A proposal to treat north York Region’s wastewater in the Lake Simcoe watershed rather than Lake Ontario’s is in the early stages but already touching off some contentious debate.

Regional mayors and councillors spent nearly two hours at the environmental services committee yesterday challenging staff on the details of the Upper York Sewage Solutions project.

Georgina Mayor Rob Grossi lead the charge, wondering why two public meetings were held in Newmarket and Aurora rather than in his community, where residents would be most affected.

“We’re offended and we’re insulted,” he said. “Don’t send us to a coffee talk in some other community … The people of Georgina want to hear about it and give you feedback.”

When environment commissioner Erin Mahoney responded saying they engaged town staff, had a booth at a summer festival and met the legislative requirements of the EA process, the visibly agitated mayor went so far as to wonder out loud whether the town would have to go to court to challenge the region’s process if they continued to be excluded.

His colleague, Regional Councillor Danny Wheeler, read a motion passed by Georgina council Wednesday making the same points and the committee endorsed a motion by Aurora Mayor Geoff Dawe that staff hold a meeting in the town as soon as possible.

The region initially assumed future sewage connections would be to the south, connecting to the larger York-Durham Sewage System, until the province told them to look for a made-in-York solution.

The new connection  —  which the region is calling the Lake Simcoe Innovative Alternative — is needed to service the 150,000 people moving into the north end over the next 20 years, particularly in East Gwillimbury.

Regional capital planning director Daniel Kostopoulos outlined the reasons why the Lake Simcoe connection is a better choice including:

• A total cost of $512 million versus more than $820 million for the YDSS connection;

• The Lake Simcoe connection would be complete between 2017 and 2019, between three and five years faster than the YDSS connection;

• The new plant will use both water purification and water recycling;

• Aurora would continue to receive a blend of water from both watersheds, as will Newmarket to a lesser extent;

• Going to Lake Simcoe means no expensive, delicate tunneling through the Oak Ridges Moraine, and;

• Clean water would likely be released into the polluted East Holland River, mitigating some of the environmental problems there.

The latter issue was another that raised the hackles of Mr. Wheeler and Mr. Grossi since there has been an ongoing need for a water treatment plant on the river.

While Georgina’s representatives said it made no sense to forgo fixing everything at once, Mr. Kostopoulos and Ms Mahoney pointed out that while there would be a net benefit for the river, a purification plant was outside the scope of this EA.

There is already a list of 25 to 30 potential sites for the new system’s needed water treatment plant, almost all in East Gwillimbury, and a final short list should be available before the end of the year.

In the meantime, at least one site was of great concern to East Gwillimbury Mayor Virginia Hackson, namely the Holland Landing lagoons.

“To say I’m disappointed is an understatement,” she said, given that there is already an agreement to close the lagoons and convert the site to public uses.

“It’s a red flag for East Gwillimbury. The longer that sits there, the more anxiety there is.”

via YorkRegion Article: Region ‘offends, insults’ Georgina.