*Please post this comment -…

*Please post this comment - there is nothing in it that is problematic from a privacy point of view!

Dear Madam/Sir

Please accept this submission as Environment Hamilton's formal comments on the proposal to extend the current moratorium on water bottling permits. We strongly support this extension and urge the provincial Ministry of Environment, Conservation & Parks to use the time provided by the extension to take a serious look at the need to go in a different direction in Ontario where commercial bottling of groundwater and other water sources is concerned.

We do not support the practices currently underway where large commercial water bottlers are bottling precious groundwater into 500mL and sometimes smaller plastic bottles only to sell this product extensively across Ontario and beyond. Anyone living in an Ontario urban centre has no reason to purchase bottled groundwater for consumption when they have safe drinking water available from their tap. Groundwater resources need to be protected to ensure that rural communities and areas of the province where communities depend on groundwater, will continue to have adequate supplies of groundwater for community consumption.

Large commercial bottlers like Nestle are extracting a product that belongs to the people and selling this product oftentimes in markets far away from the source. We point to one example where a large display of water extracted in Aberfoyle was available for sale from a large American retail chain at a location in Florida! This is not appropriate nor is it sustainable in any way.

We support the extended moratorium, but we also urge the Ministry to revisit all water bottling permits that have been issued to commercial water bottlers. For many reasons ranging from the need to protect community water resources to the fact that we are facing a climate crisis, it makes no sense to allow this practice to continue. We have not even started to speak to the unacceptable amounts of single use plastic generated by this industry. This alone is good reason to rethink current and future permits to take water for this industry!

Thank you for the opportunity to comment on this proposal.

Lynda Lukasik, PhD
Executive Director

Environment Hamilton
22 Wilson Street, Suite 4
Hamilton, ON L8R 1C5
TEL: (905) 549-0900
www.environmenthamilton.org