INTERESTING TIMING FOR REGION TO BEGIN TO ADMIT TO THEIR "MANAGEMENT'" TECHNIQUES FOR DRINKING WATER

Quoting environmentalist Pat Potter's T-shirt years ago "They all lie". They also all back each other up. Business, industry, governmental environmental agencies, and local and provincial politicians. Sometimes politicians have to step back from their support for polluters publicly, but behind the scenes they reassure their industrial constituents that they've got their backs and they surely do. Each and every strict Control Order issued by the Ontario Ministry of Environment (MOE/MECP) against Uniroyal Chemical in Elmira, Ontario has eventually been rescinded, amended or replaced. By the MOE/MECP. ................................................................................................................ The August 1/20 Waterloo Region Record published the following story titled "New modelling expands groundwater protection areas". Ostensibly the article is about an expansion of the area from which regional wells draw their water. This is based allegedly upon improved modelling. Maybe that's true and maybe it isn't. What I find most interesting is 1) an admission as to how serious the salt problem is in our drinking water and 2) how inadequate and pathetic to date the Region's actions have been to mitigate it. ..................................................................................................................... What's next? Will the Region begin to admit to residents that their "solution to pollution is dilution" and has been exactly that for decades? This article admits that thusly: "The Region's current solution is to mix water from saltier wells with less salty well water to provide drinkable water." That is followed with "But that's not a long-term solution...". Dunh do you think? The Region of Waterloo have also been doing this for decades with toxic chemicals in our drinking water such as trichloroethylene (TCE) mostly but not solely in Cambridge and in Waterloo. At what point will all the "management" actions surrounding our drinking water be made public? I expect that will happen simultaneously with the announcement of the next big "legacy" project of our regional politicians. A long while back, the proposed water pipeline to Lake Erie was shelved. Notice I say "shelved" not scrapped. Undoubtedly we the unwashed masses will be solemnly advised that our groundwater is no longer the best (cost-effecient) source for drinking water. Decades of industrial contamination has not been adequately cleaned up by "natural attenuation" as some of the more naive, uninformed and just plain dumb politicians had hoped. Treating contaminated ground and surface water is hugely expensive. Look out for a pipeline near you.