Puslinch council is requesting the Ministry of Environment, Conservation and Parks (MECP) consider adding stricter low water response conditions in BlueTrition’s renewal of their water taking permit.
At a Wednesday meeting, council discussed what comments to forward to MECP regarding BlueTriton’s permit to take water (PTTW) for water bottling purposes renewal application for 3.6 million litres of water per day at the Aberfoyle plant.
Kyle Davis, county risk management official, specified this application is a renewal and doesn’t require council’s endorsement as they are not seeking to take a greater quantity of water than the previous owners.
However, the township can provide comments on the application and request conditions but Davis said the province is under no obligation to follow these.
One of the major recommendations is a requirement to reduce water takings in accordance with Grand River low water response team declarations of drought which are not in the current PTTW.
Davis said from a policy perspective, it would be beneficial to consider adding low water response conditions to all PTTWs.
“This could be a useful tool for both the low water response program and the source protection program,” Davis said.
For this to be a meaningful reduction, Davis said the amount of reduction needs to be based on something other than the maximum permitted water-takings as most don’t reach this maximum.
Stan Denhoed, consultant with Harden Environmental Services, had a similar recommendation in his report based on water monitoring the company does.
He noted the Aberfoyle Creek, which runs through the BlueTriton property, should increase in flow as you go downstream but did not for seven months of 2020.
“This is in part due to the precipitation conditions we had, but also previous reports that were prepared for Nestle Waters/BlueTriton do indicate that there is a connection between the deep water taking and the creek,” Denhoed said.
“We are saying, when this new permit gets issued there should be some conditions that limit the water taking by BlueTrition under certain conditions. An obvious condition would be when a low flow declaration is made.”
Denhoed’s recommendation is for a 10 per cent reduction in taking based on what was taken in the previous three months.
He noted there are water takers in the area who are likely having an impact as well but he doesn’t see all PTTW applications.
Councillors were in support of putting this comment forward but many noted this is a complicated issue.
“It looks like we’re picking on BlueTriton because they’re the first ones that we’re talking about regarding this, but I would support something on the permit that spoke to low flow response,” said Coun. Matthew Bulmer.
Mayor James Seeley noted the Aberfoyle Creek flow is also controlled by other factors, as an example a dam that he’s unsure of who is responsible for.
“If anyone doesn’t remove a board at the appropriate time of the year, the flow just drops off significantly,” Seeley said. “These human factors are going to be detrimental to our operations in the area for potentially all water permits in the area ... I support that we have to have concern for the creek, but we need to take control over that dam.”
Denhoed specified reaching the threshold level would trigger a study to determine if there is a different cause to low creek flow.
“Natural conditions may very well lead to a critical level in this creek and it should not be exacerbated by the pumping (by BlueTrition),” Denhoed said.
After a lengthy discussion and some adjustment to wording, council approved sending the reports to the ministry regarding the BlueTrition permit renewal.
