Commercialization of Wakefield Spring you dare say?

Our beloved Wakefield Spring is back in the news. Yesterday the Ottawa Citizen picked up discussions concerning the monetization of the Wakefield Spring that has run freely down Valley Drive since farmers began using this spring over 100 years ago.

I've known for some time that our LaPeche Council was mulling over the idea of getting into the bottled water business when the issue came up with our past Councillor Louis Rompre. Seems Louis was for the idea of charging for the water as a way to pay for services, including the cost for water quality tests and maintenance.

My friendly advice at the time was the community and especially local users like me, would not be supportive of paying a fixed price since access to safe water is not an option, it is a right and responsibility that our taxes normally help pay for. I still think that installing a voluntary coin box would not be so bad, but something happens when money comes into the equation; mostly expectations are increased.

Now our fiscally prudent Mayor is "floating" the idea to charge outside users for this water and it's not very positive. Apart from the logistics of ushering in a "user pay" system, the idea is premature since the watershed "source protection strategy" as called for by SOS (Save Our Spring) community group has not been developed past the conception stage. It may turn out that the new highway and quarry has or will irreversibly alter the water quality and the whole idea may be a moot one.

I believe that the original idea of installing a coin box for good willed donations may act as a catalyst by off-setting the cost for:  i) continuing the water quality monitoring program (with posted results); and ii) starting and completing the source protection strategy. Any water bottling project would require both space and money to build and would defeat the purpose of keeping development in and around the Spring to a minimum.

I think everyone agrees that until Wakefield gets a water system, at least 3,000 people will rely on the Spring for their potable water needs. If and when this happens, the demand for Spring water will diminish and without some kind of informal funding process, the Spring will probably be neglected and/or discontinued.Until then, we must be vigilant to ensure the tragedy of this common resource does not occur.


Here are a few opinions worth mentioning...

FYI...Interesting statement about capitialization by our Mayor, but, the
idea was born from two local individuals that thought that we were sharing
our water to too many "Outsiders" ... One opinion, that water is a precious resource that sustains...and should be given freely to all..plus it allows us to show generosity to the
rest of the region... Keep it simple...keep it *free to flow*...Take care all and enjoy this
wonderful resource for all.

Although the yield of the spring is not that big it would be enough to supply also water to a number of houses/ businesses nearby that have insufficient water from their own wells.
That would require an investment in infrastructure, permits and operation of the system, but this would solve a local problem as opposed to creating an extra plastic bottle waste issue. As soon as people got educated about the quality of the water that comes almost for free out of their own taps and the environmental impact the transport and packaging of that bottled water has, the market for this environmentally unfriendly water will shrink. What happened to the the plans for a bottled water factory in Smith Falls? Oh, that is a grow up now. Could that be a new project for this municipality? I am sure we have plenty of local expertise.   

Our mayor wants the municipality to make money by selling the Wakefield spring water. Why don’t we ask Coca Cola or Nestle to install one of their plant right by the Spring? Huge corporations across the world are trying to make water just another commodity when access to water should remain a human right, free as such. It is one thing for citizens to have to pay for tap water in order to cover the cost of transporting the water to all the houses a water management system deserves. It is in my opinion immoral to tap a spring in order to sell its content. They are however such examples elsewhere: Evian in Evian-les-Bains, France is one. I recognize drinking water from a plastic bottle sometimes because it is readily available, because I sometimes was too lazy or forgot to fill my own bottle from the artesian well water we get at home before going on a trip or to an activity. But I would rather be forced to get my water from a free spring rather than have bottled water at my disposal in stores. Also, I would rather let all people have access to the Wakefield spring, including “outsiders”, rather than tap it for money. The next commodity to harvest could be air. When do we stop?