City creating new Porcupine Lake liaison committee

The group has also sat down with the environment commissioner

Jan 29, 2019 4:00 PM By: Maija Hoggett

From a new city liaison committee to sitting down with Ontario’s Environment Commissioner Dianne Saxe, it’s been a busy time for the Friends of the Porcupine River Watershed.

For about an hour, members for the Friends group talked with Saxe, with the conversation ranging from how to ask the government to review its policy through the Environmental Bill of Rights, to road salt working its way into waterways, water and wildlife testing, and more.

Currently, sewage is bypassed into Porcupine Lake when the system’s capacity is exceeded, which is normally when there is a lot precipitation or during the spring melt.

The local lake was included in the commissioner’s 2018 Environmental Protection Report to highlight the “lack of enforcement to stop combined sewage overflows.”