Mayor Hope discusses Wallaceburg water issue

The Mayor of Chatham-Kent and the chair of the Chatham Public Utilities Commission is keeping an open mind about the future of Wallaceburg’s drinking water.

However, Randy Hope told the Sydenham Current that he believes it doesn’t matter where the water comes from.

“The whole thing is, and it’s on all of our facilities across Chatham-Kent, is how can we reduce the amount of our facilities, increase our efficiency, reducing our debt and getting our operational costs under control,” Hope said.

“Some of those things, you have to change the way you do business. It is all about cost and everybody seems to get extremely passionate about where the water comes, from but the important thing is, wherever the water comes from meets and exceeds government regulations for clean drinking water. That’s the priority to most.”

Hope said the other part is keeping the water rates down.

“So that people can enjoy it where it is, in industries or in residential. Wallaceburg has been no secret as to the water issues facing the community over the years. Now it’s about a water treatment plant and its cost to repair versus a cost to put a pipe in the ground and draw all the water from somewhere else,” Hope said.

“To be fair to people, I have kept a very open mind so I haven’t dug into the reports, I haven’t gone and made up my mind, I keep a very open mind about it. There is a few principals that we must keep in mind and that’s what I have been trying to do as I listen to people.”

Hope added: “Number one is reducing our cost in our operations with the PUC. Looking at life cycles, number two, and capital costs and life expectancy, number three. A facility is like 40 years, a pipe is like 75 years. So those are things when I am listening to people, I mean I understand people saying you know where they want their water from, but from a business point of view, we have to look at the operations, the costs and what is the net value at the end. People says ‘they are not going to listen.’ Well no, we do things very financially prudent.”

Hope said Ridgetown is a good recent example.

“There was an original plan to take the water from Blenheim, draw it to Ridgetown, than Ridgetown to Highgate. When they went through the whole exercise, at the end of the day it was more prudent to draw the water from Ridgetown instead of Blenheim. Put the tower and pipe the water in Ridgetown into Highgate. It made more financial sense,” he said.

Hope said he thinks most residents don’t even know where the water is drawn from.

“They probably couldn’t even tell you. I don’t mean this in a facetious way. Most people the concern is, when I turn my tap on, I can put a glass under there and get drinking water and not have any fear of anything happening. That is what most people want,” Hope said.

“The other part that they want is that they are not paying extraordinary amount of money for that tap water. That is the key elements to most people. Taste. I don’t notice the difference when I travel around the Municipality and I drink tap water. I try to stay away from bottled water because I think our water is good. I don’t notice a difference in the taste,”

Hope said this issue is not something new.

“Tilbury had our water treatment there, which drew from Lake St.Clair. That was changed, now it goes from Wheatly to Tilbury and servicing that area. Blenheim has the Cedar Springs operation, which pipes water to Chatham. Blenheim houses its operations,” he said.

“To be honest, water is only one area of the PUC. We are also looking at shutting down the waste treatment plant in Thamesville and piping the raw sewage to Blenheim. It’s not just about water. It’s about other things. We are not normal to other Municipalities. With the amount of waste treatment and water treatment plants, we have to get our operational costs down. In order to do that you gotta consolidate and when you make capital expenditures, they have to be spent on a lot more years than just 45 years.”

Hope said he knows that sometimes the community of Wallaceburg feels under attack.

“I’ll use that word. You know, lets take a look at the hospital and other things and some of the industry that has moved out, but now take a look at it today. I mean the industry is flourishing in Wallaceburg. They raised a concern about the walk bridge, which went over the river. I actually supported both elected officials in the area making sure that was a priority and it got done,” Hope said.

Hope said any decision on the future of Wallaceburg is not a foregone conclusion.

“I need to look at some cost analysis and some numbers. I am going to be a fair as I am to any other community. I will look at what makes long term sense. There might be some people that may not like where the water is coming from but the reality is that we are reducing the debt level of the PUC. We are keeping water prices low, with the lowest in the area,” he said.

“I am keeping very open minded but again, but again I listen to everybody. I hear about the passion but you know sometimes it gets hard for me. I remember very clearly and there was an article written about the chemicals that were in the St.Clair River and how the shut downs occurred. I remember the tesst that we use to do on the water coming in the intake there. I remember some of them raising concerns about birth defects that occurred during that period of time. So the Wallaceburg water issue has been front an center for many, many, many years. This is about providing quality water at a reasonable cost with long term investments on infrastructure. That’s the focus that it needs to be.”

The preferred solution from Stantec Consulting, who was hired by the PUC to conduct an evirnomental assessment of Wallaceburg’s water treatment plant, is expected to go to the PUC in September or October.