GuelphToday has received the following letter from Ed Kennedy who is concerned about potential water usage by proposed Xinyi Glass development in the Township of Guelph Eramosa.
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It is supposedly the biggest economic boost to the County of Wellington but few have heard about it. Xinyi Glass, a Chinese company invited to Ontario by the Liberal Government, is proposing a 2 million sq. ft. seven-storey float glass plant with a dormitory for temporary Chinese workers.
This development will be located just west of Guelph in a cornfield near the intersection of County Roads 124 and 32. This project will also pump some 1.6 million litres daily of drinking water from the aquifer on which private well owners such as farms and residents rely on. This volume will soon increase when the plant is expanded to 2.6 million sq ft (already proposed by Xinyi Glass under their zoning application).
In a reckless move the Township of Guelph Eramosa and the County are quietly fast tracking this development and would like to pass the zoning bylaw amendments ASAP (this summer in an effort to meet the aggressive timeline Xinyi Glass has set out).
At the May 9 public meeting, it was found that most studies have not been completed in particular the hydrological report. In this meeting, it was disclosed that 66 per cent of the 1.6 million litres of drinking water drawn daily from the aquifer would be lost to evaporation in the production process as it is used to cool molten glass.
As a result, the aquifer serving the City of Guelph and Guelph Township, which by the way has already been identified as being at significant risk by the GRCA, will be emptied by over 1.6 million litres of drinking water daily, only to see 66 per cent of that turned to vapour. This is a shameful and immoral use of a valuable, non-renewable resource.
When will this province wake up and stop seeing our water as a resource to be used for Profit and realize it is meant to sustain Life.
Guelph and area is one of the few remaining communities in the province that rely on ground-source water. We only need to look to our neighbour Erin to know what happens when you run out of water. In a time in Guelph, where we the public are already being asked to conserve, WHO will put the brakes on a development such as Xinyi Glass?
Please help stop this unbelievable waste of our resource by objecting to this reckless & misguided development. (See Getconcerned.com for more details).
Ed Kennedy
