Shirt Tales

• 1. "Building 1,600 homes on the moraine will lead to inevitable environmental degradation of our aquifers over time: why? a. the clay till cap that is supposed to protect this area is not nearly as impermeable as we were led to believe. and b. "third pipe" option is iffy at best. The technology is unproven, the quality of the runoff is suspect, and the likelihood for clogging is substantial."
• 2. "The funnelling style of the proposed road system will lead to the inevitable strain on Wilmot Road North so that this remarkably scenic stretch of roadway, bounded on either side by sensitive habitat and natural recharge areas, will become nothing more than another suburban paved thoroughfare in the future."
• 3. "Building three more suburban subdivisions so far away from the city's core that infrastructure has to stretch itself to the limits of our ability to service them, that requires residents to have a substantial commute to just about every facility and function, that has no possibility of transit services in the near term, is the worst type of urban sprawl that has a negative impact on our way of life here."
• 4."The incredibly rich and diverse forested hills recharge area, already threatened on one side by encroaching neighbourhoods, will quickly and inevitably become just another shaded play area as its natural role diminishes when it is completely surrounded by suburban dwellings."

Labels: Grand watershed, land use, water

# posted by ramblingrose @ 8:25 AM 0 Comments Links to this post

Gentle Reader, do you remember Walkerton? That was all about cow dung, wasn't it? Easy to dismiss farmers as "they really aren't as sophisticated as city folk" Not so. RR has spent many an evening cleaning up after milking at a dairy farm a few miles west of Walkerton. Gentle Reader, what about last summer's disaster up in Attawapiskat? There the sewage was being washed back into the drinking water supply--likely by the daily tide. Were RR still living in the James Bay Lowlands, she would be asking how long the outsider experts actually stayed in the village to design the water facilities? long enough to note the regularity of the tide's coming in and out? and what shortcuts were taken in the design and construction? ***

Gentle Reader, reread the above again? As what happened in Walkerton and Attawapiskat is happening here. We just don't notice it--as we still think of the Grand River being out there -- although 20% of our drinking water supply is coming from the Grand. And why worry about our fecal contaminated wastes as they are all being washed downstream into someone else's water supply anyhow? RR has another memory of another town up in the boonies....Rainbow Lake, Alberta. The filter on the town's water supply broke. It took fully six months to effectively rid two small children of the infection that resulted. Lab tests repeatedly. Antibiotics. Extra laundry. Daily use of bleach on all surfaces of her kitchen and bathroom. Plus. Plus.

There are times when it helps to see red. To insist the status quo is not good enough. To tell our wannabe Councillors up for election or re-election on 13 November of this year that some things locally and regionally are just going to have to change.

RR has already prepped the background notes as to what is wrong with our split system to handle drinking water, sewage, and stormwater management. Post to come closer to the time when the candidates start calling for your vote and mine. So that you have talking points in your hand when the knock comes on the door.

Photos copyright Sandamara Images 2002: Canoeing the Grand River under the Glen Morris Bridge (top); Grand River as seen from the Paris-Cambridge Rail Trail near the Glen Morris Trailhead (middle); fishing the Grand River at Paris just past the CN overpass rail bridge (bottom); map of Grand River meanders through City of Kitchener with Walter Bean Trail in red and City of Kitchener trails showing purple almost black. Enjoy!

Labels: lGrand watershed, water

# posted by ramblingrose @ 6:03 PM 0 Comments Links to this post

• Hidden Valley PSW
• Hidden Valley ESPA
• Grandview Woods ESPA
• Hofstetter Creek
• Petrifying Springs ESPA
• Homer Watson ESPA & ANSI.
  

Map on left below? Location of eskers in Region of Waterloo; green portion in centre of map is the Waterloo Moraine; brownish areas shaded in are the extensive sand and gravel deposits that existed here ca 1960-- the approximate date of map prepared by P. F. Karrow, geologist, for Waterloo Historical Society.

