The 500-person April 21, 2011 protest in Chelsea, Quebec against the proposed sewage plant that would have dumped effluent into the Gatineau River, just north of Ottawa. The full-sign says, ‘River Not Poop’.
On September 26, The Low Down reported, “(On September 20) the finger pointing and the frowns (at the MRC -municipalites rurales qui la composent- des Collines council meetings) were replaced by an eruption of applause and beaming smiles from the nearly 30 people in attendance. …The (seven) MRC des Collines mayors (had decided) to dump the planned septic waste treatment project (that would have dumped treated effluent into the Gatineau River). There will be no such plant in the area.”
Congratulations to everyone, notably Tamara Tarasoff (Citizens for the Protection of the Gatineau) and Wanda Gibson (Save the Gatineau). The newspaper notes, “Apart from organizing a mass 500-person protest in April 2011, writing more than 130 blog postings on the septic waste treatment plant, doing about a hundred hours of research and amassing nearly 1,000 volunteers, letter-writers, and protesters, (Tarasoff) could be spotted at every MRC des Collines meeting pushing for answers on the planned project. …(Gibson) amassed 2,200 signatures on a petition to stop the project.”
All is unfortunately not great with this outcome. The Low Down notes, “The MRC des Collines now plans to dump its waste at Smurfit-Stone, formerly a paper mill site, in Portage-du-Fort. The site about 74 km west of La Peche, will be privately run….The treated effluent will then likely flow to the Ottawa River. …(MRC des Collines Prefect Robert) Brussiere said they could not talk about (the Smurfit-Stone option) until it was a done deal. …(And reportedly) the mayor of Portage-du-Fort had no idea that such a project was coming down the pipe…”
Blogs on this can be read at http://canadians.org/blog/?p=6586, http://canadians.org/blog/?p=5895, http://canadians.org/blog/?p=11613 and http://canadians.org/blog/?p=16707.
