It appears Wallaceburg’s water won’t be coming from Lake Erie after all.
The Chatham-Kent PUC announced during their meeting on Thursday afternoon that their “preferred solution” for the future of Wallaceburg’s water source is to remain in Wallaceburg, and not be piped in from Chatham.
The PUC’s recommendation to stay with the status quo and rehabilitate the Wallaceburg Water Plant was echoed by Stantec Consulting on Thursday evening at the UAW Hall. The crowd of citizens gathered for the fourth and final public meeting as part of the environmental assessment process about Wallaceburg’s water.
The news drew a standing ovation from the crowd of approximately 150 people.
Happy with the solution
Wallaceburg Coun. Jeff Wesley was ecstatic following the public meeting in Wallaceburg.
“I think there is a couple things that made the difference here,” he said. “The first kudos goes to the community. They have attended the public information sessions in typical Wallaceburg fashion. They made their thoughts and feelings known and when we need them to be at a meeting, they have been there.”
“The second was the evaluation committee. There you took eight people. Four from the community, four not from the community and basically put them together in a room to hash it out. Which we did, and somewhat remarkably, and somewhat surprisingly, they came to a similar conclusion. We had a meeting afterwards to discuss the results and everybody agreed that this was quite significant because you had such a diversity of people in there. When you looked at the ranking and the scores they were very similar.”
Wesley said he was happy with the turnout at the UAW Hall for the public meeting.
“I thought the turnout was fantastic,” he said. “This is Wallaceburg. I mean all you have to do is put the word out there and whether there is a blizzard or some other disaster taking place, people will find a way to get out to the meeting.”
“So when I came in and saw them put out extra chairs, the first thing I did when my wife and I came in I scanned ‘oh looking pretty good, I see lots of cars here’ and than when I came in and it was full that was good because with all the work that everyone has done. The evaluation committee and the PUC meeting today and all of that, the worst thing that could have happened is that nobody showed up because that could have even given people a way out but that’s not what happened, so I am very proud of the community.”
Wallaceburg Coun. Carmen McGregor, who sat on the evaluation committee, said she believes the crowd at the UAW Hall was pleasantly surprised at the new recommendation.
“You could feel they were coming in and willing to stand up for Wallaceburg,” she said. “We have an amazing community and an amazing amount of passion. I think they were ready to demonstrate that passion tonight but I was very happy to see the outcome. I’m very pleased, very pleased at the turn out, very pleased at the support from the community, extremely pleased with the presentation tonight and how they delivered it to the community and still allow the opportunity for questions and concerns. I couldn’t be happier right now with where we’re at.”
Evaluation committee chose Wallaceburg option
During the PUC meeting earlier in the afternoon, former PUC general manager Tom Kissner, who has since retired, came in to make a presentation.
Kissner went through details of the findings made by an eight person evaluation committee, who were tasked with analysing each option for the future of Wallaceburg’s drinking water.
Kissner said rehabilitating the Wallaceburg Water Treatment Plant using the existing intake in the Snye River scored the highest on the matrix completed by the committee, with an 85.50% score. The option to connect to the Chatham water system via Eberts along Baseline Road, received the second highest total with 77.35%.
This findings went against the “preferred alternative” that had previously been made by Stantec, the consultants who were hired by the PUC to complete the environmental assessment.
Process was followed through
Following the public meeting in Wallaceburg Tim Sunderland, the current general manager for the PUC, said it is rare to see a preferred alternative change this late in the environmental assessment process.
“I have been involved in a few and I haven’t seen very many switch, but that’s why we have gone the extra step and had the extra public information sessions,” he said. ” We took the public’s opinion and formed the evaluation committee and gone the extra mile to make sure the process can be completed correctly.”
Sunderland said the PUC is working on a financial plan to coincide with the rehibilitation of the Wallaceburg Water Treatment Plant.
