Richmond, Ontario

February 10, 2005

John Baird
MPP Nepean-Carleton

Dear Mr. Baird,

In recent weeks Minister of the Environment Leona Dombrowsky issued a press release about her ministry’s sophisticated water protection program. In it she states, "We want to prevent problems, not react to them." It goes on to say that there will be "new controls on activities around wells and drinking water intakes to ensure the water does not become contaminated. For example, communities will be urged to identify potential threats to water sources …"

In the meantime, the city of Ottawa has devised the most blatant and diabolical counter-paradigm to the ministry’s initiative by proposing to pump the sewage of a rural hamlet 78 kilometers, by a route that puts the forcemain through a wetland and a shallow aquifer that serves up to 1200 private shallow wells in the rural village of Richmond, in order to have it partially treated and dumped into the Ottawa river. This is the solution they chose over fully treating the sewage on-site and returning the water to its local source.

The residents of Richmond identified this threat to their water source and brought it to the attention of the city, the ministry and the minister herself. They did this two years ago and have continued to trumpet the message ever since, to no avail. It would appear that the minister would rather risk the lives of several thousand residents of my community rather than make the city of Ottawa comply with the laws of Ontario and do what’s right.

Mr. Baird, please remind minister Dombrowsky that her primary duty is to the people of Ontario. Convince her to spare all of us from another Walkerton, or worse.

Yours truly,

(Signed)

Harvey Snyder