• Hidden Valley ESPA #27 & PSW: A Provincially significant wetland complex, made up of two individual wetlands, composed of two wetland types (53% swamp and 47% marsh) which provide habitat for breeding birds and herpetofauna. Note naturalists have counted a total of 110 species of migrating and breeding birds within the last remnant of natural land whose forest cover has yet to be cleared for settlement.
  Wetlands, especially small, ephemeral wetlands, can be significant contributors to groundwater in their capacity to capture spring snowmelt and allow percolation into the ground. In this situation, the protection of natural areas, which have important ecological values, can also generate benefits to existing and potential future water supplies...Protecting natural areas, such as wetlands and riparian
  zones, that promote infiltration and recharge. http://www.ene.gov.on.ca/envision/water/spp.htm
  click on 4935e technical report & ALSO
  http://www.ene.gov.on.ca/envision/water/cwa.htm
  

• Petrifying Spring Environmentally Sensitive Policy Area (E.S.P.A. 28) which is characterized mainly by a steep, Sugar Maple-Beech forested slope along the Grand River with calcifying groundwater seepage areas.
• “Subdivisions and highways result in net loss of forest cover and fragment** what remains. Forest patches in close proximity to urban areas are subjected to invasions by alien species, and natural drainage patterns can be disrupted, placing stress on plant communities. Localized air and water pollution also has an impact on these ecosystems.” Source: Federation of Ontario Naturalists Southern Ontario Woodlands Project
  
• Significant groundwater recharge zone with 3 wells near Manitou Drive; the groundwater supports the springs that still exist in Hidden Valley as they did across most of the Waterloo Moraine prior to non-aboriginal settlement of the Grand River watershed. Where the perched water table intersects the slope of the Grand River valley, groundwater seepage occurs, including the characteristic petrifying springs.
• Coun. Claudette Millar said it would be wrong to suggest "that what we are doing is saving the environment.We aren't, we are attacking it and we have to be totally up front about it."-- Regional Councillor on this issue as quoted in Bob Burtt, "River Rd. route approved:Fate of Hidden Valley extension now rests with regional council," The Record 5 Jul 06
  

  
  
• the Freeport esker remnants? What's an esker? According to geologist Karrow, "Meltwater streams under the glacier left ridges of sand and gravel called eskers. See map above that inventories 10 such eskers in Region of Waterloo. Apparently the Grand River cuts through this esker between Freeport and Hidden Valley. This esker trends northwest to southeast. Canadian Geographic tells us eskers appear as "ridges with long and sinuous shapes.....and can be 500 to 600 km long. ..Since eskers are made up of highly porous sand and gravel, they are frequently excavated for construction. They are considered an endangered geomorphical species in southern Quebec since they have been used either to develop roadways...or they have been ripped up for the gravel to build nearby roads." City of Waterloo boasts one esker remnant in RIM Park & tell us eskers usually are between 5 and 15 metres high. The Waterloo website also notes: "Unfortunately most eskers have been quarried away for aggregates."
  

Labels: Grand watershed, land use, water

# posted by ramblingrose @ 11:39 AM 0 Comments Links to this post

Rambling Rose is currently working on a series of "colour my world" posts focussing on land use issues involving the Hidden Valley lands. This particular photo-essay features photos of the Grand River watershed taken during November 2004 of both sides of the river to draw attention to how the entire watershed is being used. At the left, a photo of the industrial basin wedged in between Homer Watson Park and two other ESPA's: Petrifying Springs and Hidden Valley.

Below on the left, a photo of the Deer Ridge Golf Course in the floodplain lands opposite the industrial basin. To the right, a photo of the vanishing Freeport Esker with its upland woodlot and unusual topography being bulldozed away to accommodate a subdivision on the floodplain lands below. To access the trail on the left photo, one must go to Chicopee subdivision just past the Freeport Health Care Centre.













On the left, a closeup of the tree removal --- in spite of municipal tree by-laws! Below that, another photo of the Deer Ridge subdivision focussing on the floodplain lands and the Grand River's meanders through this portion of the urban landscape. Photo taken from Homer Watson Park in Kitchener. Photo on bottom right, Deer Ridge development woodlot and trail post development.

Subdivisions are approved on an individual basis: what is missing is an assessment of the cumulative impact of the piece-meal fragmentation of our natural heritage. Certain questions need to be asked. For example," How many golf courses does one city need? Who stands to benefit? How do we balance the public good versus private, individual gain?"

