The Clean Water Act is on the verge of introducing enforcement officers and handing powers to municipalities that many have never dreamed of.

Municipalities will be given the authority to introduce new zoning bylaws to protect watersheds and hire officers to enforce the Act, says retired dairy farmer Dennis St. Pierre, who has been studying the collision of water issues and government legislation for years. "I call them the super water cops."

St. Pierre has been speaking out about The Clean Water Act at farm meetings across eastern Ontario and says it will force many farmers to pay for studies and special permits before building. "You’ll have to hire an engineer."

He added that municipalities will have the power to amend environmental laws. "The Clean Water Act will be more powerful than the Nutrient Management Act."

The time for submissions to the Clean Water Act, which passed first reading in the province last December, expired February 3. But a standing committee is expected to be formed in the spring to tour the province for input on the regulations and policing.

Brian Stratton, manager of source water protection for both the Mississippi and Rideau watersheds, didn’t know whether or not those meetings would be publicized beyond web pages. He says nobody knows precise details of the regulations. But landfill sites, underground sites and road salt contamination will come

under scrutiny. The government has authorized $51 million for technical studies around wellheads over five years and another $15.5 million to beef up staff.

Conservation authorities will have an expanded role. The Clean Water Act will take precedence over the Nutrient Management Act.

Seven groundwater sites and five surface water systems will be the focus of the Act in the Rideau-Mississippi watersheds, he said. Legislation focuses on wellhead protection.

NAVAN — An Ottawa-area farm herdsman, his American-born wife, and their 17-year-old son are in hiding, while offers of support for them are pouring in from across the country.

They were fingerprinted by Immigration Canada officials before Christmas and ordered to leave the country Jan. 12. They were given one-way airfare back to Belgium.

But on their departure date a group of about 50 farmers, organized by the Ontario Landowners Association, showed up at the home of Michel Van Hauve to offer support and whisk him away to safety. He had been a farm worker and milker on a Navan farm owned by Pierre Etter for about eight years. Van Hauve’s work permit has always been renewed until now. Coincidently, his boss and landowner association member Pierre Etter is the farmer who dropped a dead cow in the driveway of his Liberal MP, the retiring Don Boudria, last year to make a point about the effects of the mad cow crisis. That’s why Van Hauve is being given the boot, said Randy Hillier, OLA president. Liberal candidate for Prescott County, René Berthiaume , also showed up at the protest and told Hillier that the Minister of Immigration can’t help during election time. Then he can’t kick people out because it’s election time, Hillier retorted.

Van Hauve, 44, was ordered to leave the country based on having committed a petty crime back in Belgium when he was 18. His wife said he stole food when he was out of work and that Canadian immigration officials knew about it when he arrived here.

"All of a sudden he’s this big criminal," said his wife Dorothy. "He didn’t kill anyone. He didn’t hurt anyone. It was a petty crime. We’re being treated like criminals. In eight years in Canada we’ve never had a problem."

The Van Hauves made a request with Immigration Canada and the Prime Minister’s Office to stay in Canada but were denied.

In the few days before being kicked out Dorothy said: "I don’t know if I’m coming or going. I’m just shaking. If they want me to go I will go. I abide by the law. If I can stay I will be jumping up and down."

They had few options. One was to have $15,000 in a bank account to ensure they have money to invest in Canada. They don’t have the money. Another is to return to Belgium, get a pardon for the crime and re-apply with Immigration Canada and hope to qualify on points. The Van Hauves say they are only allowed to leave with three suitcases, which means they have to sell almost everything and start a new life in Belgium first. Re-applying is out of the question, Dorothy Van Hauve said. "I’m not a freaking snail. I don’t travel with a house on my back."

Said her husband, speaking in French to Farmers Forum, several days before disappearing: "I’m a little angry. Just one suitcase for each of us. I never hid anything. I don’t understand."

Then, there’s option three: Call the Ontario Landowners Association.

"The landowners have provided them with a safe location," Hillier told reporters who gathered at the Van Hauve home.

Hillier later said: "We’ve had offers of asylum, donations and of employment from across the country. Many offers are from families who fled terror in their own countries."

This issue will be decided by the court of public opinion, he said, adding that the OLA is planning to force the government’s hand in the last few days leading up to the federal election January 23.