CONTAMINATED DRINKING WATER & WOOLWICH COUNCIL

Last evening (6pm) at Woolwich Council I received a cordial reception including appropriate questions afterwards by Councillors and Mayor. My Delegation focused on water issues in Elmira/St. Jacobs as well as end of the pipe water and health issues in West Montrose. My concern was their proposed action of sending my written report to the Region of Waterloo and of Mr. Kennealey, Engineering & Planning Director, reporting back to Council next week after conversing with the Region. The problem is that the Region of Waterloo already know full well that they are playing fast and loose with the various water systems. As I indicated in my Delegation "Their goal is to avoid immediate mass poisoning by bacteria and to avoid prosecution for everything else.". They are between a rock and a hard place and are stickhandling frantically to keep the water drinkable. As the famous quote goes "The first casualty in war, is the truth".

I have proposed a second course of action this morning to Woolwich Township. I hope to know shortly if it will be embraced. The bottom line is that the Region have gone far too many miles down the path of trust us, everything's O.K.; when in fact it isn't. Too many years of public reassurance when in fact their water supply was at risk; have eroded the Region's ability to now be forthcoming.

The raw source of water in West Montrose is badly contaminated with both Total Coliforms and E.Coli. It has been very bad for many years. Occasionally temporary Boil Water Advisorys have been issued when there was a breakdown in the disinfection by chlorine of the water. Both Chlorine and Chloramine are used to kill the neverending supply of bacteria and the Chloramines most likely are producing toxic by-products of disinfection as they are above the Ontario Drinking Water Standard of 3.0 mg/litre. This information has not been directly and forthrightly shared with the residents of West Montrose.