ANNUAL WATER REPORTS

These are produced by the Region of Waterloo as mandated by the province after the water crisis in Walkerton. They are on line (click on Region... above). Yesterday I just had time for a quick perusal so I immediately jumped to the wells in Kitchener, Waterloo and Cambridge that can be counted on, year after year to be contaminated with industrial chemicals. Sure enough old faithfuls came through again this time (2011 results). The William St. wells in Waterloo have been contaminated with Trichloroethylene (TCE) just about forever and still are. There are four wells and with careful manipulation of them the concentration of TCE is between 1.4 and 2.0 parts per billion (ppb) well below the drinking water standard of 5 ppb. The three wells in the Parkway well supply system in Kitchener manage to keep their concentration down to .6 ppb. Mind you this is the result of only one test during the entire year so maybe they got lucky at testing time. We then swing over to the Middleton well field in Cambridge. This wellfield has been the long time winner throughout the Region of Waterloo in terms of high TCE readings. I felt this year that they would be relinquishing the title due to the upgrades known as AOP or Advanced Oxidation Process. Surprise they haven't finished them yet! Once more their concentartions of TCE are between 1.9 and 2.9 ppb. This is however a huge reduction from last year's high of 3.1 ppb. Way to go Middleton wellfield. Finally well G9 located near the old Allen-Bradley and Long Mfg. again this year still has TCE although at only 1.6 ppb. Well G6 up near the former Ciba-Geigy site also still has Metalachlor in it at .68 ppb. It seems that industrial solvents and pesticides are a lot like true love in that they last forever. So next Valentine's day forgo fattening chocolates and give your sweetie some toxic industrial waste. More will be coming on this year's Annual Water Report.