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Six Nations Band Council holds opening of new plant By Donna Durie Writer Six Nations $41 million , state of the art, water treatment plant was offi- cially opened last Friday and water from the plant is now flowing into commu- ni ty homes. About 50 people - politi- cians, project staff and community members t urned out for a grand opening ceremony held at the new plant last Friday. Although it was a day of celebration , Six Nations Band Council says the new plant is just the tip of the iceberg in getting clean , potable water to all 2,200 homes on the reserve. The new water treatment plant will . only service about 700 users in the vil- lage of Ohsweken. Six Nations Band Council needs over $ I 00 million in funding to extend pipes to the rest of the territory. "We've got a lot of work to do," said elected Chief Ava Hill. "This is only going to distribute water to nine per cent of the com- munity. We need to come up with funding to get to the other 9 I per cent." The plant. which became operational in late Decem- ber, came to fruition under former elected Chief Bill Montour. He negotiated $26 mil- lion of the $41 million needed in funding from the federal gover-nment with the help of Brant MP Phil McColeman. His council then took out a $15 million loan from the Bank of Mon- treal to cover the remain- der of the project costs . The need for a new water treatment plant was a major item on the Six Na - tions/Haudenosaunee land rights table discussions that evolved from the 2006 land reclamation. Confederacy Chiefs had negotiated a new plant at the table and shortly after- wards the band left the table. Within a few short months the band and MP McColeman announced the new plant that had been born at the land rights table. During his speech Friday Montour gave credit to pre- vious band councils for lay- ing the groundwork in making the plant a reality. "This has indeed been a fight ," he said during the grand opening ceremony. "I've got to give credit to (previous councils) . Under (the late former elected Chief) Wellington Staats, his council identified that we had to do something different about water be- cause our demographics point to the fact that our population is burgeoning." He said "We've_ got to get this water to 2,200 other MPP Dave Levae, Cayuga sub-chief Leroy Hill, Elected Chief Jlva Hill and coun- cillor Bob Johnson listen for former elected Chief Bill Montour's speech at the opening. (Photo by Donna Durie) homes . 315 homes on Six know you can qo it , Ava ." Nations don't even have MP Phil McColeman said any water. That's a sad he remembered taking thing to say in the most tours of the old water developed part of Canada , treatment plant with Mon- in southern Ontario. It's tour in the mid-2000s and going to be a hard job. I . noticing many components of the aging plant were being held together by duct tape. "This project is very im- portant for the future eco- nomic growth and (Continued on page 3)