When the Northwestern Health Unit's top official meets with Sioux Lookout's council on Wednesday, she'll be followed by five deputations arguing against dismantling the surface water well in the town's natural spring.
Remi Lorteau is organizing speakers to argue the artesian spring is not only part of Sioux Lookout's heritage but that with 40 gallons flowing through it every minute, its water is safe to drink.
"Prove to us that this water is not potable," he challenged.
"Prove to us that we can't just put a nice fountain here, fix all this up, have some seating area here and if someone wants to take this water at their own risk, so be it."
There's already a sign warning the creek isn't part of the town's water supply. That's part of what motivated health unit medical officer of health Kit Young Hoon to write a letter to Sioux Lookout last month, notifying the municipality it would be liable if someone who drank the water became sick.
After seven Walkteron, Ontario residents died from an E.coli outbreak in 2000, the province adopted strong regulations on drinking water systems. Under the Safe Drinking Water Act of 2002, even small municipalities have had to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to bring their waterworks up to code.
"A fair bit of science goes into ensuring that drinking water is safe," Kit said.
"It's not as simple as, 'we've been drinking it for a long time and it's safe.' That's not good enough."
According to Sioux Lookout’s legal team, leaving the system intact could subject the town to bankrupting fines. Mayor Doug Lawrance agreed to remove the surface well, the “unsophisticated” handrail and steps leading down to the water.
“Some community members will react and say, 'you can’t do this to the community,’ but on the other hand, the fine of six million dollars a day, the liabilities associated with that, and the post-Walkerton era of drinking water in Ontario, I think the administration is doing the sensible and correct thing,” he said.
“I don’t know if there’s any way to get something that makes everybody happy or not. Maybe it makes everybody equally unhappy and we can all go away in that state.”
Greg Halady is among those who would be more unhappy than others if the spring's water tap is dismantled. He lives on a chicken farm 25 kilometres outside of town and uses the spring as his source.
“This is the best water in the country,” he said.
“A lot of communities don’t have any treatment whatsoever and they would die for this water. This is a gift, there’s no other way to put it. And this community knows it and it’s going to speak up about it.”
