Dear Warden Murphy,
I just read Section 16 of the Renfrew County Official plan and I have to admit I’m astounded and disappointed at the lack of the information outlined in item two Waterfront-Exception Two (Muskrat Lake).
Let me start by giving you the background of the dialogue in this section.
On August 13, 2012 a meeting was held in Bancroft Ontario with Brian Whitehead of Jp2g, Peter Taylor and Victor Castro of the MOE, Rick Watchorn and Doug Skeggs of the MNR and Michael Michalski. From that meeting a letter was sent by Rick Watchorn, on September 7, 2012, to Mayor Jim Labow of Whitewater Region, stating several things that Whitewater Region should be doing to make an improvement to Muskrat Lake.
To my knowledge the same type of letter was not circulated to other regions in Renfrew county that were impacting and continue to impact total phosphorus contamination in Muskrat Lake. In my opinion those requests to Whitewater Region were reasonable and several are listed in Section 16 of the official plan.
In February 1981 an Environmental Appraisal on the proposed deepening of the Upper Harris Drain was requested by and given to Bromley Township. Since the MNR was concerned about further degradation of Muskrat Lake by the proposed drainage works and from that Environmental Appraisal they requested a more thorough Environmental Appraisal that was published in August 1981.
That August 1981 Appraisal essentially had the same conclusions as the February Appraisal but with the following statement: ”we recommend, with reservation regarding the poor water quality condition and subject to our supplementary recommendations, that the proposed work be approved…” To my knowledge, none of those three and a half pages of Supplementary Recommendations have ever been acted upon by Bromley Township.
In 1982 three Ontario government agencies, the Ministry of Natural Resources (MNR), Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs (OMAFRA) and the Ontario Municipal Board all gave the approval to Bromley Township to proceed with the drainage works hence those agencies contributed to the further degradation of Muskrat Lake.
On January 4, 1983, Bromley Township passed bylaw 1982-884 authorizing the deepening of the Upper Harris Drain. From data published in 1978 by the Ministry of Environment (MOE) the average total phosphorus (TP) concentration in Muskrat Lake was 24 ug/l except at the south end where it was 37 ug/l, due to Cobden not having an effluent treatment plant. Since the 1980’s drainage works in Bromley Township the average total phosphorus in Muskrat Lake is 33 ug/l (MECP data).
The 2016 Data from the MECP indicates that over 90 per cent of the agricultural TP load to Muskrat Lake is from the Snake River. It also shows that the contribution of TP from the Snake River due to agricultural activity is more than four times the anthropogenic load to Muskrat Lake.
In section 16.2.6, Natural Shoreline Buffer, paragraph three, this should read: “These policies also apply to the tributaries flowing to the Muskrat Lake, Snake River and Muskrat River.” The words, “within the Township of Whitewater Region” should be deleted.
I understand as indicated in the Official Plan that Whitewater Region has some responsibility to reduce the TP in Muskrat Lake but this is a watershed problem and hence a Renfrew County problem not just a Whitewater Region problem.
The Renfrew County Official Plan should be revised to reflect not only the actions that should be taken by Whitewater Region but also by Admaston-Bromley and North Algoma Wilberfoce Townships and Renfrew County to reduce the total phosphorus in Muskrat Lake.
Yours sincerely,
Donald W. Deer of Cobden, Ontario
