The Rural Voice, 2003-11, Page 37News in Agriculture
Professor provided the first ray of hope
Continued from page 33
truck appeared and loaded up all the
stakes that had been so carefully
replaced.
In the long run there were about 11
wells drilled to study underground
water movement. "I think we could
have started our own subdivision,"
he says.
In early August a woman arrived
by taxi and got out and asked "What
does it feel like to be the source of
the infection that killed the people in
Walkerton."
He admits he lost it and said things
he shouldn't have said and kicked
her off the farm. He later wondered
how she got the information when
the medical officer of health had a
gag order in place.
The next day the news of their
implication was on television from
coast to coast. It was their daughter,
in training in London for the
Canadian Olympic Rowing team
who called to tell them at 7:30 a.m.
to tell them the radio was saying they
were responsible for the infection.
"That was just the start of one of the
worst days anyone could have."
By 8:00 a.m. the television trucks
were coming up the lane and radio
stations began calling. It got so bad
they put a tractor across the quarter -
mile long laneway.
They finally set limits, agreeing to
talk to people about the water issue
only certain days of the week.
The OCA helped relieve some of
the pressure by issuing a statement,
he says.
Still the pressure was enormous.
Carolyn began avoiding going to
Walkerton which had been her
hometown.
They had been hoping to go to
Australia in September to watch their
daughter row with the Canadian
Olympic Team in the Sydney
Olympic Games.
"I'm thinking I've got two choices:
I can either spend $20,000 and hire a
lawyer and do all this to protect
myself when (I think) I've done no
wrong, or I can say 'go to hell' and
go to Australia. We went to
Australia." That break almost saved
their sanity in the end, he says.
After they returned Medical Officer
Dr. Murray McQuigge held a news
conference to release his findings on
the cause of the contamination and
showed a diagram that made it look
like the Biesenthal farm was virtually
sitting on top of Well 5 instead of
being the second farm to the west. It
also appeared as if it was a straight
path downhill from the barnyard to
the well when in fact the land fell
gently from the barnyard toward the
well but there was a rise before the
well.
"We have a rather unique farm in
that water will run up hill,"
Biesenthal said dryly.
The theory was that there was a
way for the water to wend its way
through several ridges to come back
to the well but to do so it had to go
through a corn field with four -inch
tall corn and a hay field already with
a good growth on it, Dr. Biesenthal
said. "That's one hell of a trip for
water, I tell you," he said. What's
more the water was supposed to have
taken manure with it all along that
circuitous route, even though there
was no manure in the barnyard
because the cattle were on pasture.
Within a week they were served
with a lawsuit on behalf of Stan and
Frank Koebel and the Walkerton
Public Utilities Commission for $350
million.
The claim stated they didn't store
their manure properly and that they
should have known that
contaminated water could enter Well
5 and had failed to take precautions
to ensure manure would not escape.
The claim said they had failed to
undertake an Environmental Farm
Plan when they had had one for
seven years.
But the frightening claim for all
farmers was the statement that "The
Biesenthals are strictly liable for any
and all loss and damage arising from
the escape of cattle manure."
"To me as a farmer that's kind of
scary. That puts the onus right on us.
We' really have to protect ourselves
from incidents like this."
The lawsuit did bring support from
farmers and farm groups all over the
country, he remembers.
Periodic visits by a committee of
farm leaders involved in Ontario
Farm Animal Council and the
Ontario Farm Environmental
Coalition also was a big help, he
recalls. "I felt a lot of the time they
just came to support us and make us
feel better," he says. "When you're
sitting on an island and it feels like
everybody's shooting at you it's nice
to have another group of people they
can hit too."
The lawsuit plus the announcement
of the provincial inquiry under
Justice Dennis O'Connor brought a
flood of new lawyers and
investigators including the OPP and
RCMP to the farm. "You got to
answer the same questions over and
over and over again."
But one good thing that came out
of the inquiry was its hiring of Dr.
Michael Goss as an expert on water
issues. Right off the bat he spotted
the slight rise toward the well and
from aerial photos he also noticed
there was no erosion in the corn
where the water would have had to
run.
"He said I don't understand how
water could have run from your farm,
carrying a contaminant, to that well.
He's probably the first person who
came along who gave us hope that
maybe there was a light at the end of
the tunnel."
At this point the records Dr.
Biesenthal kept of his farming
operation came in handy. He was
able to provide records for the
previous two. years of soil samples.
manure samples, crop inputs and
crop yields.
"His conclusion was, and this
conclusion never seemed to hit the
media, was that the overland flow of
water seemed less likely than the
subsurface flow to make water flow
to Well 5."
Later another group of hydrologists
for the Concerned Citizens of
Walkerton asked to do research on
the farm. They monitored the farm
well and using dye in a nearby creek.
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NOVEMBER 2003 33