Kincardine is exploring entering a water service agreement with Bruce Power, but council wants to make sure Ontario Power Generation (OPG) is involved in talks.
Staff have been in negotiations with Bruce’s legal team about the plant becoming a municipal water customer for potable water only. It would continue to source lake water for all nuclear systems, including reactor cooling and fire suppression.
Bruce Power has a long-term lease with OPG for the plant, and manager with insight services Nancy Green says the water service agreement would last to “2064 and possibly beyond.”
Green added OPG is aware of the talks but Councillor Bill Stewart says he’s hesitant to negotiate without the property owner actively taking part.
“We don’t usually do agreements with lessees, we usually do agreements with property owners,” says Stewart. “So I just want to make sure because… if anything happens and they decide there is a ramp off for (Bruce Power), we’re sort of stuck with this thing. So I’d feel more comfortable that we have OPG on the agreement too and they agree with the terms just in case something happens to Bruce Power.”
The price tag of the project for the municipality won’t be known until Phase 2 of the water service agreement is complete, at which point both parties will have an opportunity to terminate the agreement within 30 days of receiving the estimate.
So far Kincardine’s consultants, Stantec and B.M. Ross, have been covered by Bruce Power. There is also a general cost-sharing agreement thatsays, “Kincardine should not incur any costs for the physical facilities required to provide drinking water to flow requirements for the Bruce Site and that Bruce Power should not pay for costs beyond its proportionate share of the cost or expansion of the Kincardine Water System.”
Ultimately, Stewart said he wants to enter an agreement, noting Bruce Power was having a “heck of a time trying to do water” after its latest leakage last month. But he wants to have more questions answered first.
“I just want to make sure we have an opportunity and the public has an opportunity to really get into it,” he says. “There’s a lot of questions in there and I would like to see some of those questions come up a little more public before we get a draft and have to say yes or no to it.”
Concerns raised by council will be taken back to Bruce Power’s legal team before a draft water service agreement returns to council.
