LUISA DAMATO HITS IT OUT OF THE PARK - ALL WHO SIGNED NON-DISCLOSURE AGREEMENTS NEED TO BE VOTED OUT OF OFFICE

 

Today's K-W Record has a large Opinion article by Luisa D'Amato on page A3 titled " Something big is happening at Wilmot's industrial megasite. Why are we in the dark?" Personally I find the timing very telling. Remember the haste to prematurely cut the corn crop in one of the fields a year or two ago? That seemed to be sending a message to critics which was we the Region bought the field and we'll do with it as we please. Now just two months before municipal elections I have to wonder if the increase in activity including removing buildings, hiring security guards to patrol access roads and archeologists on site doing research is to defeat any negative response by citizens at the upcoming polls. Are regional councillors afraid that the election might actually reverse the process if citizens kick all the bums out of office?

As Luisa D'Amato indicates, a non-disclosure agreement prior to the bulk of the land being assembled might be justified on the basis of land costs being affected, but after the fact seems unreasonable. It is unreasonable because the public who are actually footing the bills have a right to know how this project "...will affect our environment, our food security, our water supply and our road and sewer infrastructure."  To date all requests for studies such as traffic, wildlife,  declining farmland capacity, electrical usage and water supply needs and capabilities have all been ignored. That is grossly unacceptable and exactly why those buggars need to be fired by their employers (i.e. us). 

Add to all that is the recent recognition of the frailty of our water system in Waterloo Region. This proposed megasite is close to the Wilmot Centre Wellfield which is already under enormous pumping pressure plus hampered by high Nitrates contamination. Ms. D'Amato mentions the concerns around a chemical spill. This is why subsurface stratigraphic conditions directly beneath the megasite need to be publicly published as well as the overlying soil/clay/sand/gravel above the wellscreens for the Wilmot Centre Wellfield. My recollection is that there are parts of the Waterloo Moraine in Wilmot Township with minimal to no clay aquitards between the ground surface and the predominate two aquifers beneath. Those areas are extremely vulnerable to chemical spills and could quickly finish off any hope of continued groundwater usage in large parts of Waterloo Region.

REGION'S COMPLAINTS PROCESS SURVEY - LIKELY JUST MORE OF THE SAME

 

You know I'd like to fill out a survey that I had some confidence was actually honest and above board. One that for example I could see my survey responses at some later date had not only been received but kept as part of the documentation on file. Do I really believe that my or anybody else's comments have actually been taken to heart by regional staff or politicians? Not a hope. 

The survey I filled out today was advertised in the K-W Record and is the second that I have completed. It makes me wonder what the results of the first survey were. Is the Region hoping to come off looking better simply by their proposed new procedure that was in yesterday's newspaper and probably introduced at regional council the day before? If their ratings have already risen does that mean that they can then backtrack by the five councillors of the appeal group deciding to automatically torpedo 95% of all appeals coming their way?

Surveys and dog and pony shows such as past regional games playing and likely the latest "public information and consultation session"  scheduled for August 20/26 are not true public consultation. Public consultation is less scripted and more public. Citizens ask questions from a microphone so that all present can hear their questions and then also hear the responses back from whomever is representing the government or industry behind the public meeting. Something like that would be worth attending. Private one on one discussions with staff are a waste of time and do nothing.

WATERLOO REGION: "WE NEED TO BUILD TRUST AND ACCOUNTABILITY" " ESPECIALLY AS THEY DON'T DESERVE IT.

 

Hypocrisy, puffery and obfuscation, the three building blocks of politics. The quote about trust and accountability in the title above came from Amy Shaw of the Region of Waterloo.  Amy who? Is that the same Amy Shaw who worked for our grossly corrupt and dishonest Ontario Ministry of Environment for decades? Or was it only for many years? Either way I think she knows where she can put your trust and the Region's accountability and that is along with everybody else's trust and that is deep on the back shelf beside the non existent regional accountability. God the overwhelming nerve! I'll just bet that she and Hadley are buddies too. 

Meanwhile Wilmot Mayor Salonen has got to go in the upcoming election if as stated in today's K-W Record article "I'm really happy with where we are".  Longtime Wilmot resident Martha Bricker however referred to the all councillor appeals committee thusly: "If it's just councillors, it's just going to be the same old, same old." With age comes both wisdom and honesty provided you're not a politician.

