MORE CAMBRIDGE WELLS i.e. P9, P15, P16 , PINEBUSH WELLS (P10, P11, P17)

Two points: This posting is solely about the Region of Waterloo's Annual Report and does not include Haloacetic Acids (HAAs) and Trihalomethanes (THMs) that are covered in the City of Cambridge Annual drinking water Report. That was posted about here last week. Secondly take note that most of the abandoned wells in Cambridge are not discussed in these reports. One example would be wells P6 and P7 found in the Dumphries Conservation Area, downstream from the former Northstar Aerospace and Rozell Mfg. Guess why those wells are shutdown?

Well P9 overall looks pretty good. No shutdowns, no detections of bacteria and reasonable chlorine levels in the treated water. Sodium is high at 77.7 mg/l but is not off the charts as some other Cambridge wells are. Method Detection Limits are far too high for at least ten industrial/agricultural chemicals and lastly I should have seen this earlier with both the rest of the wells under discussion today as well as some earlier ones. The damn sampling dates! I had forgotten that the Region of Waterloo don't even sample all the wells for chemicals on an annual basis. All the chemical sampling dates are from 2017 for this 2019 Annual report. Is that nuts or what?

Well P15 (P for Preston, G for Galt) had both high chlorine at 2.92 mg/l and 32 Coliform Units detected using the Heterotrophic Plate Count (HPC). Sodium is high at 85.9 . MDLs are high for at least ten chemicals although all of the chemicals were sampled in 2017! I find that totally unacceptable whether or not it is legal to do so.

Well P16 is in this years reports although it was off-line for all of 2019. What is really bizarre is the sampling dates for chemicals are all in 2003! A quick on-line check advises me that this well was also off-line throughout 2018. I expect that it may have been closed for many, many years. The question is why it's been closed and why is it still actively reported on year after year in these Annual Reports. Strangely Glyphosate in 2003 had a MDL of 10 ppb (parts per billion) versus the elevated 25 ppb Method Detection Limit over the intervening years. It seems obvious to me that Glyphosate concentrations have been increasing and are being hidden via this outgareously high MDL.

The Pinebush Wells consist of P10, P11 and P17. P17 was off-line for seventeen weeks in 2019 without explanation. There were no repairs or replacement of parts recorded. This is also unacceptable reporting. Bacteria and chlorine levels are good although Sodium levels are at 51.6 mg/l versus the 20 mg/l recommended. MDLs are also too high for at least ten industrial/agricultural chemicals. Finally the chemical sampling dates are all from 2017!