What you need to know: A year of escalating tensions over alleged water contamination in Smiths Falls

Nearly a year after the Ministry of Environment, Conservation and Parks (MECP) ordered the Town of Smiths Falls to investigate possible contamination near its municipal compost site, some residents and officials remain divided over what those tests revealed — and how the results were handled.

Tensions are on the rise as several Smiths Falls residents continue to press town officials and public health authorities for answers over alleged water contamination and what they feel is a lack of transparency from their local government.

The Background

The controversy began in November 2024, when the MECP ordered the Town to conduct soil, groundwater, and delineation studies at its compost facility at 3514 County Road 43. The goal was to determine whether contaminants were present and spreading into nearby wetlands — an area classified as part of the town’s drinking water intake protection zone.

According to local residents and advocates Kelly Denham and Nathaniel Morris, those tests did occur in December 2024— but the results showing exceedances of lead and petroleum hydrocarbons were withheld to the public for more than five months, leading to what they describe as a false safety assurance from the South East Health Unit (SEHU) earlier this summer.

As previously reported by Lanarkist, the Ministry of Environment, Conservation and Parks (MECP) approved an updated Environmental Compliance Approval for the compost site on Sept. 11, 2025. 

Despite the town assuring Smith Falls residents last month that the drinking water is safe and that “regular testing of treated drinking water continues to meet all provincial standards,” some in the community remain skeptical, saying that they want accountability — not assurances. 

The Main Concerns and Controversy

According to Denham, who has been updating residents online about the unfolding situation on social media, test results that showed elevated levels of lead and hydrocarbons were withheld by the Town between December 2024 and June 2025. She alleges the Town provided “misleading, incomplete surface water results,” however, the SEHU issued an assessment stating that “no exceedances were found.”

Denham says the SEHU later corrected the statement after being presented with the full data of all the reports, acknowledging the presence of cadmium, lead, zinc and hydrocarbons. “Why should we trust the Health Unit’s assurances now?” Dehman pushed in a public update, adding that the unit’s current safety assessment “is not based on an independent evaluation of contamination spread.”

Denham told Lanarkist, ”It took me a bit to learn the science but I immediately recognized the Town response as problematic. It’s just not the kind of behaviour you expect from an organization that is transparent.

“I’ve connected with others concerned about this,” Denham continued. “The water is a unifying cause in this town. I knew that already when Le Boat had its spills, the entire community came together to demand better. So when this landed on my desk, so to speak, I knew this was a core issue of public trust and safety.”

Morris echoed Denham’s concerns in a social media post earlier this week. He said he was relieved to learn that the Town has now hired consultants to carry out “long overdue delineation testing” to assess the contamination, but he remains unsure whether town leadership should oversee the process.

“Almost a year ago, I met personally with the Town’s Chief Administrative Officer and presented a detailed report showing serious cause for concern following the discovery of lead, cadmium, and zinc at the site,” Morris told Lanarkist. “Although he declined to report the issue, he assured me that he was fully prepared to accept any consequences for that choice,” Morris alleges.

Morris later brought the matter to the Rideau Roundtable, which he says voted unanimously to report the issue independently. He is now calling for an external review of the situation to ensure town officials “are not able to influence or cover up the findings of this critical work.”

Liz Wheeler, founder of Secondhand Stories Animal Sanctuary and Smith Falls resident, emailed Lanarkist to share her perspective on the matter and introducing “a facet that hasn’t been explored”: chicken manure.

Earlier this year, Wheeler explained that she raised concerns about the newly approved backyard chicken bylaw, warning council that the policy lacked a plan for managing chicken manure. “It’s about governance. Earlier this year, the Town ignored expert recommendations on the backyard chicken bylaw,” Wheeler alleges. 

“Without a plan for manure disposal, we could see over 370 tonnes of excess waste produced annually, with no clear system for safe disposal. It’s a smaller issue, but it reflects a larger pattern: the failure to plan for environmental safety and the dismissal of professional advice.”

Wheeler estimates that if even half of eligible households participated, the town could see hundreds of tonnes of excess manure produced each year, with no clear disposal system in place, seeing as disposal of excess manure is not permitted at the municipal compost site nor can it be disposed of in regular garbage

“The town has a systemic problem of disregarding expert recommendations and failing to establish essential contingency planning for environmental safety,” she maintains. 

The Town Responds

In their previous statement issued on Sep. 19, the town acknowledged that while concerns and “misinformation” have circulated about the site, they “categorically reject any claims of secrecy or selective reporting,” clarifying that all data was shared with the ministry as part of the approval process.

However, amid the ongoing scrutiny from the community, town officials issues a second statement on Oct. 2, the Town said recent testing around the municipal compost site on County Road 43 found “no parameter exceedances in groundwater or surface water samples taken at or near the site.” They once again assured residents that its drinking water “consistently meets or exceeds all provincial standards.”

The Town affirms it has been forthcoming with regulators and that all reports were submitted to the Ministry of Environment, Conservation and Parks (MECP) as required. “The Town did not withhold any information from the MECP,” their statement read. “Final reports were submitted in full at the Ministry’s request, and the MECP reviewed all data before issuing its approval.”

The Town also highlighted the advanced monitoring systems at its century-old Water Treatment Plant, calling it a “state-of-the-art facility” that continues a “tradition of innovation and reliability that spans over 100 years.”  

Shawn Pankow, Mayor of Smith Falls told Lanarkist, “Mr. [David] Chown’s report confirms there is no significant risk to the drinking water. The site is suitable for use as a compost facility, compliant with the source water protection plan, and has provincial approval. The investigations — including drilling, soil and groundwater sampling — are sufficient to characterize the impacts, and delineation at the site is considered adequate.”

He continued, “The only further work required is annual testing and reporting to the MECP. I am and have been 100 per cent confident in the safety of our drinking water despite allegations suggesting otherwise.”

Moving Forward

When asked how they’d like to see the municipality address their concerns and build trust moving forward, Denham and Morris want less talk and more action. Denham told Lanarkist, “The next steps I’d like to see are simple. Just clean it up. Do the right thing.” After referencing several other instances of allegedly suspicious misconduct within the municipality, she made it clear that her trust in the system is now broken. “None of this is normal, and until the Town is willing to explain it all in a clear, transparent manner, we’ll keep trying to make sense of it all ourselves, publicly and sensationally, because we don’t have any other option.”

“They still have not tested the wetlands to see if contamination is migrating out of the site, in the direction of the intake pipe and public beach, nor have they looked for the source of the contamination,” said Morris. “That was the first thing the MECP ordered them to do last November. It’s also common sense and should be something they want to do if they are sincerely interested in protecting the public.”

When asked how he hopes to address the growing concerns and public scrutiny from his constituents, Mayor Pankow responded, “Council and all staff in any way connected to the provision of safe drinking water take this responsibility very seriously and would never do anything that would risk the safety of our citizens. Of all the responsibilities we bear, this one is the greatest. Our citizens must know that when they turn on their tap and consume our municipally-treated water that it is safe.”

The mayor continued, “Suggestions to the contrary create concern and worry when it is not warranted. The Province of Ontario holds every municipality to the highest standards for the provision of safe drinking water and the town has always met all of its responsibilities and obligations.

“Questioning the integrity of the town’s leadership seems more driven by politics than reason,” the mayor continued. “I am confident we have the right people in place and have no reason to believe they are not doing their jobs.”

In their release on Oct. 2, the Town included an official letter from RLC-HydroG Hydrogeological Services to further reassure residents of its testing accuracy and compliance. Town officials are encouraging the public to review full water quality reports and environmental documentation here to learn more information.