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CCNA BET TER NEWSPAPERS COMPETITION 2000 w w w .o akvillebeaver.com T h e O/ Law nm ow er Service B A SIC By Angela Blackburn OAKVILLE BEAVER STAFF Nearly 200 striking workers at Oakville's Petro-Canada refinery are ready to go back to work -- but apparently it's not that easy. "We've given up the ghost, we've given up everything," admitted Larry Lueck, vice-chair of Local 593 of the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers' Union (CEP). Lueck represents some 150 work ers on strike at the Oakville Refinery. Another 75 are on strike at the Oakville Truck Terminal and another 250 are on the picket line at the Mississauga Lubes plant. They're heading into their sixth month of a strike -- long after their counterparts in Edmonton, Alberta and Port Moody, British Columbia settled their contracts and headed back to work in May. Now, said Lueck, the workers in Oakville have gone to the bargaining table prepared to make concessions on everything from a longer work week to wage freezes. And still, he said, it's not enough. Lueck said they were ready to sign an agreement last week when PetroCanada required that a lawsuit filed by the union against the company, seeking $10 million in damages from the oil giant, related to bad faith bar gaining and unfair labour practice, be dropped. Filed with the Ontario Labour Relations Board in June, the suit alleges bad faith bargaining and unfair labour practices. It seeks to compensate lost wages and union loans taken out to pay health and other benefits to striking union members. The suit also claims- damages relating to a dependents' summer job program and. that members of a motorcycle gang are suspected of helping to bus non-union staff across picket lines. "We consider this as the punish ment phase," said Lueck. Petro-Canada spokesperson Donna Hildebrant has always main tained that the company takes great offence at the allegations. Hildebrant said Petro-Canada "is (S e e `C o m p a n y ' p a g e A 7 ) Photo by Brent Foster EDUCATIONAL SUMMER: Nicole Paara, 19, brought home an exquisite chess board as a souvenir from Italy where she spent the summer studying Classical Civilization with the MEI International Academy. To find out more about how Paara and other Oakville students spent their summer studying in Europe through the MEI program see the Focus section. Two tales of water treatment Ensuring Oakville' s water supply is safe to drink By Howard Mozel OAKVILLE BEAVER STAFF he science of water purification has come a long way since the 1850's when the micro scope first glimpsed germs in water to the point where Halton Region officials are confident the local system is second to none. While the most obvious product is potable drinking water, a dependable fire fighting capabili ty is also of paramount importance. Oakville and Burlington use Lake Ontario for their drinking water while Georgetown, Acton, Milton and Campbellville draw water from well systems. Water treatment infrastructure is not confined by municipal boundaries, however, but is actually a single regional operating sys tem. The Oakville Purification Plant was built in 1957 when Oakville's popula tion was a mere 5,000 and it handled between 25 and 27 mega-litres a day. Today, an average 109 mega-litres, or 24 million gallons, flow through the plant every day. This amounts to more than 700 backyard pools. Environmental Services, a division of the Planning and Public Works (See `Treated' page A5) T After a su m m er in which issu e s involving w ater - from purity to scarcity - lodged in the public co n sc io u sn e ss, the Oakville B eaver offers a glim pse inside Halton R egion's system of w ater purifica tion and se w a g e treatm ent. Low rainfall forced Halton to im plem ent an out door w atering ban while later in the sum m er pu d dles of standing w ater w here m osquitoes breed b e c a m e su sp e c t after the W est Nile Virus w as confirm ed in Oakville. More importantly, in the w ake of W alkerton, the public is m ore keenly aw are than ev er of the im portance of w hat flows out of their fau cets and how their w astew ater is handled after disposal. T he following, then, is a brief look at the Halton's system , with em p h asis on the inner workings at the Oakville Purification Plant and Mid Halton W astew ater T reatm ent Plant. Afterwards, it's almost (and we stress almost) good enough to drink By Howard Mozel OAKVILLE BEAVER STAFF veryone in Halton contributes to the waste ' that flows through its sewage system, but ' most people - with understandable naivete perhaps i - prefer to forget about it after the toilet flushes. For those like Benny Seminerio, Supervisor of both the Mid Halton and South-East Wastewater Treatment Plants, the processing of waste is a daily - and important - job, which he takes seriously in order to ensure public safety. "The material we put out is a lot safer than what the public thinks we put out," he says. At Seminerio's disposal is a complex and, to those unschooled in sludge, a convoluted system that employs some basics of nature, such as bacteria and gravity, plus a few ingenious innovations to give the whole process a boost. Central to the system are the treatment plants, three of which are located in Oakville. The Mid Halton Wastewater Treatment Plant, located on the North Service Road between Third Line and Bronte Road, services Oakville north of E (See `Recycling' page A8) g -- Eight Oakville youths started the school year on an illegal - albeit artistic - note after they were arrest ed for spray painting the roof of Iroquois Ridge High School. According to Halton Regional Police, officers responded to the school early Monday morning after spray paint and latex gloves inside. All have been charged with mischief (engaged in prohibited activity) as well as trespassing, contrary to the Trespass to Property Act. They are scheduled to appear in Oakville Court on Oct. 2. Member ASPRS LSNA ASAPS to d a y s p a p e r Busness .................................. B6 FaH Reaistration..................... Entertainment........... m Sports....................... ..............D3 Classified.................. Automotive................. ............. D6 Spedd Supplements: F u ll D elivery: P enningtonStores, Business D epot P a rtia ldelivery: Super Pet. Toys R U s, N atural Factors, W hite Rose, M ark's W ork W arehouse. The B ay, Sheridan Nurseries Ltd, Revi H om e &G arden. F uture Shop. Lansing B uildall Canadian Publications Mai! Product Agreement #435-201 Photo by Riziero Vertolli By Monday morning, a worker had already painted over the 2002 portion of the graffiti spray painted on the roof of Iroquois Ridge High School. Back-to-school pranksters in trouble an area resident noticed people on the roof. Upon their arrival, police saw "GRAD 2002" painted in blue on the top portion of the building vis ible at the front of the school. The officers rounded up eight youths, all aged 18, at the scene and seized a duffel bag with 13 cans of T h e O a k v ille B e a v e r is a re c y c la b le p ro d u c t. 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