Liz Armstrong wants to make sure Hillsburgh’s water concerns don’t go down the drain.
Armstrong, a member of the Climate Change Action Group of Erin, called the Advertiser on Monday about Nestlé Waters’ plan to renew its water taking permit near Hillsburgh.
The company has applied to extend its permit by 10 years.
Armstrong said several local groups have been working to keep tabs on the operation and a public meeting was set for April 17 at the Hillsburgh Community Centre. She felt it was odd the meeting was at the same time as the Erin council meeting.
Armstrong said there is little need to take any water from the site, citing the carbon footprint of the operation, as well as what she called constant noise at the site and the environmental impact of shipping the water to the Nestlé site in Aberfoyle.
The original permit was for five years and while Nestlé is seeking a 10-year extension, Armstrong said, “We’d prefer zero.” She added Erin residents have good water and access to good wells.
“We think this extension [for Nestlé] is unnecessary and will create more negatives than positives.”
She said the Council of Canadians and Wellington Water Watchers have also asked for a formal review of the whole process.
Armstrong said, “It seems Nestlé is trying to fly this [meeting] under the radar.” She and a friend were at the town office last week about another matter, where they heard about the meeting.
“It seems like a public meeting with very little publicity,” she said.
Nestlé Waters’ director of corporate affairs John Challinor defended the process.
“We couldn’t organize an open house until we filed our application and Ontario Ministry of Environment posted it on their website – which they did last week,” Challinor said.
He noted the MOE does not require Nestlé to host a public meeting to review a water-taking permit renewal.
“We have organized this open house on our own – and at our own expense,” Challinor said.
Armstrong said she is uncertain who received notice of the meeting other than staff at the town office, adding only those located within the hydrogeological area where the Nestlé draws water were invited to the meeting.
Armstrong opined that Credit Valley Conservation and the Grand River Conservation Authority need to be part of the dialogue as well to ensure there are proper restrictions.
“We don’t think a 10-year permit extension is a wise thing,” Armstrong said. She added “We already have available tap water which is cheaper than bottled.”
Challinor said about 100 personal invitations, in the form of a community Newsletter, were mailed to neighbours on April 10 and likely arrived at most homes by April 12.
Challinor said Nestlé also sent that information to the town, the MOE and its technical stakeholders.
“Again, on our initiative, we increased the size of this mailing ten-fold from our original mailing list of ten neighbours,” he said.
“We will be sending out personal mailings to our neighbours providing updates on this matter and others related to our business in the weeks, months and years to come.
“We have been mailing a community Newsletter to our neighbours in Hillsburgh since October 2009. Last week’s was the fifth edition.”
Regardless, three local groups have issued a press release challenging the Hillsburgh operation.
It stated, “In response to Nestlé Waters Canada’s application to renew its permit to take up to 1.1 million litres of water per day from Hillsburgh for its bottling plant in Aberfoyle, three local citizens’ groups have launched a campaign to stop or severely restrict the Nestlé permit.”
Friends of Hillsburgh Water, the Climate Change Action Group of Erin (CCAGE) and Wellington Water Watchers say they believe the Nestlé permit – or similar permits to bottle water – represents a net loss to the environment and health of the planet, and is an unnecessary and wasteful use of this finite resource.
“To our dismay, Nestlé seems to be ducking public dialogue on this renewal, by sending an announcement on April 10 about a public meeting it will hold on … April 17,” said Armstrong. “We will be asking for another meeting; this one properly publicized, well in advance.”
Challinor responded, “Whether it was a week or a month, there are always going to be conflicts with people’s schedules. [The meeting is scheduled] early enough in the spring that there isn’t a whole lot else going on right now.
“For example, we had no problem booking the facility. We heard from a couple of neighbours out of 100 invitations sent who can’t make it … We have offered to meet them over a coffee later this month, which we will. We meet with our neighbours on a regular basis.”
Nestlé has been operating on Sideroad 22, west of Trafalgar Road. The MOE, which oversees water taking in the province, charges $3.71 for each million litres taken.
“Problems with the Nestle permit go well beyond taking a precious resource for next to nothing from our local community and shipping it 50 kilometres away,” said Christopher Green of Friends of Hillsburgh Water.
“There are also issues with huge tanker trucks hauling water 24/7 along our sideroads and highways, including noise, dust, diesel pollution and road wear and tear.
“In addition, producing Nestlé’s PET containers uses significant amounts of scarce fossil fuels, and results in tens of millions of trashed plastic bottles every year – just from the Hillsburgh permit alone.”
PET is the type of plastic labeled with the number one code on or near the bottom of bottles and containers and is commonly used to package soft drinks, water and juice.
Green said, “All of this pollution and waste – and the loss of water from our local aquifer – is totally avoidable, since the Town of Erin and all Ontario municipalities have a much more convenient, far less costly alternative to water in plastic bottles, and that’s our excellent tap water.”
Mike Nagy, chairman of Wellington Water Watchers, a Guelph-based water advocacy group, says Ontario’s permit process for large-scale water taking fails badly when it comes bottled water licenses.
“These water-taking permits were developed long before plastic water bottles came on the scene 25 years ago, and they fail to live up to several of Ontario’s own statements of environmental values, as set out by the MOE,” Nagy said.
“A 2010 Statistics Canada study warned that renewable water in southern Canada has declined by 8.5% from 1971-2004, and it’s unclear what the impacts of climate change will be on our water availability, even in the very near future.
“Ontario claims we must protect our resources for future generations,” Nagy added. “But permits for water bottling simply don’t take climate change, or other multiple stressors, seriously enough.”
Wellington Water Watchers and the Council of Canadians have formally requested a review of Ontario’s Permit to Take Water process as it applies to bottling water, urging Ontario to overhaul its “outdated and narrow approach.”
The groups say that Ontario Environment Commissioner Gord Miller, speaking in Eden Mills last week, stated the province recognizes the process is outdated, but has not yet taken action.
Nestle’s Hillsburgh application must be posted on Ontario’s Environmental Registry website for a 30-day comment period (www.ebr.gov.on.ca/ERS-WEB-External – search ‘Nestlé’), but as of April 13 was not on the EBR site.
Nagy recommended contacting Environment Minister Jim Bradley directly, and urging local politicians to step up and defend local water.
Challinor stressed, “The public’s first point of response to our permit application is through the [MOE] web site, not through our open house.”
He explained the purpose of the open house “is to give them detailed information about our application that they may not find on the Ministry website so they have more information on which to base their comments on, should they decide to communicate with the ministry about our application.
“They also have the opportunity to talk on a one-on-one basis with our subject matter experts in hydrogeology and biology, who they would not have access to through the ministry.”
