Friday, March 20, 2020

REGION OF WATERLOO: SOME KITCHENER WELLS




The five Greenbrook Wells are located near Stirling Dr. and Homer Watson Blvd. At one point the Region admitted that they had to improve the treatment system to remove 1,4 dioxane. I believe that this chemical and others have migrated from the former Ottawa St. Landfill (Sid McLennan skihill) courtesy of companies like Varnicolor Chemical dumping liquid wastes illegally, decades ago.

One Adverse Water Quality Incident occurred last year in March as the free chlorine in the treated water was too low. Disinfection was restored and the water mains were flushed. Of the five wells (K1A, K2A, K4B, K5A, K8) only one , well K1A was offline for just five weeks in 2019. This is a pleasant surprise. Sodium at 96.4 mg/l is quite high and Nitrates 2.77 mg/l are high but below the criteria of 10. Ten chemicals have Method Detection Limits (MDL) that are quite high including Glyphosate at a ridiculous 25 ppb. Chloramines used in the disinfection process are the only Inorganic or Organic parameter that exceeded half the prescribed standard. For me it is the numbers of low concentration parameters (chemicals) in our drinking water that causes me concerns. Each individual criteria/standard is based upon the false assumption that that parameter alone is found in the water. There is not and never has been drinking standards for multiple issues, parameters or chemicals in our drinking water.

The K34 (K for Kitchener) Well System consists of wells K34 and K36. Each of these wells was offline last year for five weeks as was the entire system. While a relatively short shutdown it is notable that absolutely zero significant expenses occurred which would indicate repairs or replacement of parts (pumps etc.). The chemical results are from 2018 versus testing being done last year. I find this somewhat bizarre for ANNUAL Reports. Sodium was at 51.0 mg/l in comparison to the recommended 20 mg/l maximum concentration. Again ten chemicals have MDLs that are very high including as always Glyphoste (Roundup) at 25 ppb. Finally chloramines from the disinfection process are highlighted as exceeding half the prescribed standard.

The Parkway Well System consists of wells K31, K32 and K33. Chlorine levels and bacteria counts are good however both sodium and Nitrates are bad. Sodium is at 247 mg/l and Nitrates are at 3.73 mg/l. Keep in mind that Sodium is tested only once during the year and Nitrates only four times. Hence these results likely have both lower and HIGHER concentration levels during the year.All the industrial/agricultural chemicals were sampled and tested in 2018 versus 2019 as we would expect in an ANNUAL Report. This is particularly problematic when we see trichloroethylene (TCE) present in the treated water year after year. Once again a former local industry (Deilcraft) can take credit for this just as they have contaminated the groundwater by their former Shanley St. factory which has become notorious for corporate/government negligence and irresponsibility. Again there are ten chemicals with very high MDLs and chloramines are repeatedly throughout the year exceeding half the standard prescribed in Schedule 2 of the Ontario Drinking Water Standards.

Much more to come regarding the Kitchener water supply including the Mannheim System which supplies extraordinarily expensive Grand River water throughout the Region of Waterloo including Kitchener, Waterloo, Cambridge and a large part of Woolwich Township which used to have its own high quality water sources prior to industrial contamination in St. Jacobs/Elmira and bacterial contamination in West Montrose and possibly in part of Conestogo.

No comments:

Post a Comment