The following article appeared in the May 8th edition of the Guelph Mercury:
But staff don’t oppose proposed permit renewal
The city won’t oppose Nestlé Waters Canada’s efforts to extend its water- pumping operation in Aberfoyle for five years, but council will.
After a lengthy debate last night, council adopted a city staff position on Nestlé that states it’s not against the company’s application with the province to renew its water-taking permit by five years on a technical basis. But council also decided to tell the Ministry of the Environment, through a letter from Mayor Karen Farbridge, it would prefer a two-year extension instead of five.
Farbridge will also outline council’s concerns about the impact of water pumping on the environment, on the water supply, and on the city’s ability to handle growth in the future.
The letter will go to Nestlé Waters Canada, Guelph-Wellington MPP Liz Sandals and Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty.
Farbridge said council accepts staff advice that Nestlé’s current application doesn’t interfere with the municipal water supply.
But she said council felt the need to send a strong message about its broader concerns.
“There are technical issues but there are political issues,” Farbridge said in an interview.
“And I think what we’re hearing from our community are larger, political policy issues.”
Nestlé Waters Canada president Gail Cosman, who was at the meeting, said council’s decision doesn’t change her company’s plans.
“I was appreciative of the council’s discussion on the matter,” she said. “I recognize their concerns.
“Ultimately, it will be a (Ministry of the Environment) decision.”
Council support for the statement from the mayor wasn’t unanimous. Councillors Gloria Kovach, Christine Billings and Karl Wettstein voted against it.
Kovach said too much of the information circulating through the community on Nestlé’s application is wrong. That’s led people to believe the situation is much more dire than it really is, she said.
Kovach stressed that city staff are not opposed to the application for a five-year renewal and said council should stick with that.
“If we do this, we’re contributing to the misinformation that’s getting out to the public,” she said of the mayor’s letter. “It’s highly political, it’s highly emotional.
“We’ve got to start making our decisions based on facts and we have to ensure those facts get out to the community.”
Dave Belanger, Guelph’s water supply program manager, wrote the memo that is being adopted as the city’s technical position on Nestlé’s application.
In the memo, he said Nestlé pumps its water from the Mill Creek watershed and the city draws from the Eramosa and Speed river watersheds.
For now, the company’s operations don’t overlap with the city’s water supply, Belanger said.
But there is concern about the future, he said.
The city’s water supply master plan, which outlines Guelph’s needs for the next 50 years, allows for the possibility it might draw from water sources in the Mill Creek watershed through a partnership with the Township of Puslinch.
Belanger said city staff would prefer that “no new water-takings be permitted in the city and surrounding area, other than for municipal, domestic and agricultural use.
“It is important that the (Ministry of the Environment) recognize that there are limits to the local drinking supply,” the memo said, “and controls must be placed on local water use to accommodate future municipal growth.”
Nestlé’s application is open for comment on the Ministry of the Environment’s website until Friday.
It has drawn a lot of attention from the public and from a grassroots group called the Wellington Water Watchers.
Lorenz Calcagno, speaking on the group’s behalf last night, said he was pleased with council’s decision. He said the province must change its permit system so that it doesn’t allow groundwater to be pumped and sold as a commodity.
“I see it as a win for the people of Wellington County and Guelph,” Calcagno said.
“It sends a strong message to the Ministry of the Environment that they need to re-examine the whole permit-to-take water structure.”