A regional councillor wants staff to consider the possibility of building a pipeline to Lake Erie as a solution to the water capacity issues.
Regional Councillor Joe Gowing brought forward the idea at a Special Council Meeting on Wednesday.
“I just threw it out there to say, ‘Have we been looking at this?’ I’m not saying I want it, but I want to know if we’ve even looked into whether or not it’s feasible,” said Gowing on The Mike Farwell Show.
Regional staff initiated the process of updating the water supply strategy, a project that will consider short and long-term solutions to address the issue.
“If everything is going to be on the table when they do (the water supply strategy update), I just want to make sure that we’re ready and not waiting 15 years,” said Gowing.
The region currently relies on groundwater and the Grand River as water sources, but the recent water supply issue has raised questions about whether this solution is feasible in the long-term.
Regional Councillor Joe Gowing in conversation with Mike Farwell
The region has greenlit plans to retain a qualified independent third-party firm to investigate the region’s water capacity reporting and communication process from 2021 to 2026.
“A lot of people have reached out to me and said, I’m glad someone is looking outside the box of our current realm, thinking about the future of what our water is going to look like,” said Gowing.
Staff told Gowing that, even on an accelerated timeline, a pipeline to Lake Erie could take 20 years to build.
No word yet on what the project’s costs or feasibility would be.