MOEE Tips

Last updated
24 August 2012

MOEE (Ministry of Environment & Energy) TIPS FOR WHAT WE DO TO HELP TO KEEP OUR SOIL CLEAN AND OUR WATERS DRINKABLE, FISHABLE AND SWIMMABLE:

Don't pour old paints, dirty oil and other chemical products you are using down the drain (sewer). Many of the toxic ingredients will pass right through the sewage treatment plant and into the lake. Take them to your local household hazardous waste depot instead.

Whenever possible replace hazardous household products with less toxic, biodegradable alternatives. For instance, use baking soda and water instead of caustic oven cleaners.

Is your septic system working properly and is it big enough to handle your family's needs? Have your septic tank inspected every two years and pumped out when necessary.

Don't waste clean drinking water. Put a new washer in that leaky faucet. Take short showers instead of long baths. Don't overwater your lawn.

Stoop and scoop after your pet. The droppings carried by storm water into lakes and rivers add to the bacterial pollution that sometimes close our beaches.

Reduce your wastes, reuse and recycle them. Buy only products using recycled material; compost your kitchen scraps, lawn and garden trimmings; lawn trimmings can be used as mulch around your shrubs, trees and flowers; use your Blue Box; repair, reuse, donate old clothes, furniture, books, magazines, appliances or hold a garage sale instead throwing them away into woodlots thinking that you have got rid of them. These things will decompose into unwanted chemicals which will seep into our groundwater and later to the lake - our source of drinking water.

TIPS FOR KEEPING OUR AIR CLEAN AND HEALTHY:

If possible, do without your car. Bike, walk, take public transit. If you can't, car pool and keep your vehicle in top working order. And drive slower!

Buy energy-efficient appliances. Where it makes sense, choose a push mower over a gas-powered model, or a rake over a leaf blower. Replace large lawn areas with shrubs, flowers (native plants); this will ease your grass cutting chore.

Plant trees. They filter carbon dioxide and other pollutants out of the air, while producing fresh oxygen we need for our survival.

Don't use volatile solvents, cleaners, pest sprays. Look for less toxic alternatives.

Get involved with a local school, business or environment group to work on clean air, green community or energy conservation projects.

WHAT OUR WATERSHED NEEDS FROM OUR GOVERNMENTS:

Pollution of water, air and the soil in the above MOEE points could be prevented if the environmentally sensitive lands like Farewell watershed, depicted in all documents as groundwater recharge would be protected from unrestricted development, if the woodlots were preserved, agricultural soil protected. Damage was done. Do we have to continue polluting our waters, soil and air even more by additional development and tree removal as planned in 1970's? WE ALL HAVE TO DRINK THE SAME WATER, BREATH THE SAME AIR AND EAT THE SAME PRODUCTS OUR SOIL SUPPLY US WITH.

Without spending lots of money for a WATERSHED STUDY (that should have been done years ago) and for the protection of our health and safety (as per O.P.) we need a COMPREHENSIVE ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY that would clearly define which land should be permanently protected to assure our health and safety. It would be logical to protect all the remnants of woodlots, land around streams, wetlands. The Population should be decreased accordingly and the newly extended urban boundary should be removed.

We need a Topsoil Protection By-Law which would prevent possible soil contamination and removal of agricultural soil.

The Levy from development should be spent on mitigation of environmental damage done by development. Stricter requirements should be applied to development applications to keep away from the streams, etc. - $ 77,000 and possibly more would be saved by our municipality if development along Whitecliffe had kept the setback from the Farewell Creek in the valley. This money could have been spent for our Community Centre instead. PREVENTION is the best policy.

Development agreements from 1970's and 80's and outdated techniques for retaining ponds should not be approved. These approvements don't comply with our Official Plan statement "THINK GLOBALLY, ACT LOCALLY". All of society will pay for these mistakes, financially, if the plans won't work, and with our health and safety. Retaining ponds will become the municipality's responsibility; it should be in our interest that we get the best, but there are discrepancies between the parties involved in this process, e.g. Will Horban pond will be a dry pond or wet pond? We also know that these ponds should not recharge but rather retain discharge from development. How can that be, when after drainage of this area, the pond's water level now is at the same level as the water table level?

The Fisheries Act, Migratory Bird Protection Act, and others should not just decorate our Plans but should be applied to our area protection.

One ENVIRONMENTAL STEERING COMMITTEE should be established for the whole watershed so that local people can advise our Planning Department. Although our Planning Department is in charge of our environment, they are not really trained or educated in this specific area, yet they have to advise our Council in decision making.