EO News – The issues and solutions of Casselman’s water problems

Published by TVC22 August 22 2025

In this episode of Eastern Ontario News, the mayor of Casselman holds a delegation to hear her community’s comments and ideas towards Casselman’s ongoing water crisis.

Jade Laviolette – Local Journalism Initiative

A delegation has been hosted by the mayor of Casselman, Geneviève Lajoie, to provide citizens with an opportunity to voice their concerns and ideas before she seeks funding to connect Casselman’s water to Clarence-Rockland’s. However, when we asked the community what they thought, we received a mix of support and apprehension regarding the plan to fix the water quality.

The possible solution

For years, the water quality in Casselman has been at the mercy of the unpredictable weather, explains the mayor when she says: “There’s high levels of manganese in our water, there’s also THMs [trihalomethanes], so that has created a lot of concerns for our residents, especially last summer during the crisis where it was so hot and the water had just evaporated leaving high levels- and concentrations of manganese.”

Trying to resolve this problem in her community, Geneviève Lajoie has decided it would be best if Casselman’s water would connect to Rockland’s pipelines. Determined to get support for this project, she plans to ask for around 75 million dollars from the ministry of infrastructure at the AMO (Associations of Municipalities of Ontario) conference on August 20th.

The community’s response

In order to ensure the community had a chance to voice their concerns and ideas, the mayor did a ‘round table’ style meeting with the people who wished to participate. During the delegation, one of the residents told the mayor: “I think other mayors have tried [to solve the water issues] – but they didn’t in turn put a lot of focus because it’s a big job, so I commend you for doing this and taking it on […]”

However, when we interviewed members of the community outside the delegation, they claimed that the water quality in Casselman was awful and questioned the possible issues that would come with making the decision to connect Casselman from Rockland’s water.