GAMESMANSHIP AT OTHER WATERLOO REGION CONTAMINATED SITES

Rule #1: never admit a site is beyond redemption
Rule #2: always be in control of the process
Rule #3: never give any technical credibility to anyone not on the payroll
Rule #4: delay/delay/delay
Rule #5: always withold comprimising data


Two days ago I described my concerns surrounding the Middleton wellfield in Cambridge. A few facts need to be clearly enunciated. Literally for years Canadian General Tower attempted to prove that their site could only possibly contribute a tiny amount of groundwater to that being pumped by the Middleton wells. This was partly done by claiming a groundwater divide at the north end of their property whereby only a small amount of their contaminated water actually flowed north to the municipal wells while the rest flowed south away from them. Trichloroethylene to this day or at least all last year (2011) is still routinely being pumped from the bedrock aquifers by the Middleton wells. This can be found in the Region of Waterloo Annual Water Reports, on-line, on their website.

What concerns me as much as what I know is in the Middleton Wellfield is that which I don't know. This would include chemicals known as extractables or BNA's as well as chemicals known as phthalates. Both are in the groundwater at C.G.T.. Because they are mostly "sinkers" or DNAPLS they would have sunk through the sand and gravel and entered the fractured bedrock. They are of very low solubility which means you would be very unlikely to come up with particularily high dissolved concentrations. Two of the phthalates which are floaters are indeed at high concentrations and part of the LNAPLS floating on the watertable. Here is the kicker. The Region of Waterloo don't publish the results of many common and ubiquitous chemicals in their Annual Reports including NDMA, toluene, xylenes etc. They also don't publish results for many DNAPL chemicals such as the BNA's and denser phthalates. As they have been released into the natural environment next door at C.G.T. and have been so found then there is no good reason for the Region not to test for and publish the results for them in their Annual Water Report especially for the Middleton Wellfield. Unless of course, Rule #5 applies.