The Ministry of the Environment (MOE) has decided to renew Nestlé Waters Canada’s water taking permit for another five years.
The company applied for a 10-year renewal to extract up to 3.6 million litres of water a day from its well on Brock Road in Aberfoyle. The MOE decided on the shorter permit at the same level, but that seemed to suit Nestlé officials fine.
“We’re satisfied with the decision,” said John Challinor, Nestlé’s director of corporate affairs.
He said ministry decisions are hard to predict, but the five-year renewal illustrates Nestlé’s unprecedented $3-million investment in monitoring and hydrogeological study – completed since its last permit approval in 2008 – has paid off.
“We basically satisfied all of their concerns and met all of their requirements,” Challinor said.
An April 29 letter to Nestlé from MOE regional director Carl Slater seemed to confirm that statement.
“The ongoing monitoring and recent extended pumping test indicate that the water taking is not having an impact on other groundwater uses,” Slater said.
“The history of this taking also indicates that there have been no interference with either quantity or quality on other groundwater uses.”
Slater explained the ministry went with a term of five years instead of 10 “to allow a fulsome and ongoing review of monitoring data in a shorter time frame … It also allows for consideration of the water taking to be re-evaluated depending upon the local conditions and development in the area.”
He added, “Five years is a reasonable time frame and balances the comments raised during the public and stakeholder review with the company request.”
Despite those comments from the ministry, Guelph-based advocacy group the Wellington Water Watchers is disappointed with the decision.
“We’re unhappy with it for many reasons … we don’t believe it’s a responsible permit,” said Wellington Water Watchers member Mike Nagy.
He called a five-year term “unacceptable,” especially considering stricter regulations from the province could be introduced as early as this year.
“And there’s no volume reduction, which is a major disappointment,” Nagy added.
Puslinch Mayor Dennis Lever, who previously expressed concern about the decade-long permit application, seemed satisfied with the ministry’s decision.
“Most people will be happy it’s for five years instead of ten, and I think the township feels that way as well,” Lever told the Advertiser.
He noted he still wants to discuss the conditions with township hydrogeologist Stan Denhoed to confirm the monitoring criteria Denhoed was seeking was included in the Nestle permit agreement.
And the mayor again expressed frustration that the MOE refuses to look at the cumulative impact of all the water users in the area.
