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Photo by Linda HeronPhoto Credit

Media Release: Town of Erin pays only $2 for 5 Hectares of Prime Real Estate?

Brook Trout fry, Photo by Steve Noakes

ERIN: Mayor Alls of Erin boasted, “I can reach in my pocket and pay for it” when the Town of Erin announced the purchase of 5 Hectares of land for $2 – land with an estimated value of $210,000 in the Environmental Study Report (ESR). 

Environmental lawyer David Donnelly spoke to the more than 300 people attending the March 25th virtual meeting to discuss the impact of the proposed Erin Wastewater Treatment Plant on dumping 7.2 million liters of sewage effluent daily into West Credit River Brook Trout habitat. 

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Request to remove Schedule 3 from Bill 257 – Joint

Update:  Ontario Government Passes Bill 257: Planning Act Amendments That Unleash Sprawl MZOs from Basic Planning Rules, Ontario Nature, 13 April 2021

We, the 120 undersigned organizations, strongly oppose Schedule 3 of Bill 257, Supporting Broadband and Infrastructure Expansion Act, 2021, which proposes to amend the Planning Act so that both existing and future Minister’s Zoning Orders (MZOs) would no longer have to be consistent with the Provincial Policy Statement (PPS). We request that you remove this schedule from Bill 257.

The PPS sets the policy foundation for comprehensive, integrated, long-term land use planning in Ontario. It “provides for appropriate development while protecting resources of provincial interest, public health and safety, and the quality of the natural and built environment” (PPS Preamble). Regularly revised and updated though extensive public consultations with experts, stakeholders and Indigenous rights-holders, the PPS is meant to provide balanced, relevant and widely supported policy direction on planning matters. The Planning Act requirement (section 3) that all decisions affecting planning matters “shall be consistent with” the PPS ensures certainty, fairness, consistency and substantive merit in planning decisions across the province. A development that can only be authorized by exempting it from the PPS is a development that ought not to be authorized at all.

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Concerns over Brook Trout and Fish Habitat on the West Credit River

West Credit River. Photo by Steve Noakes.

The Ontario Rivers Alliance (ORA) strongly disagrees with your response to our numerous concerns and recommendations when you assert that you “have concluded that temperature effects have been adequately assessed using field data, a nearby wastewater treatment plant’s effluent temperature data, and CORMIX – a state-of-the-art mixing model”. Your response totally ignored a key issue we raised that will impact on every aspect of stream health and Brook Trout survival, both over the short term and into the future. 

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Invitation to Mayor Alls: Coalition online Zoom Meeting, Joint

West Credit River. Photo by Steve Noakes

A Coalition member has reached out to your staff Planner to determine whether permits and authorizations were in place before this work was undertaken; however, this information has not been forthcoming. 

Therefore, the Coalition is inviting you to attend our online Zoom meeting scheduled for Thursday, 25 March 2021, at 7:00 pm, to answer the following questions: 

1. Which permits and/or authorizations did the Town of Erin and/or Solmar obtain before carrying out this work on the proposed Erin Wastewater Treatment Plant Project lands; 

2. Who is the registered owner of the subject Project lands; 

3. Who directed this work to be done; and 

4. Who performed the work? 

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Request to appear before the Standing Committee on Environment & Sustainable Development – Joint

West Credit River, Photo by Steve Noakes

The Coalition for the West Credit River is writing to you today to share our urgent concerns about an impending and grave threat to the ongoing health of the West Credit River and the sensitive coldwater environment and ecosystem that it sustains. The West Credit River flows through the Towns of Erin and Belfountain, a premium get-away for fly fishers and GTA urban dwellers seeking near-wilderness respite just a short drive northwest of Toronto. 

The West Credit River is acknowledged as one of the last remaining wild and self-sustaining native Brook Trout fisheries in southern Ontario and is recognized for its environmentally significant ecosystem as part of a UNESCO World Biosphere protected area, well before it exits at the Forks of the Credit River. 

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Erin WWTP: Follow-up on 18 February 2021 questions to Town of Erin Mayor and Town Council, Joint

West Credit River Brook Trout. Photo by Steve Noakes.

The Coalition for the West Credit River is following up on our previous correspondence dated 18 February 2021 as we have not yet received a response to our questions that were laid out as a precursor to a meeting with Council. Please let us know when we can expect answers to our questions so we can move forward with scheduling a meeting. 

Also, on 25 February 2021, the Coalition filed a Designation Request with The Honourable Jonathan Wilkinson, Minister of Environment and Climate Change, under Subsection 9(1) of the Impact Assessment Act. We have since received acknowledgement that the Impact Assessment Agency of Canada has commenced the review of our request, and that “If designated, to proceed with the Project, the Town of Erin would be required to submit an Initial Project Description, thereby commencing the planning phase of the IAA. In that case, the planning phase would include the Agency determining whether a federal impact assessment is required.” 

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Canada Water Agency – Discussion Paper

ORA supports objectives that involve clean, healthy, safe and sustainable freshwater management. Our lakes and rivers flow across many borders, including municipal, regional, provincial and country-wide borders. Therefore, it is necessary to consider a Canada Water Agency that uses an integrated watershed and basin approach in its core mission and mandate, acting as an oversight agency.

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Media Release: Wastewater Treatment Plant Spells Doom for West Credit Brook Trout – Request for a federal review under the Impact Assessment Act

The Coalition for the West Credit River is calling on Johnathan Wilkinson, (Minister of Environment and Climate Change Canada) for a federal review of the Environmental Study Report (ESR) for the Erin Wastewater Treatment Plant (Erin WWTP), under the Impact Assessment Act.

The Erin Wastewater Treatment Plant (Erin WWTP) will discharge over 7 million litres of effluent daily, releasing a toxic plume of chloride, ammonia and decreased oxygen into the West Credit River, directly upstream of native Brook Trout spawning nursery and habitat, and endangered Redside Dace.

Please sign the Cut the Crap, Keep the Credit petition.

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Erin WWTP: Designation Request for a federal review under the Impact Assessment Act

West Credit River, by Steve Noakes.

The West Credit River subwatershed supports headwater tributaries of the Credit River and is considered the crown jewel of coldwater Brook Trout fisheries in southern Ontario. The entire footprint of the Project, including the network of underground sewers, will result in numerous crossings of first, second and third order streams. Additionally, the West Credit River feeds into the main Credit River at the Forks of the Credit Provincial Park. This area is part of the UNESCO Niagara Escarpment World Biosphere Reserve (Reserve), home to several sensitive fish species, including the endangered Redside Dace and Atlantic Salmon. Atlantic Salmon, historically extirpated, are being reintroduced as part of the broader Lake Ontario Atlantic Salmon Recovery Program. This Reserve is within 1 km downstream of the Project’s effluent discharge, and Redside Dace (Schedule 1, Species at Risk Act, 2002), are known to occupy the West Credit River within 4 km downstream of the effluent diffuser.

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ERO-019-2826, Statement of Environmental Values for the Ministry of Environment, Conservation and Parks

If the SEV is not being taken seriously now, why would we believe it will be taken seriously when this new SEV is adopted? The MECP should respect and fulfill its SEV in all areas of its purpose, which is its promise to Ontario taxpayers. Rather than focusing so heavily on the economy the MECP must apply its SEV in the protection and conservation of the environment. 

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