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Sunday, July 26, 2009
Did you know:
three billion people do not! live within one kilometer of accessable water....
that every 8 seconds a child dies due to a lack of drinkable water or the lack of water for agriculture......
that Pakistan, India and even Australia are already running out of water......
that Canada is the third country in the world with the most renewable fresh water.....
that 850 million plastic water bottles are thrown into Canadian landfill sites.....
that we live in a world running out of drinkable water......
that in Canada the legal limit for polluting water is 49%......
that the purest measured water on earth is located right here in Simcoe County.....
.......the same county that is proposing to build the largest waste dumpsite in Ontario directly over the aquifer whose groundwaters cover an area between Georgian Bay and Lake Ontario!
Scientists have referred to the pristine artesian aquifer in the area as one of the cleanest sources of freshwater in the world, comparable to ancient arctic ice. The water is so clean it can be used as a benchmark for gauging the purity of other water around the world.
I've just spent three hours at a Site 41 rally. Dump Site 41 was originally rejected as a landfill site in the late 1980s by the Ministry of the Environment; is again on the agenda and threatens to become the largest landfill site in Ontario if it is not stopped.
I listened to former Toronto mayor & federal cabinet minister David Crombie, Maude Barlow the senior advisor on water to the UN and the Timmins-James Bay MP Charlie Angus one of the leaders in the successful 15 yr fight to stop garbage being sent to the Adams mine in his riding.
An estimated 2500 people attended. Included were representatives from Waterkeepers Alliance (founded by Rbt F. Kennedy Jr) and the Council of Canadians. The David Suzuki Foundation although not present have joined this fight.
We heard speaker after speaker outline the dangers to not only local drinking water but also to water as far away as Toronto. They told of a liner with an only two yr guarantee, to be laid down to prevent garbage contaminating the ground water; about the highly toxic leachate sludge (including medical waste, chemicals & hormones) that would average approximately 10 cubic meters per day, pumped out, transported to a Georgian Bay treament plant where it can be pumped directly into the Bay.....no such treatment plant exists on Lake Simcoe because the lake is so contaminated already.
We learned that our Ministry of the Environment has a computer modelling study that we are not allowed to view even though it was requested through Freedom of Information; how the initial consultants of the study have been bought out by one of the largest waste management companies.
This has been a 20 year fight but it is not yet a "Done Deal" as has been suggested by a 'former' politican. Today an Edmonton engineer wrote in one of our national newspapers: “It boggles the mind that this pristine water resource is under threat when secure alternatives have been discarded.”
This isn't just about Nimbys. This is about protecting a scarce & becoming scarcer resource.
I urge all of you to help us in this fight.
If you live in Ontario, sign the private members bill started by Garfield Dunlop (garfield.dunlop@pc.ola.org). Let our Premier Dalton McGuinty (dmcguinty.mpp.co@liberal.ola.org) know how you feel.
If you're a member of the rest of the world, who's concerned about the water supply for youself and your children, write to our Prime Minister Stephen Harper (pm@pm.gc.ca).
On the same water conservation note, help save the rainforests. Join the Prince of Wales' campaign & tell the world to put an end to tropical deforestation today:
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