GRAND RIVER TO BENEFIT FROM SEWAGE UPGRADES

"It's a ton of money but misses the radar." This is a quote from Kitchener Councillor Tom Galloway in last Saturday's Waterloo Region Record. He's right but the fact is if government's would focus more on their core services such as water and sewage our taxes would be an awful lot lower and our governments would have greater financial flexibility during crises. The title of the front page of the local section article is "Sewage plan to cost $250M". The treatment plant that will receive these upgrades is the Kitchener plant at the south end of Kitchener near the Doon area. "Planners say this will meet environmental regulations, reduce odours and improve water quality, benefiting the health of the river and serving downstream residents who draw drinking water from it." Further "When completed there will be less ammonia in the Grand to bother fish, less phosphorus and fewer pharmaceutical traces left by drugs flushed into sewers.".

All of this is good news and I personally may criticize the Region for wasting millions of dollars on non essentials but sewage and drinking water are near the top of the heap for necessary expenditures. That being said I find the pharmaceuticals comment both curious and forthcoming. I've looked for years at the testing results for Regional water taken from wells located beside and within the influence of the Grand River as well as results from the water taken directly from the river . If they are testing for pharmacueticals then just like many other contaminants; they aren't sharing the results with the public.

Two other issues come to mind. The one is pure volume of sewage. It's been increasing by leaps and bounds over the last fifty years and credit for that goes to both our provincial and federal governments. Under the guise of humanity and decency, Canada has been accepting "refugees" in massive quantities. Come on people, wake up. Our politicians are neither decent nor humane. They are increasing Canada's population by leaps and bounds for their personal financial gain and that of their supporters. All of this puts an ever increasing environmental load on our rivers and water supplies. These proposed upgrades will be swallowed up very quickly by the ever increasing amounts of raw sewage being discharged to these plants and then treated and released into the river.

Secondly while politicians know this very well they will continue to deceive the public. Again as per the Record's story "Galloway said he's relying on advice from staff and consultants as well as public tendering to ensure the sewage upgrade is not overbuilt or overdesigned." Please! That is pure political puffery. Probably these upgrades should have been done a decade ago and most likely as we continue to bring massive numbers of new immigrants into this country these "upgrades" will be outdated within a year or two of being completed. All of these upgrade costs are directly related to more immigration. It kind of reminds me of a pyramid scheme. You need to constantly increase your membership as the new members are there to pay for the costs of the last batch of arrivals. Like a pyramid scheme it is not sustainable.