Some of the terms of the new water interference process have been improved but not all. The one concerning an independent third party or professional doing the investigating can be easily monkied with as so many allegedly private and independent hydrogeologists and firms have long term financial interests with either the Ministry of Environment or the Region of Waterloo. Both sketchy parties sub contract studies and hydrogeological investigations to many different private consulting firms who once on the approved list want to stay there. Actually being independent and coming up with results that either the Region or the MECP don't want can end their government work.

Of course the real stinker is that after the investigation is completed and results submitted a resident told that their well has not been interfered with can appeal to a committee of five regional councillors. This is where the rubber meets the road and simply is not acceptable. The Region have showed that they do not play fair including ignoring written agreements with Wilmot Township as well as denying obvious interference claims in the past  while drastically increasing their water pumping from Wilmot wellfields.

DO NOT DRINK WATERLOO REGION TAP WATER AS IS

 

Have I got the name correct? Was it the O'Connor Commission which looked into the Walkerton mass bacteria poisoning with E. Coli back around 2000?  Among a number of key recommendations was the multi barrier approach to water protection.  The plan was to isolate and protect each and every step of water withdrawal, water treatment, water storage, water distribution from its' source to your kitchen sink. This is where the Region of Waterloo have failed horribly. They may claim to have the finest, most up to date water treatment available but that is merely one step in a multi step process. Hence a single breakdown whether mechanical, electrical or human failure at a treatment plant could be catastrophic. Now in Walkerton there were multiple failures mostly human albeit they affected the raw water entering the system as well as the treatment efforts further along as human beings actually fudged some of the treatment data and reports to make things look better on paper than they were.

Here in Waterloo Region we have serious issues with at least two of the four steps mentioned earlier. Water withdrawal from contaminated aquifers is far worse than problematic. Water distribution is also a problem as far too many water pipes still in the ground are made of lead and possibly even some asbestos pipe is still in existence. Some of these pipes astoundingly include ones going to our public and elementary schools. The third step overall namely treatment might be reasonably good but it fails to totally remove trichloroethylene (TCE), glyphosate (Round Up) and others from the treated water sent to our homes and businesses. The Middleton Wellfield in Cambridge even has greater treatment (Advanced Oxidation Process) than all the other groundwater sources but still can't eliminate it completely from the water supply. Similar issues but with less treatment occur at the William St. Wellfield in Waterloo as well as the Parkway Wellfield in Kitchener. 

There are also issues, mostly totally ignored, with synergy between toxic contaminants. It is what we don't know that can hurt us. If TCE is at 2 parts per billion (ppb) in our tap water and glyphosate is at 6 ppb plus a dash of lead from the pipes as well then what is the true health criteria? Nobody knows!! Science is wonderful but to date there have been no published drinking water standards for more than one contaminant at a time in our water.

Following is a partial list of known contaminants throughout Waterloo Region groundwater and drinking water wells:  NDMA, chlorobenzene, ammonia, TCE, nitrates, glyphosate, xylenes, toluene, benzene, sodium, chlorides and more. Most groundwater has multiple contaminants. Surface water drinking sources (Grand River) have more bacteria, viruses and pathogens such as coliforms, E.Coli, cryptosporidium and many others.

There are expensive fixes such as reverse osmosis systems and ultraviolet light systems that can be put in homes and or much less expensive and maybe much less efficient systems including Brita filters (activated carbon filters). Regardless demanding safer and cleaner drinking water from our elected representatives is the first step. It may even be necessary to delay other hobby priorities of our politicians if we as citizens believe that drinking water for ourselves and families is a bigger priority. 

OH MY, OH MY IS IT POSSIBLE THAT THE PROVINCE OF ONTARIO HAVE ALSO SEEN ENOUGH NONSENSE FROM WATERLOO REGION ?

