The Rural Voice, 2001-05, Page 32The Grand River meanders its
way across a large portion of
south-central Ontario, from its
source in the Dundalk highlands in
Grey County to its mouth at Lake
Erie at Dunnville and from Halton
Hills in the east nearly to Woodstock
in the west. From the farm fields in
the upper reaches, the river passes
through some of the most populated
areas of the province including the
cities of Guelph, Waterloo,
Kitchener, Cambridge and Brantford.
For each of the three-quarters of a
million people living along the river,
it represents a special set of needs.
Putting all those requirements
together, however, means one river
has to provide many solutions.
Lorrie Minshall as Manager of
Watershed Resources Planning for
the Grand River Conservation
Authority (GRCA) has studied those
competing needs. At the Ontario
Rural Council's conference on Water
Quality in Rural Ontario in January,
she spoke about how the river means
different things to different people,
depending on what they do and
where they live along the river.
What's good for people near the
mouth of the river may be difficult
for people near the headwaters.
28 THE RURAL VOICE
By Keith Roulston
What's convenient for people
upstream. may ruin the preferred use
of the river for downstream residents.
People in the downstream third of
the watershed, for instance, are
looking to the river to develop a
viable tourism industry, says
Minshall. To do that, they need
people upstream to improve the water
quality as it comes downstream.
Brantford and the Six Nations rely
totally on the river for water supply
and are concerned about water
quality and the impact upstream
growth will have on water quality,
not only for tourism, but for the
water they drink. The quality and
quantity of water supply for the City
of Brantford is affected by choices
made by people in Dufferin, Perth,
Wellington and Oxford Counties.
The river's water also travels
through one of Ontario's fastest
growing areas in Waterloo Region
and the city of Guelph. The towns
that became these cities were
originally located along the river to
provide the water power necessary
for early industries. Now it means
major population areas are in
sensitive environmental areas.
People in this area are concerned
not just about the quality of the
surface water, such as that in the
river, but also about ground water
which the region depends on for
-municipal water supplies. They're
concerned about the long term
security of their water supply.
While these urban areas are
concerned about quality ground
water, they are also situated on
moraines and sand plains that have
the most complex underground water
systems. Large underground aquifers
discharge into small streams and
wetlands creating complex, sensitive
and diverse wildlife habitat.
But the river provides another
service for this populous and
industrialized area. Each year
the area has more sewage to be
treated and more wastewater to be
disposed of. The river is the conduit
for getting rid of the wastewater —
the river that will provide Brantford's
drinking water downstream.
Up the river from Kitchener -
Waterloo, the area from the Belwood
reservoir down to Fergus and Elora is
attracting national and international
attention for its brown trout fishery.
Guides here host fishermen from all
over the world and they're interested
in preserving and improving the
habitat for fish.
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