[All] GRCA Source Water Protection meeting last week

[Norah & Richard]

I attended the (local conservation authority) GRCA meeting April 1 on 
Source Water Protection. Last month our top water manager gave a full 
report. On April 1st he gave the final summary of Guelph's water threats 
and plans  . Then it was open for questions from the horseshoe of people 
from all over the watershed. Someone from Brantford asked him " how many 
brownfields does Guelph have?"... there was a pause. He looked at our 
top environmental services person who also regularly attends and she 
answered "10-20." ...Silence....He then cleared his throat and said "I 
think it is a few more... say 20-40." ...another long pause.... much 
looking around.    Our local volunteer, who sits on that panel, then 
said "there are 175 brownfields in Guelph".   The next question from the 
lower watershed was "and what are you doing about your brownfields?"   
Well, by then the point was made and I was ashamed of our city.

There is more to tell about this meeting that is very undemocratic. But 
I want to stress that there should be someone from Waterloo/ GREN 
watching also. We had no reporter from Guelph that I saw. I don't know 
if one from your area was there or not. Does anyone know how I would 
find out about reporters at this from other areas in the watershed.?
This will probably not be reported. I doubt if it is recorded in 
minutes. I knew there were 175 because I had happened to talk with 
someone on staff the day before and we are doing nothing.

There are serious questions to be asked. Does the head of Guelph's 
environmental services not know how many brownfields we have?

Why  would she conceal this fact from the best GR watershed protection 
group we have?

Why are there never any councillors at these meetings? We have two of 
them paid to be our reps at GRCA and their absence  at these monthly 
meetings is inappropriate when our city staff are this deceptive on a 
protection team. (BTW they are also generally absent at the annual GRCA 
Water Forum most years when the water experts speak about the latest 
research on water threats and protection.) Are Waterloo reps there?

If Brantford is doing a lot to reclaim their brownfields why aren't we?  
Guelph won the top award from the Canadian Urban Institute in 2002 for 
creating Brownfields Strategy that is a model for other municipalities. 
this Stategy is on the city website and states that since brownfields 
already have services of roads, public utilities, transit links "the 
benefits far outweigh the costs."
We continue to say we are a green municipality.  A local councillor was 
in Brazil last week promoting our green-ness.

Do upper watershed municipalities have any fiduciary responsibility to 
the lower watershed. Eg. to be careful with our practices that affect 
quality of water they have to drink?

Why is Guelph  considered a green city? Is it because so many citizens 
keep bringing lack of accountability forward and keep trying to make it 
greener?

Why has a SLAPP suit been used against the grassroots water watchers and 
how far will some city staff go to keep control for continuing 
development on greenfields over water resources instead of brownfield 
reclamation ?

Our role as waterwatchers is complex. I will be going to our media.  Norah


-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://gren.ca/pipermail/all_gren.ca/attachments/20100406/7bb99756/attachment.html>