[All] Ontario's Earthquake Risks

[Louisette Lanteigne]

FYI

--- On Sun, 3/13/11, Louisette Lanteigne <butterflybluelu at rogers.com> wrote:

From: Louisette Lanteigne <butterflybluelu at rogers.com>
Subject: Ontario's Earthquake Risks
To: Duceppe.G at parl.gc.ca, Ignatieff.M at parl.gc.ca, Layton.J at parl.gc.ca, Albrecht.H at parl.gc.ca, Woodworth.S at parl.gc.ca, Braid.P at parl.gc.ca, Blackburn.J at parl.gc.ca, Scarpaleggia.F at parl.gc.ca, DionS at parl.gc.ca, Ritz.G at parl.gc.ca, Paradis.C at parl.gc.ca, Kent.P at parl.gc.ca, ljeffrey.mpp.co at liberal.ola.org
Cc: cmitchell.mpp.co at liberal.ola.org, jwilkinson.mpp.co at liberal.ola.org, toby.barrettco at pc.ola.org, hhampton-qp at ndp.on.ca, ernie.hardemanco at pc.ola.org, jerry.ouellette at pc.ola.org, tabunsp-qp at ndp.on.ca, rbartolucci.mpp at liberal.ola.org
Date: Sunday, March 13, 2011, 6:51 AM




	
	
	
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RE:
The need to assess man-made seismic risks in Canada 




Dear
Hon. Prime Minister, Hon. Ministers

Man
made activities have been proven to induce earthquakes. Activities
involving aggregate/water/coal extractions or injection of fluids via
activities such as carbon sequestration can actually create the risks
and it's relatively common issue. In Britain, 25% of their seismic
activity is due to man made causes and specific projects have
resulted in killer earthquakes in areas of Australia that had no
previous history of seismic activities. 




For
more information outlining various ways man made earthquakes can be
created, please visit this link:  
http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2008/06/top-5-ways-that

The
international community is experiencing the depletion
of groundwater
aquifers as
well as increased
oil, gas and aggregates
to fuel growth. Carbon sequestration for storage underground is
planned yet we
are not above risks that these
activities may result in creating earthquakes that put Canadian
communities
and nuclear
plants at
risk.

Injection of water in the ground is
known to increase
risk of seismic activities and currently Waterloo region is planning
to use man made "underground storage aquifers" to supply
for our ever increasing growth. Increased
water
infiltration is one of the most frequent promises area developers
make when housing/development
projects encroach upon recharge areas. To add to the concern,
enormous volumes of planned aggregate extractions are occurring and I
don't know if anyone has ever taken the time to reasonably assess all
these
associated seismic risks in a comprehensive manner. 

We have
the ability to facilitate
better planning processes
to avoid
the risks but
current governance issues are complicating matters. 

In
Waterloo Region we review activities based on a watershed scale but
the need is there to assess concerns on the delineation of Tectonic
regions to have a better understanding of the baseline data that
exists then
we can put
the data together to create a more comprehensive review
but there is a jurisdictional
disconnect at the provincial ministry level hampering
the processes. 

In
Ontario, a report was produced called the State of Aggregate Resource
Study. The MOE was not part of the formation of this report in
spite of the fact that aggregates serve a key roll in providing our
own municipal water supplies. Aggregates help to mitigate floods,
they control water quality, water temperature, flow and flow rates to
groundwater and surface water resources and are vital to maintain as
part of our overall food production and food security. 
Unfortunately, the
MNR has
no jurisdiction to
address water volume or water quality issues
nor does
the MOE
have any
say with
the
planning or permitting of aggregate projects to the scale it
reasonably should in order to adequately protect
municipal/agricultural/industrial
water supplies.
 If
they had a means to work collaboratively we could better assess the
potential risks and include seismic risk
assessments
within that process. 

Thank you kindly for your time.


Louisette
Lanteigne
700 Star Flower Ave.
Waterloo Ont.
N2V 2L2
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