April 15, 2004
Mayor and Members of
Council
The Corporation of the
Municipality of Bluewater
14 Mill Street
Zurich, Ontario
Re:
2004 Budget Request BSRA Water Testing Program
BSRA made a presentation
to Council at its last meeting on April 5th, reviewing our
recommendations previously submitted to Council last summer, outlining
the results of our 2003 water testing and recent developments related
to water quality, and indicating the general nature of our plans for
water testing in 2004. Following the presentation and discussion,
Bluewater Council passed the following motion unanimously:
WHEREAS
the physical health of our residents and the economic health of our
community are of vital concern to the Municipality of Bluewater; and
WHEREAS the testing of surface water entering Lake Huron within the
Municipality of Bluewater has consistently shown high levels of
E-coli bacteria; and
WHEREAS it has been demonstrated that faulty septic systems, municipal
sewage treatment, and agricultural runoff can contribute to the
presence of E-coli in surface water entering Lake Huron;
BE
IT RESOLVED that Council request
the Bluewater Shoreline Residents Association:
To provide Council later this spring with information on BSRA plans
for 2004 water testing;
To present at a future meeting more detailed recommendations for
Council to consider on ways to improve the quality of surface water
entering Lake Huron by reducing potential pollution from septic
systems, municipal sewage treatment, and agricultural runoff;
To consult with the Chief Building Official and the Manager of Public
Works in the development of its recommendations related to septic
systems and municipal sewage treatment; and
To work with the Huron County Health Unit and the committees at Huron
County Council.
At that time, BSRA was
advised that any request for 2004 Municipal funding should be
submitted before the April 29th budget meeting. In
response, we are providing in the attached submission a monetary
request for consideration by Council during the 2004 Bluewater budget
deliberations, along with the information and detailed recommendations
requested by Council in its motion of April 5th.
We would request the
opportunity to outline to Council the rationale for these proposals
and to respond to any questions that individual Councillors may have.
Subject to Councils preference, such discussion could occur either on
April 29th during the 2004 Budget deliberations, or at its
next regular meeting on May 3rd.
Sincerely,
John Gillespie
President
attachment
cc: J.
Zimmerman
Protection of Water Quality The Municipality of Bluewater
Lake Huron is considered
to be a provincial and national treasure. The Lake Huron shoreline is
the basis of our Countys promotion as Ontarios West Coast and the
very name of our Municipality itself.
Unfortunately, the
testing of surface water entering Lake Huron within the Municipality
of Bluewater has consistently shown high levels of E-coli bacteria.
Faulty septic systems, municipal sewage treatment, and agricultural
runoff are known contributors to the presence of E-coli and other
contaminants in surface water entering Lake Huron.
The protection of water
quality within our Municipality is obviously vital to both the
physical health of our residents and the economic health of our
community. The recommendations in this proposal are designed to
reduce contaminants within our Municipality and County, thereby
protecting the water quality. Our elected representatives
Municipal, County, Provincial and Federal have an individual and
collective responsibility as stewards of this precious asset. It is
our expectation that they will adopt whatever measures are necessary
to protect and improve the quality of our water for present and future
generations.
______________________________________________________________________
A.
Background
One of the BSRA
Priorities presented to our 2003 Annual Meeting was:
To
share information, make recommendations to, and cooperate with
municipal, county and provincial officials with respect to matters
affecting the environment within the Municipality of Bluewater and the
County of Huron. This would include cooperative strategies that may
result from the BSRA Lake Huron water testing programme.
In the summer of 2003,
BSRA made a presentation with respect to surface water quality to the
previous Bluewater Council. Our letter of July 29, 2003, outlined six
recommendations made by our Environment Committee. On April 5, 2004,
BSRA made a presentation to Council, reviewing the recommendations
submitted to Council last summer; outlining the results of our 2003
water testing and recent developments related to water quality; and
indicating the general nature of our plans for water testing in 2004.
Over the last six months,
BSRA representatives have participated in the following water quality
initiatives:
November 28
Huron County Health Unit forum re
water quality.
April 5-6
University of Guelph Microbial Source
Tracking Workshop
The Chairperson of the
BSRA Environment Committee attended this workshop which included
presentations and discussion with some of the leading North American
experts in the field, and was attended by representatives of several
local organizations and staff from the local regional office of
various Ministries.
April 7 Huron County Water
Protection Steering Committee initial meeting
Earlier this year, County
Council established and funded the Huron County Water Protection
Steering Committee on which BSRA has representation.
Janisse Zimmerman,
representing the Clerks and Administrators, is also a designated
member of the Steering Committee. Scheduled dates for future meetings
are June 17, September 23, and December 16.
