[All] Challenges we still face on Source Protection

[Ginny Quinn]

Lulu   With the proximity of the wellhead and the high water table  and proximity of Strasburg Creek   are you SURE  that there have been NO EIS studies ??Please tell me where I can confirm this fact.   and I'll see if I can get my teeth into that one correctly.  Or if they're going to do it soon ???   and is responsible to see that it is done???Thanks  Ginny

Alicia   I'm copying you on this because we have to keep you updated   Ginny
I want to write to the Editor but MUST have my facts straight.  GQ

  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Louisette Lanteigne 
  To: all at gren.ca 
  Sent: Tuesday, September 21, 2010 10:42 AM
  Subject: [All] Challenges we still face on Source Protection


        Hi folks

        Last night the city of Kitchener approved building a gas bar with car wash to be built over top a sensitive well head protection area within 500 meters of Strasburg Creek. The runoff from the car wash is intended to discharge into sewers, the related chloride of road salts from the cars will end up in the Grand because they can't remove it. The Fuel storage is supposedly going to be placed "above the water line" using a fiber glass tank, but the land has not been subject to an EIS study. The zoning was given back in 1987 so the ecological constraints are set to those standards.

        Well over a hundred signed the petition against it, all delegates opposed it except for Mr. Brittan who was representing the group. No regional hydrology staff or GRCA were present. Council said the GRCA approved this, and council Vrbanic stated that even with todays laws it would still technically be a use allowed for this location. Kelly Galloway stated that conflicts with what she was told by Regional Staff. According to the current ROPP it would not be allowed but the ministry has yet to fully approve that ROPP so it doesn't stick yet.

        Citizens tried to put a delay on the project stating more info is needed, why not let the next council participate in this decision but no delay was given. They simply approved of it with the only opposition from Ms. Wiley and Ms. Galloway.

        When Mr.Gazolla started speaking of his confidence of developers to be able to responsibly construct this project in this area I lost it. I stood up, showed him my the iron suppliments my doctor ordered me to take to make up for the chronic anemia I have from all the bloody episodes of e coli that I endured in my subdivision. The result of poor planning has changed the biological composition of my blood. I stormed out of there so angry. They just don't get it. They have not actualized the risk.

        The technical manual as produced by the MOE clearly identifies projects of this nature as a "threat to drinking water quality". I told them in my speech how all the legislation I've reviewed from the Clean Water Act, the Ontario Source Protection Act, the PPS, ROPP, Kitchener OPP, there is no way this project can reasonably be viewed as compliant. Seriously, if any of those pipes sink or shift for either the car wash or the gas station it's contamination. They just don't get it

        The City planners and city council are woefully undereducated on the bona fide risks and they give absolutely no regard to any legislation outside of the outdated planning policies of this project. They don't know or understand what other options exist.

        At this time we are sitting along a fault line where on one side there has been extraordinary scientific advancements that can identify ecological and hydrological risks and develop policy strategies to avert them. On the other side there are past plans and associated fiscal investments pushing the ecological limits to advance forward. It's a time of opposing and conflicting values, opposing and conflicting long term economic and environmental visions. To add to the sense of horror, the educated public is witnessing these economic projects come to fruition going beyond environmental constraints. We can see the damages at the local level with Elmira, Northstar, leaky landfills etc. Then at the national level we have Tar Sands, the Gulf Oil spill.  The trust in government working for the good will of the people has been shattered at every level we have a gross disconnect between municipal objectives and the public. 

        It's easy to blame council, but on the flip side, the latest ROPP is amazing. Our policies are trying catch up to science and make everyone happy while trying to avert fiscal disaster associated with previous investments. 

        Maybe GREN needs to create a panel to consult with ministry officials and planners to see if we can create ways to intervene with past planning that poses a risk if only to bump up mitigation strategies. If we created a report like that we can distribute this widely, not only our region but others. 

        Politicans across Ontario need access to options like this otherwise these crazy things are going to continue over and over again. Reactionary approaches are weakest but in providing strategies,knowledge that can be used, to address these types of issues, now that's the path to creating real solutions. 

        Lulu :0)
       



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