WELLAND (March, 1990) - Barry Fitzgerald, president of Freedom Party's Welland-Thorold Constituency Association, has kept his promise; the one million gallons of raw sewage per day that was flowing into the Welland River has finally been connected to a sewage treatment system.
Thanks to Fitzgerald bringing the matter to the attention of the Ministry of the Environment early last year (see Freedom Flyer #14), the city of Welland was ordered to hook up its McMaster Avenue sewage drain to a treatment system. The hookup, now complete, has created a $488,000 expenditure in the municipality's 1990 public works budget.
Now, Fitzgerald has turned his attention to cleaning up the garbage floating in the Welland Canal: "Everyone should want to find those responsible in order to stop this from continuing." Further details about the issue are included in the newsclipping, reproduced below.
Barry Fitzgeraid of 491 Deere St. said now that ice covering the waterway is melting an "incredible amount of garbage" has been exposed and he is concerned because the waterway is the source of Welland's drinking water.
"Everyone should want to find those responsible in order to stop this from continuing," said Fitzgerald.
"I have to agree with him," said Brian O'Brine, chairman of the Welland Canal Parkway Development Board. "I haven't been apraised of any serious problem, but he's right.
"We do our best to patrol the lands, but we can't be there 24 hours a day," said O'Brine. "This has been going on since the canal was dug. I don't think there is any danger to the drinking water because it is all treated. But tt would cut down on taxpayer expense if people just didn't throw things in the canal," he said.
Al Smith, the Niagara Region's superintendant of water operations, said despite the debris in the water, its quality is good.
The region has a water treatment plant on Merritt Island.
"There's not near as much garbage in the canal as there used to be when it was used for shipping," he said.
"Tbe water is screened before it goes into the treatment plant" said Smith. "We take samples every four hours. The water is thoroughly checked and we send samples to the provincial Ministry of the Environment for analysis. "I don't think there is any danger to water quality.
"We wish more people were concerned," he said. "If the junk wasn't there, we'd all be better off."
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last updated on April 28, 2002
