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Read the latest stories, updates and news releases about community science, water monitoring, and more.
Why we’re calling the FarmTech Ethanol file a “Case Closed”
Oshawa-reporter, Zack Bradley called our office not too long ago wanting an update on the FarmTech ethanol project. This is the proposed ethanol plant that would sit on Gifford Hill, the last greenspace in the Oshawa port area. FarmTech pulled its applications for provincial approval in 2014, but the silence had Krystyn thinking.
Dear FarmTech: Your ethanol plant makes us sad
It's getting tiresome saying the same things over and over and over: Jeopardizing Second Marsh is a bad idea. Protecting the watershed that houses half of the people in Ontario is a good idea. We are never going to live in communities where you can touch the water safely, drink it, and eat the fish from it if we do not start drawing the line somewhere. Gifford Hill is a good place to start.It's getting tiresome saying the same things over and over and over: Jeopardizing Second Marsh is a bad idea. Protecting the watershed that houses half of the people in Ontario is a good idea. We are never going to live in communities where you can touch the water safely, drink it, and eat the fish from it if we do not start drawing the line somewhere. Gifford Hill is a good place to start.
Oshawa, Farmtech and a "Bluebelt" for Lake Ontario
Gifford Hill is a unique glacial formation in Southern Ontario, with waterflows that empty into several areas including Harmony Creek and the Oshawa Harbour. The environmentally sensitive Second Marsh is recognized as the last major costal wetland on the western end of Lake Ontario.
As Waterkeeper President Mark Mattson explains, "residents, politicians and scientists have fought for decades to protect this land. After the recent recommendations issued by the Crombie Report of 2008, we are being forced to waste our time discussing the industrialization of Gifford Hill again."
Waterkeeper Comments Re: FarmTech Report, dated August 5, 2008
Concerned about FarmTech's proposal to build an ethanol plant on the Oshawa waterfront, Lake Ontario Waterkeeper wrote to the Government of Canada to express our concerns. Because the government is providing land, funding, and permits for the project, it required an official environmental assessment.
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