The Northern Supportive Recovery Centre for Women will cap the well onsite and bring water in by truck if given the go-ahead by city council on Monday night.
Water, and the capacity of the local aquifer, has been at the centre of opposition to the proposed 30-bed women's addiction treatment centre at the former Haldi Road school on Leslie Road.
"Some of our neighbours have spoken loud and clear on one issue in particular. They told us that they have fears regarding the availability of ground water to service this facility,"centre project manager Marshall Smith said. "We, like many of our neighbours, will purchase and transport our own water to service this site."
City council is scheduled to hold a public hearing on the proposed rezoning of the site on Monday. The former school is currently zoned as a rural residential property.
Centre proponents hired environmental consultants Tetra Tech to conduct a preliminary study on the site's well and the aquifer's capacity.
The facility is expected to draw 14,750 litres of water per day, up from an estimated 2,750 litres a day when the facility was a school, according to Tetra Tech's report. Tetra Tech conducted a four-hour pumping test which drew 2,800 litres of water.
To conduct the additional water testing requested by city planning staff would cost approximately $50,000, Smith said. Having water trucked in will cost approximately $25,000 per year, he said.
The facility will continue to use the existing septic fields, he added, although they may be expanded to increase the capacity.
Smith said he hopes the announcement will, "bring certainty and finality to the issue of water for our neighbours."
"For too long now in this process, the voices of the women and families that need this service have been drowned out by politics and technicality," Smith said. "Be removing the issue of water supply, we can once again focus on the issues which face our community. Like anyone who suffers from an illness or trauma, people with the disease of addiction have the right to recover in our community."
Neighbours react
Haldi Road area resident Bev Collier called the announcement, "a good first step."
However, Collier said she still plans to be at City Hall Monday night to speak against the proposal.
"That doesn't resolve the entire issue. What are they going to do with all that sewage?" Collier said. "We've got ground surface water issues. I've been walking up and down that road for years - you can smell that septic field."
Laura Jagodnik, who has acted as a spokesperson for opponents of the project, could not be reached for comment as of press time.
