WILMOT TOWNSHIP (Region of Waterloo) ANNUAL DRINKING WATER REPORTS

Today is the last of the 2013 Water Reports. We have covered Cambridge, Kitchener, Waterloo, North Dumfries, Wellesley, Woolwich and now Wilmot. The Wilmot System partially consists of four groundwater wells which can also be used to supplement Kitchener's water through the Mannheim Reservoir. Besides those wells there is also the Foxboro System, the New Dundee System, New Hamburg/Baden and the two wells for the Shingletown Supply System.

Starting with the Mannheim System we have well K22A. The two biggest issues which stood out are the 2009 test results and the fact that well K22A was shut down all of 2013. Hmm! Further investigation and sure enough this well hasn't been in production since 2009 and yet it's still considered part of the system. Wouldn't it be nice if the Region of Waterloo had some obligation, legal or otherwise, to share with us why it's been shut down for so long?

Well K23 is next for the Mannheim System. The good news is that the test results are for 2013 and the well ran for the entire year without being shutdown. The bad news is the level of nitrates in this well. They are some of the highest I've seen in Waterloo Region at over 5 parts per million. The Report indicates that these levels are greater than 50% of the
Ontario Drinking Water Standards.

Well K24 has similar problems to the previous well plus they are using 2012 test results. While I don't know the Region's legal mandate it seems patently ridiculous that a well such as K24 can pump into the system for all of 2013 without shutdown and the Region don't have to publish 2013 test results. Nitrates are just as bad as well K23 with a couple of readings actually in the 5.66 ppm area.

Well K26 is actually worse than the previous two for nitrates. The test results again are for 2012 while the well was pumping for 51 weeks last year into the drinking water system. Nitrates are above 6 parts per million (6.93 ppm) which is significantly above 50% of the drinking water standard I have of 10 ppm. The Region highlight any contaminants above 50% for good cause. These drinking standards are based upon the wholly ridiculous and unreasonable basis that the one contaminant at a time being examined is alone in a litre of pure water.

The Foxboro Green Supply consists of three wells namely FG1, FG2 and FG4. FG2 was off-line for four weeks and FG4 for three weeks. The test results are also disappointingly for 2012. The good news is that both Sodium and Nitrates are a non-issue.

The New Dundee System consists of two wells , ND4 and ND5. They both ran full time without shutdowns during 2013. Nitrates while elevated are however below 50% of the drinking water standard. The test results again are for 2012 instead of 2013.

The New Hamburg/Baden Supply System consists of well NH3. When I saw that it was shutdown for three weeks last year I was concerned as there appeared to be no backup wells. Fortunately the following system (Shingletown) has the plumbing capabilty to have its' water sent to either New Hamburg/Baden and or even eastward to the Kitchener Mannheim System if required. Sodium and Nitrates concentrations (2013) are very low although the rest of the contaminant testing again hasn't been done since 2012.

The Shingletown System consists of two wells which as previously mentioned have considerable flexibility as to where their water is distributed. Well K50 ran for the whole year and the two issues I see are the 2013 elevated Nitrates concentrations and 2012 test results. The Nitrates however are just below 50% of the drinking water standard.

The last well in the Shingletown System is K51. It was off-line for two weeks last year. Sodium results are low and Nitrates are also lower than most of the other wells in Wilmot. Again for the industrial contaminants we are dealing with 2012 test results.