The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.
By Jonathon Naylor One must wonder how the City of Flin Flon goes about procuring cost estimates for some of its projects. In 2008, an early estimate from the city pegged the cost of a new water treatment plant at $6.24 million. A more detailed estimate released in early 2009 more than doubled that figure, to $13.2 million. Then in 2011 yet another revised projection came in at $16.2 million, an amount the city trimmed to $15.2 million by scaling back the project. At the end of it all, unless things change once more, the city and the provincial government are each left contributing about $5.4 million, with Ottawa kicking in the remaining $4.4 million. That's a lot of money, that $5.4 million, for a municipality our size. Indeed it amounts to $966 for every man, woman and child in Flin Flin. The cost has generated some grumbling among taxpayers and left them asking an important question: Do we really need this facility? So convinced of the treatment plant's pointlessness is Coun. Colleen McKee that she voted against funding the project, seeing no problem with our water as is. She has found allies among the numerous residents who shrug their shoulders and say, 'I've drank that water all my life and I'm fine.' The water is not fine. True, it's not like Flin Flon is under a boil-water advisory or that health officials are urging us to stock up on bottled water. But repeated testing shows our water is frequently breaching provincial limits for potentially harmful compounds known as trihalomethanes. Elevated exposure to trihalomethanes, or THMs, has been linked to a slightly increased cancer risk over a lifetime. Some research has also linked the consumption of water high in THMs to an increased risk of miscarriage in pregnant women, but other research has disputed that finding. Regulate levels With all of that in mind, many jurisdictions regulate the level of THMs allowed in their drinking water. What's more, Flin Flon's water does not always meet guidelines related to odour, as difficult as those guidelines may be to interpret. So the provincial government, relying on the advice of its experts, mandated that Flin Flon (along with other communities across Manitoba) upgrade its water treatment system. In this day and age, those experts concluded, Flin Flon's standard practice of injecting chlorine into lake water before pumping it into our homes no longer measures up. Do opponents of the treatment plant, now due to come online next year, possess some special knowledge that the government experts do not? Even if some dismiss the wisdom of experts within government, what is their response to Dr. Eva Pip? Dr. Pip is a renowned water biologist with the University of Winnipeg. In 2009, I asked for her thoughts on the need for a water treatment plant in Flin Flon. Dr. Pip, who has absolutely nothing to gain one way or the other, agreed that, yes, this was a necessary project for the community. What's off-putting for a lot of residents is that, in many parts of town at least, the tap water tastes clean. But that doesn't necessarily mean anything. THMs, after all, are both tasteless and odourless. I am glad that an issue as complex and vital as the quality of our drinking water is not left up to local city councils. They just don't have the expertise needed. Opponents of the treatment plant will say that our $5.4 million could have been put to better use, helping to build a new swimming pool that would attract more people to our community. A fancy new pool would give prospective residents another reason to choose Flin Flon. But drinking water that can't measure up to health standards could give them a fairly convincing reason to stay away. Local Angle runs Fridays.
