On July 11, 2008, a proposal to pump up to 17 million litres per day from the Leitrim Wetland area was posted on the Environmental Bill of Rights web site (EBR # 010-4134). This permit would be good for ten years. The comment period was to end on August 10 but an extension to September 5 was granted because the Ministry was late in providing the supporting documents.
Here are the supporting documents:
Application documents, including a Report on an Hydrogeological Evaluation (2.0 MB)
Groundwater Monitoring Report submitted to the Technical Advisory Committee (8.8 MB)
Three comments were submitted:
Comments by the Alliance and the Sierra Club (via our counsel at the Ecojustice Environmental Law Clinic), including a review by Dr. Fred Michel (448 KB) of the Hydrogeological Evaluation and the Groundwater Monitoring report.
Comments by Albert Dugal
Comments by Dr. Meg Sears
On September 16, an amended proposal was posted (EBR # 010-4670), for reasons explained in two additional letters from the developers’ consultant:
Letter of August 29, 2008 (1.8 MB)
Letter of September 12, 2008 (613 KB)
The revised application is for surface water diversion of up to 13 million litres per day for ten years. This is in addition to the 17 million litres per day by pumping out groundwater.
Comments on the revised proposal were invited until October 16, 2008.
On October 7, 2008 the Friends of Leitrim issued another Action Alert to encourage concerned citizens to write.
The Alliance and Sierra Club filed these comments, including a second report by Dr. Fred Michel and a report by Dr. G. Clarke Topp.
In light of the revised Statement of Environmental Values for the Ministry, posted on the EBR web site on October 30, a further comment was sent in, stressing the need for a rehabilitation plan.
