Please do NOT approve Triton…

Please do NOT approve Triton Water Holdings Canada Inc. application to renew the permit to take water for bottling that belonged to Nestlé Waters Canada. This Hillsburgh permit in Wellington County, Ontario, to take water should be DENIED.

Right now, most of southern Ontario – including Wellington County – is under a Stage 1 drought advisory, having received less than half of the rain expected in May. We expect more droughts in the future because of climate change and one of the expected impacts is a reduction in groundwater levels.

Groundwater resources are finite and vulnerable. And it’s time to stop handing out permits that allow them to be extracted and sold.

The Ontario government must reject entirely Triton’s permit request for the smaller Erin well, which was used at only 6% of its permitted limit last year. Triton doesn’t need water from this well to maintain its operations, and it would be especially irresponsible to renew the permit for an unprecedented ten years, instead of the usual five.

It is more important that the water remain in the ground, to support all forms of life in the local ecosystem and to be conserved for future generations in Hillsburgh.

Only 6% of groundwater is replenished within a fifty-year span.

Also, neither Triton nor the Ontario government have obtained First Nations consent for taking the water, as required by the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. The Six Nations Band Council (elected leaders), the Haudenosaunee Confederacy Council (traditional leaders), the Chiefs of Ontario, and the Association of Iroquois and Allied Indians have all publicly opposed permits to take water for bottling.