The Water is Vital for Life petition was presented to MLA for Bonnyville – Cold Lake Genia Leskiw yesterday, which included over 3,300 signatures.
“It's great what you're doing,” said Leskiw as she accepted the petition from Corita Vachon and Crystal Gliege. “You didn't just complain, you took the bull by the horns and decided to do something about it so kudos to you.”
Vachon outlined a number of health-related affects long-term exposure to Trihalomethanes (THMs) and Haloacetic acids (HAAs) can have on a human body, both of which have been found in Bonnyville's treated water, which comes from Moose Lake.
“Health Canada states that there is compelling scientific evidence that suggests exposure with THMs and HAAs over time are linked with liver, colon, rectal, brain and pancreatic cancers, not to mention reproductive and developmental effects,” Vachon said.
She outlined her personal frustrations, stating she feels the process has taken too long.
“I am frustrated and confused as to why the ‘Water is Vital for Life' petition must be brought to the attention to our Alberta Minister of Environment and Sustainable Resources for review and consideration when all evidence that I've gathered to date proves that their department has been in favour of Bonnyville getting water from Cold Lake all along,” she said.
Leskiw assured her she has been working on this issue for years.
“You don't realize behind the scenes what goes on. It may look like to you that I haven't been pushing it, but government doesn't work very fast,” said Leskiw, stating she has been meeting with the Town of Bonnyville and Cold Lake “on a regular basis.”
Vachon explained the issue had been discussed with Alberta Environment years ago and the department had been in favour of Bonnyville having Cold Lake water. They had said Cold Lake would have enough water to sustain Bonnyville. Currently, Cold Lake council has been concerned that Bonnyville would add too heavy a burden on Cold Lake's water resource.
“Bonnyville would have been allotted 2.1 million cubic metres per year of water with no restrictions on use during water droughts. In 2011, the Town of Bonnyville water treatment plant only produced 0.95 million cubic metres of water, that's less than half of what Alberta Environment would have allotted our Town to use under the Cold Lake water license,” Vachon said.
Imperial Oil and CNRL both draw from Cold Lake for their oilsands projects and were allocated 7.7 million cubic metres per year. Vachon said industry needs should not be put before a human's basic necessities.
“If water conservation truly is a concern with Cold Lake water advocates and if there currently is a concern for over-usage on the lake, common sense should favour human consumption for basic necessities of life versus industry consumption -- more specifically, oil field consumption,” she said.
“Does the oil field really need to use such good, clean, precious, drinkable water to perform their daily activities?”
Leskiw said a number of plans must be put in place in order to fix the Bonnyville drinking water problem.
“It's a slow process. You still need to find short-term solutions, medium-term solutions and long-term solutions because it takes some time to build a pipeline. Meanwhile, we have to worry about the plant here in Bonnyville,” she explained.
She said residents living on Moose Lake also have a responsibility to keep the lake water clean and safe.
“How conservative are the people living around the lake and what are they doing to our drinking water? That has to be addressed. People fertilizing their grass right to the water, it harms our water. People's septic tanks harm our water.
“We need to look at educating everyone who lives around the water source that each and every member has a duty to protect our drinking water. And we haven't tackled that issue on people breaking rules and regulations about our drinking water.”
On top of the more than 3,300 people who signed the petition, 87 people signed an online petition and 130 people signed a hand-written petition.
Leskiw said she would take the petition to Minister of Environment Diana McQueen and to the Alberta legislature.
