| THE BIGGER PICTURE - (Full Letter) Munster Hamlet’s problems are only part of a much larger problem that relates to how we collectively disregard the issue of water. An important part of clean water is what we do to the water afterwards … ! The water we drink (which includes almost everyone who is on a “central” water supply for potable water) is downstream from someone else. This means that there is an intimate connection and responsibility for all the communities within our river systems (i.e. Jock River, to Rideau River, to Ottawa River, to St Lawrence River). In the following, I would like everyone to consider how each responsible or irresponsible action within the Ottawa area affects the health and wellbeing of Ottawans, Ontarians and Canadians. The Sierra Legal Defence Fund (SLDF) rated the sewage systems of 21 major cities across the country in its report “The National Sewage Treatment Report Card (Number Two)” (1999). The report is available on the SLDF web site http://www.sierralegal.org/reports/Sewage.pdf. Calgary, the city that Ottawa has often been compared to, was given an “A” rating. According to the SLDF, Calgary leads the pack with its “truly effective, environmentally sound technology in its effluent treatment”. By comparison, SLDF gave the City only a “C” for its sewage treatment. Obviously, there is room for improvement. The City of Ottawa currently treats its sewage to a secondary level, with some phosphorus removal, uses chlorine to disinfect the effluent in the warmer months and routinely discharges untreated sewage directly to the Ottawa River (4,000,000 litres in 1998, the last date for which I have data). Both the treated and untreated effluents contribute significant levels of damaging nutrients to the river and the chlorine is double trouble: it is toxic to aquatic life; and in the river it forms cancer-causing chlorinated organic compounds. While the sewage facility may be in compliance with provincial requirements, the City knowingly damages the Ottawa River’s aquatic environment and discharges water of questionable quality to downstream cities (notably the Montreal Urban Community) that use the water for drinking. The City must also realize that the Ontario government will likely soon require cities to upgrade their treatment plants to protect our no-longer unlimited supply of clean water. The City must immediately initiate plans to upgrade the facility to a tertiary treatment facility. The picture I have painted is bleak but it gets worse. The City adds the leachate from the Trail Road garbage dumpsite to sewage at its sewage facility. The facility was never designed to handle such a toxic mix and many of the toxic components pass through the facility untreated into the river or end up in the sewage sludge that is spread on fields. While the City currently trucks the leachate to the facility, it proposes to install a pipeline to pump the leachate directly into the City’s sewage collection system. Both the current and planned approaches are seriously flawed. The City should treat the leachate on-site in a facility designed specifically for it. The City continues to connect new sewage pipelines to the City’s sewage collector system (2,000 km of pipe and growing). Extensions of sewage pipelines to new subdivisions or outlying villages increase the amount of sewage flowing through the collector system and ultimately the amount of effluent ---both treated and untreated--- that is discharged to the Ottawa River. Increased volumes increase the volume in the existing collectors and ultimately require the replacement of existing pipes with larger pipes. Everyone should realize that this translates into expensive capital projects and these are never borne by the new developments; they come from the collective pot. The answer is the installation of local (communal) high technology, tertiary treatment plants to meet the sewage treatment needs of new subdivisions or outlying villages. Such high tech installations would not increase discharge of pollution to the Ottawa River, would not increase the strain on the existing sewage collection infrastructure and, consequently, would reduce the strain on the public purse. Despite the obvious benefits of local, high tech sewage treatment systems, the City is still stuck in “pipe mode”. For example, the former Region recently sought to connect the village of Munster Hamlet to the sewage collector system by proposing the installation of an 11 km long forcemain pipeline to Richmond. From Richmond, Munster’s sewage would be pumped to its only sewage treatment facility (ROPEC) for secondary treatment (for a total trip of approximately 60 km). The cost of the Munster to Richmond pipeline was and still is unknown because of uncertainties, such as the amount of rock to be removed, that can only be determined at the detailed design stage or upon installation. Estimates for the pipe range as high as $12M - $15M when the required upgrades to the Richmond pumping station are included. While considering alternatives, the City passed up one guaranteed, fixed bid of $3.1 M to install an on-site, tertiary treatment facility with discharge of high quality effluent to the Jock River. The effluent would have been of higher quality than the water that normally flows in the river. I say, “normally flows” since the upper reaches of the Jock River are frequently dried up in drought years. An effluent discharge of 5L/sec. from the treatment plant might have saved aquatic life that was destroyed in the summer drought of 2001. The project raises other environmental and health issues. Residents along the proposed path of the pipeline, including those in Richmond, worry about the possible contamination of their wells during installation or possible breakage of a forcemain sewage pipeline. The installation or breakage of the forcemain in the Richmond Fen could damage part of the largest provincially significant fen in Eastern Ontario. For the Munster project, lower cost and higher performance treatment facilities are available so it is clear that the City is sidestepping its responsibilities laid out in the Region’s Official Plan (still in use by Ottawa until a new plan is adopted) in the following manner: - ● for services in the rural areas, “implement pollution measures at source where practical” (para. 12, Section 10.3.1);
●
“Support
innovative solutions to reduce costs of development, such as alternative
development standards, and pilot ● “provide infrastructure effectively and affordably” (para. 13, Section 1.4); and
● “be a model region (city) in preserving, protecting and enhancing a green,
clean and healthy environment” (second Ottawa can and must do a better job of treating the City’s sewage. I urge the citizens of Munster, Richmond and greater Ottawa to demand better wastewater treatment than they are currently receiving, for their health and for a healthy environment. Brian Finch PS – I got involved – I was one of the OMB appellants on the City’s decision to install the Munster sewage pipeline and the City has been forced to re-evaluate its decision. (March 4, 2002)
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