Council has received a staff recommendation that a peer-reviewed hydrogeological study and Terms of Reference for a Cumulative Impact Study to monitor potential future damage to the Warings Creek Watershed can set the stage for development on the sensitive watershed.

Cold Creek is a 35-hectare development at Sandy Hook Road and Upper Lake Street with 184 townhouses planned for Phase 1.

In February, Council made submission of peer-reviewed Terms of Reference for a cumulative impact study a condition of approval. The motion required that the Terms be developed in consultation with the Waring’s Creek Improvement Association (WCIA).

2008 Minutes of Settlement between the WCIA and the municipality made a study of the potential impacts of development on Waring’s Creek a condition of development on the site.

Last week, Council voted 8-4 to receive a staff report that deemed the conditions to have been met. 

Too little, too late

Proceedings opened, however, with a deputation from the WCIA’s lawyer, Colin Léger, insisting that the WCIA had not played a meaningful role in any of the consultations undertaken to draft the TOR. The WCIA’s Cheryl O’Brien underscored the claim in a comment from the audience.

“Under no circumstance do we endorse or accept the results of any such report or peer review, as we have been barred from any information or participation pertaining to it,” she said.

“Reading this document makes it sound like we have been involved in the process, when we were given no opportunity to do so.”

But Planning Coordinator Matt Coffey noted he had convened two meetings with the WCIA, Cold Creek’s development team, and the County’s peer reviewer, CCR Environmental, to discuss and draft the Terms of Reference for monitoring during construction. 

“We’ve had a series of meetings with WCIA in the development of these terms of reference,” said Mr. Coffey. He provided a table detailing when meetings occurred and comments were provided. He noted the WCIA provided responses to the County and Cold Creek on the proposed terms of reference. 

“And then there were three different versions of the terms of reference that went back and forth before a final version. So I don’t know if it’s fair to say that they haven’t been involved.”

A June 10 letter from CCR Environmental noted feedback from the WCIA’s hydrogeologist on March 10 on the draft Terms. CCR further noted that some of the comments from the WCIA were incorporated into the Terms, including language around the purpose of the study. 

Other contributions were rejected, including a WCIA request that the site be monitored for five years post-development. 

Peer review for the County by CCR considered the document a reasonable roadmap to evaluate impact after every phase of construction, beginning with Phase 1. Any problems detected will be remedied by engineers for the next phase. Detailed engineering for Phase One of Cold Creek is currently under review.

But the WCIA rejected the notion that the cumulative impact study should only begin after construction has started.

“The applicant (Cold Creek) and its consultant have taken the position that Terms of Reference would be the only deliverable and that the actual (cumulative impact study) results would only be available as the project developed ‘over a period of time’ and that ‘the submission of the first cumulative impact study would be completed in April 2026, after the start of construction of the first phase,’” said the WCIA’s Mr. Légere. 

“The applicant is asking you to fly blind, and staff appear to be endorsing that approach.”

The WCIA is concerned that increased runoff, created by new development, will drain into Waring’s Creek. Blumetric/Cold Creek’s Hydrogeological and Water Balance assessment found that post-development runoff could increase by 167 percent, while infiltration, or water absorbed back into the land, would decrease by 33 percent. 

Both CCR Environmental and Cold Creek propose Low Impact Design (LID) features along with a Storm Water Management (SWM) system to mitigate runoff. 

The study also states “it is expected that for most of the year, the wetland is in a state of infiltration/exfiltration and evapotranspiration/evaporation with no flow through runoff.” That means that the wetland itself will regulate the water levels enough to limit runoff into the creek. 

In a February 6 review of an earlier study, CCR Environmental agreed that BlueMetric provided some evaluation of areas of concern, including water balance, temperature, and chemical degradation. CCR also recommended further quantitative analysis of the impact of development on the creek. 

Cold Creek submitted an updated Hydrogeological Assessment and Water Balance Study by engineers at BlueMetric in May, currently under review by CCR.

The final TOR propose monitoring groundwater and wetland levels, water temperature, runoff to Waring’s Creek, and turbidity both during and post-construction. It outlines a plan to use a monitoring well network and data loggers to record hourly measurements of water and temperature. Turbidity will be monitored at temporary sediment and erosion control outlets and stilling wells placed in the ditch on Sandy Hook Road.

Annual monitoring reports will be submitted for review, starting in April 2026, through to the end of construction in 2035. 

CCR also requested a study of the potential impact of the proposed Loyalist Heights development, in order to review its cumulative impact on the watershed along with that of Cold Creek. The proponent for Loyalist Heights did not participate in the TOR discussions.