[All] River Rd. extension goes to council Wednesday -- Ongoing Hidden Valley worries...

Sun Oct 2 14:14:49 EDT 2011

Hi Daphne,

Here are some brief answers to some of your questions:

(1) If they find that the environmental studies show that the River Rd.
extension (and subsequent development) is likely to pollute our drinking
water, will they cancel the planned extension?
====> The impact of the River Road extension and subsequent development will
be on the Hidden Valley ESPA, and it will come in the form of a reduction in
high-quality groundwater recharge as well as contamination by road salt and
other such contaminants -- in addition to degradation and loss of sensitive
habitat.  In this sense, the impact will be no different from that generated
by urbanization of other areas.  And, urbanization is not considered to be a
cause of drinking-water contamination (even though I would argue that
anything that degrades the quality of our groundwater or surface-water
resources is harmful).
====> There are no Regional water-supply wells in Hidden Valley, but the
Mannheim Water Treatment Plant takes its water from the Grand River at
Freeport Weir.  However, the impact of the River Road extension on the Grand
River's overall water quality (at the aforementioned intake) will be
essentially zero, given that Hidden Valley area-wise comprises only an
infinitesimally small part of the Grand River watershed upstream of the
Mannheim water-treatment plant intake.

(2) Construction of the road could begin, we were told on Tuesday, in
2016.*Can construction begin in Hidden Valley as soon as the Phase 3
is passed?
*====> This is a regulatory-type question that is best answered by the
people at the Region.  But as I understand it, once all the studies have
been done and all the approvals have been issued (and assuming there is no
appeals waiting period), then the diesel soot (from all the construction
machinery) will appear.
*
*(3) At what point does the Ontario Clean Water Act come into being, or has
it already been passed?
====> All Ontario regulations can be found at
http://www.e-laws.gov.on.ca(click on Search or Browse Current
Consolidated Law).
====> The CWA is in effect, as has been in effect for a few years now.  Not
that new regulations under the Act are still anticipated in the future.
====> The Clean Water Act (CWA) deals with the protection of drinking-water
sources (both groundwater-based and surface-water-based), and thus mandates
certain protection measures such as bans on certain well-defined activities
(e.g. cattle feedlots) for prescribed distances around municipal wells as
well as intake-protection zones (IPZ) around surface-water intakes.  But it
does not ban development outright.  I can't see any way that the CWA would
have an effect on the proposed River Road extension and the proposed Hidden
Valley developments.

I think the strongest case for protecting Hidden Valley (i.e. not building
anything in the ESPA itself as well as not building anything in the recharge
area around it) stems from the ecological concerns and the importance of
just leaving it natural and undisturbed.  It is physically impossible to
fill the farm fields around the Hidden Valley ESPA with urban sprawl without
significantly impacting the ESPA part.  And, the proposed River Road
extension will slice off a piece of the ESPA habitat.  The ongoing
whittling-away of natural areas (both ESPAs and non-ESPAs), as well as the
construction of roads and buildings close to natural areas (i.e.
insufficient buffers), is a serious problem that the Region is not doing
enough to prevent.  (The only way the Region  could do enough for Hidden
Valley is to buy up all of the remaining undeveloped Hidden Valley
lands...and ideally, the Region would do the same for all the other natural
areas.)

Then again, the big problem is at the federal level -- the Government of
Canada ushers in roughly a half-million people annually into this country,
and the majority of them continue to crowd into the GTA as well as ancillary
areas (such as Kitchener-Waterloo).  The Province, by declaring this area as
part of the Places To Grow Act (which would more accurately be termed Places
to Sprawl), is merely responding to the Government of Canada.  And, the
Region of Waterloo, by encouraging and facilitating development, is
responding to the Province of Ontario.  Hidden Valley is one of the victims
of this antiquated, anachronistic trickle-down process.

If the federal government would smarten up and just match the immigrant
intake to the shortfall between births and deaths, then we would have a
stable population -- which would very effectively stop the demand for urban
sprawl development.  If all the municipalities (which are on the receiving
end of the immigrant influx) would lobby the federal government for such a
simple population-stability measure, and if the federal government would
wake up and listen, then that would put a quick end to the mind-numbing
torrent of environmental abominations that inevitably accompany all
population growth.

Michael.

2011/10/1 Daphne NICHOLLS <gordanddaph at sympatico.ca>

>
> Hi Friends!
>
> Due to the hydro outage on Tuesday aft., The River Rd. Extension Committee
> will hear delegations as part of the Regional Council meeting on Wednesday
> Oct. 5 at 7 pm. It's the second item on the agenda.
>
> NOTE: Then Council will vote on Wednesday about giving more money to IBI
> Group to continue with Phase 3 and 4 of the Class EA .
>
> Today Gord found some contradictory information comparing the Region's maps
> with those of the consultant, LGL. LGL indicated that the Jefferson's
> territory is larger than is shown on the Region and MNR maps. Puzzling??!!
>
> Gord and I have been contacted by people who live in Hidden Valley, and
> they will be at the meeting and one of them will be speaking for Gord. A
> neighbour of ours  will be speaking for me, perhaps, or for herself. We're
> grateful for their help and think it's high time there were new faces and
> voices carrying the "natural heritage area" ball! *Please go and support
> them if you can, and and let others know about the meeting.* Neil will be
> talking about Jeffersons.
>
> *Questions:* (1)If they find that the environmental studies show that the
> River Rd. extension (and subsequent development) is likely to polute our
> drinking water, will theyy cance the planed extension?
> (2) Construction of the road could begin, we were told on Tuesday, in 2016.
> * Can construction begin in Hidden Valley as soon as the Phase 3 is
> passed?
> *(3) At what point does the Onterio Clean Water Act come into being, or
> has it already been passed?
> (3) The Clean Water Act is designed to protect recharge areas, and surface
> and well water used for drinking.
> There was more info about this in the agenda from Planning and Workson
> Tuesday (see p. 84)
>
> Sorry we won't be there in person, but we'll certainly be thinking of them!
>
> Sincerely,
>
> Daphne
> 613-474-1501
>
> _______________________________________________
> All mailing list
> All at gren.ca
> http://gren.ca/mailman/listinfo/all_gren.ca
>

-- 
================================================================
Michael Frind, BSc
School: MSc Candidate (Thermal Geophysics), Earth & Environmental Sciences,
University of Waterloo, 200 University Avenue West, Waterloo ON CA N2L 3G1
Home: 346 Marlowe Drive, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada N2L 5A4 519-885-4415
frind at execulink.com, michael.e.frind at gmail.com, mefrind at uwaterloo.ca
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