The future of the Wallaceburg water supply will be the topic tonight (June 5) at the UAW Hall in Wallaceburg.
Stantec Consulting has been hired by the Chatham-Kent Public Utilities Commission to conduct the Wallaceburg and Area Water Supply Review Municipal Class Environmental Assessment. This assessment is set to analyze the existing water treatment plant in Wallaceburg, and also look at alternative options to supply Wallaceburg with water.
Wallaceburg Coun. Jeff Wesley, the chair of the PUC, said the existing Wallaceburg site needs some upgrades.
“It needs some repairs, it needs some updating and some work done to it,” Wesley said. “While they are looking at that, the PUC is also asking Stantec to not only look at what it is going to take to bring that plant up to date, they are also asking them to look at what are the other alternatives to supplying Wallaceburg with water, that may or may not be less expensive then updating that plant.”
Wesley said the potential alternatives would be to:
1) Supply the community of Wallaceburg from the Chatham Water Plant, which takes its water out of Lake Erie.
2) Look into the possibility of working with Walpole Island.
“We’re all looking at it together to see what the best option is,” Wesley said. “Some people are happy with our current supply, they like where it’s coming from. Other than a couple times in the year, and when there is a spill, the raw water quality at the Wallaceburg intake is superb. I will say that in comparison to Lake Erie. Anybody that has been on Lake Huron or Lake Erie, I don’t need to say any more as far as the raw water quality.”
Wesley added that local environment group WATCH is concerned if Wallaceburg and Walpole Island get off of the river, “they think that there will be less pressure on the industries up in Sarnia, and people won’t know what is going on and communities won’t be notified because they won’t have a vested interest in it.
“There is a lot of different feelings out there. If people have strong feelings one way or the other, they need to go out to the meeting,” he said.
The meeting is a walk-through style meeting and runs from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m.
