Surface water preferred option for King City
By Bill Rea

It’s beginning to look very much like King City is going to be getting its water by pipe from Lake Ontario.

That came out of a public consultation centre hosted by York Region in the village last Wednesday night.

The session was to update the public on water resource exploration and the class environmental assessment for water supply and storage in King City. The Region reported the current system has capacity for about 5,100 people, and serves roughly 4,100. About 1,000 other people get their water from private wells.

The King City Community Plan calls for the population to grow to 12,000 by 2021, and there are expectations there will be some 4,400 people working there too.

Regional staff also stated that with these projections, additional supply capacity will be needed as early as next year.

Deborah Ross, vice-president of KMK Consultants Limited, told the audience the existing system in King City consists of two wells in the same location (just south of Kingscross) and the elevated tank near the local arena. The system provides “very good water quality,” she said, although she added there are some problems with the aesthetics of the water, which she said was really more of a “nuisance.” She said that’s typical with ground water in York.

The class EA process has come up with possible solutions to the supply problem.

Ross said they looked at using ground water, but also considered the fact that York has a lake-based water supply to serve Aurora and Newmarket, and those pipes pass close to the village.

She also said they did extensive investigation into groundwater, with test wells going into four candidate sites. Only one of them showed much promise, and Ross said it would still fall about 17 per cent short of meeting the anticipated needs.

When it comes to surface water from the lake, Ross said they studied a number of ways to get water from the York- Peel system pipe, with five different routes being considered. She also said the system has the capacity to handle King City demand.

Criteria was established to evaluate the various options, and Ross said all five of the pipe options were ahead of using ground water. They concluded surface water is of better quality, with consumers being spared the cost related to hardness or staining of the ground water. As well, the surface water offers lower risk to existing and future water supplies.

Ross told one of the people at the meeting the plan is to have the village entirely on lake water, although the time frame for getting there has not yet been spelled out. The existing municipal wells will eventually be closed down.

Mike Rabeau, the Region’s project manager, said they are proposing to move forward with the surface water option.

There were some people with problems with that, who pointed out they had always been assured there was sufficient ground water under King City to meet anticipated needs. Ross countered that no one said there wasn’t enough water. They had spent two years studying the ground water situation in the village, but had found other criteria had made surface water seem the more attractive option. She also wondered how much should be spent before the surface water option is accepted.

Rabeau said water rates will not be increasing because of this work. One man in the room said the Region is paying for it, and local taxpayers will be hit that way. Rabeau countered the Region is only paying 20 per cent. The rest will come from development charges.

Ross also commented on the water treatment processes in Toronto and Peel, calling them among the most advanced in the world. The water is drawn from well out in the lake, where it’s cleaner, and it’s treated through a series of steps.

Councillor Cleve Mortelliti said he assumed there are different methods for treating surface and ground water. He added part of the concern probably has to do with a perception people have that Lake Ontario water is polluted.

Councillor Jane Underhill was concerned about discrepancies that have been reported regarding capacity numbers. “It’s a very important discrepancy,” she remarked. Hydrogeologist Gary

Hendy, of Jagger Hims Limited, said his firm has conducted water studies over the last couple of years. The work was heavily focused on providing a certain amount of water, and they determined more work was needed to find effective ways to get the ground water out of the ground.

One woman at the meeting suggested the solution might be to look at smaller population figures for King City.

Underhill charged the growth scenarios for the village were based on inaccurate information, stating that in June 2005, the Region had issued assurances that there was adequate water under King City, but that the word coming out now indicates that’s not the case.