2010 ANNUAL REPORT (DRINKING WATER)

As promised last Monday there will be occasional ongoing reports and comments on these 2010 Annual Reports on the state of our drinking water here in Waterloo Region. Keep in mind that although Woolwich Township has it's own wells in Conestoga, West Montrose, Maryhill etc., all of Elmira's and St.Jacobs water comes via a pipeline up from the City of Waterloo.

Both the William St. wells in Waterloo and the Middleton wellfield in Cambridge have ongoing, longterm detections of Trichloroethylene (TCE) in them. The Middleton wells routinely have concentrations at and above 50% of the Ontario Drinking Water Standard (ODWS). William St. in Waterloo has concentrations at about 1/3 or 1/4 of the ODWS. However William St.(Waterloo) routinely has chloramines at greater than 50% concentration of the ODWS. In focusing today on Cambridge drinking water some disturbing patterns are again emerging this year. The number of wells that are offline for varying time frames without explanation, while all citizens are placed on various water restrictions is of concern. For example well P16 was offline the whole year (2010). Wells P10, P11 and P17 were offline for 21 weeks. Well G1A offline for 4 weeks and G38/G39 were offline for 8 weeks. There is also the issue of wells missing in action. G6 in Cambridge is one example as is W6B in Waterloo. What is the explanation for wells that are removed from the system as well as wells that are shut down for long time frames when we have a demand for the water? What is going on?