ONLY A QUARTER OF THE FACTS ON THE WEST MONTROSE STORY

Saturday's Waterloo Region Record carried a very good story titled "Region to build $8.6 M water line to West Montrose". We are advised that between 2006 and 2011 close to 25,000 cubic metres of water has been trucked into the community's reservoir annually. This we are told equates to ten Olympic sized swimming pools per month. That's a lot of water. Strange that the Annual (Drinking Water) Reports for West Montrose don't say a thing about trucked in water. Also strange that there apparently are no numbers for the quantity of water being trucked into the community over the last five years. Local residents advise me that currently it is usually four tanker trucks of water per day unload into the West Montrose reservoir. Meanwhile each and every year the Region go to great lengths to describe both the nasty raw water quality from their four wells as well as the treated water quality and upgrades to the treatment system.

Something else strange is that this article talks about a pipeline from Conestogo over to West Montrose. No mention of the further pipeline from Conestogo over to St. Jacobs to hook into the Integrated Urban System (IUS) water supply. Recall that both St. Jacobs and Elmira are now supplied with water from a pipeline linking Waterloo to them. Also while the Conestogo Plains System has been looking good over the last recent years there was a time when they appeared to also be having raw water bacteria problems. I'm not sure how they stickhandled around that. Afterall simply look where their wells are located in regards to their residential subdivision. A subdivision on septic systems of course. This is the same problem as in West Montrose.

This article claims that the Conestogo Plains System has enough water for both communitys. Considering that the Conestogo Plains System is one of two separate systems in Conestogo, that may be so. I wonder however if increased pumping would be likely to draw more bacteria however into the wells. I also wonder about the statement that there is a quantity problem regarding West Montrose water. If that were true then an additional well added to their current four would certainly solve that alleged problem. Afterall these are river infiltration wells and the Grand flows throughout even dry summers courtesy of the upstream Shand Dam.

The Environmental Assessment back in 2012 had a typical preordained outcome. The Region clearly want to hook these communitys into the Integrated Urban System (IUS). Among other reasons this avoids separate treatment systems in each community that require local supervision and maintenance. There is ample clean groundwater in deeper aquifers all around the West Montrose area that could have had a couple of extra wells drilled into ithem. Local farms and businesses seem to have no problems with either quantity or quality of water.

This is similar with Elmira. The Region of Waterloo have long ago given up on using restored Elmira aquifers anytime before 2050. Even then they will only go that route out of dire need. This article also mentions Chemtura Canada and the growing skepticism that Elmira's Aquifers will be restored by the 2028 deadline.