Oneida Nation of the Thames youth leader pushes for water treatment upgrades

A youth leader of the Oneida Nation of the Thames is continuing his call for upgrades to the community’s water treatment facility.

The Oneida water treatment plant was built in 1998, prior to the tragedy in Walkerton where an E. coli contamination led to the deaths of six people in 2000.

The contamination in Walkerton led to significant policy changes across the country. In Ontario, the Safe Drinking Water Act was passed in 2002, and the Federal Protocol for Centralized Drinking Water Systems in First Nations Communities in 2006.

“The existing water treatment plant doesn’t have the capacity to ensure safe drinking water,” says Brandon Doxtator, a youth leader at Oneida.

“People just won’t risk drinking tap water and haven’t for years.”

To date, water quality tests have indicated no contamination at Oneida, but local community leaders stress that there is a significant risk for future potential contamination as a result of their outdated facility.

They say significant upgrades need to be made to the treatment facility to bring it into line with regulatory guidelines and make the water safe for Oneida residents to drink.

Bottled water hasn’t been a viable option either, as the cost to Oneida to deliver bottled water to residents is $60,000 every three months.

Doxtator will be speaking on the issue Wednesday night from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. at the London Public Library.