B. Council Direction Motion of April 5, 2004
The
following observations are made with respect to the four requests
contained in this Council motion:
1.
Coordination
To
work with the Huron County Health Unit and the committees at Huron
County Council.
There is a degree of
consensus among the members of the
County Water Protection Steering Committee that, to the
degree possible:
efforts within Huron
County to improve or protect water quality should be vetted through
the Committee;
the likelihood of
financial assistance from the provincial and/or federal governments
for water quality initiatives will be enhanced if such requests flow
from County Council via the Committee; and
requesting the provincial
government to establish Huron County as a pilot area for projects or
initiatives related to protecting water quality merits serious
consideration.
The BSRA recommendations
in this proposal reflect the intent of these points. The objective is
to obtain approval by the Bluewater Council as soon as possible to
ensure that the Bluewater-endorsed initiatives could be forwarded to
the Huron County Water Protection Steering Committee for information,
discussion, and support at its next meeting on June 17.
2.
Consultation
To
consult with the Chief Building Official and the Manager of Public
Works in the development of its recommendations related to septic
systems and municipal sewage treatment.
It is important that any
proposed measures to protect and improve water quality receive an
adequate level of expert review prior to implementation. BSRA has
already had informal discussion on water quality issues with
representatives of the following:
Huron County Health Unit;
B.M. Ross & Associates
(engineering consultants both to Bluewater and Huron County with
respect to matters related to water quality) who made major
presentations to the County Water Protection Steering Committee
meeting on April 7th;
Huron County Water
Protection Steering Committee facilitator: Wayne Caldwell (Senior
Planner)
We expect
additional consultation to occur with the above over the next month.
Clearly, discussion with
the Bluewater managers responsible for matters related to water
quality will also be an essential part of such consultation. The
input of our Chief Building Official and Manager of Public Works
with responsibilities for septic systems, and water supply and sewage
lagoons respectively will be important in developing implementation
strategies.
3.
BSRA 2004 Water Testing
To
provide Council later this spring with information on BSRA plans for
2004 water testing.
BSRA has conducted its
water testing in consultation with the Huron County Health Unit. The
Huron County Health Unit noted at the April 7th meeting of
the county Lake Huron Water Protection Steering Committee that a beach
water testing program as conducted in the past in Huron County is not
part of the mandate from the Ministry of Health for a county health
unit, but rather reflects a local decision for such extended testing.
This raises a question about the nature and extent of future testing
by the County Health Unit.
It is not the intent of
shoreline residents to duplicate the efforts of the Health Unit, but
rather complement, or go beyond the limits of their program. We would
note, however, that the BSRA testing of ravine water emptying into
Lake Huron, in addition to the adjacent beaches, is an example of
testing that provides information beyond the Health Unit beach tests
alone. It has demonstrated clearly that there are significant amounts
of E-coli present in the streams emptying into Lake Huron.
2004 marks the ninth year
for a resident-initiated program of testing ravine and beach water
along the Lake Huron shoreline within the boundaries of the
Municipality of Bluewater. This experience of eight years illustrates
the importance of continued testing to determine what progress, if
any, is being made to reduce the contaminants entering Lake Huron via
its feeder ravine streams.
BSRA plans to extend its
traditional testing methods in 2004 to include DNA-type testing to
confirm contaminant sources. Discussions are currently under way with
representatives of testing labs as to the number and location of
testing sites. Only by identifying specific sources can corrective
measures be tailored to reduce or eliminate a specific contaminant,
and thereby improve and protect water quality.
Since such identification
is of benefit to the entire Municipality of Bluewater, Council is
being requested in this proposal to contribute financially to defray
the cost. A neighbouring Huron County municipality
Ashfield-Colborne-Wawanosh has already shown leadership in this
regard by contributing to the cost of a similar testing program
coordinated by the Ashfield Colborne Lakefront Association.
4.
Reducing Potential Pollution
To
present at a future meeting more detailed recommendations for Council
to consider on ways to improve the quality of surface water entering
Lake Huron ...
The recommendations on
the following pages are designed to
improve the quality of surface water entering Lake Huron by reducing
potential pollution from septic systems, municipal sewage treatment,
and agricultural runoff. These recommendations provide a
unique opportunity for Bluewater to assume a leadership role, both
within our own Municipality and within the entire County of Huron,
with respect to the protection of water quality.
It is important that, to
the degree possible, Bluewater seek to obtain coordination of action
on a county-wide basis through the Lake Huron Water Protection
Steering Committee. However, it should be noted that such
county-level discussions do not relieve our elected and administrative
officials from their responsibility to assume leadership with respect
to water quality measures within our own Municipality of Bluewater.
