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THURSDAY, JANUARY 8, 2015
Vol. 3 Edition 1
Smooth skating
Does anyone want Lake Erie drinking water?
By Jim Blake jim@chathamvoice.com
Jim Blake/The Chatham Voice
Soon to be three-year-old Kaydence Laliberte was all smiles recently as she practiced skating on the rink at the Downtown Chatham Centre. Helping her out is Brooke Swain.
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Local residents aren’t likely to get a chance to comment on the future of Wallaceburg’s water supply until after the Chatham-Kent Public Utilities Commission views a controversial report on the issue. Andrew Galloway, an engineering technologist with the PUC, said the commission would review a report from Stantec Consulting that recommends Wallaceburg receive water from Lake Erie. That option was announced at a public meeting last year, but met with opposition on a number of fronts, including the local environmental group WATCH that has requested a meeting with the PUC. Galloway said a meeting can be arranged, but the information will be the same as that provided at last year’s public input session. He said the PUC and Stantec have received about 100 responses to a call for public input. “We will be providing information where re-
“There are considerable questions about Lake Erie’s algae bloom and turbidity and the amount of chlorine which has to be added to counter that.”
- WATCH’s Sheldon Parsons
quested,” he said. He expects the PUC to address the report by the end of March. WATCH (Wallaceburg Advisory Team for a Cleaner Habitat) director Sheldon Parsons said the group’s directors have contacted people throughout Wallaceburg and brought back concerns, comments and questions. “We will be seeking a face-to-face meeting with the PUC before there are any further public input meetings.” The Stantec report recommended abandoning the current Chenal Ecarte source of Wallaceburg water in favour of building a pipeline from Chatham or Dresden to tap into Chatham’s Lake Erie intake source. Parsons said WATCH has deemed Lake Erie as the least desirable of the
options listed by Stantec. “There are considerable questions about Lake Erie’s algae bloom and turbidity and the amount of chlorine which has to be added to counter that,” he said. Parsons said instances of foul smelling and discoloured water in Chatham last year, the closing of water intakes in Ohio and the decision by Detroit to build a pipeline to Lake Huron rather than draw water from Lake Erie indicate the concern is justified. Parsons is also concerned that the possibility of drawing water directly from the Lake Huron system was virtually ignored. Parsons said Wallaceburg is already connected to the Lambton Area Water Supply System that uses Lake Huron as its source. “We’ve used the pipeline in both directions” he said. “It makes sense from any kind of planning perspective to have more than one supply. It’s one more reason not to sole source from Lake Erie. Continued on page 4
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