ANOTHER DRINKING WELL SHUT DOWN BY INDUSTRIAL POLLUTION IN WATERLOO REGION

As usual it was done quietly and without fanfare. I had predicted the eventual shutdown of this well due to Trichloroethylene contamination for some time now. Only somewhat surprisingly is the fact that other wells in Cambridge with consistently high TCE readings are still used on a daily basis. These of course are the Middleton Wellfield wells. Similarily the William St. wells in Waterloo have had TCE in them for decades. The significance is that those are both major wellfields with multiple wells involved. The Middleton wellfield is diluted via both well G15 several hundred yards to the south as well as by a massive aquifer flowing from the west. Despite this, last year the concentrations from the wells rose on occasion to between 3.0 and 3.3 parts per billion (ppb). While this is below the Ontario drinking water standard of 5.0 ppb it is higher than a number of U.S. jurisdictions.

Well P6 in the Dumphries Conservation Area has been on life support for some time now. Nearby well P7 has been shut down for a very long time which gives me suspicion that our authorities may have known of a local source of TCE long before the Northstar/Bishop St. tragedy became public. To the credit of the Region of Waterloo they haven't had their head in the sand in regards to P6. If this amateur hydrogeologist, after reading dozens of hydrogeological reports could figure out that P6 was doomed, then so could they. In fact P6 was the only individual well in Waterloo Region that was being tested for TCE multiple times per year. Yes the Middleton and the William St. wellfields are also but they are multiple wells with proven and consistent TCE concentrations found. As of last year P6 was below .5 ppb according to the Region's Annual Drinking Water Report. This year's 2012 Annual Report which just went on line a couple of weeks back states that well P6 "was offline for all of 2012". Hence there are zero readings given to the public for well P6 in 2012.

One tidbit of good news for Cambridge tap water drinkers. These reports which the Region produces annually due to provincial legislation are just that namely Annual Drinking Water Reports. Therefore in theory any breakthroughs of plumes to drinking wells should be caught relatively early. Indeed Middleton is tested each year for many industrial chemicals as well as bacteria. The same cannot be said for numerous other Cambridge wells. I'm in the middle of going through these dozens of reports but I've already found numerous "Annual" Reports which simply have last year's (2011) data in them. I'm not sure what is going on here but will continue to investigate.

Consumers of tap water in the northern end of the Region (Elmira & St.Jacobs) should also be concerned. While a few of us are still fighting desperately against apathy, governments, industry (Chemtura) and the M.O.E. to restore our local wells; the populace have all been reassurred that in the interim we're drinking sparkling City of Waterloo water via pipeline. The two major wellfields namely William St. wells and the Erb St. wells have significant problems. Not only do the William St. wells have TCE in them but three of the four were shut down from the whole year (W3) to four and thirteen weeks respectively (W1C, W1B). Two of the Erb St wells were shut down for major time frames (23 & 11 weeks) plus individual well W10 was shut down for the entire year.

Amazing isn't it how politicians respond to money, power, influence and donations to their political campaigns. Their response is primarily protection of the guilty.