LETTERS:
Thursday 16 August 2001
Water crisis
caused by ignorance, greed
Richard Bendall
The Ottawa Citizen
Re: Replenishing the Well
series.
Reporter Philip Lee's insightful report on the global
-- and local -- water crisis is a timely wake-up call to those whom he
terms "ordinary people, doing
things in the way they have always done them."
|
You've heard the philosophical question: "If
a tree falls in the middle of a forest, and no one hears it -- does
it make a noise?" Well, try this one: "If a natural disaster happens
to the significant aquatic life of a small river, and no one cares
-- does it really matter?"
Here's the
situation. A tiny "community" of (at least eight) red-fin suckers,
ranging in length from one foot to 16 inches, hang perilously
close to death in
a shrinking pool of the Jock River under the Copeland Road bridge
near Munster.
The water is so
shallow that these graceful giants of the Jock River have to swim
sideways to cover the short span of their potential death trap without wearing
their undersides raw
(in which case, they would die an even
quicker death from infection, in the |
|
 |
| |
Lynn Ball, The
Ottawa Citizen
The Jock River is nearly dry at Copeland
Road near Munster, where Richard Bendall stands, above, with
grandsons Jeffrey Bendall-Heron, 3, and Juston Bendall-Heron,
8, yet a lush golf course nearby still gets a regular sunrise
watering. Mr. Bendall says our society's shortsighted
self-interest results in such environmental
travesties.
|
|
|
|
How much longer
can they cling to life under such conditions? Three weeks? Three days?
Who knows?
All we do know is that just a few dozen metres
away, in contrast, the usually-lush greens of a golf course get their
almost-daily sunrise watering, so that golfers can enjoy their
recreation in the way to which they are accustomed (properly oblivious
to the life-and-death drama playing out just one putt away).
But here's the real tragedy. Sentient human beings -- we who are
custodians of the planet, the environmental "trustees" of our natural
surroundings -- have allowed such havoc to unfold as a result of a
combination of sheer ignorance and callous greed, to satisfy
short-sighted personal interests.
Ottawa council has had an opportunity to turn the environmental
problem of Munster's wastewater treatment into a panacea for this
aquatic habitat. So far nothing has been done. Old patterns of
thinking dictate that pipelines will carry every community's
wastewater to a central processing plant, and dump the poorly treated
effluent into a large body of water (the Ottawa River), and the
problem is solved.
However, a simple on-site
treatment system of Munster's wastewater, processed to a very high
degree at very low cost as provided in the city's own official plan,
could have created a
continuous supply of fresh, oxygenated water back into the Jock,
pouring into the very spot where these poor fish are desperately
clinging to life.
What can ordinary people do to compel
their government representatives to apply fresh ideas and new
technologies to water conservation, pollution management, and good
environmental stewardship?
Richard Bendall,
Munster
(Highlighting and bolding
added)
Good environmental
stewardship
means giving back benefits to aquatic habitat, when opportunities
arise (such as the opportunity to add ---better than
background-quality--- water to the Jock River from a Munster
treatment plant ), instead of just (one-sided): taking-away from
the river.
|
 |
The golf course and
Jock River run together for the length of a concession (approximately
4,000 feet). The golf course requires its greatest demands on water from
the river, to keep everything green through the dry periods of summer
---at the very same time the aquatic habitat of Jock River is under its
greatest period of stress.
GOLF COURSE IN
THE NEWS, AGAIN: October- 2002:
October 11, 2002 - The Ottawa Citizen: "Golf
plan could 'suck river dry"
October 15, 2002 - The Ottawa Citizen,
EDITORIAL: "Why drain a dry river?"
October 16, 2002 - The Ottawa Citizen, Randall Denley:
"Jock River debate could use more facts"
October 28, 2002 - The Ottawa Citizen, Letter to the Editor: "Sewage treatment at Munster offers major
benefits"
November 22, 2002 - The Ottawa Citizen,
"Plug
pulled on Jock River water plan"
|
 |
One of the stated goals
of the Official
Plan is to:
"Establish an
ecosystem
approach to planning that
considers the interaction of economic, social,
and environmental systems."
________
Perhaps the time has come
for the City to take a look
at itself, in the mirror
...to see what it has become. |
|
Links:
Friends of the Jock River -
CLICK HERE
"Urban Bushland -
Decleration of Independence" - David Suzuki - 23 January, 1998:
CLICK HERE
Letter to the Editor
Ottawa Citizen
March
12, 2002
Munster plant would improve Jock River's health
| Re:
Munster waste plans stall, March 2.
Councillor Janet
Stavinga said she wants to "reach a solution" to the sewage treatment
problems in Munster Hamlet. She is on record as strongly supporting a
pipeline to move the sewage to the treatment plant at the other end of
the city (an eventual 60 kilometres of pipe), and she has fought against
cheaper, more environmentally responsible, on-site high-tech treatments.
She argues against other solutions by saying that "the earlier studies
found that on-site treatment wouldn't leave effluent clean enough to put
in the Jock River." This is incorrect.
The Friends of the
Jock River are very concerned about the river. Its health is our primary
focus. The Jock is a "policy 2" river, which means that discharges into
it must be within strict guidelines. The proposed tertiary, high-tech,
on-site treatment facility meets these criteria. Consequently, the
Ontario Ministry of the Environment, the sole agency responsible for
approving any discharges of water into provincial waterways, would allow
the facility. It has already awarded a
certificate of approval for a Manotick facility that is based on the identical technology.
Also, the city's
consultants, Connestoga Rovers and Associates, evaluated the different
sewage options for Munster Hamlet for their ability to consistently meet
effluent quality objectives. They gave
the best possible rating to the tertiary, high-tech, on-site treatment
facility. This would not have been given to a facility that "wouldn't
leave effluent clean enough to put in the Jock."
A tertiary, high-tech treatment plant
installed in Munster Hamlet would discharge treated water that is
cleaner than the water now in the Jock River.
This treated water would benefit the
Jock watershed.
|
|
PHOTO
BY WAYNE HIEBERT, THE OTTAWA CITIZEN
|
| |
Water
treated in a high-tech plant would benefit
the Jock River watershed, says Brian Finch.
|
|
| |
In drought years, when the Munster section of Jock
River dries up completely, this treated water would be
the only flow in the river and would contribute to
saving many fish and aquatic systems.
Brian Finch, Nepean
|
|
|
|
|