WILLIAM ST. WELLS - CITY OF WATERLOO

The Annual Reports for the various Region of Waterloo wellfields are out and as disappointing as ever. This disappointment arises from both their results directly as well as the evasiveness inherent within them. This evening at Woolwich Council in Elmira I will be speaking to both West Montrose water issues as well as making recommendations to improve these Annual reporst produced by the Region of Waterloo albeit via the template provided by the Ontario Ministry of the Environment.

Firstly many of the results for the 2014 William St. wells, remarkably are from 2012 with a few from 2013. Isn't that just so forthcoming? Sodium is at an astonishingly high and unhealthy 223 mg/litre. Oops that's the 2013 result given. Who knows what last years result is.

There is an entire page listing chloramines at greater than 50% of the standard prescribed ie. the maximum allegedly permitted. Trihalomethanes (THMs) are a complete mystery as their results are not documented here. Again that is a gross failure of this report.

Glyphosate is still at a Method Detection Limit of 25 parts per billion (ppb) which is the highest MDL listed. This is a special concern since this spring the EPA have classified Glyphosate as possible carcinogens. They are the active ingredient in Roundup and are becoming ubiquitous in our groundwater.

Last but not least we still have lots of hits of Trichloroethylen (TCE) in the William St. wells. This has been so for decades and is shameful. TCE is the only industrial chemical which has results published for 2014 and they vary from .7 to 1.6 ppb. These results are below Ontario's drinking water standard of 5 ppb. currently. As Ontario catches up to other jurisdictions this standard hopefully should be reduced. TCE is the killer involved in numerous jurisdictions in both Canada and the U.S. including right here in the Bishop St. community in Cambridge, Ontario.