'Growth still going to be an issue': Much-needed upgrades required at Georgina's water treatment plants

Yorkregion.com
Nov. 7, 2022

There should be shouting from the rooftops -- Lake Simcoe is saved from growth.

Instead, residents, environmental groups, members of Georgina Island First Nation and elected officials are “cautiously optimistic” about the province’s recent decision to squash the Upper York Sewage Solutions (UYSS) project.

The province’s expert advisory panel established to determine the fate of the UYSS project recommended wastewater from new homes built in Newmarket, Aurora and East Gwillimbury travel south to the Duffin Creek sewage treatment plant on Lake Ontario in Pickering -- the more environmentally sound and less expensive option.

“The fight isn’t over,” said Brandon Stiles, environment department manager with the Chippewas of Georgina Island First Nation.

“We’re cautiously optimistic because population growth is still going to be an issue.

“I can’t imagine the (UYSS) is scrapped for good. With that being said, we’re happy but we’re still on the job to look after the waters.”

At the end of the day, it’s a win, agreed former Georgina regional councillor Rob Grossi, who staunchly opposed the decade-long project from the start.

“But the process, from the beginning, was flawed,” he said.

“I’m not an engineer, but I live on Lake Simcoe and I know the challenges of Lake Simcoe. The UYSS just didn’t make any sense.”

Lake Simcoe is the size of a thimble compared to Lake Ontario, he added.

The UYSS project, which cost York Region about $100 million in studies and assessments, was designed to handle water servicing for about 153,000 future residents and employees in Newmarket, Aurora and East Gwillimbury.

Servicing is required so people living in new homes can flush their toilets, take a bath, use their washing machine and clean their dirty dishes in the kitchen sink or dishwasher.

If the UYSS project went ahead, the facility would pump about 47 million litres of microfiltration-treated, purified clean water into Lake Simcoe daily.

The Chippewas of Georgina Island First Nation raised concerns at the start of the process the water treatment facility would have an adverse effect on the health of Lake Simcoe -- the source of drinking water for the First Nation community.

Georgina Island is one of more than two dozen First Nations across the country still under a federal long-term boil water advisory.

Two years prior to the province’s decision to abort the UYSS, Georgina council passed a motion calling for just that.

The town’s motion also called on the provincial and the federal governments to ensure Georgina Island has access to clean drinking water on a sustainable basis as well as to jointly fund the much-needed upgrades to existing water treatment plants along Lake Simcoe.

Georgina Councillor-elect Dave Neeson, who authored the motion, noted the innovative microfiltration and reverse osmosis technology studied through the UYSS lens should not go to waste. Instead, use that technology to upgrade existing water treatment facilities.

“These combined actions will positively impact our community and the broader Lake Simcoe watershed for generations to come,” Neeson said.

That’s where one governing body of all Lake Simcoe watershed municipalities is needed to deal with growth management, Grossi said.

“Lake Simcoe is affected by growth on all sides of the lake,” he said.

While diverting wastewater to Lake Ontario is a momentary victory, there’s still the issue of growth.

The same day the province pulled the plug on the UYSS, the province introduced the More Homes Built Faster Act, paving the way for about 1.5 million new homes to be built by 2031.

But the UYSS project was not intended for future growth in Georgina, said Grossi.

Future growth in town is to be serviced through existing water treatment facilities, he added.

And that will soon be a problem.

The Sutton water treatment plant, for example, is at the end of its lifespan.

“Innovative technology needs to be put in sooner rather than later to lessen the existing pressure on Lake Simcoe,” Grossi said.

“Growth is a requirement from the province. You can’t expand (official) plans to include growth unless you’re doing it on full water servicing.”