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Water Decision Monday?
September 11, 2004
The city's water and sewage treatment facilities are located on Woodward Avenue. Sewage effluent goes into Windermere Basin (top centre) and Hamilton Harbour, while raw water is drawn from Lake Ontario (top right) on the other side of the QEW. |
The Hamilton WaterWatch group is asking residents to attend Monday morning's meeting of the city Public Works committee. They anticipate that the meeting will include discussion and possibly a decision about the future management of the city's water and sewer system.
A staff report was leaked last week recommending that the water and sewer management be returned to public hands, but that report has curiously not been included in the agenda of Monday's meeting. Neither has a request by American Water Services to address the committee meeting, although WaterWatch has been able to obtain a copy of the request.
These omissions and the fact that the meeting agenda was not released until Friday afternoon, makes it nearly impossible for citizen views to be heard at Monday's meeting. City rules state that individuals can only make a request to speak on an agenda item before noon on the day prior to the meeting.
What is definitely on the agenda is a motion by councillor Sam Merulla "that all details of the water treatment contract be made public" as well as sewage spills and "all other types of violations". Merulla is also asking that "existing overstrength agreements be eliminated or greatly reduced".
In preparation for Monday's meeting, WaterWatch has prepared a short chronology of Hamilton's experience with private operation of its water and sewer system. It can be viewed below along with a copy of the leaked staff report. The Public Works meeting begins at 9:30 am in council chambers at City Hall.
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