The Rural Voice, 2004-01, Page 161
1
or
4J i1�4.1$
• nra
The reputation of Lake Huron's shoreline has taken a
beating from national publicity about water pollution.
The finger has been pointing at livestock operations
For tourist operators along the
Lake Huron shoreline who had
suffered from the fear of some
Americans about SARS as well as
American backlash over Canada's
non -participation in the war in Iraq
plus a cold spring, more bad news
wasn't needed this fall. But when
The National Post published a story
on pollution in Lake Huron under a
headline that said streams that fed the
beaches exceeded safe water
guidelines by 41,000 per cent, the
year got a lot worse. Some resort
owners reported calls cancelling
long-standing reservations for next
summer. •
By the time the Huron County
Health Unit held a meeting in late
November to bring together all sides
and as many water quality experts as
possible, there was a tension in the
room between embittered lakeshore
residents and farmers.
County officials tried to prevent
12 THE RURAL VOICE
16,
Reputation soiled
National publicitg has given the Lake
Huron lakeshore a bad ege over pollution
charges and bitter lakeshore residents are
pointing the finger at animal agriculture
By Keith Roulston
finger pointing with Goderich Mayor
Deb Shewfelt, chair of the county's
board of health, setting the tone by
saying everyone is part of the
problem. "We've (Goderich)
acknowledged long ago that we're
part of the problem," he said,
speaking of the history of by-pass
discharges of raw sewage from
Goderich's sewage treatment plant
into the lake following heavy
rainfalls. The town has been on a
program of rebuilding its system so
storm water can't get into sanitary
sewers. "We're 90 per cent there.
We've managed to reduce our
bypasses to one or two small ones a
year."
The dominoes leading toward the
unwanted national publicity started
falling in late October when Mike
McElhone and Barb Foell of the
Ashfield Colborne Lakefront
Association (ACLA) revealed results
of water tests the group's members
had taken in 12 streams that feed into
Lake Huron north of Goderich. The
group found that E. coli levels ranged
from 69 times higher than the
accepted "safe" level for swimming
at Eighteen Mile Creek in the north
to 420 times higher at one creek
closer to Goderich.
They pointed the finger of blame
squarely at livestock operations when
they sent five samples to a Florida
laboratory for DNA testing to find
the source of the E. coli. The lab sent
back its opinion that the bacteria
most likely came from animal waste.
The group sent the press release to
local and national news media and it
peeked the interest, not only of local
media outlets, but The National Post,
London Free Press and Toronto Star.
It was The Post's article, distributed
nation wide through the CanWest
News Service, that caused the
greatest concern for tourist operators.
It touched all the alarmist bases,