Calling the public consultation process “flawed” and “inadequate”, Wallaceburg Coun. Jeff Wesley says he does not agree with the recommendations from the Chatham-Kent PUC-hired consultants about the future of Wallaceburg’s drinking water.
“I feel that the public and consultation process followed is flawed and the attempts to get feedback from the public very unsatisfactory,” Wesley said. “To state at the last meeting that the preferred recommendation presented was ‘basically a done deal and very difficult to change’ before receiving public input is very unfortunate.”
Wesley put together a letter and sent it to Stantec Consulting Ltd., who are the consultants hired for the Wallaceburg and Area Water Supply System Municipal Class Environmental Assessment. The “preferred option” Stantec announced at the Nov. 26 public meeting was connecting to the Chatham water supply, which gets its water from Lake Erie.
Wesley said residents could not be properly prepared before the November meeting, as they did not know the options ahead of time.
“How could anyone from the public come prepared to discuss and provide feedback on a recommendation they were hearing about for the first time,” Wesley said. “Comments and actions such as this are in conflict with what the Municipal Class Environmental Assessment is supposed to be all about. This also has a chilling effect by dissuading others from providing input and necessary feedback when they think to do so is a lost cause.”
Wesley said there has also been a lack of consultation with Walpole Island First Nations.
During a meeting on Wednesday (Dec. 10) with Chief Dan Miskokomon, Wesley said the Walpole Island Chief told him he had “no meaningful” discussions about the Municipal Class Environmental Assessment (MCEA.)
“Proper consultation, as required under the MCEA, has not taken place,” Wesley said.
Wesley said the Walpole Island water treatment plant is new and state of the art in terms of filtration.
“The plant has excess capacity which may be of interest or benefit to Wallaceburg, possibly on a standalone basis and or in conjunction with the (Lambton) pipeline,” he said. “This has not been properly investigated to date.”
Wesley added he feels the lack of First Nation consultation may cause the entire process to be appealed.
Wesley said he has other concerns with the process as well.
“CK is making a mistake putting all of their ‘water eggs’ in one basket,” he said. “Lake Erie is not the water source of the future and given the industrial basin within which it sits and the shallow nature of the lake it is not the wise long term choice.”
Wesley said Detroit gets water from Lake Huron and a new $200 million 63-mile pipeline was just approved to go to Lake Huron for other Michigan communities near Detroit.
“A more prudent choice for the future would be for CK to have multiple sources of supply for their water as each supply could be used to supplement and back feed the other sources should anything happen,” Wesley said.
He added the option to rehabilitate the existing Wallaceburg Treatment Plant is the cheapest solution in 2014 and is competitive with the preferred choice of hooking up with the Chatham system until 2029.
“After that I maintain that the 40-year costs are open to interpretation and speculation and cannot be relied upon for accurate present day decision making.”
Wesley added a source straight from Lake Huron is also an acceptable and strong option if a prudent financial agreement can be worked out with Lambton.
“This has not been properly investigated to date,” Wesley said.
Further comments are being accepted by Stantec and the PUC from the community until December 12.
Contact one of these two individuals with your comments:
Andrew Galloway
Engineering Technologist, Water/Wastewater
Chatham-Kent Public Utilities Commission
Tel: 519-436-0119 ext. 313
Email: andrewga@chatham-kent.ca
or
Michele Oxlade
Environmental Coordinator
Stantec Consulting Ltd.
Tel: 519-675-6652
Email: michele.oxlade@stantec.com
