North Frontenac Council – Jun 9/14

Jeff Green | Jun 12, 2014

MVCA Addresses Watershed Issues

Most of the populated areas of North Frontenac are contained in the Mississippi River watershed, as are the bulk of the larger lakes in the township, including Mazinaw, Shabomeka, Mississagagon, Kashwakamak, Big Gull, Buckshot, Palmerston, Grindstone, Crotch, and many others.

At a meeting of North Frontenac Council in Plevna on Monday morning (June 9), Matt Craig, manager of planning and regulations with the Mississippi Valley Conservation Authority (MVCA), outlined some of the extensive monitoring work that MVCA does in North Frontenac.

North Frontenac residents are lucky that funding for the MVCA is provided on a population basis. Because the Mississippi spills into the Ottawa river, residents of the City of Ottawa pay the bulk of the MVCA operating costs. North Frontenac, which contains 32% of the watershed territory, pays only about 1% of the municipal levy to MVCA, $24,300 in 2014.

In terms of direct spending in the township, MVCA will be spending $357,000, most of that on water control structures and flood forecasting, as well as over $50,000 on water monitoring this year. City of Ottawa residents, as well as those in Lanark County, benefit from this work as well, because the water flows from North Frontenac into their lakes and rivers.

Among its responsibilities MVCA manages dams owned by themselves, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Ontario Power Generation. Of the 19 dams in the Mississippi watershed, 13 are located in North Frontenac, including one of two power-generating dams on the river.

In his presentation, Craig focused on the water quality monitoring programs that MVCA runs. In addition to ongoing water level monitoring provided by stream and lake gauges as well as staff effort, the Watershed Watch program provides a report on water quality in major lakes in the watershed on a 5-year rotation. Watershed Watch reports for Ardoch, Big Gull, Crotch, Kashwakamak, Malcolm, Mosque and Pine lakes will be completed this year.

MVCA also has a major role in municipal planning, particularly as far as site evaluations for shoreline development is concerned. A recent report, dealing with almost all of Frontenac County (i.e. those regions covered by MVCA, as well as the Rideau and Cataraqui Region Conservation Authorities), concluded that the “guidelines have been effective,” Craig told North Frontenac Council. “It found that the 'ribbon of life' is the most important element to shoreline stability and water quality, and this has been reinforced with science.”

One of the missing elements to the work done in North Frontenac and elsewhere by MVCA is a lack of information about the status of some large marshlands in the watershed, and to address this a focus on sub-watershed analysis is being developed. As well, putting all the data that is collected by MVCA into a coherent format that can be used by municipalities, landowners, lake associations and others, has been a challenge.

“There is a lot of data, but much of it is in different formats and in different databases. We are working towards putting it into an accessible format, so we can use it and so can the public,” he said.

Who will pay for Canalodge subdivision mess?

North Frontenac Council has decided to follow the recommendations in a report by Green Galloway to ensure water access to people who have purchased lots in the ill-fated Canalodge subdivision on Norcan Lake in the north-eastern corner of the township.

The projected cost of the construction is $30,000. The work is only necessary because the subdivision’s developer, David Hill, did not live up to a site plan agreement with the township that was one of the conditions of receiving zoning and planning approvals from the township.

“The money for that will come from the hold back of funds, I expect. What happens when that hold back runs out?” asked Councilor Lonnie Watkins.

“We have to do it anyway,” said Deputy Mayor Fred Perry.

Councilors were more or less satisfied that since the township received $27,000 when the project was approved as a hold back until the developer lived up to his commitments, there would only be a $3,000 cost to the ratepayers.

“We will make every legal effort to get that money from the developer. We have all sorts of expensive ways of recouping money. The township may end up owning a lodge,” said Mayor Clayton, referring to the lodge on the property.

To further complicate matters, a member of the public, one of the lot owners in the subdivision, piped in. “I'm not paying any of that out of my taxes,” she said, then added “and it's $30,000 not $3,000. You paid him back the $27,000 because he told you he had done the work but he hadn't.”

Clerk Jenny Duhamel confirmed that the $27,000 has been paid back to Mr. Hill.

Council approved a motion to going ahead and do the work.

News but no news on township office remediation.

A report from Chief Administrative Officer Cheryl Robson outlined where things stand with the township office, which was damaged when a heating oil tank on the second floor leaked in early January. Information about the cause and insurance claim regarding the leak is being kept confidential. The engineering company in charge has said that environmental remediation is complete and no more threats remain.

Now that the remediation is complete, the engineer will provide a cost to put the building back in working order to the township’s insurer. That will take two weeks, and the insurance company will then provide the township with options.

Since the township has also received a report about the liability of that building and options for replacement, which was commissioned before the leak took place, the whole matter will come to a special meeting of council, likely some time in July.

Good news in Snow Road

The Snow Road Community Centre has received a grant from the Kingston and Area Community Foundation, which has enabled them to purchase a home theatre projector, screen and Bluray player. Combined with the centre's arrangement with Storm Internet, it will provide for movie nights and perhaps more fitness classes at the hall. As well, when the carpet in the hall was removed it caused a problem with acoustics, and the hall committee will be installing sono-pan panels to fix the problem.