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Is there any doubt as to how much Gatineau Hills residents love and cherish the Gatineau River?
Songs are written about it, festivals dedicated to it, livelihoods made by it, books chronicle its history, people’s lives – their favourite pastimes, their memories, their circle of friends, the way they unite spirit, body and environment – are shaped by it. In the near future, Chelsea residents may even be drinking it.
So is it any wonder that locals are sounding the protest against a proposed sewage treatment plant that will release treated liquid waste into its pristine waters? There is no doubt that anyone, whether hard-core environmentalist or SUV-driving occasional tourist, would respond to a headline that the Gatineau became polluted, thanks to some unforeseen plant malfunction, with anything less than “now that is a crying shame.”
It would be a tragedy to lose one of the cleanest rivers in the country. People have every right to be worried and should be pushing now to avoid that scenario.
Shrill screams of NIMBY at our politicians is not the way to do it, however. La Peche Mayor Bussiere, and the rest of the mayors who sit at the MRC table, are doing the right thing by seeking out a solution to a problem that all of us create.
We all poop, it has to go somewhere, and dumping it in our neighbour’s back yard is not an acceptable solution. Gatineau has closed its site to us, and the province is pressuring MRCs to find their own solutions. Bussiere and crew are doing their jobs.
No one wants a septic treatment plant in their community, but the Farrellton location options, on Hwy 105 sandpits and decently distanced from houses, make sense and locals can live with it.
But what locals shouldn’t live with is old technology that puts the Gatineau River at risk. The region already has three recently-built sewage treatment systems – two in Chelsea, one in Kazabazua – that don’t work.
That’s reason enough to pipe up for better technology. Friends of the Gatineau will join Ottawa Riverkeeper (and local resident) Meredith Brown and what promises to be packed house for a Rally for Your River event at the Black Sheep March 12. They will point out that though the proposed technology for the Farrellton facility does meet existing provincial standards, stricter standards set by the federal government are in the works.
Bussiere may say the technology is a “done deal,” but no shovel has yet hit the ground.
Since cost – both of shipping our waste to a far away destination as we do now, and of the plant construction – is a big factor behind the haste to push this project through, perhaps it would serve to speak Bussiere’s language.
This region’s biggest industry is tourism, and the Gatineau River is one of its most important draws. To take the risk of polluting it with sewage is a dumb move financially. Spending a little more time and money to get the best, cleanest possible system is good for the environment, the community and the bottom line.
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