GEOTHERMAL HEATING & COOLING IS ENVIRONMENTALLY FRIENDLY

The article in today's Waterloo Region Record is titled "Bedrock aquifer could fuel renewable heating plan". The link is: https://www.therecord.com/news/waterloo-region/2021/11/19/waterloo-regions-rare-aquafir-structure-an-opportunity-for-renewable-heating-and-cooling.html . Certainly geothermal has been around for a long time and the basic idea while costing more upfront than say a new gas fired furnace is not only far more environmentally friendly but it also costs much less to operate in the long run. Afterall there are no fuel costs as in natural gas although certainly pumps and fans are required whether you have a closed loop or open loop system. The closed loop system consists of buried pipes exchanging heat with the earth in hot summer weather and pumping heat from the earth in cold winter weather. .............................................................................................................. The open loop system consists of one or two wells pumping relatively cold groundwater from sub-surface aquifers in the summer to cool our homes and then pumping relatively warmer water from these same aquifers in the winter to warm our homes. Yes if the groundwater is at for example 50 degrees fahrenheit then additional auxiliary heating perhaps by electric baseboards is necessary when the outdoor temperature is below freezing. There is some confusion in this article regarding the "Discovery of rare second aquifer below drinking water ..." nonsense mentioned in the article. My guess is that perhaps Mr. Beatty of Beatty Geothermal Consulting is doing some marketing sales pitch here in order to drum up more local business. The article is suggesting that no one knew that the deeper bedrock aquifer, known to be present in Cambridge, also extended all the way to the north of the region. That is just silly as here in Elmira, at the north end of the Region of Waterloo, the existence of the Bedrock Aquifer has been known for decades. It has been studied, monitored and sampled in regards to contamination from Uniroyal Chemical at least since the early 1990s. Indeed the contaminant NDMA exists in that aquifer along with the other aquifers. Oh and by the way many drinking water wells pull water from the Bedrock Aquifer in Cambridge although fewer do so where there is a sand and gravel aquifer (i.e. municipal aquifer) above the Bedrock.