UPCOMING EVENTS IN WOOLWICH TOWNSHIP

Mayor Shantz's "stakeholders" meeting/teaparty is scheduled for 2-4 pm. this Thursday April 9, 2015 at the Woolwich Township building. It is a private, by invitation only, meeting. The most knowledgable and dedicated stakeholders including myself will not be present. Don't count on it taking place. If the Mayor has been as honest and forthcoming with the GRCA and the Region of Waterloo about the purpose and or background of the meeting as she has been with CPAC & SWAT; then they might just get offended when they learn the truth. Hard to say. They might also not be pleased to be tarnished with the same brush that Woolwich Township and the Ontario Ministry of the Environment seem so keen on being painted with. This includes investigations by the Ombudsman and the Environmental Commissioner. It is also possible that if Mayor Shantz attempts to change the Application process for CPAC membership, after the fact, that more investigations will ensue. Not only is the Application process closed four months ago but any attempt to add new members such as the GRCA and the Region can only be as non voting members due to the CPAC Terms of Reference updated and endorsed by Woolwich Council on Octber 29, 2013. Does the Region and GRCA understand that their membership will be resisted on two issues namely a months late Application and secondly by CPAC's Terms of Reference denying them a vote?

A week from tomorrow I will be a Delegate to Woolwich Council speaking about the West Montrose water supply. While I did extensive research over a year ago into matters concerning bacterial contamination and treatment, nevertheless new information has arisen this year. For example what should have been obvious to me last year is that Coliforms, E.Coli, THMs, Chloramines and NDMA are not the only issues. Add to them viruses such as the ubiquitous Giardia as well as the protozoa Cryptosporidium. The last item is that which cost a half a dozen seniors their lives back in the mid 90s here in Waterloo Region. Possibly Giardia is as much or more the reason that the Region have been chlorinating the daylights out of West Montrose water. What is known as the CT or contact time appears to be far higher in West Montrose than anywhere else in the Region. This is the concentration of chlorine in mg/litre multiplied by the number of minutes it is in contact with the raw water. Similar to the Mannheim Treatment System drawing in Grand River water; there is a specialized, individual treatment method for Cryptosporidium. At Mannheim they use ozonation and at West Montrose it is cartridge filters of extremely small size measured in microns (ie. 20, 5, 1 ) which physically remove the Cryptospridium cysts from the raw water. I have also been obtaining greater information regarding incoming tankers of water from the Kitchener-Waterloo water systems that contrary to the Region of Waterloo's written statements to me, are in fact at least partially for the purpose of improving water quality. This is practically a no brainer when you look at all the issues with West Montrose's raw water.