“Our recommendation as the administration is to keep Wallaceburg water,” he said. “That is our recommendation. With our conversation today at Commission, everybody was receptive with the preferred outcome. At this point I am going to wait until March 2 and see the vote and like Jeff (Wesley) said, he is going to put forth the motion. After March 2 when the vote is completed, we have to complete the environmental assessment. Complete that process, we now have to look out for a financial plan and forecast when we can do the upgrades and move the plan forward.”
Kissner said during the PUC meeting that they are working on a 10-year financing plan.
“The Ministry of Environment would be looking how the Commission would finance a solution,” he said. “So that is the other recommendation we would like to look at and bring back to the Commission at the same time we bring back the recommendation for a solution (on March 2.) Right now we’re working on a 10-year financing plan, that would include this project as well as some reduction in debt.”
Mayor happy with process, outcome
During the PUC meeting on Thursday afternoon, Mayor Randy Hope, the chair of the PUC, said he trusted in the process all along.
“I’m extremely pleased with how this has all worked out,” Hope said. “Staff have kept me informed with what is going on and we’ve had a number of discussion about how this is going to unfold.”
Hope added: “Contrary to everything that was talked about, and I got nailed at the radio stations, and I said the process needs to work its way out. The process has worked its way out similar to what it did in Ridgetown. Remember in Ridgetown people got all worked up about taking water from Blenheim, driving it to Ridgetown. Once we did the evaluation, it was pretty well neck and neck. The same thing is going on here. Let the process exercise what it needs to exercise and when the information comes out, then it is up to the Commission to make important decisions.”
Hope said he understands how passionate the residents of Wallaceburg are about water.
“I think a lot of people will be comfortable with what the outcome is, I don’t think staff needs to worry too much,” he said. “It’s a matter of a go forward basis. I support staff in what I think is one of the most intense processes we’ve gone through, since I’ve been here, and I’ve been here for nine years.”
Hope added: “I think it’s a learning process. If we have to do others I think this is something we can always refer back to and say this worked well, it engaged people. You are always going to get comments from the general public but this is something that really engaged them.”
Vote still needs to happen
Wesley said he is confident moving forward, but is still encouraging Wallaceburg residents to contact the members of the PUC.
“We do have the March 2 meeting coming up which I know that the people in this room will help us a lot with that with their emails and contacting councillors,” Wesley said, following the public meeting.
“I still feel fairly comfortable with what I heard today with the PUC Commissioners today but this is one of those, unfortunately rare, but one of those rare moments when you can actually say that if we go forward to March 2 and the PUC adopts the preferred recommendation it will be a process that actually worked. It actually achieved what it sent out to do. It listened to the community. It got community input and when we heard the community we looked at how we could make it happen for the community. I mean it makes me feel awful good.”
Wesley added: “I hate to say it but this is politics. I have been around a long time and I have seen these things go south at times. I am not saying this one will but we have to do the follow up and if everyone in this room passes around and the commission members get emails from people saying ‘hey, I was at the public meeting, I support 2A… vote for it’. That’s great.”
McGregor said it is important for the community to ensure the PUC is aware that they are happy with the preferred solution.
“Right now it is very positive, I hope it stays positive through March 2,” she said.
“You don’t want to count on anything until it is signed, sealed and delivered but right now it is looking very positive for us. I hope that people from this meeting follow through. I hope they contact the Commissioners and they get the word out there that they share that with their friends and family. Right now it is still very important to make sure the Commissioners know how they are feeling. I hope they do it in a positive manner, to say that we are very happy with the outcome, with the recommendation, please support this.”
A special meeting is scheduled for March 2, where the PUC will vote on the preferred solution.
A time and location for the meeting has yet to be finalized.
– Photo: A crowd of approximately 150 people packed the UAW Hall in Wallaceburg for the fourth public meeting in the environmental assessment process for Wallaceburg’s drinking water on Thursday, Feb. 18, 2016.
