WOOLWICH LANDFILL LACK OF DUE DILIGENCE

Referring back to yesterday's memo from the Region of Waterloo there are some interesting comments. Firstly "...by installing a well into the deep bedrock, where to date, no 1,1 DCA has been detected". Hmm, I wonder what else other than DCA has been detected? Secondly is this a tacit admission that by pumping the bedrock aquifer you will speed up the process of drawing the DCA down into it? There will be two more nearby wells as of late summer/early fall drawing water from the bedrock aquifer. This will only exacerbate the likelihood of drawing the contaminants deeper. It appears to me that this is the Region doing what they do best which is little or nothing ahead of time and wait for the contaminated water to show up. This is reactive not proactive.

Further "...while we don't anticipate any more wells being impacted there is another residential well approximately 750 metres downgradient that we will monitor closely.". Sure they will. Maybe once a year they will sample it for a very limited set of parameters. Also is this an additional 750 metres past where the first three wells are being replaced or is this 750 metres in total from the Woolwich landfill? That is clear as mud. Also what is not clear is the alleged "annual monitoring program". Who is the "engineering consultant" involved? Why if these annual reports have historically observed "impacts" in some residential wells has it taken until now to either provide alternate water or to stop the spread of the plume? These annual reports going from a consultant to the Region of Waterloo and the Ministry of Environment are totally inadequate to protect citizens, which has been proven over and over again whether in Elmira, Cambridge or Walkerton.

Thirty years ago (1984) hydrogeologists at the University of Waterloo stated about the Woolwich landfill the following : "the chlorinated solvents are migrating further while aromatic hydrocarbons are only found in low concentration even near the landfill. Aerobic conditions appear to dominate here, resulting in persistence of chlorinated methanes and ethanes and degradation of aromatics." 1,1 DCA or Dichloroethane is one of those chlorinated ethanes exactly as the Region were advised thirty years ago.