It was a bit of good News for some Erin residents.
At the May 14 public meeting for the town’s draft strategic plan, Erin councillor John Brennan provided those gathered with a quick update on the town’s Servicing and Settlement Master Plan (SSMP).
Brennan said he wanted to update people because “this is a topic which is on people’s minds.”
He pointed to the May 7 meeting in which council deferred going forward with the Environmental Assessment process until there was a completed SSMP report, including the assimilative capacity report for the West Credit River, in regards to what might happen if the town moved ahead with a sewage treatment plant.
Brennan said he and councillor Josie Wintersinger and acting CAO Kathryn Ironmonger were at a technical meeting on May 13.
That meeting included representatives from agencies such as the Ministry of the Environment, Credit Valley Conservation authority, Region of Peel and County of Wellington.
“We talked about a number of things, but specifically the assimilative capacity study and what was needed to get definitive results.” Brennan explained there is a water flow meter gauge near the 8th Line.
“In the preliminary capacity report, they were extrapolating the figures from that. It doesn’t really give a definitive picture,” Brennan said.
He added the current plan involves another flow gauge much closer to the 10th Line.
He noted original studies indicated that a location between the 10th Line and Winston Churchill Road would be an ideal location for sewage treatment plant effluent runoff.
Brennan said the new gauge will provide more definitive information.
He anticipated the gauge would be installed in either July or August, and will have to be monitored until at least October to provide an idea of the flows.
“Effectively what it means is that we’re not going to have any of that data until the end of the year,” Brennan said.
“If people are feeling something is going to unfold in the next couple of weeks or months … it’s not going to happen.”
He added, “In fact, nothing is going to happen until at least next year.”
Brennan noted the town still wants to move forward in getting input from various groups and creating a steering committee “to help guide us along the way.”
He concluded, “We have a bit of breathing space before we have to make a final decision.”
