Sewage treatment a concern of islanders
Chippewas of Georgina Island say questions ‘haven’t been answered’ about Lake Simcoe proposal
Kerry Ann Charles stands on the shores of Georgina Island, excitedly watching water flow through Gerties Creek, and rush out into a partially frozen Lake Simcoe.
The restoration of the creek has been a labour of love for Charles, a member of the Chippewas of Georgina Island First Nation, who live on the GTA’s only reserve, a remote and largely uninhabited island a short ferry ride from the Town of Georgina.
“As kids, we were able to spear fish and go around in canoes right here,” said Charles, the environmental co-ordinator with the local band council, pointing to a pool of water in between a clearing of trees. “Over time, the land was filled in, and developed. So we took on the project to restore this part of our history.”
Today, the current in the creek has returned. One day, she hopes, the fish will too.
But she’s worried all her dreams and effort will be for naught if a $685-million sewage treatment project that would allow 40 million litres of “high purity reclaimed water” to flow into Lake Simcoe every day is approved.
The Upper York Sewage Solutions project proposed for East Gwillimbury has been in the works since 2009 — and is needed to support growth in booming York Region, and in particular the northern municipalities of Aurora, Newmarket and East Gwillimbury. The region has been awaiting approval from the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change since 2014.
Charles knows her community’s concerns are behind the delay.
“We have been at the table since Day 1, but we have questions and concerns that haven’t been answered,” Charles said. “We are not trying to cause trouble. We are surrounded by this water. Our lives depend on this water. If it goes stagnant, our island and environment, and culture will die off.”
Despite its proximity to the GTA, the island feels remote: The 1,415-hectare land mass is almost all forest.
A two-lane dirt road, along which all of its 200 residents live, lines the square-shaped island. And, during winter, the northern part of the island is completely unmaintained.
Across the water from the island ferry docks is the northern tip of York Region, three kilometres away, where housing developments have long been planned around existing sewage servicing. For years, septic tanks and sewage lagoons have done the job. But with the population expected to hit 1.5 million by 2031, officials were prompted to start planning for the future.
Currently, most of the sewage from southern York Region is sent to Lake Ontario, via Durham, through the York Durham sewage system, known as the Big Pipe, which was built in the late 1970s and early ’80s. But this time around, the province told York it could no longer look downstream for a solution.
“They (the ministry) basically said that you are facilitating growth in that watershed, you have to consider accommodating the solution there,” said Mike Rabeau, York Region’s director of capital planning and delivery for environmental services. “But you have a very sensitive receiver in Lake Simcoe . . . so if you do anything, it will have to be state of the art.”
The solution has been a complex one. In 2008, the province enacted strict regulations — the Lake Simcoe Protection Act — to control the high level of phosphorus in the lake, which was leading to algae blooms and foul-smelling water.
The region has designed a solution that “challenges all municipalities and industries in the watershed to come up with more advanced ways of dealing with sewage, to benefit the environment,” Rabeau said.
After years of study, research and community consultation, including what it says is “extensive discussions with the Chippewa First Nation,” York Region submitted an environmental assessment for the project to the ministry in 2014. They expected approval in 2015.
Two years later, they are still waiting. The ministry says it is still reviewing the assessment to ensure all “consultation and regulatory requirements are met.”
“The ministry has been working with York Region, indigenous communities and government agencies to address matters raised during the public review of the environmental assessment,” said Gary Wheeler, a ministry spokesperson, and is in “direct consultations” with the Chippewas of Georgina Island First Nation.
“We take their concerns seriously and will continue to consult with them going forward.”
In an environment ministry review of the assessment available online, the ministry says it was “satisfied” with the region’s consultation with Georgina Island residents. The report says the region had adequately responded to concerns around pharmaceutical and personal care products in the water, and would be committed to the creation of a monitoring and strategy program to deal with the effect of the plant on water quality, species and human health.
But the islanders say they still have concerns and want to ensure their traditional ecological knowledge will be incorporated in the final decision. They also want the province to conduct a complete health impact assessment on their community before the project proceeds, with one question in mind: Will the long-term effects of the sewage plant drastically change the way of life for the Chippewas of Georgina Island?
“That’s one of the things we do as First Nations people. We don’t look at now, next year or 10 years from now. We are told by our elders that we are supposed to look seven generations ahead,” Charles said. “That’s a long time.”
“They are not thinking about 10, 20 or 30 years down the road,” she said of the research done by York Region, which includes a one-year pilot study to determine water quality after it undergoes the purification treatment. “There are no guarantees with technology. Once the environment is gone, it’s gone.”
The sun is a long way from setting, but the elders have already arrived for the 50-plus dinner taking place at the local community centre.
