ENVIRONMENTAL SHAMS FROM OUR AUTHORITIES ARE THE NORM

Today's post will primarily mention another wonderful, environmental article in the Waterloo Region Record, written by Leah Gerber. The article and writing are wonderful however the news is not. The title is "Opiod levels in river harm fish breeding" and it starts on the front page of the Record. The other item I wish to mention revolves around yesterday's posting here in which I mention various reasons that I'm in no hurry to share privately obtained and privately funded data with our corrupt authorities. Now to date I have received one comment on that however it was from a well known (to me) retired simple servant who is both a troll and a strong (biased) supporter of the Ontario Ministry of Environment. He feels that I would "embarass" the Ontario MOE/MECP by releasing the data here and now on this Blog. A tad of hypocrisy going on there although that does not necessarily mean he is wrong on every opinion or matter. Further thought is required. ..................................................................................................................................... Back to Leah Gerber's story. Researchers at Trent University have found measureable (albeit low) levels of codeine, cocaine, amphetamines and fentanyl in the Grand River. WOW! Codeine, a prescription painkiller, interpheres with hormone levels in fish and reduces the number of eggs sucessfully produced by females. The takeaway from this is very clear. Despite large investments of taxpayers money into our many Wastewater Treatment Plants (i.e. Sewage Treatment Plants), those engineered methodologies do NOT remove all contaminants by a large shot. Pharmeceuticals and prescription and illegal opiods are just a couple of examples. ......................................................................................................................................... But it gets worse. I have long railed here about our drinking water (tap water) received from the Region of Waterloo. The deficiencies are glaring and each February/March when the Region of Waterloo Annual (Drinking Water) Reports come out I critique them here in this Blog. Well it seems that not surprisingly some of these contaminants found in the Grand River are making their way into our tap water despite treatment. Of course the Region do not want to weaken the public's confidence in their drinking water so they hide behind the Ministry of Environment and the province of Ontario as all good bureaucrats and local politicians are taught to do. The manager of engineering and wastewater programs states "Locally there are no regulations associated with these compounds just yet...". "these compounds" include cocaine, one derivative of amphetamine and several prescription opiods. WOW again! Further the Region suggest that they are doing their duty as they state "Until the regulatory agencies update and include these compounds in the regulations, the Region will continue to follow the resarch to ensure we are prepared for any new regulations...". Boy that sure is reassuring not. So much for the Region's decades of bragging about their high quality tap water and how healthy and safe it is. Besides these compounds there are dozens to hundreds of other chemical compounds that they do not but should be testing for and then figuring out how to remove them. Politically safer to hide behind the province and MOE/MECP as usual!