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Great Lakes
Article:
City
may face bill for water
London Free Press
12/19/03
London and other municipalities that draw water from the
Great Lakes may have to begin paying for it, a former city
treasurer warns. "That's a possibility," Nigel
Bellchamber said yesterday.
Bellchamber is co-chair-person of a committee announced
yesterday that will advise the government early in the
new year on how charges for water should be applied.
London and other area municipalities do not pay for water
they draw from lakes Erie and Huron.
The situation is the same for companies that extract
water directly from the ground, rivers and lakes.
But much study of the option of making municipalities
pay a royalty for water lies ahead, Bellchamber said.
In the meantime, the province is imposing a year-long
moratorium on issuing new or expanded permits to withdraw
water, Environment Minister Leona Dombrowsky said.
"The days of taking water away for free are over,"
she said yesterday, warning companies that extract water
for commercial purposes such as bottlers and makers of
ready-mix concrete will have to pay a royalty for the
resource.
The moratorium applies to beverage manufacturing, including
water bottlers, fruit or vegetable canning or pickling,
ready-mix concrete manufacturing and manufacturing in
which more than 50,000 litres of water are used daily.
The moratoriumdoes not apply to water taken for agriculture,
aquaculture, nurseries, tree farms, sod farms or water
taken for municipal purposes.
The moratorium does not apply to water taken for agriculture,
aquaculture, nurseries, tree farms, sod farms or water
taken for municipal purposes.
Existing permit holders can continue to draw water, but
the maximum amount will be frozen.
The Environment Ministry, which has been criticized for
losing track of thousands of permits to take water in
recent years, says protection of water supplies is paramount.
The new Liberal government has vowed to implement findings
from the inquiry into the contamination of water in Walkerton
in 2000 that claimed seven lives and made 2,500 ill. In
his report on the tragedy, Associate Chief Justice Dennis
O'Connor recommended tighter controls on permits as an
integral part of protecting sources of drinking water
in the province.
Dombrowsky said water bottlers and others who remove
water from a watershed "cannot be permitted to just
take more and more water. We need to fully understand
the consequences of takings on both the watershed and
local water supplies."
Bellchamber, co-chairperson of the 21-member implementation
committee looking into who will pay what and to whom for
water, was appointed for his expertise in municipal finance
and knowledge of relevant agencies such as conservation
authorities.
"We have a lot of homework ahead of us," he
said, noting his group will have to review an earlier
report on water supplies and O'Connor's recommendations
from the Walkerton inquiry. The committee will look at
ways to implement source protection plans and funding
mechanisms and incentives.
Bellchamber said although the province is free to slap
a fee on those who extract water at any time, he expects
it to wait until his committee has completed its deliberations
and submitted its report. That could take several months,
he predicted.
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