Business View Civil and Municipal | Volume 2, Issue 6

206 CIVIL AND MUNICIPAL VOLUME 2, ISSUE 6 Designer finished homes now available. Better living, better comfort, better efficiency can be yours in our NET ZERO READY Homes. WWW.WATERCOLOURWESTPORT.COM New Homes | New Life | New Possibilities Eastern Ontario’s Premier Waterfront Village facebook.com/watercolourwestport instagram.com/watercolourwestport the temperature needs to be low enough to make that snow. The temperature in Westport no longer drops low enough to deal with the effluent, so they had to ship it to other towns – at a cost of $1 million over three years. Government grants were offered to the village, with the province paying $2.7 million and the federal government paying $1.45 million. Westport, itself, covered the other $2.1 million to build a large subsurface disposal system, which operates like a septic system’s weeping tile, and is closely monitored by the Ontario Ministry of the Environment, Conservation and Parks. This innovation has saved the village almost $80,000 annually in hydro costs, and Rideau St. Lawrence, the local electrical distribution company, has given them $90,000 back in incentives for their efforts. The village was first settled in the 1800s, and with the Upper Rideau Lake lending itself for easy shipping and receiving, it took off as a residential inventory will double, with about 25 homes going up this year. Stephen Rolston, who owns Land Ark Homes, is in the process of developing the new subdivision called Watercolour Westport. The Mayor notes, “He is committed to maintaining the feel of Westport and plans to build homes that fit in with the existing architecture. Planting trees in the Watercolour Westport neighborhood is a key part of the strategy to steward the environment, and to blend new Westport with the beauty of the tree-lined streets in old Westport.” Jones and her Council and staff have been preparing for Westport’s growth with improvements to the water and wastewater treatment plant that started in 2015. About 25 years ago, the village put in a freeze crystallization system to deal with the wastewater. It worked on the same premise that ski resorts use to make snow. The effluent in the lagoon was turned into ice crystals, but