DILUTION IS THE SOLUTION TO POLLUTION

Don't ever fool yourself. That is and always has been the attitude, behaviour and reality in the Grand River watershed. Last week it was on display at the public CPAC meeting when the Director of the West Central Region of the M.O.E. promoted the local abatement office's claims that chemicals above the provincial cleanup criteria in the groundwater at former Varnicolor's lot 91 were being "naturally attenuated". Natural attenuation is the buzzword for doing nothing and letting the groundwater be diluted when it discharges into the nearest creek. At Lot 91 that is landfill Creek which borders two sides of Lot 91.

Today's Waterloo Region Record carrys this story "Dry weather means more than just brown grass". "Rainfall in the last two days has convinced local water managers to postpone declaring the situation desperate, said Grand River Conservation Authority spokesperson Cam Linwood.". Here in Elmira we received a heavy rain for all of ten minutes. If that's all that's between us and "desperate" then indeed we are in big trouble.

I give credit to Eric Hodgins and the Region of Waterloo for being honest concerning the ongoing drought. "As the Grand River has been flowing at dangerously low levels during this hot summer, the risk of the river not being able to absorb all the discharge pumped into it by waste-water treatment plants is real, said Eric Hodgins, the Region of Waterloo's hydrology and source water manager.". First of all "waste-water treatment plants" is a euphimism coined years ago to hide the ugly reality. These are sewage treatment plants and they are dumping human sewage into the river. Mostly it's treated and usually it's treated but not always. Engineers and hydrologists calculate the "assimilative capacity" of the river. This again is nothing but a fancy word for how much can the river dilute the effluent from our treatment plants. The problem is obvious. Our provincial and federal governments insist that regional and municipal governments plan for and accomodate the neverending influx of more immigrants. Not only is the river's "assimilative capacity" fixed, in reality it is declining. Anybody heard of global warming? We are looking at and indeed receiving more heat and less rain. At the same time our population and accompanying sewage is increasing.

This scenario can only continue with the debasement of our surface water bodies including the Nith, Conestoga, Speed and Grand Rivers. Creeks as well with sewage treatment plants on them such as the Canagagigue in Elmira will also deteriorate. Dilution is NOT the solution to pollution. Our politicians in their short sightedness have been operating forever on the false belief that it is.