 

O.K. I will admit that my political biases don't exactly match my hopes for either a regional house cleaning at the polls or a provincially initiated housecleaning by removing the regional Chair and replacing her with a better provincial appointee. Now I have made my concerns with our current regional councillors abundantly clear even as recently as my Blog post of yesterday. A third issue I have is with our Police Services Board as well as with our regional police. My issues aren't in regards to individual police officers, they are in regards to the decision makers at the top. This includes being far too influenced by other organizational idiots such as at the school board (WRDSB) as well as how they (mis)handled the serious concerns and lawsuits of their female officers. I suppose this also includes the appropriate focus on drunk driving and the total ignoring and failure to enforce all other driving safety issues except speeding. Speeding and drinking & driving laws are enforced whereas distracted driving is not nor are mandatory turn signals, driving in the right lane on the Xpressway unless passing, tailgating and believe it or not driving well below the speed limit under ideal driving conditions. Is there some kind of insurance bonus given to pick up truck drivers who appear to be intentionally delaying all traffic behind them just because they can?

So yes I'd love to see the province swoop in and kick political butt here in Waterloo Region. The one itsy bitsy problem I have is an almost total lack of faith in your hero and mine, Doug Ford. I am not a Conservative and even if I was I think he would trouble me. Yes Mr. Ford has properly given Donald Trump  the stink eye as well as banned U.S. alcohol sales in our LCBO. Other than that he has given too many concessions to developers and too few to environmentalists. There is my conundrum. Sure come in Mr. Ford and clean house here because unfortunately our voting public aren't paying enough attention and simply vote for the pretty face who talks nicely and tells all the right lies. Sometimes though inviting a predator in to solve one problem only leads to other, maybe worse problems.  

AN ELECTORAL REGIONAL HOUSECLEANING IS DESPERATELY NEEDED; MUNICIPALLY YES AND NO

 

First and foremost thank goodness we are finally ridding ourselves of the too popular by half Sandy Shantz. She has delivered bad governance with a smile, speaks softly and tries to offend no one. Unfortunately the public have lapped that crap up. Maybe in her private life she really is the good person I thought she was over a dozen years ago but her positions and decisions in office have harmed the public interest. Most likely they have assisted her husband's and family's business interests but if so that too appears to have flown under the radar. Maybe it's all been scrupulously according to the rules; I really don't know for sure.

Her positions on both the east side expansion and by-pass onto contaminated properties combined with her heavily pro polluter/corporate biases regarding Chemtura and Lanxess will be her eventual reputational downfall. She has bent over backwards to accommodate corporate self-interests that have resulted in her and their gross failures to either restore Elmira's drinking water or to so much as clean up a single shovel full of downstream dioxins, DDT, mercury and PCBs in the Canagagigue Creek. Wildlife, the environment and human beings have suffered because of those failures. 

My comments on a regional housecleaning are due to both the Wilmot Land Grab (770 acres) democratic failures of transparency and communications as well as the still ongoing regional water crisis that they now claim is "solved".  We are in big, long lasting water trouble and that is all due to past negligence and incompetence combined with the similar mentioned above municipal "pro polluter/corporate biases". Slamming gates shut after the livestock have all left rarely is an effective strategy.    

Regarding our municipal councillors I am conflicted. Yes I will have no regrets if Nathan Cadeau is unelected based upon multiple early interactions with him over Lanxess that I found distasteful. Other than that I do not have strong feelings for or against the other councillors mostly based upon really not knowing them at all. That said I do kind of grudgingly like Eric Schwindt despite believing that he is considerably more right wing and pro business than myself. Somehow he has conveyed to me a willingness at least to listen with an open mind. Time will confirm or deny that. Evan Burgess appears to be more mature than his chronological age and with seasoning I can hope that he too will expand and flourish. Maybe that comment is based more on my age than on his. Again time will tell. Bonnie and Kayla have shown commonsense on various issues and I wish them well.

 

RECENT WOOLWICH HAPPENINGS & REPORTS CONCERNING WATER ISSUES & MORE

 

Perhaps the " & MORE " would be the addition of a third candidate for the Mayor's position. Chane Ballantyne is the candidate and I guess I'm a little surprised at the relative lack of public experience of all three candidates. Having said that I am remembering how Todd Cowan with absolutely zero municipal experience walked in and got himself elected primarily due to his personal door to door campaigning. Unfortunately despite some good work Todd managed to self-destruct and implode before his first term ended. Bonnie Bryant has the most actual municipal experience with two terms as councillor but to date she has not thrown her hat in the ring for the mayor's job. I guess I would view Eric Schwindt as the most experienced of the current three mayoral candidates.

