Eastern Ontario farmers relieved after water plant expansion put on hold

Farmers who were worried their land would be expropriated to expand the Casselman Water Treatment Plant are relieved now the project has been changed.

The municipality of Casselman plans to extend the wastewater discharge period through its existing facilities over the next two decades.

Yves Morrissette, general manager for the municipality, told Radio-Canada the plan is to obtain a continuous discharge of treated water year-round, which means Casselman would not need an additional lagoon cell.

"This is a solution that the [municipality] fully supports," Morrissette said in French.

Nicolas Bialik, one of the environmental engineers working on the project's design, said the solution involves maintaining the existing lagoon system, adding filtration facilities and other specialized treatment systems to meet Ontario government standards.

Farmers who were worried about losing land to the planned expansion were thrilled.

"This is great news for us farmers and residents," Casselman resident Guy Laflèche said in French.

Once the project planning is completed, the Ontario Environment Ministry will have to give its approval for the next step.

Water plant struggling to meet demand

The land near the water treatment plant had belonged to The Nation, a rural municipality in eastern Ontario. 

Casselman, a village located about 50 kilometres from downtown Ottawa along Highway 417, is surrounded on all sides by The Nation. In September, Casselman submitted a request to The Nation to annex some land "to potentially allow for future expansion" of its lagoon system. The Nation accepted.

The expansion would have included the creation of a 150-meter buffer zone around the lagoons to comply with provincial requirements.

Casselman's water treatment plant is struggling to meet demand, according to a report released by the municipality in May of last year. For more than a decade, high levels of manganese have periodically turned the municipality's water brown.

The report offered several possible solutions, including expansion of the water treatment plant.

Future expansion still possible

While farmers are happy the planned expansion has been put on hold, the municipality has not ruled out a possible expansion in the future. As a result, some farmers remain worried.

"Having access to the land allows them to expropriate the owners more easily in order to eventually build lagoons," said Marc-Antoine Racine, whose family owns a farm in the area.

Morrissette said the municipality is trying to avoid land expropriation as much as possible.

"Although when we are faced with the facts, it will be a decision that the council will have to make," Morrissette said.