[All] Fw: No studies prior to augmentation in violation of OMB ruling

Tue May 18 15:33:37 EDT 2010

--- On Tue, 5/18/10, Louisette Lanteigne <butterflybluelu at rogers.com> wrote:

From: Louisette Lanteigne <butterflybluelu at rogers.com>
Subject: No studies prior to augmentation in violation of OMB ruling
To: "Burgandy Dunn" <articling at cela.ca>, "Chantal RLarochelle" <Chantal.Larochelle at dfo-mpo.gc.ca>, info at ombudsman.on.ca, "Dean Fitzgerald" <deanfishy at hotmail.com>, "Stan Denhoed" <sdenhoed at hardenv.com>, commissioner at eco.on.ca, "KenCornelisse" <ken.cornelisse at ontario.ca>, minister.mnr at ontario.ca, ekevin at region.waterloo.on.ca, Joel.Cotter at waterloo.ca, lbulford at grandriver.ca, cbentley.mpp.co at liberal.ola.org, Sharon.Bailey at ontario.ca, jgerretsen.mpp.co at liberal.ola.org, jduncan at ecojustice.ca, "Linda McCaffrey" <lmccaffrey at ecojustice.ca>
Cc: "Andrew Wray" <awray at wrayjames.com>
Date: Tuesday, May 18, 2010, 3:33 PM

In regards to the West Side Lands in the City of Waterloo otherwise known as:

Ontario Ombudsman case file 191188, 
Ontario Municipal Board ruling PL071044, 
Kitchener Superior Court case file C-280-10

The Ontario Municipal Board case PL071044 regarding three proposed subdivisions known collectively as West Side Lands, was resolved by way of the expert's minutes where all experts signed off on the fact that studies for Clair Creek were insufficient.  As a result, explicit concessions were secured and new studies requested. The OMB final ruling clearly stated the conditions of the expert's minutes will stand. 

However in spite of the OMB ruling, the Grand River Conservation Authority and local planning authorities both issued permits that allowed the augmentations of Clair Creek, Greyerbiehl and Clair Creek Meadows property prior to the installation of OMB mandated mini piezometers in Clair Creek. The permits clearly state that grading, cut and fill and water diversions from Clair Creek would take place. They altered the area then began the studies. 

The documents secured from City of Waterloo staff as seen in the attachments confirms the mini piezometers were not installed prior to this work. No reasonable attempts were made to meet the concessions of the Ontario Municipal Board Ruling PL071044 regarding the installation of mini-piezometers in Clair Creek prior to this work. The OMB concessions  included the creation of a creek buffer per the OMNR guidelines for such habitat features. Therefore the current proposal does not accommodate suitable creek buffers. 

It is reasonable to state that to this day, we still do not have a 12 month creek assessment of water volumes (entering, leaving) for Clair Creek, as identified in the OMB settlement. To date we still don’t know what the existing runoff conditions, infiltration conditions and groundwater discharge to Clair Creek are. Without this data we cannot predict impacts to fisheries, flood risks or municipal water supplies. The augmentation to the property occurred prior to the mini-piezometer studies. Thus the time is now to stop the reduction of the habitat features and harm to the fish populations in this productive creek. 

Clair Creek is an ephemeral system. The main flow occurring in the creek usually takes place during spring thaw which results in high water levels connecting the properties in the West Side Lands via Clair Creek. This connectivity may only exist for a few weeks a year but rest assured it does provide habitat to a viable fish community. This connectivity allows fish to migrate but it also identifies the large risk of local flooding if on-line storm water ponds are built there. 

If on-line storm water ponds are built, it will dramatically reduce the productive capacity of the entire creek and interrupt a migration pathway used by the fish of this ephemeral creek, from areas within the West Side Lands. (As noted in section 2) and with downstream habitats.  

The Region of Waterloo and City of Waterloo presently have a By-law that states no on-line storm water ponds are to be constructed, as they are known to impair downstream water quality. This is why the concession to remove the storm ponds from the original plan was stated in the OMB ruling. Thus this proposed alteration of fish habitat also goes against local planning by-laws. Thus if these storm water ponds are indeed constructed as proposed, they will cause the likely reduction of the productive capacity for the sport fish populations that exist downstream. These sports fish populations were documented previously, and reported in scientific literature.   

As an addendum to the OMB settlement the following documents include information germane to this matter: 

Fitzgerald, D.G., Lanno, R.P., & Dixon , D.G. 1999.  A comparison of a sentinel species evaluation using creek chub (Semotilus atromaculatus Mitchill) to a fish community evaluation for the identification of environmental stressors in small streams.  Ecotoxicology 8, 33-48.                     

Fitzgerald, D.G., Kott, E., Lanno, R.P., & Dixon , D.G. 1998.  A quarter century of change in the fish communities of three streams modified by anthropogenic stressors.  Journal of Aquatic Ecosystem Stress and Recovery 6, 111-127. 

Fitzgerald, D.G. 1997.  Current status of fish in Laurel Creek : An evaluation based on historical information and research completed during 1995. In: WATgreen Laurel Creek Information Exchange (H. Duthie and P. Eagles, eds.) University of Waterloo , WATgreen Publication Series. pp. 21-29. 

Fitzgerald, D.G. 1996. Evaluation of fish in anthropogenically-modified streams within the Grand River watershed, Ontario . Master’s Thesis. Department of Biology, University of Waterloo , Waterloo , Ontario . 

I have two case files open in regards to this matter currently, one with the RCMP and the other with the Ontario Ombudsman's Office and I am currently awaiting a response from the Department of Fisheries in regards to their investigation of this matter. In my view the MNR, the MOE, the Department of Fisheries, the Grand River Conservation Authority, the City of Waterloo and the Region of Waterloo have been well informed of these concerns. There is no plausible deniability. 

It is beyond the scope of this correspondence to resolve how to remedy these deficiencies.

Louisette Lanteigne
700 Star Flower Ave.
Waterloo Ontario
N2V 2L2
519-885-7619

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