Sewage dumped into drinking water?

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Published on Monday, 24 July 2017 12:45
Written by editor
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PAOV – This petition is gaining traction, but it could still use your support. Do you have a moment to take a look? It's not too late for you to add your signature.

Petitioning Ontario Ministry of the Environment and Climate Change

Stand with Georgina Island First Nation to Protect the Lake Simcoe Watershed

Petition by Friends of GIFN Canada 18,255 Supporters Sign the petition

Imagine not being able to drink from your tap water for over 2 years and finding out that the Ontario Ministry of the Environment and Climate Change (MOECC) received a proposal that will dump over 40 million litres of treated sewage daily into your only source of water.

This is exactly what the people of Georgina Island First Nation (GIFN) have been dealing with. GIFN have been raising concerns about the impacts of the proposed Upper York Sewage Solutions treatment plant project on the Lake Simcoe watershed.

The York Region municipality is claiming the project will have no adverse impacts on the Lake.

In solidarity with GIFN, we are calling for the Ministry of the Environment and Climate Change to explicitly reject the proposal as it stands.

GIFN leadership objections centre around:

  • The results presented in the Environmental Assessment only reflect studies conducted for a period of one year, meaning long term impacts on the ecosystem are not accounted for or considered
  • The impact of pharmaceutical and personal care products on the water are unclear and no studies have been conducted on their impact on the Lake Simcoe watershed
  • Traditional ecological knowledge of GIFN has not been incorporated
  • No studies have been conducted on how the Lake and watershed will be affected overall by the developments in York Region and the waste and pollution that will be generated through this development.
  • York Region has not submitted a project management plan for the UYSS project. It has been proposed that this plan will be completed upon approval. GIFN strongly disagrees with this approach and believes that the project management plan should be part of the EA.

Furthermore there has been a lack of commitment from the Ministry to ensure the cleanup of the site of the Thane aluminium smelter, shut down in 1997, which is an illegal waste site that is contaminating groundwater and seeping into Lake Simcoe.

Please sign this petition to urge the Ontario Ministry of Environment and Climate Change to:

Explicitly reject the Upper York Sewage Solutions project proposal as it stands and:

  1. Revisit the consultation process and actively seek the consent of GIFN
  2. Include rehabilitation of water infrastructure on Georgina Island
  3. Include clean-up of Thane smelter site

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