CAMBRIDGE WELLS - TURNBULL & SHADES MILL SYSTEMS

The three wells in this Turnbull System are G16, G17 and G18. G16 was rehabilitated and hence shut down for nine weeks in 2019. However the other two wells were also shut down for six weeks as was the entire system. It would seem to be that they had a quality issue which once again is not clarified in these regional Annual Reports. Chlorine levels as well as Sodium are fine and the only other obvious issue are the ten industrial/agricultural chemicals who's Method Detection Limits (MDLs) are too high thus likely hiding low level detections of some (or all) of these chemicals. Sampling for industrial chemicals etc. was last done in 2017 which may be legal but is not satisfactorily protective of human health.

The Shades Mill System, also on the east side of Cambridge, consists of wells G7, G8, G38 and G39. Both wells G8 and G38 were rehabilitated during 2019. G8 was shutdown for four weeks, a not unreasonable length of time for rehabilitation where G38 and G39 were shutdown last year for twenty weeks. That to me speaks to far more than a simple rehab in G38 and absolutely no clarification in the Annual Report as to why G39 was shutdown at all. I suspect industrial contamination from former (or current?) industries in the area. Chlorine levels in the treated water are good whereas Sodium is somewhat high at 40.8 mg/l. The only remaining obvious issue are the ten elevated MDLs for the industrial/agricultural chemicals sampled.

One last comment regarding the chemicals that the Region of Waterloo sample: again whether legal or not (i.e. via provincial law) many more chemicals need to be tested and publicly reported. There are hundreds of other likely candidates in our groundwater and more chemicals being produced every year. These reports sampling and testing only approximately 44 different chemicals may have been adequate fourty or fifty years ago. They no longer are.