Wednesday June 21: Scientist addresses Springwater on the Cleanest Water on Earth

AWARE News Network

Dr. William Shotyk, Bocock chair of Agriculture and the Environment at the University of Alberta, will appear before Springwater Township Council to talk about the aquifer that, for decades, was threatened by Simcoe County’s plan for Dump Site 41.

In 2006, Shotyk, the owner of an area Springwater Township property, was director of the Institute of Environmental Geochemistry at the University of Heidelberg in Germany. He tested the water from his farm and others nearby and was astounded to find it was cleaner than 5,000-year-old Arctic ice cores.

Citizens rallied to protect the water and, in 2009, achieved an 11th-hour victory, convincing Simcoe County Council to cancel plans for the landfill site on Tiny Concession 2.

Now, concerns are being raised about the potential effect of a proposed expansion of a quarry on the nearby Waverly Uplands which are a component of the still-to-be-determined unique combination of natural mechanisms that provide the filtration that results in such a clean aquifer. The water from this aquifer is now used by Shotyk’s SWAMP laboratory and elsewhere as the reference against which other waters are measured.

“The Cleanest Water on Earth – is it worth protecting?” is the title of Shotyk’s presentation, at 6:30 am on Wednesday June 21 in the Springwater council chambers, 2231 Nursery Road, Minesing. The meeting is open and the public is encouraged to attend.