CHRIS LOWREY
CLARENDON July 15, 2020
After months of complaints from residents, Clarendon council voted at the June 9 meeting to launch a study into the issues surrounding the publicly owned land in Sand Bay at the heart of those complaints.
The municipality was inundated with complaints last fall when . . .
construction work began on a septic system and a portion of publicly owned land was dug up near the waterfront.
Images of the construction work were posted on social media and generated outrage among residents.
The parcel of land that was dug up is owned by the municipality, and features a portion of waterfront. Although it’s not technically a public beach – as there are no lifeguards on duty and no washrooms on site – it’s used by members of the public for swimming.
At the time, Clarendon Director General Patricia Hobbs said the homeowner went through the proper channels.
“The request for authorization was sent to the Ministry of Natural Resources who had to authorize the system to be put in,” she said.
The municipality also received several complaints of an algae bloom from Sand Bay residents in April as the ice began to melt on the Ottawa River.
According to Hobbs, residents brought all kinds of concerns to the attention of municipal staff.
In order to address those concerns, the municipality will launch an all-encompassing study in order to address the wide range of concerns voiced by residents.
“We’ve had a lot of issues arise,” Hobbs said. “Meetings have been tense.”
Although she wouldn’t get into specifics about the kinds of complaints residents were bringing to her attention, she did say many of them related to the publicly owned land on the waterfront.
The complaints range from questions about the legality of installing a septic pipe under publicly owned land to the effects of the discharge on water quality.
The municipality has been in contact with several organizations including the Federation of Quebec Municipalities, the Ministry of the Environment, Municipal affairs and several others.
“There are a lot of different concerns being brought up,” Hobbs said. “So, we’re looking at it as a whole.”
When pressed that the study sounded relatively vague, Hobbs agreed.
“It is quite vague because we’ve had so many concerns brought to us about the property in Sand Bay,” she said.
Hobbs said the municipality wants to adequately answer the concerns of residents and the hope is, this study will do that.
“If we go to the experts and the people we [as a municipality] answer to, we’ll be able to give those answers,” she said.
Hobbs said there’s no way to know how long the study will take, but said it will be shared openly with the public once it’s complete.
“We just want to kind of settle things,” she said.
