TIME TO LOOK AT THE KITCHENER WELLS

There are a total of five different Well Supply Systems plus the Mannheim Water Treatment Plant. These include the Greenbrook, K34 System, Parkway, Strange St., and Woolner's Well Supply. That said, that last one (Woolner's) is likely to turn out to be a bust as it's been a bust for decades. It's located just downstream from the former K70 & K71 wells, along the Grand River and downstream from the former Breslube (now safety-Kleen) in Breslau. My recollection from years past is that there are odour and taste problems not to mention phenols in the water. ........................................................................................................ The Greenbrook System is located by Homer Watson Blvd. and Stirling Ave. It consists of wells K1A, K2A, K4B, K5A and K8. Hmm wonder what happened to wells K1, K2, K3, K6 & 7? Nice if we were told about them but we aren't in this report at least. Total chlorine exceeded its' criteria by a large margin on March 14, 2020 and was resampled along with the mains being flushed. There was no work done on these wells however well K1A was offline for one week and well K2A offline for five weeks last year. No explanation given.Turbidity levels are a little on the high side although generally chlorine levels look good. This makes sense as the bacteria levels in the raw water are good (i.e. low). Sodium levels all well above the guideline of 20 mg/l and Nitrates are on the high side albeit below the criteria of 10 mg/l. Solvents and herbicides have Method Detection Limits (MDL) on nine parameters greater than 1 part per billion (ppb) which is too high and can thus hide positive detections. Glyphosate in these wells is also at a MDL of 25 ppb. Haloacetic Acids (HAA) and Trihalomethanes (THM) results are both by-products of disinfection and can be toxic. Their results should be in this report and are not. Chloramines also a result of disinfection of water, exceed half the prescribed standard in the Ontario Drinking Water Standards (ODWS). ....................................................................................................... The K34 well supply consists of wells K34 and K36. There was almost $600,000 in upgrades last year including Actuator replacements, whatever those are and Filter Upgrades which were 2/3 of the total expenses. Wow must be some kind of serious filters there.Both wells were offline for five weeks in 2020 and hence so was the whole system. Turbidity (murkiness) of the raw water was very low, bacteria was low and chlorine levels were low which is appropriate considering the first two parameters being low. Sodium concentrations while above the guidelines, actually in comparison to most wells was very good. Solvents, herbicides, HAA, THMs all share the same sampling/testing/ publication problems consistently in these Region of Waterloo Annual Reports. Chloramines exceeded half the prescribed standard (ODWS) on at least ten occasions in 2020. Combined with the regularly high MDLs there could be health problems in this water supply that the Region are hiding. ......................................................................................................... I will likely look at the Mannheim Water Treatment Plant tomorrow as it is ten pages, multiple different water sources, massive amounts of tax payer funded upgrades, lots of by-products of disinfection, high Nitrate values and low Sodium values.