Dear Editor:
An open letter to Victor Castro and Hollee Kew, Regional Director for the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change; Whitewater Region Council members; and the County of Renfrew
The Muskrat Lake Association is a group of residents living on Muskrat Lake. We are very concerned about the health problems associated with the algal blooms in Muskrat Lake as well as the high E-coli causing closure of not only the Cobden beach but also loss of recreational use of the entire lake.
We also understand that the Whitewater Region Council is proceeding with the design and construction of a new Water Pollution Control Plant (WPCP) for the town of Cobden. It is our understanding that this new WPCP will have much stricter design requirements not only for E-coli but also for Total Phosphorus coming from the new plant mainly because Muskrat Lake is a designated “At-Capacity” lake.
As you are aware one of the problems with the existing plant is that during the spring run-off and rain storms the plant has to bypass the WPCP with several thousand liters of raw sewage-contaminated water as there is no present means to handle this excess. The city of Ottawa has a similar problem to Cobden as do a lot of other cities and towns in Ontario. Recently in the news the city of Ottawa has announced a series of tunnels to collect this excess sewage-contaminated water so that it does not spill into the Ottawa River and recycle it slowly back into the treatment plants.
The consultant for the new WPCP here in Cobden has estimated that to separate all the storm sewers from the sanitary sewers in order to eliminate the bypass problem would cost upwards of $14,000,000.
Since Muskrat Lake is a designated “At-Capacity “ lake we are requesting that the MOECC include in the design requirements a “spill lagoon” to handle this excess flow. This sewage-contaminated water could then be fed gradually back into the WPCP main feed. It would be a much less expensive solution than trying to separate the storm and sanitary sewers.
We await your decision on this important request.
Regards:
Gary Younghusband, Secretary, Muskrat Lake Association.
