MORE ON WATER QUALITY REPORTS

The Regional water system is integrated to a certain degree. In other words there is piping for example running from Waterloo to Elmira as well as from Kitchener south to Cambridge. Similarily twin cities Kitchener and Waterloo have water flowing to and fro across their borders. That being said with the exception of Waterloo water travelling on a daily basis to Elmira and St. Jacobs, generally residents will be drinking water taken from the ground nearest them and or augmented in Kitchener with Grand River water.

Two days ago I mentioned that well P16 in Cambridge but on the border with Kitchener had been offline for all of 2010. Two other points need to be raised. Firstly the test results posted for 2010 are all dated 2003. Secondly the MDL's or method detection limits are considerably higher for many industrial chemicals than they are at the other wells in the Region.

Trichloroethylene was also detected at well G9 (Elgin St.) in Cambridge. This may be courtesy of the former Allen-Bradley plant. Well P6 (Dunbar Rd.) , near Northstar Aerospace has some anomalies in that it also has elevated MDL's for 2,4,5 T and some chlorophenols. Also of interest, it is the only well in Cambridge other than the Middleton wells tested monthly for TCE (Trichloroethylene). I believe that the Region of Waterloo are as surprised as I that it hasn't been found as yet, courtesy of Northstar.

Metalachlor has been detected in well G6. This is most likely from Ciba-Geigy. Well G5, part of the Pinebush system of wells has worrisome levels of Nitrates as well as 249 mg./liter of sodium. It is these strange combinations of either organics or inorganics which science has of yet been unable to determine toxicity issues. We are the guinea pigs.