of redbacks and Red Spotted Newts based on the roadkill. I'll be sure to update you further as information comes in. 

If you can foward this information to relevant city and regional staff officials I would greatly appreciate it. Thanks!

Louisette Lanteigne

700 Star Flower Ave.

Waterloo Ontario

N2V 2L2

Please consider the environment before printing this email.

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