Accessibility and Access Keys [0]
The group SOS Wakefield says the Quebec government needs a new environmental study before it allows further work on a highway improvement.
The province wants to “twin” Highway 5 between Chelsea and Wakefield.
But there’s concern the blasting and construction could have a detrimental effect on a nearby natural spring that as many as 5,000 people depend on for their drinking water, according to SOS Wakefield.
Ivan Leblanc is one of those who use the water. He stops at the side of Valley Drive twice a week on his way to and from his cottage and puts a couple of 23-litre containers under the pipes that gush with spring water.
“My well isn’t very good to drink,” he said. “And even the water in the city, my wife doesn’t drink it.”
Peter Andrée, president of SOS Wakefield, says blasting to create four lanes of highway and two roundabouts outside Wakefield could change that.
“Road salts and oil, and the stuff that gets used on the highway are going to be penetrating that aquifer,” said Andrée.
“And we believe that that aquifer is what feeds the spring. It’s just up the road, but there hasn’t been any serious hydrological study to determine that conclusively.”
Old info from 1986
Andrée says Transport Quebec did a small study last year, but the information it used was based on an environmental assessment from 1986.
“A new provincial environmental assessment is exactly what we need here,” Andrée said in a release, “as well as a full public consultation process.”
On Tuesday, Ottawa lawyer Will Amos sent Quebec Environment Minister Pierre Arcand a legal request on behalf of SOS Wakefield, asking for a full, up-to-date study of the environmental impact.
SOS Wakefield also said Tuesday it has the support of two national organizations in its campaign — the Council of Canadians and the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society.
As for Ivan Leblanc, he says he’ll just keep drinking the spring water. “This is about the best water you can find anywhere.”
Copyright © CBC 2011