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By Kristy Nease, Ottawa Citizen April 25, 2011
OTTAWA — Between 300 to 500 residents of the Gatineau Valley turned out for a protest in Chelsea Thursday evening against a $5.4-million septic tank sludge treatment plant along to Gatineau River, just ahead of an MRC des Collines Council of Mayors meeting.Dozens of children blew on kazoos while people banged on drums and tambourines and held up placards calling for an end to the plan. After speeches from Tamara Tarasoff of Citizens for the Protection of the Gatineau, and Alain Piché of Friends of the Gatineau River and Meredith Brown of Ottawa Riverkeeper, a few federal candidates addressed the crowd. All three -Liberal Cindy Duncan McMillan, New Democrat Mathieu Ravignat and Green candidate Louis-Phillippe Mayrand -sharply denounced the plan.
Peter Outridge, a 53-year-old resident of Farrellton and La Pêche, is a member of Citizens for the Protection of the Gatineau River.
“It’s a plant that would take the waste from 50,000 people, which would increase over time, and we don’t think the river can handle it,” he said, handing out flyers to passersby. “But more importantly, the process behind the (site) selection has been flawed. Right from the beginning it’s been biased toward sites in La Pêche.”
That sewage used to go to Gatineau’s treatment plant, but the city stopped accepting it last year. It is now being trucked to Chénéville, 130 kilometres east of La Pêche.
Earlier this month, the mayors of MRC des Collines postponed the tabling a report on the March 15 public consultation of the potential sites analysis. Originally slated to have been tabled Thursday, it was bumped to May 19.
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