The Six Nations community will take part in the Ontario Geological Survey's (OSG) Ambient Groundwater Geochemistry program to perform geological analysis on Six Nations' groundwater and wells later this summer.
Six Nations Elected Council (SNEC) made the decision during the May 15 general finance meeting, where Six Nations Environmental Lead Rod Whitlow detailed what the project would entail. Whitlow said that the project was brought to The Six Nations Environmental Task-force after a Brant County Resident passed away after being exposed to high levels of Hydrogen Sulfide (also known as H2S, sewer gas, swamp gas, stink damp, and sour damp) in a 40 foot well.
He also spoke on the ways that Six Nations will benefit from the program saying that the community will be able to get a better sense of the water chemistry on Six Nations; it will provide further documentation needed for Six Nations to be included as an impacted First Nation in the First Nations Drinking Water Settlement; it will allow for more information to be shared with community members on the lack of safety when drinking untreated well water; and it will continue to close the information gaps of the geology in Six Nations' groundwater.
Whitlow argued that this program could help strengthen Six Nations' case in being recognized as an impacted First Nation in the First Nations Drinking Water Settlement. Currently, Six Nations is being asked to provide further documentation after the deadline to submit a claim had been extended by one year or March 7, 2024. Over two thirds of the Six Nations community rely on their private water systems or wells to provide water to the household, he added, as opposed to being connected to the Ohsweken Water Treatment Plant.
"The compilation or collection of this information for the groundwater quality and to a certain degree quantity, that will help us determine if other measures are going to be needed in the interim until everyone's connected to the treated water," he said.
"There'll be some political positioning that could emerge from this whole process, so it's going to be beneficial in that maybe just to emphasize that we need to fast track connecting every single home to the distribution system. The timeline is that only so many houses can be connected per year. Well, under human rights to water and sanitation and what not, those rights are being violated here at Six Nations until every single household has access to clean potable water," he added.
Coun. Nathan Wright says the Six Nations Environmental Taskforce will monitor this program to ensure that community concerns are addressed once the data is collected.
"One of the things that was discussed at the taskforce was to ensure that we have a working group in place to respond because a lot of the findings might cause further angst and concern at the community level. So we put this interdepartmental working group together to mitigate a lot of those concerns going forward so that at the end of the day the information goes out to the community so that we're also addressing the concerns as we're collecting the information."
SNEC approved the motion May 15 and will allow for community involvement in the Ontario Geological Survey’s Ambient Groundwater Geochemistry program scheduled to take place later this summer.
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