Municipal councillors and members of the public offered differing opinions on what the municipality should to in the future to supply drinking water to Wallaceburg.
Building a new water treatment plant, moving the intake pipe upriver, adding a 56-mega-litre storage reservoir, new water mains and more is estimated to cost as much as $150 million, possibly more, according to consulting firm Municipal VU (M-VU).
Jim Harnum of M-VU said building a pipeline from Chatham’s water treatment plant to carry water to Wallaceburg would likely be a better use of tax dollars.
Currently, Wallaceburg draws its water from the Chenal Écarté (the Snye River) and the water is treated at the Wallaceburg plant.
Three citizens spoke up at council July 14 in regard to the PUC master plan review, all of whom focused on the future of potable water for Wallaceburg. Two wanted to see Wallaceburg’s water treatment plant maintained, while one urged the opposite.
Wallaceburg Advisory Team for a Cleaner Habitat (WATCH) chair Joel Johnson urged council to “go back to the drawing board,” over the proposal to switch to Wallaceburg receiving water from the Chatham water treatment plant, which draws water from Lake Erie.
“Wallaceburg and area residents feel that changing to Lake Erie is a downgrade,” he said. “Sarnia’s chemical valley has cleaned up its act in the last 20 years. The industries on Lake Erie have not done the same. They’re still releasing unacceptable amounts of pollutants.”
Kris Lee, a past chair of WATCH, said a move to using Lake Erie water would be akin to “asking the Wallaceburg community to sustain itself on fast food when a healthier home-cooked meal is readily available.”
However, Larry Hutchins said if all of Chatham-Kent is to share the cost of upgrading the Wallaceburg water treatment plant, then everyone should have a say.
“By following the PUC recommendations (to use Chatham water), we as a community will be saving $100 million on the cost of this project,” he said. “Meetings should be held for all of Chatham-Kent, as the debt will be spread across the municipality, unless council plans to area rate the cost.”
Councillors also chimed in. South Kent Coun. Anthony Ceccacci said since this a Chatham-Kent decision impacting ratepayers around the municipality, there should be public meetings on the matter beyond Wallaceburg “to discuss the potential increase to rates to construct a new Wallaceburg water treatment plant.”
Wallaceburg Coun. Carmen McGregor said reaching out to see if it was feasible to connect to Lambton County water was a failure.
“We were told it wasn’t feasible. There needs to be some education on why it is not feasible,” she said.
Communities around Lake Erie have been taking their drinking water from that lake for decades. Darren Galbraith, general manager of the Public Utilities Commission, said the first use of Lake Erie water in the former Kent County took place in 1965 to service the now-levelled Southwest Regional Centre. Other plants came online in the early 1970s.
“There are tens of millions of people that drink the water from Lake Erie every day on both sides of the border,” he said.
Council approved updating the Water and Wastewater Master Plan in the fall before making a decision.
I have to agree with the polutants in the water here n Chatham. Has anyone else smelled the very strong clorine that Chatham water has in it, in fact get this. Ealrier this year I did some in house herb starts I wanted to grow for basil, parsley etc. I started to water them with bottled water and once I felt they were big enought I switched to tap water. THEY ALL died rigth after using the tap water! Chatham water is not good and I would like to see some further testing on it to ensure its still drinkable even! Thats no joke when your plants die immediately after uing tap water!