We need also to ponder shared insights such as these:

“One of Waterloo Region’s richest assets, particularly as its human population soars, is its wild areas. These are places that ... are sanctuary to all of us who live in neighbourhoods and subdivisions...But if nature is...something that which is not human or civilized, then it must follow that nature’s true worth is inestimable and cannot be converted into human currency.”

Two final thoughts:

• Can we move beyond labels that divide our caring community into an us versus them mentality -- terms such as "heritage activist" and "environmentalist" -- and begin to speak of citizenship and stewardship as shared responsibilities as we move into our future and determine the legacy we will leave to our great-great-great-great-great-great-grandchildren?
  
• Can we express our thanks to those of us who spoke up--in this instance, John Roe and Daphne Nicholls-- by supporting them? and daring to dream impossible dreams? At the very least, they follow in the footsteps of Robert Fisk, the intrepid journalist who has covered the Mideast horrors for over thirty years & tells us his role is "to bear witness."
• Three questions:
  
• 1. If I am not for myself, who is for me?
  
• 2. But if I am only for myself, what am I?
  
• 3. And if not now, when?
  
• ~asked by a wise Babylonian rabbi some 2,000 years ago
  

Labels: Grand watershed, land use

# posted by ramblingrose @ 12:01 PM 0 Comments Links to this post

Photos L to R counterclockwise: Deer Ridge subdivision rising above the Grand River floodplain and golf course; Highway 8 traffic immediately adjacent to Hidden Valley lands; industrial basin to the west of Hidden Valley ESPA; and estate lot in Hidden Valley with the Hidden Valley woodlot adjacent. Almost directly opposite the Deer Ridge subdivision is the sewage treatment plant. Near bottom of existing estate lot is approximate location of Regional Reservoir and intake pipe to draw water from Grand to regional aquifer. Copyright Sandamara Images 2004.

1. An improved arterial connection to route traffic from Bleams Road at Manitou to River Road at King Street East in order to ease traffic congestion @ $28,000,000 according to the 2005 South Kitchener Transportation Corridor Study. Justification for this expenditure point to 1) high traffic volumes; 2) poor intersection configurations; 3) minimal access to Highway 8. Planned also are two roundabouts. Originally the region planned to extend River Road across King Street E and through the middle of the Hidden Valley ESPA # 28. The current planned road will run around the outer limit of ESPA and follow an alignment close to Highway 8. Source: Bob Burtt, “Rallying for Hidden Valley,” The Record, date unknown.
   
2. Development of the Hidden Valley lands and an increase in traffic. The following are planned for these lands:
   1) two business parks (3486 + 465 employees = 3, 951 additional cars !; 2) two large lot residential developments (120 +195 persons = 315 additional cars; totalling at the very minimum an additional 4,266 cars to add to the traffic congestion on Fairway Road-- does not include school buses, delivery vehicles and trucks to businesses, additional cars for customers and visitors. Will the planned business parks offset net employment losses from the closure of the BF Goodrich/Uniroyal tire plant in photo above? How long will that factory and its brownfield lands sit empty -- as nearby we bulldoze more natural areas to pave over?
   
3. Pearl Valley Development Corp/ Spokesperson Paul Eichinger purchased 200 acres of land to develop at purchase price of $2,500,000 to develop into estate lots with 80 ft frontages.
   
4.  Kruse Subdivision 1038 Hidden Valley Road consists of approximately 13.718 hectares (38.9 acres) of land to be developed into 53 single detached units. Kruse plans to build very large estate type homes with pond near swamp area requiring a great amount of cut and fill.  Per City of Kitchener reports30T -04201 cf. DTS-05-108- PL cf also DTS -05-206 , these properties are to have 80 foot frontages " to take advantage of unique setting and topography." Translation? These homes are to be built into the side of the slope and will have access to trails to the Grand River fronting their properties. cf. Deer Ridge photo above and directly opposite the proposed subdivisions. Pity the Deer Ridge residents who overlook the scenic Grand River; these new estate lots will have direct access to the Grand River floodplain.
   

• John Roe's opinion cf. article cited above: “What makes Hidden valley worth so much today is the fact that it is part of a rapidly dwindling supply of natural land in southern Ontario where the demand for such places is surging." & later in same article: "The developer does not plan to construct homes on the ESPA. Why would he? They are a selling point."
  
