Dear Editor,
While our neighbours in the Town of Blue Mountains were considering a motion against Meaford’s proposed power plant, I wrote this note (below) to their Mayor and Council members. Although the motion didn’t pass after all, we in Meaford still need to reconcile our management of beach houses on our shore, and I thought this still noteworthy for those concerned about the health of Georgian Bay.
Dear Mayor and Council of Blue Mts.,
The Blue Mountains has its ski hills to provide a lot of tax money and local employment, and Meaford has little in comparison.
The pumped storage plant will provide similar ongoing tax money to Meaford to support our infrastructure.
Comparing the impact of ski hills on Nature versus pumped storage will, I believe, make one realize that the latter is more forgiving (although I love to ski).
What you can do instead of voting against this tax source for Meaford is to suggest that the beach houses on the shoreline of Georgian Bay be hooked up by sewer instead of their dumping raw septic tank effluent into the soil, only 50′ from the water, or in some cases, directly into the Bay (though by subterfuge).
You made sure that Lora Bay and some of your shoreline were sewered, and that’s a good thing. Although some of the ‘cottagers’ in Meaford (actually now permanent large homes but still on the original 50′-60′ lots) are against the electrical power plant, they have only basic septic systems (no management) back to back from the Tank Range some 5-6 km all the way into town. They pollute the environment.
This uncontrolled sewage disposal is the contaminant that is important to ‘save the Bay’, rather than the innocuous pumping water up and letting it fall down again.
Endorse Meaford’s effort for a similar, and arguably environmentally preferable compared to ski hills, source of tax revenue and jobs.
Please tell Meaford Council that they should clean up the sewage pollution of the beach houses on our Georgian Bay.
Thanks, Craig Jowett Ph.D., P.Eng.(ret’d)
Respectfully,
Craig Jowett, Meaford
