'Is it over? Not at all': Georgina waiting for concrete plans to send wastewater to Lake Ontario

Recently disclosed provincial letter points to Lake Ontario as preferred option to dump instead of the UYSS to Lake Simcoe

Yorkregion.com
Dec. 14, 2020

Recently, Georgina council voted unanimously for the province to outright cancel the Upper York Sewage Solutions project that would see some 47 million litres of treated wastewater dumped into Lake Simcoe daily.

“I’m not a scientist,” said Regional Councillor Rob Grossi said. “But how could anyone think dumping into Lake Simcoe made sense? Lake Simcoe is a thimble. Lake Ontario is an Olympic-sized swimming pool.”

Georgina’s motion comes on the heels of a Durham Regional Council report that siting the province is looking to dump south rather than north --going back to growth plans of the 90s to discharge into Lake Ontario instead of Lake Simcoe.

In July, York Regional Council held a closed session meeting to discuss a letter from the province’s environment, conservation and parks ministry stating the province is ‘re-examining all options originally considered … with an eye to the 2026 timeline.”

The letter is now part of the public record as an agenda item for the Nov. 26 York Regional Council agenda.

This is reminiscent of a letter sent by the province in the 90s to “explore other options,” said Grossi, who acknowledged he was under a nondisclosure agreement when he proposed the Georgina motion last month.

While this seems like good news for Lake Simcoe, the UYSS saga is still not over.

“Is it over? Not at all. The driver of the bus has changed, now it’s the province,” said Grossi, who has been fighting the UYSS project since it was first introduced and campaigned against the project during the 2018 municipal election.

Chief Donna Big Canoe of the Chippewas of Georgina Island First Nation echoed Grossi’s reservation.

“We would like to know for sure from the minister if (the UYSS) is cancelled before commenting,” she said. “We will continue to work to oppose this project and demand adequate consultation.”

But this switcheroo pits one environmentally sensitive area over another, said Claire Malcolmson, executive director of the Rescue Lake Simcoe Coalition.

“It’s good for Lake Simcoe, but bad for the Oak Ridges Moraine, bad for Duffin Creek and bad for Lake Ontario,” she said. “Lake Simcoe is a puddle compared to Lake Ontario. But dilution is not the solution.”

Instead, Malcolmson wants to see the province make good on the objectives of the Lake Simcoe Protection Act, where the plan calls for water and wastewater servicing to be worked out before development permits are issued.

Building where water and wastewater services already exist also helps curb urban sprawl, she added.

“How can a government approve development without a sewage solution in place before?” she said.

The UYSS isn’t just about sewage, Malcolmson said, but also about the change in land use and the change in what runs off the land.

“The problem is there’s a lack of consideration of the full impact of development,” she said.

Using the Duffin Creek option is “good for development, but bad for the environment.”

Not to mention the $100 million already spent by the region on various studies and environmental plans, the true cost of flip-flopping between Lake Simcoe and Lake Ontario is unknown, she added.

“To what extent will taxpayers subsidize sprawling development,” Malcolmson said.

With more than 50 km of shoreline, Georgina was going to be most impacted by the province’s plan to discharge treated sewage water into Lake Simcoe to the tune of 47 million litres per day. But the UYSS was to service more than 150,000 new homes in Newmarket, Aurora and East Gwillimbury.

“We can’t support our friends without paying respect to the lake we live on,” Grossi said of the Chippewas of Georgina Island First Nation and of the land acknowledgement statement made at the start of each council meeting.

The Georgina Advocate learned of the province’s intention and the ministry’s letter through a recent Durham Regional council report.

The report dated Nov. 25 noted the province is looking back at the initial plan of using the Duffin Creek Water Pollution Control Plant (Duffin Creek) that discharges into Lake Ontario instead of discharging into Lake Simcoe.

“Under a nondisclosure agreement initiated by the province, discussions had been ongoing with York (Region) on a provincially preferred Lake Ontario alternative … Provincial officials also indicated the importance of implementing the solution on an expedited basis,” reads the report. “A decision is likely early in the new year.”

The report also details the need for a new conveyance system to accommodate growth in both York and Durham. Both regions are in the planning stage of an environmental assessment to twin the primary sanitary sewer between York and Durham to Duffin Creek in 2021.