Tuesday, November 3, 2009

Nestle waters hosted a Public Information Meeting. It was not very well attended, likely due to the fact that there was not much notification about the meeting.

Two salient points emerged from this meeting:

The first is that the Ministry of the Environment (MOE) has extended Nestle’s existing permit for one year. The reason cited for the extension, is that Nestle was unable to complete the pump test under drought conditions due to the fact that the past two summers have been the wettest on record. Prior to their last request for renewal of their Permit-to-take-water, there was a great deal of concern raised about the potential for flow reversal of the Mill Creek which could possibly lead to surface water contamination of the ground water source. A requirement attached to Nestle’s renewed permit was that they test for this potential of flow reversal. Because they have not been able to test for this, they have been granted an extension. We are outraged that the MOE would grant this extension without public consultation and are considering taking legal action since all of the other conditions of the permit (and there were many) were satisfied, except this one (more on our WWW response to this extension in a coming post)

The second point made at this information meeting was to identify the well they are currently sourcing and testing to become their “backup” well. Nestle will begin evaluating a Nestle owned property on Gilmour Rd as a “backup” well. At this site, the well dives into a deeper aquifer than they currently draw from. They had been exploring a Victoria Road site as a backup location, but last year abandoned those plans. Attendees were informed that to bring this “back-up” well online with their existing permit, would simply require an amendment to their existing permit. (more on our concerns about this backup well in a coming post)