NEW DALEWOOD SEWAGE PLANT - emails to Project Contacts and Mayor/City Council required BEFORE May 8th (see contacts listed further down)

The new St. Thomas Sewage Plant is planned for the corner of Dalewood Rd and Water Tower Line, with little public awareness or serious consideration given to alternative locations. For such a controversial development, there appears to have been minimal effort to engage the general public, including a lack of notification to certain neighbourhoods within the study area.

The City is calling this site WRF Site 3 (Water Reclamation Facility – Site 3), which is a more polished term for a sewage treatment plant. Another proposed "option"—WRF Site 5, near Water Tower Line, Hwy 3 Bypass, and Turner Rd—was quickly dismissed due to its inadequate size and feedback from nearby residents. The impression is that WRF Site 3 (Dalewood Rd) was the City’s preferred option from the start, with only very limited alternatives presented to a very small percentage of the public. Approximately 50% of this plants capacity will be dedicated for the future Volkswagen EV battery plant. Is VW funding any of this or is it strictly tax payers?...from what we gather no corporate funding is being contributed. 

Why else is this location concerning:

• Two bird Species of Special Concern observed occupying this site (the Barn Swallow and the Eastern Wood-pewee) this fact was added to this petition on April 16
• Located within 600 m of Locke's Public SCHOOL and Monsignor Morrison Catholic SCHOOL (from what we can tell, neither the TVDSB or LDCSB have been informed or consulted)
• Upwards of 42+ Indigenous and Euro-Canadian artifacts found on site
• Within 1 km of the Dalewood Meadows residential area
• Within 450 m of Locke Ave, Confederation Dr, Southedgeware, and Woodworth residential areas
• Within 600 m of the new Elgin Hospice, opening later this year
• Directly across road from Dalewood Campground and Dalewood Conservation Area (both of Kettle Creek Conservation Authority)
• Directly across road from the new Water Tower Mountain Bike Network and Disc Golf Course
• Within 250 m and upstream of Waterworks Park. Waterworks already experiences flooding multiple times per year without 150 Litres per second of treated sewage being dumped into the creek that runs right through it. Will the park be usable after this?  

To make matters worse, a quick Google search of local wind patterns in Elgin County shows that we predominantly get westerly winds—meaning the odour will move from this plant toward our homes and recreational areas east of the site.

In their report, the City claims that the design will exceed regulatory odour control requirements. However, under the Odour Concerns section of the City's official website, it states that "there will always be some odour associated with the treatment of raw sewage" and that "odour from a sewage treatment plant is normal and unavoidable."

What you can do:

Residents have until May 8th to submit concerns via e-mail to:

Patrick Anckaert, Project Manager, City of St. Thomas – panckaert@stthomas.ca

Paul Adams, Environmental Planner, AECOM – paul.adams2@aecom.com

It may also help to reach out to the Mayor and City Council to voice your opinion:

MAYOR JOE PRESTON 519-631-1680, ext. 4131 e-mail: mayor@stthomas.ca

Cllr. LORI BALDWIN-SANDS 519-207-2247 e-mail: lbaldwin-sands@stthomas.ca

Cllr. GARY CLARKE 519-633-7195 e-mail: gclarke@stthomas.ca

Cllr. ROSE GIBSON 519-668-4924 e-mail: rgibson@stthomas.ca

Cllr. JIM HERBERT 519-631-0511 e-mail: jherbert@stthomas.ca

Cllr. JEFF KOHLER 226-926-5951 e-mail: jkohler@stthomas.ca  

Cllr. STEVE PETERS 519-631-1717 e-mail: speters@stthomas.ca 

Cllr. EARL TAYLOR 519-670-9223 e-mail: etaylor@stthomas.ca 

Cllr. STEPHEN WOOKEY 519-633-8608 e-mail: swookey@stthomas.ca 

Lastly, you can sign this petition and get involved via our Facebook Group, titled Stop the Dalewood Rd Sewage Plant - St.Thomas.

If you don’t closely follow the St. Thomas Times-Journal or City of St. Thomas social media/website, this might be the first you’re hearing of it. I personally was mailed multiple leaflets about the Highway 3 twinning/ Talbotville Bypass Project (which is farther away from my home)—yet nothing about this sewage plant plan.

Our hope is that the City will reconsider this proposed location and go back to the drawing board on a more socially suitable location. There should be more robust and transparent public input, including PUSHED communication/notices to residents and parties located within 1km of the site boundaries of the sewage plant. It is important to again highlight that this proposed location is within 600 meters of not just one, but two elementary schools and a hospice. In addition to the various social concerns this site raises, the most critical issue is the need to ensure our children have a voice in decisions that may directly impact their well-being.