As you know the Storm Water Management Pond in Roy Brown Park was turned down June 28 with only two voting Yay. The Storm Water Management Pond will now be built on the developer’s property.
In this week’s Carleton Place -Almonte Gazette there was a write up of the June 28th’s proceedings.
“Carleton Place council votes against shared storm water management pond in Roy Brown Park”
I had a few people email me to share their opinion wondering if the article possibly sounded one-sided. Everyone in my world can voice their opinion- that is how the world turns in my life, and our local paper opinion’s are noted and appreciated. But, personally, I feel the black and white words “drinking water” were sadly omitted throughout the whole article. Contaminated drinking water was the main concern of the opposing side.
To be fair, there was one lone paragraph in the newspaper article that said:
“Their main concern was the pond’s closeness to the Mississippi River and the town’s water intake”.
Now correct me if I am wrong, but people really have to think hard after that sentence to make the connection to the words “drinking water”. Maybe I am right out to lunch with this one, but to be fair, I did ask a dozen people what they thought about it.
However, the vote was in- the pond is not going in-for now– but I am going to put Jim McCready R.P.F., the Chair of the Carleton Place Urban Forest/River Corridor Advisory Committee’s opinions below to remind everyone why that pond should never go in. To quote a wise man on carletonplace.com:
“It seems no matter how good we can have this grain of life on this rock we call a planet we do everything in our power to screw it up, destroy it or keep it to ourselves”.
Thank you to all who voted to keep this pond out of Roy Brown Park.
Comments-
I think CP’ers do equate water intake with drinking water but also that most would have dismissed any development news as just one more development and left it at that. This scenario flew under the radar … and maybe we need shoutier (Sara Palinism?) words from Town council. Chance-Carletonplace.com
June 20, 2016
To: Town Council
Subject: Development Permit Application Sub4-01-2016 (Bodnar Lands)
The Carleton Place Urban Forest /River Corridor Advisory Committee has reviewed the above Application and as a Committee of Council have the following comments.
It has always been understood that enhanced storm water management ponds must be installed when development of the Bodnar properties was undertaken to protect the town’s water supply and the intake down stream from these sites. It is imperative to protect the town’s water supply now and for generations to come.
The current Conceptual Proposal to Council has the Storm Water Management Pond (SWMP) extremely close to the river, which the committee is recommending rejecting for the following reasons:
1. The original Conceptual Plan for Roy Brown Park put forth by MVCA and the Town had the storm water management pond well back from the river and on the developer’s property, which the committee supported at that time in 2014 and still does today. Map 1 with the addition of the proposed SWMP in red
2. As it stands now the SWMP would be in or very close to IPZ9 and would be governed by the prescribed instrument as follows.” Storm Water Management Planning and Design Manual MOE 2003. In IPZ 9 to8, the risks posed by storm water management facilities are to be managed through the Environmental Compliance Approval process under the Ontario Water Resources Act.” Municipal public works staff consulted as part of the policy development favoured including the recommendation that future storm water management facilities be built to Enhance Level Protection Standards. As stated by the committee Enhanced Standards would include well back from the river.
3. The present location on the conceptual plan leaves very little room to adjust to a catastrophic failure affecting the Town’s drinking water. As part of an enhanced SWMP a location further back in the park laid out in the original plan for Roy Brown Park with an outlet through the wetland, as a buffer, would give greater protection to the town’s water supply. Map 1
4. The flood plan line is extremely close to where the proposed SWMP is to go. This is extremely close if a catastrophe were to happen or if guidelines were to change in the future due to climate change or other factors such as extreme storms such as we have been experiencing in the last number of years. Map 1 & Map2
5. The committee is of the opinion that it is premature to propose one large SWMP for all possible development in and/ or adjacent to Roy Brown Park when no such plans have been prepared and storm water needs have not been determined. The committee suggests pursuing the idea of two separate SWMP options: One for the residential developer on their land as previously laid out; one for the commercial property yet to be decided; and possibly one on public lands depending on how the property is developed. This will give you options if one SWMP should fail.
6. We have not had good experiences with SWMP close to the River. The Mississippi Quays SWMP is a case in point. We should not be putting the town’s drinking water in jeopardy in such situations.
We are prepared to discuss this with you at your convenience.
Jim McCready R.P.F.
Chair
Carleton Place Urban Forest/River Corridor Advisory Committee.
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