Wellington Water Watchers will forego an appeal of the April 30 decision by the Ontario Ministry of the Environment to grant a five-year extension to the water-taking permit in Aberfoyle issued to Nestlé Waters Canada.
“The Environmental Bill of Rights (EBR) system is flawed, and we have decided there is no point in participating in a process that appears to be a window-dressing exercise,” said board member Mike Nagy.
He said the group will continue to oppose the plastic bottled water industry while supporting and promoting municipal drinking water. The group also argues Ontario’s EBR process overwhelmingly favours “the proponent” – in this case, Nestlé – and needs overhauling and renewal itself.
“Proper procedures were not followed in this permit review and we were not treated fairly as stakeholders in the process,” Nagy said. “ It is hard to believe in what is supposed to be an objective and balanced process, that Nestlé was put in charge of arranging technical meetings and inviting the participants. The Wellington Water Watchers were marginalized as a result.”
The group said a particularly glaring oversight was Nestlé’s exclusion of Wellington Water Watchers from a key technical meeting on March 24.
“The MOE should have been leading these meetings and ensuring that all stakeholders were invited and able to attend,” Nagy said. “It’s obvious to us that the proponent has a vested interest in keeping specific parties – particularly those seeking restrictions – from participating.”
Wellington Water Watchers had expected the renewed permit to be no longer than two years, with annual water volume reductions, and its belief that the wider community did not favour renewal. The group continues to have significant concerns that the MOE has not properly considered many unresolved issues, including the lack of cold water upwelling in Mill Creek and potential for introduction of contaminants into the aquifer as a result of the pumping.
“Further, volume reduction should have been part of this new agreement, as Ontario is currently reviewing all water budgets and will be looking for conservation from all sectors in the near future,” said board member André Hueniken. “The province needs to live up to its commitment to uphold the precautionary principle, not just in word, but in deed, especially when making decisions that will affect future generations.
“We’re not going away,” he added. “We’ll continue to do everything we can to protect our watershed, and to properly regulate this wasteful, unnecessary industry.”
