02 July 27, 2002 - ObserverXtra

By By Steve Steve Kannon Kannon
Kannon
OBSERVER STAFF
Sewage treatment
facilities in
Woolwich Township
have been added to the
electrical utility’s
“critical-customer list”
following a mishap that
saw one million litres of
raw sewage dumped into
the Grand River earlier
this month.
Waterloo North Hydro
made the move as its first
step to avoid a replay of the
accident that saw a work
crew sever an
underground power line to
the south pumping station
in Elmira. Workers also
cut the telephone line that
would normally warn
township employees of the
power failure. With both
systems out, the pumping
station shut down and allowed
bypass waste to flow
into the Canagagigue
Creek for 19 hours July 11
and 12.
Along with the township,
the utility was ordered last
week by the provincial
Ministry of Environment
to formulate a plant to
avoid a repetition of the
(CONTINUED FROM PAGE 3)
against someone lower
rated than you then you
don’t win as many
points because he was
an easier player.”
According to the chess
federation’s constitution,
Justin’s score
places him squarely in
the Category II class of
players, not that far
from being rated a mas-
JULY 27, 2002 • NEWS • WOOLWICH OBSERVER 7
Hydro adds sewage facilities to “critical customer” list
Move aims to prevent circumstances that led to spill; MOE to investigate further
By By Joanne Joanne Joanne Peach
Peach
OBSERVER STAFF
events that caused the
spill.
“We’re to come up with a
protocol to prevent
occurrences such as this
from happening down the
road and to train our staff
in accordance with that,”
spokesman John Janzen
said this week.
“We will be adding the
wastewater treatment
plants, as well as the
[pumping] stations to our
critical-customer list,” he
added. Inclusion on the list
means township staff will
be consulted before any
work is done near
municipal facilities.
The lines were cut as
workers attempted to
install an anchor for a new
hydro pole, said Janzen.
Hydro crews were
relocating services as part
of the major
reconstruction work on
Arthur Street at the south
end of Elmira.
The error left the utility
somewhat embarrassed
given its “call before you
dig” campaign designed to
help others avoid such
occurrences, he admitted.
Waterloo North Hydro is
more interested in
preventing a reoccurrence
than assessing blame on
individuals, he added.
“There are some issues
regarding getting service
locates done. In this case,
the damage actually
occurred on customer
property, in which case,
technically, it’s up to the
customer to obtain locates.
But there’s probably some
question as to whether or
not we followed our own
protocol in terms of
asking the customer if
they had locates.”
Janzen said the utility
welcomed the directive
from the MOE.
“It’s a potentially very
serious issue. From our
perspective, we are eager
to prevent it from
happening again.”
MOE environmental
officer Phil Shewen said
this week the issue goes
beyond any
embarrassment the utility
may have felt, adding the
order he wrote essentially
tackled the “call before you
dig” scenario.
“Everyone jokes about
that. As funny as it is,
that’s not exactly the way
the order was written, but
Wellesley wants
money paid for
interest back
Mayor Doug Bergman ask the province
to get its chequebook out
Wellesley mayor
Doug Bergman
met with the
Ministry of Municipal
Affairs and Housing to
ask the province to be
fair and repay interest
payments forgiven in
other townships.
Bergman, supported by
Waterloo-Wellington
MPP Ted Arnott, met
with Associate Minister
Brian Coburn in Toronto
on July 10 to air his concerns
regarding a
$29,176 interest bill. Unlike
most municipalities
in the region, Wellesley
paid the outstanding interest
on a school board
payment on Aug. 8, 2000.
“We were one of the
municipalities that was
advised by our (former)
TELL US HOW
YOU REALLY FEEL!
clerk Gord Ludington to
pay the interest because
it would keep going up
and up and he felt that
the province might roll
back our Community Reinvestment
Funding if
we didn’t make that interest
payment, so we
made the payment in
good faith and now the
government has forgiven
the other municipalities.
So we are asking for it
back,” said Bergman.
Most municipalities
agree that the interest
payment was down to the
province’s decision to revamp
the municipal tax
structure in 1998 – creating
a situation whereby
townships found it “virtually
impossible” to collect
taxes in time to
settle school board payments,
said John Hacking,
treasurer of Wilmot
Township.
According to Hacking
the province agreed to
pay the interest payments
owed to school
boards for March and
June but requested that
municipalities pay the
bill by Aug. 31, 1998.
Most townships were
unable to make that payment
due to the on-going
billing problems, said
Hacking. “They couldn’t
pay the province back in
time.”
When the province demanded
payment, the
majority of the municipalities
in the region refused
to pay citing the
government as the original
cause of the delay.
Since then, the province
has acknowledged its
mistake and chosen to
forgive most of the interest
payments.
Write a letter to the Editor.
Your opinion counts.
that’s really the gist of it,”
he said. “It calls on them
to look at means of preventing
a similar incident
from happening again.”
Both hydro and
Woolwich are expected to
act quickly to meet the
MOE’s demands, added
Shewen.
“They’re going to have to
demonstrate compliance.”
Woolwich’s chief
administrative officer,
Peter Simmons, said the
township is prepared to
meet all of ministry’s
requirements.
“Our engineering
department is already
working closely with the
ministry to develop a plan.
We have until Aug. 8 to
come up with a report. We
have to implement the
recommendations by Oct.
8,” he said.
“The order from the
ministry is not
unreasonable. We take
incidents of this nature
very seriously. Even
without an order from the
ministry, township staff
would conduct an
assessment and
evaluation of the incident
and prepare
recommendations for
appropriate corrective
measures.”
The township expects to
hire a consultant to develop
a plan to provide a
backup to its backups or
other remedies for
monitoring Elmira’s three
pumping stations, which
direct waste to the sewage
treatment plant.
Meanwhile, MOE
reports on the spill have
been sent to ministry’s
Investigations and
Enforcement branch in
Hamilton.
Supervisor Bill Shields
said July 24 an investigator
would be assigned to the
case this week to
determine if charges
would be laid as a result of
the spill.
Chess by the numbers
ter at 2,200 points but
likely still quite a ways
from Gary Kasparov, the
current world champion
who is rated at 2,800
points.
At the end of the day
though scores and tournaments
and game after
game just reinforce the
fact that despite his unusual
choice of recreation,
Justin can explain
his joy for the game just
like any other child his
age explains their appreciation
for their
favourite activity.
“It’s about meeting
people, making friends
and having friends,”
said Justin, adding that
many of his current
friends were met while
moving pawns across
the chessboard.