Province
Says City Must Complete Assessment
In
our November letter, we noted that one of the regulatory
hurdles facing the expressway is fulfilling the conditions
of the provincial exemption order of 1997. Sixteen individuals
and organizations, including Friends of Red Hill Valley
wrote to the Ontario Ministry of the Environment in late
October pointing out that the City of Hamilton has failed
to complete an internal environmental assessment of the
expressway, and had not responded for three years to the
comments and criticisms made by members of the public.
The
Ministry's reply in late November stated in part: "The
City of Hamilton is required to fulfill the conditions
of the 1997 declaration order, including the commitments
it made with respect to public consultation, before beginning
construction on the north-south section of the Expressway."
It also says that "The Ministry takes compliance
issues seriously and will be monitoring the City's compliance
with the declaration order."
The
Ministry's comments indicate that City officials and some
commentators are incorrect in suggesting that the expressway
doesn't face any further regulatory processes. Last summer's
recommendation by City staff to begin cutting trees in
the valley would also appear to violate this five year
old provincial order.
The
declaration order requires that the City conduct an extensive
public examination of the likely impacts of the proposed
expressway project on air quality, human health, noise,
water quality, fisheries, ecosystem integrity, contaminated
sites, stream hydrology and morphology, and visual effects.
Some
initial draft studies were released in June and July of
1998 and predicted very severe effects on human health,
air quality and wildlife habitat. These included the following:
"Children
with asthma would have an increased likelihood for respiratory
irritability" (Cantox 1998)
"They [the young and the elderly] should be encouraged
to limit their exposures, and not frequent the Red Hill
Valley once the expressway has been completed." (Cantox
1998)
"High-level impacts will occur throughout the entire
Red Hill Creek valley system including the re-entrant
section into the Niagara Escarpment. This is due to removal
of habitats and significant biota (i.e. Carolinian floodplain
forests, valley slope forests, and wetlands); and loss
of critical ecological functions such as primary and secondary
linkage corridors."
AND
"High-level impacts cannot be mitigated due to the
magnitude of the effects in the landscape and the lack
of opportunities to replace similar ecological functions
elsewhere in the watershed." (Region of Hamilton-Wentworth
1998)
