The proposed amendment to…

The proposed amendment to Environmental Compliance Approval No. 7471-9LVPLH would authorize private communal sewage treatment in unorganized territory, which is prohibited under Provincial requirements. Furthermore, if the treatment plant is allowed on some basis to operate, then MECP should recognize that this large treatment plant will be privately operated in unorganized territory, with no municipal oversight or backup, and the Ministry must proactively take steps to protect the Winnipeg River, aiming at the highest standards of treatment instead of passing along the lowest. Specifically, (a) the direct discharge of effluent into the Winnipeg River, first permitted for this plant in 1988, should not be allowed now in 2019 without additional treatment of the effluent, (b) Winnipeg River baseline studies date to 1988, are now obsolete and require updating, and (c) the developer's study of the treatment plant falls well short of MECP's request.