SBP and the Big Pipe Dream
Where the Environmental Assessment Process Failed
by Doug Gammie
There is a myth in the community that the regional water system proposal is a recent development since year 2000. Here is what Mayor Noble of TSBP says in the Wiarton Echo February 17 2004:
"Noble pointed out that the project was three years old." ...
"Mayor Noble said that anyone wanting facts and figures to date were welcome to go to town hall and speak with works supervisor Bill Jones."
Interesting timeline but what happened here before 2001?
Go back in time. Once upon a time. Way back to 1995 in the Township of Amabel. An Environmental Assessment for Amabel and Hepworth Water and Sewage works is in progress. The ultimate purpose of the EA is to identify and define problems that need to be addressed, find and evaluate alternative solutions and recommend one of them. Along the way, the public has to be advised and given a chance for input and comment. This is what happens during Phase 1 and 2. Phase 2 cannot end before the time limit passes for the last public input on the preferred solution that was selected. This is how it is supposed to work and, in fact, the first two phases were well done ...
In Phase 1, finding real problems proved elusive. 1995 ran into the summer of 1996 and, after collecting and testing 180 water samples at Sauble Beach, the number of unsafe samples was at 8%. R. V. Anderson did not verify if the sand points were down far enough to meet today’s regulations or the number might have been less than 8%. No problem was identified in Sauble Beach or Hepworth related to availability of good water. In Hepworth, the samples showed 85% had safe water. No problem was identified for the EA.
They looked at septic systems in the downtown core area (DCA) of Sauble Beach and found problems that were identified in the EA.
They looked at beach drains and sampled for e Coli. R. V. Anderson reported that 90% of loading came from the Sauble River. The EA was unable to define a sewage related problem on the beach itself.
Here is what the study said about Hepworth in 1997 :
“Throughout the public consultation activities, a majority of Hepworth residents have strongly expressed a lack of desire for improved water and wastewater services and apprehension about any capital expenditures funded by the municipality."
A public meeting was held to report the problem identified with septic systems in the downtown core area and to have a look at possible solutions. As Phase 2 wound to a close, a preferred alternative was chosen for water and for sewer. Here is what the EA said at the end of Phase 2 about Sauble Beach:
“The preferred solution was a sewage system for the downtown core area. For water supply service it recommended a local communal system using Lake Huron water.†Phase 2 finished in early 1998.
After amalgamation, TSBP asked for Phase 3 of the EA to commence. Phase 3 is concerned with designing the components and infrastructure needed to build the preferred solution from Phase 2.
During Phase 3, the preferred solution was changed to a regional water system and a Sauble Beach area sewage system. These were very different from the preferred solution from Phase 2.
There is nothing in the terms of reference governing the EA process that allows for this change. The only way it could have been done would have been to go back and re open Phase 2 and select the two new alternatives, then have a public meeting and complete the comments and input process for the new preferred solutions.
TSBP, as the proponent, is short at least one public meeting and may have an incomplete Phase 2 for the process. Yet they intend to implement a regional water supply system. The EA process lost integrity during amalgamation.
The Town was able to go on and obtain a conditional certificate of approval from the Approvals Branch of the Ministry of the Environment. This is the point where the EA process failed for the people of the Town of South Bruce Peninsula.
When it proved difficult to find funding for the regional water system, the Bruce County area water system was born.
On September 23, 2002, TSBP passed a motion (R-218-02) declaring that “the Council of the TSBP fully supports the proposed Bruce County Area Water System as the best method of addressing the current and future problems with some of the water systems in the Municipalityâ€. The idea of an area system was to draw grant money.
All of this grew from an EA process which, in 1997-98, said “if you want a water system, get your water from Lake Huron. It is the preferred choice. Look after the sewage treatment in the DCA first, it is more important.†A regional system was rejected at that time because of the high cost.
By January 2004, Arran-Elderslie and Brockton had had enough and formally dropped out of the proposed area water system. The Big Pipe Dream came to an end at this point for all three participants but money continues to be spent on it in the TSBP at this time.
That leaves TSBP with bills to be paid and the wrong assumptions about Sauble Beach and Hepworth’s need for infrastructure. It is a position that must be recognized as untenable. Reversing the position may happen but it is a process that will take some time. It has only been 9 years since the EA for water and sewer was started.
This article was first published on the Letters page of the Sun-Times on March 4th, 2004; it is re-printed here in original unedited form by permission of the author
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Sunset On May 31 2006 End Of Pipeline EA Unless Renewed.
It is now 2006 and a lot of issues have to be settled before any water and sewer infrastructure project goes to construction in Wiarton, Sauble Beach or Hepworth.
In the case of the Sauble Beach and Hepworth Water and Sewer EA if project construction does not commence during the five year period following the date the final environmental study report (ESR) is submitted to the Ministry of the Environment (MOE) the Proponent (that is TSBP) is required to post a Revised Notice of Completion to the MOE in order to renew the EA for another 5 years.
What a mouthful! It means the EA has a sunset clause.
