[All] Part II order submitted

[Louisette Lanteigne]

Hi folks

I submitted a Part II order request to the MOE minister regarding the proposed Laurel Tank well. The anticipated draw down of 2-5 in the area of the ESL, ESPA 19 and 17 were a key issue for me. When planning water augmentations in the vicinity of glacially influenced areas like us, the impacts of water taking can have enormous consequences. 

On Friday I dropped off hard copies of the report to the Region, AECOM and the Environment Minister.  As a result, I'll be meeting with Regional staff tomorrow to go over the issues. The issues revolved around these three topics:  rare species & habitats,  the projected demand for the well (Is it still needed?) and the use of predevelopment data to PREDICT post development results.

In a nutshell, rare species exist in ESPA 19, 17 and in an adjacent property just outside the projected draw down map where high volumes of rare species have been confirmed to the East.  The reports for this well negates to mention ANY of them. If we drop the water table, their habitats and these forested systems will be at risk. The area is known as the Sandy Hills. Drop the water table here, that's what you'll end up with, literally. 

In regards to proven need, the need for this project was formed prior to the implementation of the summer water bans, the closure of high water using manufacturers/processing plants and before corporations and consumers applied water conservation strategies en mass to save money and reduce carbon footprint. Actual water use per capita today is dramatically lower and our region is currently loosing money managing water SURPLUS issues. This new well is a guaranteed debt venture! Until water rates cover the actual infrastructure costs, we're reasonably going to add to our city/regional debt load building this thing. 

In terms of  using predevelopment data, AECOM relied on developer paid for studies from the West Side Lands and Owen properties to form their baseline projections. I proved the data was flawed at the OMB for the West Side Lands and I have regional mapping that proves recharge on the Owen property that conflicts with the Owen property EIS that states there is no recharge on site. The developer studies were not reliable. Until development is completed in the well head zone, we cannot reasonably predict water volume, water quality, flow, flow rates or chloride levels heading to these wells. It would be better to wait to secure the data AFTER construction is completed. 

I have a 15 page Part II order request I can email to folks who are interested in reviewing the details in the attachments and if you'd like to see any of the supporting docs, just let me know which specific one you would like to review and I can email that along.  I would like to build a comprehensive copy on PDF but my scanner isn't working so it's the best I can do for now. 

I'll be meeting with Regional Staff tomorrow. 

The core issue behind all my 12 years worth of water observations can be embraced by this simple logic: SEDIMENT= Body, WATER = BLOOD. Sediment is as real as the human body. It's all about mechanics and engineering. It's solid, logical and tangible.  Water is like blood, it is ever changing biochemically, it's responsive to all influences it is exposed to, it's dynamic. You cannot reasonably hold blood or any other liquid without containing it somehow. So why are we spending so much time and effort trying to save something which we cannot hold? Like Blood, water quality, flow and flow rates will be reasonably protected if the container is protected! What is the highest killer of People? Heart and Stroke diseases brought by high salt and contaminates from pollution. What is the largest risks for Waterloo's water? High salt and contaminates. It's the same thing! We're not giving enough attention to the base physiology of the "water bodies" we're dealing
 with. If you want to protect water, protect that which contains it! We need to protect and understand sediment composition and that includes terrestrial features on top of it. Until we do that, we'll continue to see these issues repeating over and over again. 

Good water system management keeps the dairy cow healthy that it can keep giving milk. Bad water system management is slaughtering the cow for the sake of the milk and then wondering why the milk flow stopped. 

Lulu 
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://gren.ca/pipermail/all_gren.ca/attachments/20120228/cba5d4d9/attachment.html>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: partIIorder.doc
Type: application/msword
Size: 53248 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://gren.ca/pipermail/all_gren.ca/attachments/20120228/cba5d4d9/attachment.doc>