C. Recommendations
1. That Council review the results of the 2004 BSRA water
testing program to determine what additional measures should be
considered to improve or protect water quality.
2. That Bluewater Council recommend to the Huron County Water
Protection Steering Committee
that the watershed with the outflow at the St. Joseph ravine be
established as an area for a water quality pilot initiative
involving the following components:
(a) Septic system pumpout,
inspection and maintenance/upgrading
The Municipality of Bluewater should:
Seek through the
Huron County Water Protection Steering
Committee the establishment of a fund for the purpose of
providing loans to property owners wishing or required to upgrade
septic systems;
Avail itself of the
provisions of the Building Code requiring inspection of septic systems
by arranging for the Huron County
Health Unit to monitor the pumping out and inspection by
September 1, 2005, of all septic systems within the designated pilot
project area;
Where such inspection
indicates that expenditures are required to upgrade a septic system,
require such upgrading to be completed within 12 months of the
availability of a loan from such a fund, or July 1, 2007, whichever
shall occur earlier; and
Upon receipt of a
report from the Huron County Health
Unit on the monitoring of septic systems within the
designated pilot area, consider adopting the measures necessary to
implement a septic system inspection program across the entire
Municipality of Bluewater.
(b) Sewage treatment: Wards of
Zurich, Hay (East & West), and Stanley (East & West)
The Municipality of
Bluewater should seek, through the
Huron County Water Protection Steering Committee,
government funding to
support:
the
upgrading of the Zurich
sewage lagoons to enable the facility to adequately process sewage
from existing sources, and to service the Bluewater Rest Home;
the expansion
of the Zurich sewage lagoons to provide the capacity necessary to
process:
septage received from
septic systems within the Municipality; and
farm manure, as an
alternative to spreading on tiled fields;
a feasability study with
respect to alternatives for treating sewage along the Highway 21 /
lakeshore corridor, including:
sewers (at
a minimum in the area from Grand Bend to St. Joseph); and/or
smaller
communal treatment systems in larger shoreline subdivisions.
(c) Consultation and Partnership
with Agricultural Operations Within the Designated Watershed Area to
Achieve Project Goals
The Municipality of
Bluewater should establish a
Steering Committee with the following
Terms of Reference:
To identify all
agricultural producers in the designated watershed area;
To encourage
participation on the project Steering Committee;
To ensure awareness among
agricultural producers of water quality issues and project details;
To determine the
percentage of agricultural operations with nutrient management and
environmental farm plans;
To encourage creation and
implementation of nutrient management and environmental farm plans for
all agricultural operations in the designated watershed area;
To examine alternative
methods of treatment / disposal of manure generated from agricultural
operations; and
To
report to the
Bluewater Council and
Huron County Water Protection Steering
Committee in the fall of
2007 with respect to the project, and to recommend such
additional measures as may be deemed necessary to ensure the
protection of water quality.
3. That Bluewater Council endorse the following water
protection measures for consideration by the Huron County Water
Protection Steering Committee:
Increasing the
supports provided
to family farm operations.
Family farm operators
typically live in our community, are active members of the community,
live by the same values as a majority of Bluewater residents, and are
a strong positive component of the Bluewater community. The existence
of family farm operations is under threat primarily from the expansion
of factory farms. Council should become more involved in supporting
this component of our community.
Imposing a
moratorium on livestock factory farm
developments either expansions or new operations.
While complex, a
method of defining factory farms and family farms is possible.
Factory farm operations create an ongoing environmental risk due
to the volume of manure produced and the common farming practice
of applying manure to agricultural fields. While ultimately
this issue may have to be resolved on a provincial basis,
Council has the power to achieve a moratorium for the
Municipality of Bluewater through its control of official plans,
zoning bylaws, bylaw variances and building permits.
Imposing a moratorium,
pending provincial action, on any expansion or implementation of
livestock operations that will use the
application of liquid manure
to agricultural fields as part of their nutrient/manure management
plan.
4. That the 2004 Bluewater Budget include the following
amounts for Water Quality Initiatives:
BSRA
Water Testing Program
[See Recommendation 1]
(BSRA to be reimbursed
for 2004 water test expenditures up to limit of budget.)
$ 5,000 Continuation of
2003 program sites and methodolog
$ 10,000 Expanded program
using DNA testing to confirm contaminant sources
Sewage
treatment study
[See Recommendation 2 (b)]
$ 5,000 Preparatory
work necessary to prepare government funding submissions
Agricultural Operations Within Designated Watershed Area
[See Recommendation 2 (c)]
$ 5,000 Municipality
of Bluewater Steering Committee
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