TRAC, Lanxess, MECP and the Region are all spinning their wheels regarding both aquifer remediation and Creek rehabilitation. The best they've come up with are two recent, fundamentally flawed reports pretending to support the status quo while absolutely not doing so. In fact careful examination of the Jen Lyndal (Integral Inc.) report proves the immense amount of downstream contamination still there fifty-six years after mass dumping on-site and into the Canagagigue Creek ended. The tied for most bizarre aspect of this report was Hadley Stamm's relationship with the author Jen Lyndal, as if that was somehow supposed to be a positive reinforcement of the honesty of the report. 

The second recent weird report was Lanxess/GHD's partial shutdown of Elmira pumping wells which was to somehow indicate again that their pumping regimens had merit and were appropriate. That horse has long bolted as neither NDMA nor chlorobenzene concentrations are at or below the Ontario Drinking Water Standards (ODWS) as they are supposed to be almost literally within spitting distance of them, and are not. Also rest assured there are many more solvents still not removed from our drinking water aquifers although I would recommend much greater focus on DDT and Dioxin/Furans possibly in coordination with greater focus on all the DNAPL chlorinated solvents.

Lanxess and the MECP have been trying to get rid of off-site (i.e. under Elmira) DNAPLS for decades without admitting their existence, using pump & treat technology. Pump & treat was never solely appropriate on its' own and the proof is in the pudding as all parties now admit failure to achieve the 2028 mandated deadline. This citizens and politicians is the result when you leave the fox in charge of the henhouse and you blind and cripple citizen watchdogs.

BAD TIMING FOR WOOLWICH TWN.: WATERLOO REGION STILL IN A WATER CRISIS

 

Maybe just maybe other parts of Waterloo Region may finally take a look at Woolwich Township and learn a thing or two. Lying and dissembling are not the sole prerogative of politicians anywhere. They all participate in targeted truth polishing when the occasion demands. Right now just before a municipal election that includes regional government, the occasion to lie doesn't just demand it; it screams it. Can you imagine the shock, the consternation, the relief and the sheer joy if we threw all the bums out this October?

Waterloo Region claims that the water crisis is passed. Bullfroghooey to say the least. Above and beyond all the contaminated aquifers already listed here over the last few weeks you can add St. Agatha and Wilmot Centre. I'm basing both on the permitted volumes of pumping available versus the tiny amounts of water actually pumped back in the early 2000s. Added to this is the known high concentrations of Nitrates in the Wilmot Centre Wellfield. Seriously folks anybody who thinks that Wilmot Township are going to bail out the rest of Waterloo Region waterwise, are smoking way too much wacky tobaccy. 

Getting back to Woolwich Township mostly what the rest of Waterloo Region should have learned is that talk and puffery are a poor substitute for unbiased science, action and money carefully spent. Right now the rest of Waterloo Region need water from Woolwich Township, not to be continuing to supply them water from shrinking sources. Both the three major cities and the other Townships have a right to know why the promised return to water production in Elmira less than two years away just isn't going to happen and if it does it will require mass introduction of substandard water quality. The other municipal jurisdictions kept their noses out of Woolwich's water woes only on the understanding that the 25 years of Uniroyal/Crompton/Chemtura  and the MOE/MECP promises of full remediation meant something. In hindsight they meant nothing. They were BULLS**T and the Region themselves kept awfully quiet about   the shortcomings in the remediation, public consultation, lack of cleanup on and off site etc. 

Well Woolwich you've made your bed now lie in it. You, the Region and the Province (MECP) certainly know how to lie so get to it. 

THE COUNTDOWN HAS BEGUN: FORMAL FAILURE LOOMS. THANK YOU MAYOR SHANTZ, WOOLWICH COUNCIL, LANXESS, MECP etc. FOR REMOVING ME FROM THE FAST SINKING SHIP IN SEPT. 2015

 

Am I being too generous thanking all the twits, liars, politicians, self-serving bureaucrats and local influencers for effectively isolating my knowledge and input from the problem at hand, namely restoring both our aquifers and our Creek? Of course I am. I wonder how the long departed from active duty APTE members feel these days. They sat back and let Susan Bryant carry the torch with assistance first from Sylvia Berg and later Pat Mclean. Those two ladies were her "wingmen" and they and Susan did their  job well which was to appear to be the voice of the people while constantly greasing the skids for Uniroyal, Crompton, Chemtura, Lanxess and the corrupt Ministry of Environment. 

