Pressure rising to find another water source for Harriston

MINTO – The hunt to secure another source of water in Minto is getting more critical as one of its towns would not have sufficient supply for all the development in the pipeline. 

At a council meeting and discussion on Minto’s proposed operating budget, it was noted water is an ongoing concern in the town as it has put money towards securing another water source several years in a row. 

Although building has slowed down in Minto, director of building and planning services Terry Kuipers told council there isn’t a sufficient amount of water for all the development in Harriston. 

“If all the projects that are in the works, so draft approved but not moving forward at this moment, pulled the trigger we would be over committed with our Harriston water allocations,” Kuipers said. “If everyone built tomorrow, we would not have a sufficient amount of water.”

Kuipers said it’s not drastic at being short of supply for 17 units and the town has not had to limit building permits for any developments recently. 

In an email, Kuipers explained the town has drilled test wells to determine the availability of water as well as the quality and quantity of it.

He also clarified the 17 unit short number is if all available lands are developed to the maximum capacity permitted by current zoning provisions. 

"As not all parcels are developed with their maximum density potential, the allocation numbers change year-to-year, based on the actual development type and town updates capacity of all municipal systems annually," he said in his email. 

Wellington County’s growth forecast to 2051 has Harriston’s population going from 2,200 to 3,500 and Palmerston’s population more than doubling from 3,000 to 6,800. 

“With the county’s growth forecast we are going to run out of water before they anticipated we would run out of water,” Kuipers said. 

Another staff member clarified reserve capacity is calculated by assuming the highest producing well is out of service and the town wouldn’t physically run out of water.

It’s not exactly the same situation in Palmerston as it has reserve capacity to 2036, Kuipers said. 

“But we want to get ready so we don’t have that development shut down where we can’t allow anyone to build,” Kuipers said. 

Minto treasurer Gordon Duff explained regular money has to be spent on searching for water because it is a highly regulated and a complicated process even for small wells. He noted the paperwork involved in building the recent well at Minto Pines took more time than actually doing it. 

Fire chief Chris Harrow, who in the past has acted as the interim CAO for Minto, added spending the money ahead of time is valuable as it allows for the environmental assessment to get done.

“It gives you the option of knowing what you can do to get more water,” Harrow said.

It also puts municipalities in a shovel-ready state if a grant comes online from upper levels of government for this kind of work. 

Kuipers added in his email small municipalities have been left out of provincial growth targets that were assigned to larger ones which also includes additional funding opportunities for infrastructure improvements that all municipalities need.