Kevin Jakubec meets the premier during her visit to Chatham. July 27, 2017. (Photo by Paul Pedro)Kevin Jakubec meets the premier during her visit to Chatham. July 27, 2017. (Photo by Paul Pedro)
Chatham

CK Activist Group Meets Premier Wynne

The spokesperson for Water Wells First hopes Premier Kathleen Wynne's promise to him isn't just a photo op.

Kevin Jakubec had a brief face to face meeting with the Premier during her visit to Chatham Thursday afternoon and she promised to look into contamination concerns around local water wells due to wind tower pile driving vibrations.

Jakubec says the Ministry of Environment isn't not collecting water samples properly and in some cases is refusing to collect them.

"I'm hopeful the Premier is actually going to hold Minister Murray accountable. We can only wait and see but until that happens and see the ministry come out and collect sediments, we're going to keep our very aggressive activist campaign going on the MOE offices across Ontario," says Jakubec.

The Premier assumes the ministry is following the proper testing guidelines, but she will check with the minister to ensure Chatham-Kent has clean water.

Meantime, Water Wells First will keep protesting and is planning a civil disobedience protest very soon.

To date, the group has spent more than $230,000 to do their own well water testing.

Jakubec says the ministry has promised to have test results in September but he wants them sooner. He insists a public inquiry is needed if answers don't come soon.

Jakubec hopes the ministry will be transparent and starts collecting water samples and recording vibration data properly.

"I'm hopeful she's going to keep her word and ask hard hitting questions of Minister Murray like, 'why aren't you guys doing an honest investigation?' I mean that's what it comes down to," Jakubec says. "The Ministry of Environment has guidelines on assessing sediment contamination, section 15 of the Environmental Protection Act. It's all spelled out but they're not doing the job."

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