•  Professor Emil Frind, “Natural Areas will become very valuable,” The Record 11 May 2005: “In the future, natural areas close to the city, but unblemished by urban sprawl, will become very valuable indeed, and an address within the environmentally sensitive landscape will be a prestige address.”
  

Labels: Grand watershed, greenlands, land use

# posted by ramblingrose @ 1:19 PM 0 Comments Links to this post

1. Installing cistern to collect rainwater from the roof @ cost of less than $1,000 to purchase 500 gal (2,270 litre) plastic tank, jet pump, and 30 metres hose at local TSC hardware store & a day's work to install. The homeowner tells us, "[the water] is crystal clear...environmentally friendly" and concludes "At least you're doing your part for the city."
   

2. Planting flower and vegetable gardens with bark mulch in front yards*. The mulch cover is renewed twice annually and the garden is watered once a week with a watering can. An initial investment of back-breaking work that pays off in the long run.

3. Replacing the lawn with artificial turf @ $7 to $10 per square foot (one local company: Forever Green Stoneworks and Landscaping) avoids restrictions on water use and pesticides. Costly indeed & aroused the ire of local naturalist and University of Waterloo Environmental Studies Pofessor Larry Lamb: " Lawn is harmful enough for not providing habitat for butterflies and birds. But artificial lawns? It's really sick."

4. Xeriscaping (dry landscaping) using pebbles, boulders, and drought-resistant plants @ $17,000 total cost for one homeowner. This trend towards creating a desert worries Rob Witherspoon, director of Guelph Turfgrass Institute, who argues the benefits of grass:
"Grass is one of the most environmentally efficient groundcovers. It filters groundwater, takes in carbon dioxide and pollutants, and acts as a natural air conditioner. It's also one of the few ground covers that can take the wear and tear of daily use."

5. Sun Life plans to tear down 10 houses on Park and Mount Hope Streets to be replaced by paved surface parking lot. Source: B. Whitwham, "Sun Life wants more room to park," The Record, 2 Aug 06 Ashphalt does not require watering, does it? rainwater just enters the storm sewer system and flows away but cars must be parked somewhere. What about a parking garage and then planting creating an open/green space area for employees and community in the remaining space???? mmm? much too sensible a solution???


Re water required by lawns? Witherspoon suggests using gray water i.e. the water going down the drain from showers, sinks, dishwashers, and washing machines.

* Region has budgeted $1,100,000 to promote alternative landscaping to reduce water use by 4% or 1,800,000 gallons per day. In 2004, daily peak demand was 47,600,000 gallons.
**Note: mulches and compost-rich soil hold moisture much longer.

Rambling Rose has compiled this blog's photo selection to highlight another unintended consequence --- of the "ignorance is bliss" and "self-centred personal interest" variety. Photos immediately adjacent are of the Waterloo Moraine as it was being excavated for Shirley Avenue, Kitchener roadwork. The huge boulder is termed a glacial erratic. Photo of rocks, pebbles, and sand reveals the underlying Waterloo Moraine formation. Rambling Rose wonders if the first settlers could believe that someone would pay $17,000 for the rocks they would pile up into stone fences. What concerns RR is that this fad places yet another demand on the aggregate resources currently being mined out of the Waterloo Region. It is these rocks and sand that filter this Region's groundwater supply and protect it for us and future generations.

Aggregate extraction is a mining operation that creates the extensive pits as seen in the top photo of the CBM McNally pit in Puslinch Township. The rich, lucrative gravel bed bordering Aberfoyle Creek is nearing exhaustion. Already there are six applications to excavate beneath the water table in the Region of Waterloo pending: fortunately, Grand River Conservation Area has put these applications on hold for one year. A long enough pause for concerned citizens to call a halt to this insanity?

Gravel and rocks are a non-renewable resource. The moraine's protective cover is ours courtesy of glacier action that took place 12,000 years ago. With global climate warming, it's hardly likely that we will have another ice age to bring us another supply of rocks. As for xeriscaped front lawns? Do study the photo of the trees growing out of the Canadian Shield in the Ottawa valley above. In a few years, the proud new owner of the front rock garden will have to weed his front scree lawn and unfortunately, pesticides will no longer be allowed. What a waste of a precious resource and his hard-earned retirement income.

Labels: aggregates, water

# posted by ramblingrose @ 8:42 PM 0 Comments Links to this post