The future of where Wallaceburg will get its water could be known by March.
The Chatham-Kent PUC is set to vote on a list of dates at a meeting tonight (January 26) regarding the Wallaceburg Water Supply System Municipal Class Environmental Assessment Report.
Tim Sunderland, general manager of the Chatham-Kent PUC, says in a report that PUC administration is recommending the approval of the following schedule of dates for review and recommendation approval:
– February 18, 2016 – Regular Commission meeting – presentation of information to Commission for the Wallaceburg Water Supply Class EA.
– February 18, 2016 – Public Information Center (PIC) to be held in Wallaceburg for the presentation of information of Wallaceburg Water Supply Class EA. The date, time and location of PIC to be advertised to the public.
– March 2, 2016 – Special Commission meeting – CK PUC Administration to bring report to Commission with a recommendation on the preferred solution for the Wallaceburg Water Supply Municipal Class EA.
“The addition of a further public meeting in Wallaceburg before a final decision is made is a very good thing for our community… and one we pushed quite hard for,” said Wallaceburg Coun. Jeff Wesley in an e-mail.
Wesley said fellow Wallaceburg councillor Carmen McGregor and himself will be attending the PUC meeting this evening at 5 p.m.
He said he’ll have further comments following the meeting.
A Chatham-Kent PUC staff report says the purpose of the Wallaceburg study was to provide an environmentally sensitive and sustainable framework to assess the various water supply alternatives in the area.
Stantec Consulting was hired and they have presented four potential options, which includes rehabilitating the current Wallaceburg Water Treatment Plant, as part of their assessment.
Stantec’s “preferred alternative” is to connect to the Chatham water supply, which gets its water from Lake Erie.
After three public meetings were held, an evaluation committee met on December 8 to review the project scope and complete a matrix scoring criteria on the different alternatives.
The committee met again on January 14 to review the scoring of the matrix and discuss outcomes and comments from the group.
Watch for more on this story.
– File photo
