Waterloo Moraine,Growth Pressures & Gravel Risks

By Louisette Lanteignebutterflybluelu@rogers.com

Federal Challenges

Fish are cross jurisdictional = Federal Fisheries Act Water is cross jurisdictional = No Water Act

WHY NOT?

Provincial Challenges Provinces control aggregate and fossil fuel extraction. Aggregates and fossil fuels = Provincial $ Provincial Ministry of Transportation is largest

purchaser of aggregate materials for road repair. The closer to the source, the cheaper.

Water + Aggregates = Aquifers

Waterloo Moraine's Complex Geology

Along coastal areas, geological composition is relatively consistent and “predictable”.

The Waterloo Moraine is located at the intersection of multiple glacial lobes.

The geology is very complex and less predictable.

Cross Section of Waterloo Moraine

Why protect the Waterloo Moraine? This system of glacial formed aggregates gathers

municipal water for our region and communities downstream.

It has been filtering, transporting, storing water and offsetting flood risk for 15,000 years for free!

The sediment distribution controls flow and flow rates to our fisheries, wells systems, the Grand River & Lake Erie.

Water volumes are need to dilute contamination issues and to keep wells running.

Grand River supports the same Gross National Revenue as Nova Scotia and contains 51% of Canada's fish species It is a Natural Heritage River.

The Waterloo MoraineYellow = 80% of the water

Development Encroaching!

Road Salt Risk

Source Water Protection Map: ROPP

Gravel Pits encroaching!

Contamination Issues Effluent: 29 waste water plants drain effluent into the Grand

River

Animal wastes: 290,000 cows in the Grand River Watershed produce waste = five million people.

Leaky Landfills: The Greenbrook well contaminated by 1,4 dioxane, Middleton Wells in Cambridge at risk too. Waterloo's Landfill is leaking vinyl chloride.

Industrial waste: Elmira had contamination of NDMA (nitrosodimethylamine) from Unroyal/Chemtura. Elmira lost it's groundwater supply.

In Cambridge, North Star was sued for trichloroethylene (TCE) contamination.

Opportunities to improve

-Composting toilets can conserve water & reduce wastes in waterways. Wastes are reduced to 2% of it's mass in 5 years and end product safe for landscaping.

-Biofuel recovery from sewage and farm wastes can replace gas from fracking to heat homes and run cars

-creation of aggregate materials from sewage and farm wastes reduce dependency on gravel extraction for roads and construction materials

-Biochemical in-situ remediation of contaminates including TCE is available. Natural enzymes “eat” toxins on site.

Challenges in Protecting it

Provincial Growth Targets may exceed carrying capacity of the Grand River and deplete the moraine. Gravel projects place the moraine and Grand River at risk.

Today's policies cannot be grandfathered so older plans approved years back don't have to comply to today's laws. They pose a risk.

We don't know how much water we have. Our knowledge of ground water volumes is limited to pre-development studies.

Some consulting firms make money re mediating the situations they create. There is money in destruction for them but heavy costs to taxpayers.

Challenges cont.

The MNR does not recognize municipal policies so municipally protected lands (like the ESL) are still at risk for aggregate extraction.

The MOE reviewed our request for a Waterloo Moraine Act but the scope excluded socio-economic, health and long term sustainability issues as well as down stream impacts.

Challenges cont.

- The review lacked regard to the last five years worth of source water protection legislation.

- The MOE report did not assess whether the ecological capacity of the moraines can realistically accommodate the projected growth in the region.

- To protect the system, cross jurisdictional and Federal water policies are needed.

Ontario Environmental Commissioner of Ontario 2009/2010 Annual Report

If the principles of watershed-based planning are applied, and the environmental and socio-economic context of the moraines are examined to assess the cumulative effects of development, the ECO believes that the current provincial policies do not adequately protect the ecological and hydrogeological integrity of moraines.

Watersheds should be a key unit within land use planning in which to frame decision-making.

ECO cont.

The population projections for Growth Plan communities were established before the future water and wastewater infrastructure was identified, and their associated costs and environment impacts, were assessed.

This clearly indicates that provincial policies, such as the Growth Plan, favor economic development over sustainable planning processes.

ECO cont.

Not only does the Growth Plan fail to require that population allocations be adjusted for communities with watersheds close to or already at carrying capacity, it favors large-scale infrastructure projects to overcome natural limits.

Waterloo is proposing to address any future water shortages by constructing a pipe to Lake Erie to pump water in and out of the city. Not only do infrastructure projects like these override natural ecological carrying capacity, they are also extremely costly and energy intensive, and as a sewage and water systems, ("infrastructure") they are exempt from natural heritage protections in the PPS and Greenbelt Plan despite their potential for significant environmental effects.

ECO's recommendation:

The ECO recommends that the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing amend the Provincial Policy Statement to require that long term ecological function and biodiversity of natural heritage systems are maintained.

http://www.eco.on.ca

Lake Erie Pipeline- Cost: $1.2 billion (2008)

- no treatment or transportation costs estimates

- Does not include cost to upgrade intake facilities.

- Water delivered uphill

- The Grand River would be “infrastructure” and lose heritage status.

Lake Erie:Under Stress

Toxic Algae Issues

Growing “Dead Zone”

Declining water volumes

Contamination issues

Climate Change

Zebra Mussel blocks intake

Invasive species

Canadian and US water taking

Bulk Water Shipments

Will it be drinkable?Will it be drinkable?

Toxic Blue Green Algae seen from space.

International Joint Commissionbiennial report on the state of the Great Lakes

Calling Lake Erie the "poster child" for eutrophication, the commission's U.S. co-chair, Lana Pollack, said much of the lake is back to being coated with slimy green algal blooms in the summer, as it was in the 1960s and early '70s.

"They said, 'Well, we have this one fixed.' Well, we don't have this one fixed," she said.

March 9, 2011 CBC NEWS

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/windsor/story/2011/03/09/tech-ijc-great-lakes.html

IJC: full report page 33

It is clear that human and ecosystem health in the Great Lakes basin cannot be protected without protecting ground-water resources.

http://www.ijc.org/rel/news/2011/110308_e.htm

TAKE ACTION!

-Source Water Protection Act must include Quarries as a risk

-Environmental Assessments for Quarries in Ontario

Mandate test times and methods

Conserve Aggregates

Protect the function of AggregatesAggregates = Water Supplies