Motorists travelling Hwy 17 towards Hwy 11 and North Bay will now get the message that Oil and Water Don’t Mix.
The sign is strategically placed beside Trout Lake to raise awareness of the danger the Energy East project poses to North Bay’s drinking water.
Trout Lake was federally protected as was about another 2.4 million lakes in Canada before an omnibus bill struck it from the list. Lake Nipissing is protected.
The billboard’s official unveiling took place on Saturday to coincide with the national day of action tackling tar sands pipelines called the We Are Greater Than the Tar Sands initiative.
The local event was called Paddle, Picnic, and Celebrate People Power Over Pipelines, taking place at the Elks Family Park, 5km East of North Bay.
About 30 people enjoyed the clean lake and sunny skies. Billboard organizer Kay Heuer says the day was perfect for people to come out and enjoy Trout Lake. But she is worried.
“With the pipeline proposed to go through our water source, a group of concerned citizens felt that this issue is so urgent, that we needed to put up a sign and inform people. The website is on the sign.”
“The concern is that the pipeline will carry oilsands product, bitumen or dilbit, which is highly toxic through our drinking water.”
Heuer is pleased with the concept of crowdfunding through the online site GoFundMe. “We signed up for nine months and we already have enough money to meet our first obligation.”
Meanwhile as reported in BayToday, http://www.baytoday.ca/content/news/details.asp?c=80743, the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change recently approved the North Bay-Mattawa area Source Water Protection Plan in early March without including the Energy East pipeline as a threat to area drinking water.
Mayor McDonald stated that fact must be included with the city taking concerns to the Federal level having applied for intervener status to the National Energy Board hearing on the proposed project.
