Dear Editor,
I read the article titled “MDF plant will be between Three Hills, Trochu”, pg. 3, Feb. 18, 2021 and have a concern.
According to the article, Brian McLeod, president of Great Plains MDF, said that ‘Water will be an important resource at the mill, as it will require about 1,300 square meters per day.
The company is currently in talks with the Town of Three Hills about water supply and noted the plant won’t require potable water.’
First off, it is impossible to have square meters of water. The measurement for water would have to be in cubic meters.
I was curious as to how many gallons of water would be required per day. In a cubic meter of water there are 219.969 Canadian gallons.
That would be 285,959.7 gallons of water per day. The whopping total per year would be 104,375,296 gallons.
I rechecked my math, and yes, that is over 104 million gallons per year.
I tried to put this amount into perspective so I looked up how many gallons are in an olympic-sized swimming pool and found out there are 660,000 gallons per pool.
So the plant would be using water the equivalent of 158 olympic-sized swimming pools every year.
The huge amount of water that will be used raises many questions: Where in the world is that water going to be coming from? Will the public be told the details, including if the plant will be given a discount for purchasing water in bulk?
Will there be any public consultation about this issue?
The note about ‘the plant won’t require potable water’ makes me worry about water being taken from rivers.
What will be the impact of taking 104,375,296 gallons of water out of the river system every year for decades?
I am hoping that there will be a follow-up article where Brian McLeod will answer these questions because I cannot be the only one with this concern.
I am really hoping that there are public consultations scheduled so we can all voice our concern about this and other matters in regard to the proposed plant.
Rhea Brady
Delia, Alta.
