To the Editor:
Lottie Lake residents have many concerns about the community's water quality. These concerns were raised in an emotional and heated meeting with the County of St. Paul in August. Finding the leak and shutting a valve does not change the water quality produced at the treatment plant.
County of St. Paul CAO Sheila Kitz stated at the public meeting that the county applied for a provincial grant to upgrade the Lottie Lake water treatment plant in 2007. The Financial Statement prepared in 2012 states at the 2011 year end, a water treatment grant for Lottie Lake of $674,908 remains as a grant outstanding. This is contrary to Ms. Kitz’s statement in the Oct. 2 edition of the St. Paul Journal that the county never received that money.
The financial statement states as well that most of the projects with outstanding grants are scheduled for completion in 2012. With no upgrades to the water treatment plant at Lottie Lake, one has to ask when will the water quality improve and is it safe to consume? This question was asked repeatedly at the August meeting at Cork Hall and remains unanswered.
It is time for Reeve Upham and Division 4 Coun. Maxine Fodness to be accountable to the people they represent. Grant money sits in a bank account while human beings wonder whether or not the water they consume is safe.
The questions are: is the water at Lottie Lake safe, why is grant money sitting in a bank account and when will the Lottie Lake treatment plant be upgraded? After all, next year is election year.
Rob Tomlinson
County of St. Paul
Editor’s note: In a call to CAO Sheila Kitz, Kitz stated that the grant money the county was approved for but never received was a grant through the Alberta Water and Waste Water program. The County of St. Paul later applied for and received $1 million in 2011, under a grant from the province’s Water for Life program. The $674,908 for the Lottie Lake treatment plant is from that grant and is listed as deferred revenue in the 2011 financial statement.
