REGION OF WATERLOO ANNUAL DRINKING WATER REPORTS - MARYHILL

The last couple of years I usually have examined West Montrose's Annual Report along with Cambridge early on in the process. These Regional Annual Reports cover three cities and four Townships and are quite laborious and time consuming. This year I've looked at West Montrose first and Maryhill second. Last year I had a number of concerns with Maryhill and though I haven't yet looked back to 2013 or earlier my recollection was issues with bacteria.

Maryhill has two separate water systems namely the Maryhill Village Heights System and the Maryhill Water System. The former to my eye seems overall fine although I do notice there are zero THM (trihalomethane) readings. This is especially inappropriate for a system using sodium hypochlorite for primary disinfection and not using chloramines for secondary disinfection in the distribution system.

The Maryhill Water System gives me a little more concern. Sodium and Fluoride are both high. The Sodium isn't extraordinarily high but it is well above the suggested (not mandated) 20 mg/l mark. Fluoride is weird in that the system is not fluoridated yet the 1.15 mg/l concentration is much higher than other Fluoride readings in Woolwich township. Very odd. Also we have again no THM readings. This is not appropriate folks. Finally there are two adverse incidents involving high chloramine readings namely > 3.0 mg/l. This system does use chloramine via ammonium sulphate hence chloramine is to be expected but the standard is 3.0 mg/l. Only the last couple of years has the Region been wimping out by only showing the greater than symbol (>) versus giving us the actual numerical reading. Shame on the Region of Waterloo.