A $30-million plan to take water from the village of Millbrook and send it to the Kawartha Downs area is just part of the reason many area residents and their township council are tied up in a bitter dispute.

Cavan Monaghan Township needs to get water to Kawartha Downs racetrack and slots if talk of a hotel, golf course, other recreational facilities -maybe even a full casino -is ever going to become reality.

The township has a financial interest in growing Kawartha Downs. Its share of gambling revenue averages more than $3 million a year. Expansion would mean more gambling income and more property taxes.

The township also wants water for housing for 3,000 or so more people in Fraserville, the hamlet next to Kawartha Downs. Along with the housing plan comes visions of a shopping mall and serviced industrial land.

Township council is proposing a 12-kilometre pipeline to Millbrook, the township’s largest village. Millbrook, which has a water treatment plant, draws water from a large underground aquifer.

More than 1,000 township residents, many but not all of whom live in Millbrook, have signed a petition opposing the plan. They have several fears and questions.

They worry Millbrook’s water supply and many wells in the surrounding area would be threatened. They are concerned about possible contamination. They question how the township will pay its $10 million share (the federal and provincial governments are covering the rest) if all that planned growth doesn’t materialize and new property taxes don’t flow in.

They question the accuracy of consultants studies, paid for by the township, that found water supply and safety would not be problems.

The opponents also say township council isn’t listening. They have a point. Most council members have refused to come to meetings attended by 200 or more concerned citizens. The opposition group has not been able to find out why an alternative plan to use a well near Fraserville was rejected.

Those 1,000-plus signatures represent more than 10% of township residents. Their elected representatives should at the very least meet with them, supply all the documentation that backs up the pipeline plan and make the process fully transparent.

Both sides believe they are doing what is best for Cavan Monaghan, but township council has the upper hand if it controls all the information. Residents who helped pay for the studies, and help pay councillor’s salaries, should be fully informed, regardless of what they plan to do with the information.