Dear Editor:
The misinformation coming from Whitewater Region Council in the March 29 issue of Whitewater News regarding action taken by the Muskrat Lake Association (MLA) is very disturbing. We believe that neither the Mayor nor Council read the Environmental Assessment prior to their comments.
Below are corrections to the article in the Whitewater News in which the Mayor and Council tried to deflect the blame of the extra costs of the new Cobden Water Pollution Control Plant (WPCP) on the MLA which represents ratepayers living on the lake.
The MLA had several calls and emails to Whitewater Region and Jp2g in 2016 and 2017 to ask that the issue of bypasses of the Cobden WPCP be addressed in the design of the new plant. E.G. From town records the existing plant in 2009 discharged more than 35,000 cubic meters of sewage laden rainwater over a period of 394 hours into Muskrat Lake. From 2003 to 2016 the total is about 50,000 cubic meters. Yet in the Environmental Assessment (EA) issued in February 2017 by Jp2g there was no mention of how the bypass issue would be addressed. The Environmental Manager in a report to Whitewater Region council in the fall of 2016 stated that the new plant would still have bypasses.
Obviously Councillor Charlene Jackson is not well informed as Kevin Mooder of Jp2g in Ottawa tried to set up a meeting with Whitewater Region to discuss the bypass issue but received no reply from Whitewater Region. The MLA had agreed to meet to see if the issue could be resolved without issuing the Part ll Order. It was obvious that neither the Mayor nor any member of Council wanted to hear the concerns of the MLA so, as it was our Legal Right, the MLA issued the Part ll Order. For the past year there have been no attempts by either the Mayor, Council or Whitewater Region staff to try and resolve the issue. The matter was only resolved after the MLA got proactive and contacted the Manager, Environmental Assessment Services Section of the MOECC in Toronto.
The information that we received from the MOECC that finally convinced us to rescind the Part ll Order was never available in the EA issued by Jp2g and we were told that it would be decided once the detailed design was complete. This of course would have been too late to object if the bypass issue was not addressed. MOECC advised us that the Mayor could then decide if he wanted to address our concerns. If it had been available in the EA then all Whitewater Region and Jp2g had to do was indicate what page it was on.
Cost Issue
Yes, there will be likely some increase in cost due to inflation. 1.6 percent of $9 million (left to spend) = $144,000.
This cost could have been avoided in March of 2017 and the responsibility totally rests on the shoulders of the Mayor and Council because of their refusal to recognize ratepayers on Muskrat Lake. The plant was delayed 12 months by the Part ll Order. The other 3-month delay was a delay by Jp2g in issuing the EA at a cost of $36,000.
Since Councillor Jackson seems adept at estimating costs then why is there a cost to extract information by the MOECC from a document that the Mayor stated: “ The information the MOECC received was exactly the same information given to them in the original application that was approved.” Where does the extra $220,000 estimated cost come from Councillor Jackson?
- c) No CEO that we know of would ever go out for funding for a project based upon a Class C estimate or was it really an educated guess-estimate? Typically a +/- 10% estimate would be required.
A plant constructed three years ago at Port Carling, ON is slightly smaller in capacity and with similar equipment as to what is proposed in Cobden except that according to Janet Collins the Cobden plant will have more redundancy. The plant in Port Carling, according the plant manager, cost about $13.5 million. Cobden has budgeted $9.4 million.
The responsibility for any extra costs for this project rests solely with Whitewater Region Council through their mismanagement.
Respectfully,
MLA Directors: John Cull, Gary Younghusband, Kevin Lamorie, Donald W. Deer P.Eng., Hugh Mitchell DVM.
