In January 1996, the Federation learned that a township-wide Class Environmental Assessment for water and sewage servicing had begun in Tiny. The study, which the committee presented to the people April 20th, will cost up to $631,000 with the provincial government picking up 58%. That means you and I, as Tiny taxpayers, could pay in excess of $265,000 for the study alone. The directors of the Federation decided that we had better monitor this project very closely.

The Federation looked for knowledgeable Tiny residents to assist. We enlisted the help of two (2) volunteers, each with a lifetime of experience in the engineering aspects of sewage collection and water distribution, and a retired professor of Hydrogeology from the University of Guelph. They studied all available documentation and gave us their advice. In the following months, we have consulted many others, including a person who is in charge of sewage operations for a municipality in the GTA and a retired engineer with experience in planning and the environmental assessment process.

All the Federation's directors attended the Open House on April 20, 1996. Our committee then prepared a response to the questionnaire provided. On May 29, 1996, all our member associations were invited to a meeting to discuss the Federation's response before it was submitted. An article reporting on the Federation's critique of the Class EA process and the proposals was the lead story in the Spring/Summer issue of the Tiny Cottager. Why did the Federation go public in such an obvious way? The directors made the decision that our primary responsibility was to the taxpayers of Tiny Township and not to the 3 members of the EA Committee, namely Doug Taylor, Susan Kronschnabl and Evelyn Klym.

The Federation's valid concerns, set out in its response, have been ignored as have everyone else's. Ainley & Associates have provided the EA Committee with the results of the questionnaires. Only responses from people in Concessions 8, 9 and 10 are being tabulated, and of those, 68% said "do nothing". The EA Committee and Ainley have ignored the wishes of the majority of the respondents. Councilor Susan Kronschnabl has said that she is listening to "a balance of the silent majority".

Ainley's Multiple Interests

From the beginning, the Federation has been concerned with Ainley's multiple interests. Ainley and Associates have been Tiny Township's engineers for 25 years. As well, Ainley is the consulting engineer for this Class EA. The EA Committee of Council are lay people with little or no expertise in civil engineering, hydrogeology, soils testing, or electrical engineering. They should be sitting down with an independent engineer to discuss proposals being put forward by their consulting engineer. Ainley is fulfilling both roles and this project wasn't even tendered! There are endless technical questions that are not even being asked. The EA committee does not realize, or won't admit, that it is walking hand in hand with the people who want the work. A contact with personal knowledge tells us that there are "white elephants" all over the province being paid for by taxpayers who didn't know what was happening. Our EA committee is not seeking any independent, arm's length advice.

Concerns Being Addressed

1. The first concern should be for the quality of drinkable water in the Balm Beach/Ossossane area since the original application was to address health related concerns in that area. This is being ignored. $140,000 for comprehensive testing was listed in the Township's application to the Province for funding. Previous tests, with earlier funding, of 219 wells indicated that 43% (94) were substandard. In 1995, tests were ordered to confirm the problem. Ainley tested the 89 worst wells from the earlier sample at a cost of $2,050. This time, 35% (31) had substandard water. If the problem was unchanged, this number should have been close to 100%. The EA committee claims that "it would be a waste to go back and test". Tiny Taxpayers still do not know the extent of the problem. If a complete assessment is done, an owner can be ordered to correct his/her problem. The onus is then on the owner not on the whole community. Failure to use the remaining $137,950.00, intended to define the scope of the problem, makes a mockery of the whole project.

Water and sewage servicing would change the blueprint of Tiny forever. Servicing brings intense development. Do you and your neighbours want a Florida type coast along the shores of Tiny? In March, according to the EA Study Draft Phase II Report, water and sewers for Concessions 8, 9 and 10 were the preferred solution. After the Tiny Cottager was published, all three members of the EA Committee stated that water and sewers were never considered. If the Federation hadn't "gone public", we could now be looking at a $39 million solution. There is no provincial money NOW for capital projects; there was NEVER provincial money for this type of project in a seasonal area.

