[Indigsol] Fwd: Do you know about this?

[Sylvia Smith]

Dear activists,




In December 2008, the Ontario Ministry of Environment's Approvals Division
issued a Permit to Take Water that will allow a private waste management
company to drain a pristine surface aquifer by Tiny Township in Simcoe
County so that a dump called Site 41 can be built. The proposed dump site
would sit just 13 feet above an underground lake that reaches all the way to
Toronto and Lake Ontario, and there's a good chance the site will be drained
by the time the ground thaws unless the McGuinty government reverses its
decision.



Maude Barlow, UN Senior Advisor on Water and Chair of the Council of
Canadians, and Elizabeth May, Leader of the Green Party of Canada, will join
Tiny Township activist Stephen Ogden and Danny Beaton of the Turtle Clan
(Mohawk Nation) at a press conference on Thursday, January 29 to launch a
Facebook Campaign to Stop Dump Site 41. Key to this campaign is a new
petition aimed squarely at the Ministry of the Environment and Premier
Dalton McGuinty. It demands that they kill the water taking permit for Dump
Site 41 for the following reasons:



1. Scientists have referred to the pristine artesian aquifer in the area as
one of the cleanest sources of freshwater in the world, comparable to
ancient arctic ice. The water is so clean it can be used as a benchmark for
gauging the purity of other water around the world.



2. There is widespread resistance to the proposed dump site within the
communities around the aquifer. The citizens and First Nations of Simcoe
County are demanding that the County explore other options to manage waste
by implementing waste reduction strategies, upgrading the 50 existing
landfills, and recycling recyclable products lying in older landfills.



3. Several sources, including Environment Canada, agree that Canada is on
the brink of a freshwater crisis. It is important that we make the
protection of freshwater sources -- not the placement of new landfills --
our first priority.



4. All life drinks from the springs that will be drained: beaver, bear,
wolves, deer, fox, coyotes, turkeys, eagles, ducks and many others. The
draining of the aquifer at Site 41 will affect the Wye River and Wye Marsh
-- an important bird sanctuary in Ontario. Your government must assess the
impacts on the entire ecosystem of draining this crucial water supply.



5. Building a dump site on a pristine aquifer fundamentally contradicts your
government's stated goal of moving Ontario "toward a zero-waste future."



6. The indigenous peoples have not been consulted about the development of a
garbage dump known as Site 41 in the territories of Georgian Bay and the
Ojibwe, Chippewa, Metis, Wendat (Huron) and Mohawk Nations.



*TAKE ACTION - SIGN THE PETITION! *

You can add your name to this petition by clicking here:
www.thepetitionsite.com/1/stop-dump-site-41.



If you are on Facebook, then please post this petition to your profile and
share it with your network. The goal says 5,000 names but we really want
about 100,000. It's a high target, but a group of Ontario high school
students recently gathered as many signatures, forcing McGuinty to kill
planned strict new driving rules. There's no reason we can't do it too!





Tausha D. Esquega

Teaching Assistant

Shingwauk Kinoomaage Gamig

1550 Queen Street East

P6A 2G3

(705) 942 5069






------------------------------

The new Windows Live Messenger. You don't want to miss
this.<http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowslive/messenger.aspx>


------------------------------
How fun is this? IMing with Windows Live Messenger just got
better.<http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowslive/messenger.aspx>


-- 
--------------------------------------------------------------
Sylvia Smith
Teacher,
Elizabeth Wyn Wood Alternate Site
613.225.8826 x 235


Coordinator, "Project of Heart"
projectofheart.ca
info at projectofheart.ca
2 Craftsman Private, Ottawa ON K1Y 4W9
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.resist.ca/pipermail/indigsol/attachments/20090202/b0508ef8/attachment.html>