PSYCHOLOGY 101 AND ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES

Again I have spent several hours today surfing the net finding articles, research papers and briefs describing the joys of chlorination, chloramination, breakpoint chlorination, filtration and assorted water treatment. I am mentally tired and ready for a nap. I'm also trying hard to understand the mindset of our municipal councillors past and present. They get paid peanuts with the exception of the Mayor (due to extra Boards, Regional Council etc.). At this point in time and after they've spent a week working, plus their council duties on top, all they want are some black and white straightforward decisions. It's the same thing with lay people on environmental committees such as CPAC. Doing and deciding the right thing really shouldn't be so difficult. This is the weakness of the whole system. Vested interests with full time trained professionals have it all sewn up. Clearly the consultants to the multi convicted polluter Uniroyal/Chemtura have a field day in manipulating subjective situations and facts made malleable by site-specific circumstances. By the time the smoke clears they can make most lay people believe that the sun rises in the west and sets in the east.

What about our regional and provincial governments? Are they also vested interests whose agenda is to fool the people? The answer is yes in many areas and issues. The provincial government accept "donations" whether during election campaigns or in between. These "donations" however come with strings attached. They are strings/favours specific to the giver of the money. Regional governments are perhaps a little different. For example they are providing water to a constantly growing population crowded together. Our treated sewage gets dumped into the Grand River. Then we remove Grand River water and treat it further to get drinking water. Our polluting industries throughout Waterloo Region have used the ground as a toxic dumpsite for the last century. Our Region pretends otherwise and uses contaminated groundwater for drinking water. Then they lie about the whole process.

Back to our municipal councils. They are lay people and in some cases not particularily smart lay people. It's less work and far easier to not look deeply into issues. Leave that for staff and or consultants. When possible let other levels of government do your work for you. Hence we are right back in a circle. The Region and province (M.O.E.) tell you that the water is good so why would you go looking hard elsewhere for someone with a contrary opinion who are going to make you work harder? Especially if the contrary opinion is bringing bad news, many municipal councillors will bail out. Fast. Too many other time consuming issues out there with maybe a positive political spin to them. There is no positive political spin to bad water.