Ontario Mohawk community builds new treatment plant after decades of bad water
Mohawks of the Bay of Quinte has been under a boil water advisory since 2008
After decades of water quality issues and a near community-wide boil water advisory in place since 2008, a Mohawk First Nation in eastern Ontario is less than a year away from opening new infrastructure to provide clean water to more of its members.
The Mohawks of the Bay of Quinte, about 60 kilometres west of Kingston, is building a new water treatment plant that will open in September 2016.
It will connect 68 homes and buildings and facilities like the band office, health centre, school, and police station to clean drinking water.
"I think it'll be great for the whole community," said Lori Maracle, who lives less than a kilometre from the plant, where workers are currently roofing and closing in the structure with brick.
"I know it's just a little section now, but I've seen the plans, and it loops all over. So hopefully the whole community will be done within the next few years."
Maracle has lived in the community, also known as Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory, for nearly 25 years and she's never been able to drink the well water from her tap.
"It's just a pain," she said. "We boil everything. Every once in a while it does get an odour to it, usually in the spring and the fall."
"Our community has been on a boil water advisory since 2008," he said. "But the council has been aware that there has been ongoing water issues from the 1970s onward. Most of the wells are testing bad for e.coli and fecal bacteria."
Fifty-eight percent of the wells in the community have tested positive for those bacteria, which poses a public health risk, according to Maracle.
That's why the band council has been lobbying the federal government for decades for money to improve infrastructure.
Plant will be in operation by fall 2016
That resulted in $26.7 million of federal money for the $30 million plant. Construction began last year and is scheduled to be finished by next summer and in operation by the fall.
"It means safe drinking water for a lot of our people," said the chief. "It means that we now have the ability to have a supply of water that either can be piped to our homes, or can be delivered by a water delivery truck to a holding tank."
Maracle said a planned second phase of infrastructure improvements will include a water tower to bring clean drinking water to even more homes.
"There still is a lot of work to do," he said. "As of July 2015, there are still 93 First Nations communities across Canada that had boil water advisories."
Up the road from the new water treatment plant, Lori Maracle is thrilled that as of next year, she won't have to boil her tap water anymore.
"It's a good thing for the whole community," she said.