MORE REGION OF WATERLOO WATER DUPLICITY?

The skeletons are rattling around and threatening to embarass the Region of Waterloo. This particular skeleton has to do with the shutdown of municipal drinking wells in Kitchener both in 1968 due to quality complaints and again in 1991 allegedly due to iron and manganese concentrations. Today's Waterloo Region Record carrys this story: "Developer spent $9M to clean up location". This refers to the former Pannill Veneer and Breithaupt Leather Co. tannery between Margaret Ave. and St. Leger in Kitchener.

Back on February 28/12 here in the Advocate I posted a story about another Record story describing the cleanup of this site. That story claimed that 70,000 tonnes of "lightly contaminated" soil was being removed. I bluntly expressed my opinion as to the accuracy of the "lightly contaminated" soil. Can anyone say A Civil Trial? How about if I remind you that John Travolta starred in this movie detailing Trichloroethylene contamination in Woburn Massachussets. One of the sources was referred to as the Riley Tannery. Acids and solvents including TCE (trichloroethylene) were commonly used by tanneries of the time.

None of the Waterloo Region Record stories to date have mentioned the nearby Region of Waterloo drinking wells. These are known as the Lancaster St. wells, K41 & K42A. K41 was drilled in 1937 and taken out of service in 1991. Coincidentally or not, this was during the Elmira water crisis, Environmental Appeal Board Hearings. Uniroyal and the Ontario Ministry of the Environment were being publicly raked over the coals on an almost daily basis. Well K42A was drilled in 1967 and was last used only a year later in 1968 "due to reported quality problems". I can't imagine what those problems could possibly have been?

Recently the Region of Waterloo have been restoring these two wells including cleaning the well screens and dissassembling the pumps in order to rehabillatate them. Apparently the Region are planning on very soon returning these two wells to service as drinking wells. I think it is quite clear to Waterloo Region residents that we have been suffering a shortage of water requiring lawn water bans etc. for some time now hence any addition to supply is needed. Is there any relationship between removing 90,000 cubic metres of contaminated soil (2,200 tractor trailers) a few blocks away and the restoration of these two wells to our drinking water supply? Is the Pope Catholic? This environmental cleanup is the largest one in Kitchener's history.

Waterloo Region has a major catastrophe in Cambridge, namely the Bishop St. community. The major culprits are two industrial facilities and TCE. Allegedly the harmful health effects there were a result of vapor intrusion not drinking water. To this day I find that very difficult to believe as there is a nearby municipal drinking well still in service. One of the constants in all of these environmental disasters whether Elmira, Cambridge or Kitchener is the political desire to "manage" the crisis. Essentially this means downplaying legitimate health concerns and minimizing permanent environmental degradation. The truth suffers horribly and this includes covering up for the responsible parties whether pivate industrial or public governmental.

I wonder what the chemical test results were for well K41 in Kitchener between 1937 and 1991. I am confident that both the Region and the M.O.E. will never release them to the public. My suspicion is that the authorities either didn't test for industrial chemicals during most of that period and or they salved their consciences by mixing and diluting the contaminated water with other wells in the system. Further I also suspect that there has never been any indoor air tests done on the hundreds of nearby homes. Afterall is it really negligence by our authorities if they can maintain their plausible deniability by stating they had no knowledge of possible vapour intrusion? I suggest that citizens in Waterloo Region have excellent grounds not to trust what both their local and provincial government agencies tell them regarding the environment.