209 Problems But Approval Ain't One

All week, as environmentally concerned Canadians have been stewing about the greenlight given to Enbridge for the Northern Gateway pipeline. Still, as noted in many media sources, the governmental go-ahead came with conditions, a set of 209 caveats that Enbridge needs to meet in the interest of safety and environmental stewardship. But what are these 209 conditions. All the media reports have noted the conditions and that there are 209 of them, but for the full list, you have to go the Report of the Joint Review Panel for the Enbridge Northern Gateway Project itself to get them. It's an appendix that you have to scan to the bottom of the over 400 page document to get, so in the interest of time and information, I thought I would post them here.

Dry Conditions May Affect Nestle Operations

The Guelph Mercury is reporting that Nestle's bottled water operations in Aberfoyle may be stymied if drought-like conditions persist. It's been over a month now since our area has seen any significant rainfall, and Nestle and other companies with permits to take water maybe asked to cut the amounts their allowed to take out of the water shed if conditions don't change sometime soon.

Has such a thin happened before? Glad you asked. In 2007, during another irregularly dry period, Nestle was asked to cut back on their pumping rates by 20 per cent, a condition to which they complied. Nestle is allowed to pump 2,500 litres per minute from the Mill Creek sub-watershed, which represents 3.2 per cent of all water drawn by permitted users of Mill Creek water.Water levels have been dropping for the last little while, and the Grand River Conservation Authority sent out a warning to residents last week, asking them to help conserve water throughout this dry, hot weather.

The Grand River Low Water Response Team will meet on Wednesday to go over updated flow information for tributaries like the Eramosa River and Mill Creek.