Community News

TRUST GRANT FOOTS SALTFLEET WETLAND BILL

RICHARD LEITNER rleitner@hamiltonnews.com

The Heritage Green Community Trust is donating $2 million toward the construction of a two-pond wetland at upper Stoney Creek's new Saltfleet Conservation Area, footing all but $20,000 of the bill.

"It's a remarkable project," Lori Finelli, the trust's volunteer treasurer, said of the wetland, which will lessen flash flooding along Battlefield Creek below the escarpment and provide natural habit at the 72-hectare conservation area on First Road East.

"The idea that we're going to be able to do something that's a legacy to the entire community over the next so many years, it's a really solid investment."

Established in 1997, the trust receives royalties of $1 per tonne of waste disposed at the Taro industrial dump and can approve grants for projects within three kilometres of the site.

It had already contributed $2 million toward a $4.75million fund for the purchase of land for the conservation area, which includes three other smaller properties to the east along the Dofasco 2000 Trail.

The city donated $2 million of its own Taro royalties to the fund, with the conservation authority and its charitable foundation covering the remaining $750,000.

Finelli said she's visited the First Road East park and looks forward to returning to walk the trail that will run around the wetland, designed to hold back an estimated 221,400 cubic metres of water — enough to fill about 88 Olympic-sized pools. "It's going to undo damage," she said of the wetland's restoration of natural features prior to the area's human settlement. "It's going to be great not just for people, but animals and nature and everything."

Conservation authority directors in December awarded the contract for the wetland's construction to Hannon-based Oakridge Group Inc., whose bid of $2,020,549.95 was $500,000 under budget and the lowest among five competitors for the job.

Contacted on Jan. 14, chief administrative officer Lisa Burnside said she'd yet to receive official word that the trust had approved the grant and called the news "fabulous."

Trust administrator Kim Bailey confirmed the approval in a Jan. 10 email to the Stoney Creek News.

"We don't have to go out for any other funding, so it's tremendous," Burnside said, noting work on the wetland began this month and is targeted to be completed by the end of May.

"It's a tremendous project, for everything it's going to do for downstream flooding and erosion and mitigating those impacts of climate change and just creating that passive recreation opportunity up there."

Burnside said she will be presenting a report to authority directors at their Feb. 3 meeting recommending the trust be acknowledged for its contribution.

Possibilities include naming either the wetland complex or the trail leading to it after the trust, she said.

The wetland is the first of four recommended by a 2018 class environmental assessment that studied options in upper Stoney Creek for reducing flooding along Battlefield and Stoney creeks.

Ward 9 Coun. Brad Clark, who represents the area, said he's thrilled by the trust's donation and wants the city to use Taro royalties to help fund the other wetlands.

The authority has already identified the second wetland, which will be much smaller and store 31,400 cubic metres of water, planned for a nine-hectare property acquired in 2019 by the southwest corner of Green Mountain and Fifth Road East. "I'm very keen on cementing plans for the next few phases also," Clark said, adding the city has typically matched the trust's donations to the project.

"We talk an awful lot about climate change and trying to abate climate change; well, flooding is one of those issues that is coming with climate change, so this is a project that will really assist."

STORY BEHIND THE STORY: We'd heard the Heritage Green Community Trust had approved a $2-million donation to the Saltfleet wetland project and wanted to confirm the decision.

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2022-01-20T08:00:00.0000000Z

2022-01-20T08:00:00.0000000Z

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