2. The second concern is what to do with hauled septage and holding tank wastes now and in the future. Septage is the product pumped from your septic tank. Currently, there is an EA being conducted in North Simcoe dealing with the treatment and storage of septage and sewage for Penetang, Midland, Tiny and Tay. Although Tiny has chosen to opt out of this EA (following Councilor Klym's recommendation), the treatment of Tiny's septage is being considered as part of North Simcoe's mandate. This EA proposes to treat our septage at the Midland Sewage Treatment Plant. The waste product called bio-solids would then be stored until the appropriate time to spread it on fields in Tiny. This method of disposal is approved and monitored by the province.

Councilor Klym often states that the government wants a municipality to dispose of its own wastes within its own boundaries. A senior staff member of the MoEE told the Federation that he knew of no such directive. Why insist on putting money into our own capital project unless it is the most cost effective way to go? What is wrong with binding legal agreements between municipalities about cost sharing for the years to come? The Regional Director of the MoEE made this suggestion to Taylor, Kronschnabl and Klym.

Councilor Klym stated three (3) times at a recent Council meeting that she would be definitely recommending the Solar Aquatics type of septage treatment to the EA Committee as the preferred solution. Solar Aquatics is a relatively new, unproven and very expensive way to treat septage because it is both labour and cost intensive:
* the vegetation has to be harvested,
* the greenhouse atmosphere requires a constant stable temperature,
* septage has to be fed evenly into the plant; because Tiny has most of its septage pumped during the summer months, the plant may have to be shut down for the winter,
* phosphorous is not reduced to the required provincial levels according to our sources,
* disinfection standards are not met; ultra violet treatment has to be added,
* we have no way of ensuring that septage haulers would use our facility even for septage pumped in Tiny.

The Solar Aquatics plant, in Bear River NS, consistently used by Councilor Klym as an example, discharges into a tidal river where there are no phosphorus requirements. Tours are provided free of charge so no money is raised through Eco Tourism.

3. The third concern is that residential, commercial and industrial growth within the Township of Tiny will be limited because the MoEE is reluctant to approve new development on individual septic or water systems. Again, MoEE policies and newly drafted Provincial planning documents do not support this concern. This means that there is no valid reason why the 150 acres of proposed industrial/commercial land cannot be developed using water readily available on the site and septic tanks installed by the individual industries for their own use.

Update

Since we last reported to you, the Federation has monitored all EA meetings and requested all information available from them. We have sent a supplementary response to the draft Phase I and Phase II Reports. We attended the Phase III Open House for the North Simcoe Environmental Assessment. We have also sent three (3) letters to the Minister of the Environment requesting an appointment to set out our very serious concerns about the Class EA in Tiny and are currently waiting for a response.

In a nutshell, the Federation is concerned because the EA all started with a health related concern in the Balm Beach/Ossossane area. The necessary comprehensive testing has never been done. But Taylor, Kronschnabl and Klym may choose a septage treatment plant as a "solution" which has nothing to do with the problem of potable drinking water in Balm Beach/Ossossane. In fact, the EA Committee recently held closed door meetings to negotiate upkeep costs of a septage treatment facility.

Our committee has grave concerns about the suitability of this kind of a plant. If septage treatment is chosen, all taxpayers in Tiny would have to pay 100% of the capital costs plus annual operating costs. Septage treatment would be deemed to benefit all taxpayers.

There is no provincial funding for capital projects. Can we afford the luxury of a treatment facility when the province does not require it?

You may be wondering where Mayor Lancia stands in all of this. The EA Committee is not reporting to Council. He did, however, make a statement at the Woodland Beach Association meeting in August. He said that he would not be further supporting a township-wide study but would support a site specific EA for septage treatment in the Perkinsfield area, only on the condition that developers agree to pay the costs and the facility be located on land other than on the 150 acres.

Deputy Mayor Taylor and Councillors Kronschnabl and Klym together with Ainley, the engineers who will get any project work that comes out of the study, are disregarding the wishes of the people, ignoring the real "problem" and following their own agenda.

The bottom line is that the very people we elected to control our tax dollars are blindly proceeding with a project that is not needed, not wanted and not affordable!