In order to verify the steps required to renew it I spoke to Paul Heeney at the MOE (Environment Assessment and Approvals Branch)about the procedure.
The original EA has to be reviewed by the Proponent. The Town must review and consider variables such as changes in the environment and advances in water treatment technology. Age of sampling data and the quality of the data will have to be considered. The history here briefly touched on the problems with the data and the breech in procedure.
Also back in 2004 the MOE was asked why they allowed the breech in the EA process in the original Phase 3. In a meeting in the MOE building on St Clair Ave in Toronto, Mike Parker of the London Branch explained that the review process that the MOE had in place did not catch this. It will the next time.
The review process within the Ministry is now fully developed. The groundwork has now been laid to request that the EA be reviewed and or redone. This can be requested with a Part II Order if the town tries to finess this one through.
Back to the initial review. The town has to do a review and publish a public notice of the review. They have to allow the Hepworth Sauble Community a chance to view the proposal/update and comment.
After the Town publishes the revised notice of completion there is a 30 day period to post bump ups or Part II Orders as they are more properly called.
There are many details that I won't cover here but public input over the last 10 years and the history of the public and private face of this project is a fertile field of dreams and hopes and dead ends. Fearmongering, false claims, lies, truths and whatever lies between, I hope it all comes to an end with a new government next winter. We do need to get a few things done.
This is one of 5 pipeline infrastructure problems that the Town has to deal with. One of five and this one is not even started.
Dodge
2003 Nawash Brief on Water Pipelines
Hadn't noticed this before and it seemed apropos to link this in here so it's noted in the discussions: MsWord DOC editions of the Nawash's critique of the mayors' Regional Proposal and the Water Brief are available at the Dibaudjimoh site ...
Perfect For The Casino
Noble's latest idea is to share Wiarton water and the Saugeen are interested.....I guess this would conflict with the tone of the Nawash brief? Perhaps the pipeline is okay if it is for a casino. Noble should remember who ended up paying for the new Cape Croker road. That was a service also.
Quote is from the Owen Sound Radio News:
The Chief of the Saugeen First Nation is expressing some interest in the South Bruce Peninsula pipeline proposal. Mayor Carl Noble said if they (Wiarton) could also provide water to the cottage development, south of Sauble Beach, owned by Saugeen First Nation, it might make its appeal for senior government funding more appealing.
Saugeen, on the other hand ...
It would appear that Saugeen's top office isn't necessarily aligned with the official opinion up at the Cape:
I'm not even going to speculate on any buzz about particular sides of the fence where dreams of casinos might lurk.
Town Announcement: Attempt To Renew Water and Sewer EA
A notice has been published in the Echo of a review that the TSBP is doing prior to submitting an ammendment for requesting a 5 year extension on the Water and Sewer EA.
They are combining this with an addendum to locate and design the Sauble Sewage Treatment Plant.
TSBP have announced a a public information session at the Sauble School on May 20.
I refered to five things the Town is working on related to water and sewer. Now there are four.
1 Renewing the EA for Water and Sewer so they can still build the pipeline.
2 Location and design of the Sauble sewage treatment plant
3 COMRIF round 2 pipeline application. This one is done and announced Apr 21. TSBP got nothing, zip. Meanwhile two opportunities to fund other projects were lost.
4 A Class C Environmental Assessment to upgrade the Wiarton water treatment plant is under way. This is to upgrade the certificate capacity in order to pump more water from Colpoy's to fill the pipeline. (yes the same pipeline that no government will partially fund through a grant program)
5 There is a Federal Environmental Assessment under way to investigate the impact of the funding for combining small water systems at Sauuble Beach. This project was supposed to be funded by the long dead OSTAR program and Provincial money is still available but the project has yet to get underway. This is a sustainable development EA looking at a sustainable community. Because the project was tied to the Wiarton Pipeline in the Sept. 05 COMRIF application the Scope of the EA has changed. The so called school wells may not have enough capacity.
The reality is the way the COMRIF application was worded these folks on these small systems were going to be paying for part of the Wiarton pipeline along with Hepworth and some unspecified part of Sauble Beach.
With today's announcement it looks like COMRIF round 3 is going to be another pipeline application. The only alternative is to borrow 100% of the project funding with Provincial backing. That could happen. Mayor Noble has stated he wants another lobbying effort. Two COMRIF refusals pretty much ends any grant hopes.....
Anyway by the time the election is over this year there will be a new mayor. This begs the question: Why are we spending money on all this? Items 1,2 and 4 are not needed but Henderson Padden Associates have been hired to work on these three items.
No More COMRIF Applications For Pipeline
Council of Town of South Bruce Peninsula has decided today that they will not apply for money for a pipeline or a water and sewer system with the next COMRIF intake. They will apply for something that they might actually get funds for instead.
However they are continuing the process to renew the EA and design a Sauble Beach sewage treatment system. Henderson Padden is being paid for this and since there will be numerous bump ups the process should be abandoned before it gets really expensive. Every bump up means more hours billed for H-P.