The WCIA is critical of both the Loyalist Heights and Cold Creek developments. Together, they would transform 144 acres of prime farmland arranged around the Warings Creek watershed into high-density residential development with a total of 1400 new homes phased in over two decades.

A series of deputations to Council have charged the developers and County planners with failing to undertake studies to properly assess the environmental impact. Last week, the WCIA held a public meeting at Waring House attended by about 150 people, including Mayor Ferguson and several Councillors. 

“It’s all about water,” said Dr. Cliff Rice, President of WCIA. “Warings Creek is an underground lake.”

Dr. Rice opened by describing stewardship efforts dating back to 1993. The goal is to bring Brook Trout back to the cold water creek. The creek’s native trout disappeared in the late 1950s. 

According to Mr. Rice, Brook Trout is the “canary in the coal mine.” Successful reintroduction is the yardstick of real rehabilitation of the watershed. 

“If trout can live in this creek, the ecosystem is healthy.”

Throughout the ’90s and early 2000s, the WCIA led several restoration efforts, including enhancing the substrate, and replacing culverts to allow the stream to flow and flush out sediment. The main section of the stream is now considered fully rehabilitated. 

In 2007, a proposed sewer line and Water Treatment Plant threatened to contaminate the headwaters of Warings Creek.

“These things have a propensity for leakage. The water in this area is very high to ground level,” said Cheryl O’Brien.

“Any leakage would have a direct effect on wells, the creek and farms in the area that use the water.”

After the WCIA challenged the proposed WTP, the Ministry of the Environment negotiated a settlement agreement between the WCIA and the County. That agreement, known as the 2008 Minutes of Settlement, gave Warings Creek natural heritage status, and codified its protection in the Official Plan and Picton Secondary Plan.

Yet, Mr. Rice noted, in 2021 the West Meadows Subdivision by Port Picton Homes was approved without consulting that Settlement.

“We were asleep at the wheel.” 

Dan Langridge, who has farmed the land around the watershed for 27 years, criticized the storm water management plans proposed by both Loyalist Heights and Cold Creek. He said all the new impermeable surfaces — roads and sidewalks — will lead to much greater runoff, rather than water being absorbed into soil, and that all of the new stormwater ponds will routinely overflow.

He anticipates a 400 percent increase to current levels of runoff — that is water contaminated with nitrates, phosphorus, oil, salt, and other chemicals — going directly into the watershed. 

He also charged that runoff and overflowing storm water is already coming from West Meadows and draining directly into the lands surrounding the watershed.

“Where’s the water going? We’re within sixty metres of the first culvert,” he noted of Loyalist Heights.

In addition to asking Council undertake a  legal review of the MOS, the WCIA is advocating for a Cumulative Impact Study, to take into account the cumulative pressures of two high-density residential developments, climate change, and increased rainfall on the watershed.

Council’s Planning and Development committee voted to defer approval of the Loyalist Heights development late last year so a hydrogeological impact study can be prepared in consultation with the WCIA and the municipality.

Manager of Planning Michael Michaud noted the study involves a peer review of existing documents.

“We are not going out to gather new data, we are simply taking information we have and making sure the various studies speak to one another.”