CAMBRIDGE - HESPELER WELLS REGION OF WATERLOO ANNUAL REPORTS

Hespeler used to have a number of active manufacturing facilities. Like every other city/town with on-site manufacturing, they cheerfully disposed of their solid and liquid wastes as close to home as possible. The criteria was cost followed by cost followed by cost. Cheap waste disposal assisted with lower prices when in a competitive marketplace.

Well H3 actually consists of well H3 and well H3A. More than likely the two wells are beside each other albeit one will be drilled deeper than the other. This seems to happen with the second well drilled in order to avoid an area of sub-surface contamination. Indeed It appears as if musical wells are the rule as well H3A was off-line for 34 weeks in 2019 and well H3 was off-line for 17 weeks. This occurred while there were "no significant expenses incurred". These expenses normally have to do with well maintenance such as replacing pumps, cleaning etc. which would shut a well down for perhaps a week or two only.

The range of chlorine concentrations in the treated water had a maximum level of 2.92 which is getting very close to the maximum allowed of 3.0 mg/l. Sodium was quite high at 91.9 mg/l. Like most of the other wells covered to date there are ten industrial/agricultural chemicals with high Method Detection Limits (MDL) which can hide low level detections of these compounds.

Well System H4 actually consists of well H4 and well H4A. Strangely while both raw and treated water had zero detections of E.Coli or Coliforms, the HPC (Hetertrophic Plate Count) test had 260 Coliform Units (CFU) present. This is the prize winner to date in my examination of 2019's Annual Reports and indicates some problems with bacteria. The maximum chlorine concentration of 2.84 mg/l also seems to verify concerns with bacterial presence. Sodium is also a little high at 55 mg/l. Method Detection Limits are consistently high for ten different industrial/agricultural chemicals including Glyphosate (Roundup).

Well H5 consists of wells H5 and H5A. These wells also like the H3 wells had major shutdowns last year (2019). H5 was off-line for 35 weeks and H5A was off-line for fifteen weeks. Again there were no significant expenses incurred for repairs or maintenance. I view this as a very bad sign and an indication of contamination well hidden in that it does not leap out to the public via these reports. Chlorine concentrations are also high in the treated water although below the criteria. The usual ten chemicals have high Method Detection Limits.

It is my opinion that the Hespeler wells have serious problems based upon the lengthy shutdowns of the H3 and H5 Systems. If and when Cambridge and Waterloo Region are in a surplus water situation, then long term well shutdowns would be less bizarre.