THE MANNHEIM WATER TREATMENT PLANT (KITCHENER)

The raw water for this treatment plant comes from the Grand River. It is heavily treated and then can be mixed with water from the Mannheim Aquifer Storage and Recovery Facilities (i.e. ASR1, ASR2, ASR3, ASR4, RCW1 and RCW2). As the name implies the water has been pumped into the ground and stored in an aquifer for later extraction and use. All of this water can be blended with seven groundwater wells named K91, K92, K93, K94, K21, K25, K29. Finally the Mannheim village wells (K22A, K23, K24 K26) and the nearby Shingltown wells K50 and K51 also can indirectly supply the Mannheim Pumping Station Reservoir. There were treatment upgrades including repairs and replacements of equipment to the system totalling $1,800,000 in 2020. The raw water from groundwater wells was very clear of bacteria. The Grand River water however was not with loads of E.Coli and Total Coliforms. Funny thing that. It's not just fish using the water as a bathroom it's human beings with all their Sewage Treatment Plants along the river. Turbidity especially of river water was through the roof. Surprisingly low chlorine levels were telling me that there are better ways to disinfect water other than using massive doses of toxic chlorine. ............................................................................................................. There is lots of testing for Bromides, Bromates and chloramines with no mention made of the criteria for them in this report. From past knowledge I can advise however that chloramines occasionally exceed half the provincial criteria. Sodium levels are very low (relatively) likely due to the volumes of river water with less direct industrial discharge into it these days. Of course roads (salt) near rivers can be a problem. Nitrates are high and again without a criteria being included I have to go on memory. They too occasionally are exceeding half the criteria that I recall. Solvents and herbicides are plagued with the same high Method Detection Limits (MDL) for nine parameters. Glyphosate (Roundup) is also at a ridiculous MDL of 25 parts per billion (ppb). Happily we actually have results published for both Haloacetic Acids and Trihalomethanes but alas without their criteria being presented. I am confident from memory that the criteria for THMs is 100 ppb. and the results are well below that. HAA criteria I am not sure of although they are below it according to their claims of NO Exceedance. Chloramine results are listed both on page 4 and on page 10. Both Tables are disturbing as so many results exceed half the prescribed standard of 3 mg/l. ....................................................................................................... All in all I can appreciate both the effort and cost going into treating the water especially coming from the Grand River. The problem is that all our politicians, past and present, cheerfully looked the other way when local industry were dumping their toxic wastes into both rivers and the ground. The river pollution is now mostly sitting in either Lake Erie or Ontario with some likely making it to the Atlantic Ocean. The ground pollution, especially DNAPLS (dense non-aqueous phase liquids) are still there and will continue to contribute solvents and more to our groundwater for many more decades. Surface water from rivers and lakes is very expensive to treat however we allowed local industry to pollute our groundwater and are paying for that likely with our health despite all denials and refusals to acknowledge that science as yet can not determine health criteria for several toxins (low level or otherwise) simultaneously in our drinking water.