Sitting at one of the foldout tables are Andrew Big Canoe, 78, and his cousin Ted, the first two to show up for the weekly gathering that brings together seniors from the tight-knit community. Tonight the conversation is a crowd favourite: the past.
“We used to go down to the lake to get our drinking water . . . right up to the ’60s. You don’t know what’s in the lake now,” says Andrew, sitting in a room where hundreds of photographs documenting the history of the community have been made into murals that run along the walls of the large hall.
The presence of the Chippewas of Georgina Island First Nation around Lake Simcoe predates the existence of Canada as a country. In 1830, the community under Chief Joseph Snake was moved to Coldwater, Ont., as part of a government “experiment” to establish a reserve, with three other Ontario bands. A few years later, the plan failed, and Chief Snake moved his people back to Snake Island, also in Lake Simcoe. In 1860, the band moved to the more spacious Georgina Island.
Ted, 80, a retired contractor who built many of the buildings on the island, says that during his youth, in the thick of winter, he would skate five miles from the land side to the island to play hockey with his cousins when the lake froze over. “When we got thirsty, we would just punch a hole and put your mouth on it and just drink straight from it,” he says.
“Now because of global warming, you could never do that. My father moved his house across the lake, with a big team of horses,” Ted says, adding that, back then, the ice would freeze for eight weeks. “Now we are lucky if we get a week or two.”
Island residents have also faced concerns over the water supply, with a boil water advisory issued two years ago. It is still in place.
Climate change and fluctuating water temperatures have made travel back and forth from the mainland treacherous and unpredictable — especially in the winter, when the ice doesn’t freeze enough for winter roads.
Island resident Chris Big Canoe, 42, an avid fisherman, says he too has noticed a difference in the water he has been fishing since he was a child.
“I have seen the decline in the number of fish, even in the past five years,” he says, believing it is caused by invasive species and pollution. “The fall fishing used to be the best time of the year for fishing bass. We have gone from fishing up to five to six a day, caught and release, to not catching a fish for two weeks. It’s like they’re gone.”
Others have reported changes to the fish: the feel of the skin, the taste, and what’s found inside.
But Rob Baldwin, general manager with planning and development with the Lake Simcoe Region Conservation Authority, said the health of the lake has dramatically improved, the result of controls enacted nearly a decade ago.
“In the ’80s, you wouldn’t be able to see down more than a foot,” he said. “Now, you can see down 20 feet. Is it fixed? No. But is it on the way towards a positive equilibrium? I hope so.”
Among the restrictions imposed by the province through the Lake Sim- coe Protection Plan was a moratorium on new sewage plants along the lake. But Baldwin says the upgrade or replacement of any of the 14 sewage plants that already line the lake and dump treated effluent into the waters is permitted. The region has said the Holland Landing lagoons will be decommissioned, and turned into natural wetlands, when the new plant is built.
Baldwin says after all the work that has been done in preparation for the plant, the Conservation Authority, whose board is made up of politicians from surrounding areas, has no further environmental concerns.
“In all my years, it’s the most thorough assessment I have seen,” he said. None of the other sewage treatment plants around the lake have faced this kind opposition, he said.
Much of Baldwin’s confidence comes from the technology at the proposed plant, which he says is only found in two other plants in the United States. “It is beyond what any other plant does in Canada right now,” he said, explaining how the sewage will have four-levels of treatment, including reverse osmosis, before the “high purity” effluent is released into the lake, via the East Holland River. Most plants in Canada only have two or three levels of treatment.
In addition, the region’s plan is to rehabilitate the “severely degraded” East Holland River, which will carry the treated water to the lake, and to retrofit and remove phosphorus from all ponds in the watershed.
In the meantime, concerns are mounting at the prospect of a delay.
In 2014, York Region pushed the completion date out to 2024 from 2018, to better manage the municipality’s high debt, Rabeau said.
But if the project isn’t approved this year, the “timeline will be in jeopardy,” Rabeau said. “None of the growth can happen without sewage capacity. Municipalities can choose to have poor transportation networks, where you will be sitting in traffic, but you will not build homes and attract growth without sewage and water infrastructure.”
East Gwillimbury Mayor Virginia Hackson, who has the most to lose from any possible delay, says the town has 7,000 units of allocation remaining. She said there’s enough capacity for homes that will be built in the short term, but if the delay is long term “it could be an issue.”
Hackson is also sympathetic to the stance of the Chippewas of Georgina Island First Nation.
“They have been the keepers of the lake for centuries, so when they start to say that they have concerns, I listen.”
Charles says it’s not just about their island community, but a fight for all others who live around and enjoy the Lake Simcoe watershed.
“We are working on these things for our future generations, but unless we get it right, the project could come in and wipe away all our effort in a blink of an eye.”