REVISITING KITCHENER'S WATER SUPPLY

Back on March 7/14 I posted my observations of the Kitchener Water Supply System. There were numerous concerns which after new information and after rereading the numerous Reports I can see requires an update. Firstly Grand River water supplied nearly 50% of the water used in the Kitchener distribution system last year. As this allegedly is an IUS or Integrated Urban System this water may have also ended up in Waterloo or Cambridge. This is not a plus for those cities. Grand River water is very expensive to treat because compared to groundwater it is very dirty. It has been enriched by Sewage Treatment Plants upstream in Fergus and in Waterloo. I believe (and desperately hope) that Kitchener's Sewage Treatment plant is downstream of the Hidden Valley water intake which is pumped to and treated in the Mannheim Water Treatment Plant. Even Cambridge, downstream of the Kitchener Sewage Treatment Plant, should hope so if they are being sent Kitchener water.

The volumes of water from multiple sources are surprising. By far the largest (& dirtiest) is the Grand River. Next is a single well (K26) at the Mannheim Village Wells. It is less than 1/6th the volume of Grand River water. Behind it is the Parkway Wellfield slightly enriched with trichloroethylene, significant Nitrates, chloramines and ridiculously high Sodium levels. Trihalomethanes (THMs), NDMA and haloacetic Acid concentrations are not given. Both the Greenbrook Wellfield and well K25 in the Mannheim Village wells are next. The Greenbrook Wellfield is currently shut down hopefully only temporarily due to the explosion a couple of weeks ago. It has significant chloramines, high Turbidity and no results for 1,4 Dioxane which shut it down for treatment upgrades a few years back. Both NDMA and 1,4 Dioxane results should be given and are not. Also of interest is the fact that none of the wellfields are approaching their permitted pumping rates. Odd.

Pages five and six of the Mannheim System indicate information that I have not seen at any other wells. Basically there are concentrations given for both chloramines (as in monochloramine) and dichloramines. The first has one chlorine molecule the second has two and is more dangerous to human health. I had read that when you have chloramines you will also probably have some level of both dichloramines and trichloramines; both which are more toxic than even just (mono)chloramine. Chloramines while below the Ontario Drinking Water Standard (ODWS) are routinely present at above 50% of the standard. THMs while averaging 24.3 parts per billion (ppb) have a highest reading of 49.5 ppb. The ODWS is 100 ppb. What really caught my eye were the bacteria readings from the Grand River. Of course the Region have somewhat changed the methodology making comparisons difficult (or not). Well water often has a raw water reading for bacteria (present/absent) and then a filtered raw water reading called MF for Membrane Filter. The Mannheim System Report has this for their well water whereas for the river water they haven't included raw values (present/absent); only filtered values (MF). These surface/river MF values are 0-2500 for E.Coli Or Fecal Results and 10-120,000 for Total Coliform Results. While I find these maximum results (ie. 2500 & 120,000) astonishing I also wish they had advised the total numbers of present versus absent bacteria results as they do for most well water (ie. groundwater).

Most of the raw or source water used for drinking water in Waterloo Region is treated with only one or two chemicals namely sodium hypochlorite (producing chlorine) and ammonium sulphate (producing chloramines). There may be various filtration methods to reduce Turbidity and some wells have methods to reduce iron and manganese. A couple of very badly industrially contaminated wellfields including the Middleton Wellfield in Cambridge have an Advanced Oxidation Process (AOP) which uses ozone and ultraviolet irradiation (UV) together. Keep in mind that some seniors died back in the 90's courtesy of cryptosporidium in Grand River water prior to the region ozonating that water. This is the problem with using comprimised source water and then treating the daylights out of it. Vulnerable segments of the population can not withstand the treatment given to contaminated water. The Mannheim System uses the following treatment chemicals namely "Chlorine gas, 12% sodium hypochlorite, anhydrous ammonia, polyaluminum chloride (coagulant), polyelectrolyte (filter aid), liquid oxygen (LOX), ozone, ultraviolet (UV) irradiation, calcium thiosulphate, granular activated carbon, 20% ammonium sulphate."