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By Tony Lofaro – January 5, 2011
Ivan Leblanc stops by the Valley Drive spring in Wakefield twice a week to fill up with fresh spring water.
The Gatineau resident says his wife doesn’t like the taste of tap water and he picks up the spring water to use at home and at their cottage. However, the water supply from the popular spring near the entrance to Wakefield is threatened if a planned extension by the Quebec government of Highway 5 from Chelsea to Wakefield goes ahead as planned, say locals who want the extension redesigned.
“It’s the best water you can find anywhere,” Leblanc said Tuesday morning as he filled two five-gallon plastic water jugs at the Valley Drive spring, which supplies potable water for about 5,000 residents in the area.
He said it would be “too bad” if the spring water was affected by the development of the highway extension, although he understands the road is needed in the growing Outaouais communities. “I figure they would be better off with something new with Highway 5. The road could be continued, but it’s not bad. It’s a lot better than 10 or 20 years ago.”
A community coalition held a press conference Tuesday at the Valley Drive spring to pressure the Quebec government into ordering a new environmental assessment of the proposed highway extension. The groups — SOS Wakefield, the University of Ottawa-Ecojustice Environmental Law Clinic, the Council of Canadians and the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society — want to protect the local water source.
“The environmental assessment on which the province has been making its decision in relation to the highway expansion was undertaken in 1986, but there has never been a public consultation as part of that process or design options considered back then and which still haven’t been,” Peter Andree, chair of SOS Wakefield, said during the news conference.
He said new laws on sustainable development and groundwater protection were place in the province, which meant the highway extension plan was based on an outdated assessment. SOS Wakefield, which started last summer, has collected more than 2,800 signatures on a petition that urged the province to undertake a thorough environmental assessment of the spring.
Among other concerns, there are fears highway construction will affect the water quality of the spring.
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