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Feature Article January 8

Feature Article January 8, 2003

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OMYA water taking opponents cheer new ministry direction

It was quite a Christmas present for a group of environmental activists who for years have conducted a struggle against provincial government approval for the removal of up to 4.5 million litres of water a day from the Tay river.

On December 18, the same day as a scheduled public meeting between community members and OMYA Canada concerning the environmental impacts of their water taking plans, a decision was brought down by the Ministry of the Environment (MoE) in Toronto which placed a one-year moratorium on all new water taking permits in order to study the impacts of water taking on watersheds.

By taking this action before the new year, the MoE has put on hold the scheduled increase in OMYAs water taking permit for the Tay River, which was to go from 1.5 million to 4.5 million litres per day in 2004.

OMYA produces a calcium carbonate slurry at the plant, using mineral deposits trucked in from their quarry in Tatlock, near the Village of Lanark.

We received a heads up about the decision from the ministry early on Thursday morning [Dec. 18], said Carol Dillon, a member of the Tay River Watershed Association and an appellant to an Environmental Review Tribunal that had decided against the increased water taking. In February 2003, the then Minister of the Environment Chris Stockwell had reversed the Tribunals decision.

It was gratifying to finally have a positive outcome after having so many setbacks in this case. Essentially what this decision does is provide a year to think about what should be done, Dillon said.

OMYA has been sanguine about the decision. Although OMYA administrator Larry Sparks did say we are concerned about the moratorium; we are concerned about the future of water taking in Ontario, the company has also said their production schedule from the plant for the year 2004 will not be affected by the decision. OMYA employs 250 people in the Perth area.

The source waters for the Tay River flow from the so-called reservoir lakes, Bobs and Crow Lake, through a dam at Bolingbroke. Water is drained from these reservoirs through the Tay River to Rideau Lake and the Rideau Canal. The meandering Tay River is the water source for the town of Perth, and the effect of water taking along the river has never been properly studied, according to the Friends of the Tay Watershed and the Environmental Review Tribunal that tried to limit the OMYA water taking last year.

The OMYA water taking was only incidental to the far-reaching announcement by the MoE on Dec. 18, under the new Liberal Environment Minister Leona Dombrowksy, which deals with water taking and water source protection throughout the province. It sets out a process whereby two committees will study a variety of watershed issues and will present a white paper on the planning aspects of watershed-based source protection legislation in February.

We are in the process now of establishing water budgets throughout the province, said Minister Dombrowsky, adding, it is only reasonable as part of that exercise to place a moratorium on any new or expanded water permits.

This initiative by the MoE is in line with the stated commitment of the new government to follow the recommendations of the OConner report into the Walkerton water tragedy. Part 2 of the report made 22 recommendations as far as water source protection is concerned. Relevant issues within watersheds include the identification of: major sources of contamination, land use, well heads; and knowledge gaps and/or research needed to help target monitoring efforts.

This will not be a simple task. It took one week, and many hours of staff time, for the MoE to put together a list of water taking permits along the Tay River when asked to do so.

Even then, as Carol Dillon points out, that only tells what is permitted. In many cases the actual use is far less, as is the case with the Town of Perth at this time. Beyond that, there are many un-permitted users of water? How much water is taken by home owners and all the other users who take less than 50,000 litres a day? (50,000 litres is the amount of water taking that requires a permit).

Nonetheless, Dombrowsky seems determined to find out how much water is available in Ontarios watersheds. She said that the way Ontario has issued water permits in the past is like writing cheques when we dont know how much money is in the bank.

Environmentalists and Industry will be monitoring the work of the two MoE panels carefully in the next year to see if they can find the balance between the viability of Ontarios watersheds and the water needs of Industry.

With the participation of the Government of Canada