Dear Editor,
In last week’s Dear Editor section, John Mikkelsen of TCE wrote about the interaction with the community via the Thursday coffee chats. I have attended many of these chats and have been impressed with TCE’s commitment and willingness to improve their design through the feedback from the community. I have also talked to many community members and especially those living close to the base who still have a concern that has not been addressed. Their main concern is the sheer size of the reservoir and the huge water flow rate that will occur daily. This not only creates huge environmental disturbances, it is also wastes a potential of the water usage and may not be the most economically feasible proposal. I have on numerous occasions suggested an alternate modified design to the project that could address these issues.
In the modified design water would still be pumped up the top into one or more smaller reservoirs, however, the water would not flow back into the Georgian (Bay) at a high flow rate, instead it would flow through different routes in multiple directions down the escarpment. Let’s call one of these water routes a ‘creek’. As a creek empties from the reservoir, it will flow downwards through a structure that contains a low flow, high efficiency generator at its bottom with a layer of batteries stacked on top. The structure would be embedded into the hills and where possible be topped with solar panels. It is the batteries that are connected to the grid and can be charged by these generators, solar panels, and/or other means such as surplus low cost energy (the same as what would be used to bring water to the top). The creeks would flow into mini lakes (reservoirs) at the lower level and/or directly into the Georgian Bay. Of course, the water could also be used for irrigation on the farms below, the mini lakes used as trout farms, Housing could be built around these mini lakes and many more possible uses. Most of the water will gently flow back into the Georgian Bay through the creek systems. This design would also eliminate the huge underwater cable that would take the high voltage electricity to the other end of the Bay.
Since for the next phase of this project, the Ontario Government has provided up to $285 million to continue with the environmental and feasibility studies, I propose that this second design also be evaluated for its environmental impact and feasibility. After all, this is money that we as taxpayers are paying for and we deserve alternate options to the singular one proposed by TCE.
Sincerely,
Anton Komar, Meaford
