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Inside COMMUNITY
Proudly serving North Grenville, Merrickville-Wolford and surrounding area August 8, 2013 | 68 pages
jwestendorp@perfprint.ca
FEATURE
Michael McCann has published his fourth book, entitled ‘The Fregoli Delusion,’ which he will be promoting at Brewed Awakenings on Aug. 17. Page K5
COMMUNITY
Don Mercer gives a lesson in crafting potato batteries, which is an invaluable skill to have in sticky situations. Page K12
News – The clock is ticking for Fetherston residents waiting to learn if they will lose their homes. Forbes Symon, North Grenville Director of Planning and Development, said that if no one comes forward with a serious offer to fix the problem by the end of August, then the only option available to the municipality will be to get the people out. “The (septic) system can’t make it through another winter,” he said. Symon said the municipality’s main concern is for the health and safety of residents, which is why drastic measures have been taken in recent weeks. The municipality has been actively involved in the issues surrounding Fetherston since 2005. “You can look at it and say if various groups in the past had done things differently, then we wouldn’t be here,” said Symon. “Looking back isn’t going to help.” The timeline surrounding the more recent events was dictated by the failure of the septic systems this past spring. The report that was issued to the municipality was backed up by an additional inspection conducted by the North Grenville building inspector, who confirmed the seriousness of the problem. “We’ve been told there’s a serious threat to the health of the residents,” said Symon. Symon said the municipality is being as fair and transparent as possible throughout the whole process. “After the owner’s company went bankrupt, we held a public meeting where we said we would try to find a new owner and if not, we would have to close the park.” Symon said the municipality has provided and will continue to provide all the support it can to the residents of Fetherston. He said municipal staff made it very clear to the residents that
if an owner could not be found, then the park’s closure was inevitable. “We continue to do our due diligence by trying to find someone to buy the park,” said Symon. Currently, the municipality is dealing with two interested parties, but neither has submitted serious offers to buy the park. “We danced around with a group for three years,” said Symon. “We changed the zoning of the land, had the property surveyed and received a site plan from them. “Then they backed out. I don’t know why. That’s a question you would have to ask them.” Symon said the municipality is very motivated towards finding an owner for the park, which would be the ideal solution to the problem. To date, the municipality has never received a serious offer to purchase Fetherston. “The issue is $750,000,” said Symon. “Council made it very clear that this is not something the municipality should pay for.” Putting out the capital to save Fetherston represents a 10 to 12 per cent tax increase for every home owner in North Grenville. “When you boil it right down, there is a serious threat to people’s health and safety,” said Symon. “That has to be addressed. We can’t just walk away from that.” Symon said that handing out the Notice of Violations to the residents of Fetherston was the hardest thing he’s had to do in 25 years of public service. “I had go around and look into these people’s eyes and tell them they might lose their homes,” he said. Symon said that if anything could be done, then the municipality would be doing it. “We have a job to do,” said the director. “No one is doing this without understanding how severe an action this is.” Residents continue to hope for a solution.
Photo by HOWAIDA SOROUR
Ontario Premier visits Merrickville News - Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne stopped by the village of Merrickville on Monday, Aug. 5 to enjoy a bit of this year’s Canalfest and chat with residents. She arrived just in time to celebrate a 90th birthday with Merrickville resident Peggy Harrison. In this photo, Wynne chats with Peggy. The Premier is traveling through parts of eastern Ontario listening to what residents have to say about job creation in the province. For more Canalfest coverage, turn to page K11.
TransCanada pipeline causes concern By JENNIFER WESTENDORP jwestendorp@perfprint.ca
News – Members of Sustainable North Grenville feel the proposed TransCanada pipeline, which will run through the North East corner of the community and be operational by 2017, is too big a risk to take. “The simple question I have is what benefit could there possibly be to make up for the risks involved?” said Ian Angus, a member of SNG. “The only thing I can think of is profit for oil companies.” Angus said the company intends to retrofit an existing 55-year-old pipe, which runs under a portion of the Rideau River, to transfer not oil, but bitumen. He said bitumen is a very different animal than oil, which has clean-up procedures in place in case of water-related spills. “Oil floats on water,” said Angus. Angus said oil is not what TransCanada proposes to use the pipe for. According to the SNG member, the company intends to transport a substance called dilbit, which is essentially diluted bitumen. “Bitumen is mined from the tar sands,” said Angus. “It is the consistency of dry peanut butter. It contains sand, sulfur, heavy metals and various chemicals.” He explained that bitumen won’t flow through pipes, unlike oil. Bitumen has to be boiled down,
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using enormous amounts of water, to produce a substance with the consistency of slightly warmer peanut butter. After the boiling process, Angus said solvents are added to the substance to create dilbit. He said TransCanada won’t release information regarding the contents of these solvents, preferring instead to keep it a trade secret. “If the pipe leaks, the dilbit is heavier than water and will sink to the bottom of the river,” said Angus. “The solvents are lighter and tend to evaporate, which could send poisonous gases into the air.” Angus said that the materials that will be transported through the pipe are highly corrosive. He spoke at length of a spill that occurred on the Kalamazoo River in Michigan, which occurred three years ago. He said that roughly 843,000 gallons of dilbit poured into the river, which cost over a billion dollars to clean up. “That was a smaller pipeline than the one they have proposed to go through North Grenville,” said Angus. “Oil in water is bad enough, but they have a clean-up procedure in place for that. What happened in Kalamazoo was different. The solvents evaporated right away and the whole town had to be evacuated.” Angus said residents weren’t allowed to go swimming, fishing or boating on the river for years following the incident. See PIPELINE page K4
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