Abandoned Stuff by Saskboy

The village of Keeler, SK has lost in court concerning its attempt to continue to provide unchlorinated water to its residents. The judge is giving more time to Sask. Environment and Resource Management to decide if they will finally grant Keeler’s request to reclassify its water supply as off-limits for drinking. That would make it unneccesary to financially harm the village residents further by forcing them to pay for a water treatment system their municipal government probably can’t afford anyway.

In a potentially related water case, the Village of Wood Mountain, SK is also in a battle with SERM, who has claimed in court that the village is distributing unsafe drinking water to its residents. Wood Mountain doesn’t operate a water works, but that didn’t seem to matter to SERM. You don’t have to be right, if you’re forceful and have the provinces’ resources to throw at 20 people I guess?

You might be wondering, why would a village not want chlorinated water? Well, to start with the village council is representing the interests of the ratepayers, who have ALL signed letters stating they do not want Wood Mountain to add a chlorination system to wells in the village. Also, many people don’t like the taste, smell, or health risks that chlorination introduces. The cost is also prohibitive at about $500,000 for a system.

Wealthy municipalities can afford water treatment systems that don’t require adding a poisonous chemical to the water supply. Why is the provincial government wasting thousands of taxpayer dollars on prosecuting Keeler and Wood Mountain instead of finding a treatment or testing solution that is lawful, affordable for residents, and 100% healthy? Who is SERM serving by making a false accusation against Wood Mountain, and saying they distribute water? Is SERM out of its mind by asking 20 residents to pay for a $500,000 water system?

Wood Mountain has excellent water. I’ve mentioned it in another blog entry, but in the last 20 years that I’ve kept track, no one in Wood Mountain’s suffered a water bourne illness, and I doubt anyone going back to the Village founding in the 1920s has either. The wells do not get contaminated by surface water, like what caused Walkerton’s e. coli, and there is no sewage dumping into the water source like in North Battleford. The water is tested regularly, and shock treated with chlorine at times.

If the judge in Wood Mountain’s case decides that the village is distributing water [even if it's for free, since the village has no record of being paid for water], and finds the village guilty of distributing unsafe water, there will be a few questions that need to come up. First, how can the village comply with the order to not distribute unsafe water, when they are already claiming they are in compliance? Hypothetically, what would have to happen for the judge to be satisfied his order is met?

Also, who will end up paying for the compliance order? In theory it’d be the Village. The Village has already paid for a lawyer to defend itself in court. On top of that, ratepayers might face a fine, and the expense of whatever system is implemented to complete the order. If the Village can’t afford the judge’s order, then what? This trial appears from one perspective to be an attempt by SERM to destroy the Village of Wood Mountain using the court system to bankrupt it.

If the judge rules in favour of the Environment Act section concerning water treatment, what about the Municipal Act? The judge would be acting against the democratically expressed wishes of the Village electorate by forcing an unwanted water system on the people there. Which provincial law should take precedence, the Environment one that doesn’t apply in Wood Mountain’s case because they don’t distribute water and each resident collects their own, or the Act that gives the local people a government from peers in their community that are subject to living with the results of governing?