Belleville City Council is supporting a resolution by the Township of Asphodel Norwood urging the provincial government to keep Public Health Ontario laboratories open to protect rural drinking water supplies.
A value-for-money report by the Auditor General has recommended closing six of 10 regional labs.
Councillor Paul Carr says the province needs to remember that many people live beyond urban boundaries and the closures will leave rural homeowners without access to free water testing for rural wells.
“I know most people have filter systems and UV lights and things of that nature. But you want to make sure those systems are working and the best to do it is have that water testing. To eliminate this, it’s $150 a test. And for some residents they may be able to afford that. For others, they will say that that’s cost prohibitive and simply just not test their water.”
Councillor Chris Malette, also chair of the Quinte Conservation Board says it was a hot-button issue at a meeting of Conservation Ontario in Toronto Monday morning.
He says with the 25th anniversary of the Walkerton water tragedy approaching it’s apalling the provincial government would consider the closures.
“Justice O’Connor in his final report on the Walkerton Inquiry found that privatization of testing, quote, ‘connected directly’ to the E.Coli outbreak that sickened and killed these people. We’re headed down the same road people.”
Seven people died and thousands became sick when Walkerton’s water supply became contaminated by E.Coli in 2000.
At its meeting on Monday, council supported the resolution with an amendment calling on the province to continue to provide free water testing for private well owners.
