Nestlé Waters Canada officials are not happy with the Ministry of the Environment’s decision to limit the company’s renewal of an Aberfoyle water taking permit to just two years.
“We’re disappointed it wasn’t five years,” President Gail Cosman said in an interview on Monday. “But we will continue to work with the ministry of the environment on what they have requested.”
Cosman added that the water bottling company appreciates all the input it has received on its operations in Puslinch Township.
In a decision announced last week, MOE officials stated that the extraction of up to 3.6 million litres of water a day – the approved rate for the previous and newly approved permits – is “sustainable,” but the ministry denied Nestlé’s request for a term of five years.
“Although studies have shown that Nestlé’s water taking does not impact existing users or local surface waters, the ministry is only renewing the permit for two years at this time,” the decision stated.
In addition, the permit will impose on Nestlé “strict conditions to protect existing water users and the natural environment,” including:
– extensive monitoring conditions for surface water and groundwater;
– a prolonged pumping test during summer to confirm that previous surface water impacts are not seasonal and to refine and define the zone of groundwater influence from the pumping; and
– compiling a biological inventory in the Mill Creek and preparing and implementing a stream habitat mapping plan.
“The ministry will continue to closely oversee Nestlé’s water takings,” the announcement concludes.
Puslinch Mayor Brad Whitcombe said he thinks the MOE decision is a positive thing.
“I think that’s appropriate,” Whitcombe said of the two-year renewal.
Whitcombe noted the two years was also the recommendation of Stan Denhoed, the township’s hydrogeologist.
The mayor explained the decision allows Nestlé to continue doing business, while also helping the monitoring in the Mill Creek area, the results of which will be used in two years to ensure the MOE’s decision at that time helps to minimize the environmental impacts Nestlé operations have in the area.
“Our position was that it has to be sustainable, and that’s what the MOE says this will do,” Whitcombe said.
Wellington-Halton Hills MPP Ted Arnott, who has taken a keen interest in Nestlé’s operations in Puslinch, said the MOE should carefully monitor large-volume water users, and if they are taking more water than is permitted, their permits should be revoked.
“As I have said many times, protection of our groundwater is essential for future generations,” Arnott noted in a statement.
“No water-taking permit should be approved unless hydrogeological studies prove that groundwater resources will not be depleted and neighbouring wells will not be negatively impacted.”
Guelph MPP Liz Sandals praised the MOE’s decision, as well as recent changes to the permit renewal process.
“Protecting Ontario’s water is an important responsibility of the provincial government,” Sandals said in a press release.
“I am confident that the new water protection measures put in place by our government significantly increase our capacity to safeguard and manage Ontario’s water resources.”
The MOE decision was also met with some enthusiasm by the Wellington Water Watchers (WWW), an advocacy group with over 600 members dedicated to the protection and conservation of drinking water in Guelph and Wellington County.
A WWW blog (http://wellingtonwaterwatchers.wordpress.com) includes the following statement from the group: “While we would like to stress that, in our view, any permit granted to a commercial bottler to take public water essentially for free is squandering a precious public resource, we are nonetheless pleased that the MOE has reduced the requested time frame from five years to two.”
When asked if Nestlé’s long-term plans remain unchanged or if the company would seek an increase in its water taking in Aberfoyle in two years, Cosman replied that she is unsure.
“I have no idea what will happen in two years,” she said. “I don’t want to make any predictions about the future.”
Water removal since 1984
Nestlé Waters Canada and its predecessors, Aberfoyle Springs and Aberfoyle Fisheries, have had a water taking permit for a well on the south side of Brock Road in Aberfoyle since 1984.
Nestlé’s previous permit to take water in Aberfoyle expired last June. The company submitted its application for a five-year renewal term prior to expiry and had been operating under an extension of its permit conditions until a decision was made on the renewal last week.
The application was posted on the Environmental Bill of Rights (EBR) registry last April, and it received over 6,000 submissions.
Members of the community looking for more information about Nestlé’s permit renewal or who have any other questions should email comments_for_the_president@waters.nestle.com or visit www.nestle-watersna.com.