2028 is the mandated deadline for restoring our drinking water aquifers. While that date is only sixteen months away, of course as the MOE/MECP set it they can and will define it and or redefine it as they please. The master manipulaters have never rested. They know that public perception and opinion can be lost with but one major screwup, fire, explosion or even revelation that contradicts their carefully crafted narrative. Despite all this I would rather be at arm's length distance from the train wreck that is RAC/TAG, and TRAC. I personally want no part of a train wreck that I warned against for decades despite my confidence that those in charge are working very hard for a soft landing. Selling their lies to the public has been easy as long as all authorities were on board. Furthermore the precarious state of the media, particularly newspapers, has made their jobs much easier. The last thing newspapers want to do right now is to alienate corporate Canada or U.S.

Fantastic claims will be made by Lanxess and fellow travellers. The Region of Waterloo will go along depending upon the support they receive in kind from the other parties as the Region's water failures further are exposed. Same with the Ministry of Environment (MECP). Show them some love and they will respond in kind by agreeing with all kinds of corporate nonsense about slowing groundwater pumping to protect the environment to using the water in the Elmira Aquifers for socially positive effects. Maybe with enough treatment and dilution they can add our aquifers to the Region's overall water system, the IUS (Integrated Urban System). Rest assured the polluter, the regulator, the politicians and the media will all join in lockstep to declare victory. I declare this the reverse Richard Nixon as they snatch victory from the very jaws of grotesque failure and defeat.

EVEN MORE DNAPLS FOUND IN WATERLOO REGION DRINKING WATER WELLS

 

This would be the long contaminated Parkway Wellfield located near Fairway Rd. and Manitou Dr. There are three wells there named K31, K32 and K33. Allegedly the DNAPL chemical (TCE) is found in only one of the wells namely K32. That does not make much sense to me as they are all located close together and what is one should certainly be drawn into the others. Further examination has shed some light on this anomaly. In fact TCE (trichloroethylene) has been detected in all three wells however the text in the July 29, 2025 Grand River Source Protection Area  Assessment Report states " Trichloroethylene is generally not detected (< 0.5 ug/l) at wells K31 and K33". In fact it is detected regularly at low levels and occasionally especially in K33 at higher levels. 

Other health problems include sodium and chloride concentrations being too high. While some of this may be due to road salt it is also common for higher chloride levels in solvent contaminated groundwaters especially chlorinated solvent contaminated groundwater. 

TCE (trichloroethylene) is highly toxic. It both kills and causes extreme health effects from neurological symptoms to various cancers including leukemia. This solvent once was commonly used and abused throughout Waterloo Region industries as a degreaser for metal parts. Workers suffered the brunt of the health damages although the Bishop St. community in Cambridge suffered greatly from Northstar Aerospace mishandling of it as well as at least one other company across the road from Northstar.

Waterloo Region advises in this same Grand River Protection Area report that "...the source of the TCE to well K32 is unknown." I believe that that statement is false as my understanding for years is that there was formerly an Electrohome site also known as Deilcraft located nearby. Also oddly I recollect years after the fact a remediation attempt being done to clean up TCE from that industrial site. Obviously they didn't get all the TCE DNAPL which is unsurprising considering how DNAPL can disperse in the subsurface. The proof of course all these decades later is the dissolved TCE still in the groundwater. Take note Elmira with your ongoing chlorobenzene (DNAPL) contamination.

Happy drinking when this contaminated wellfield rejoins its' fellow retreaded wells into the drinking water regimen. Hey folks we have to keep our well healed developers, builders and politicians happy and if it requires personal sacrifice, so be it. 

WHY DO OUR GOVERNMENTS LIE TO US SO CONSTANTLY?

 

There are many reasons. Contempt and disrespect are right up there. Politicians were once ordinary people just generally a little lazier and a little more bent. This of course is a significant generalization as you will find occasional doctors and lawyers sitting in both provincial and federal governments. Both had to have money and ambition presumably along with hard work to get their degrees etc. Of course you will also get golf pros, their sons, drug dealers and all the rest sitting as M.P.s and M.P.P.s. Hence many of the lazy, unprepared for honest work politicians see others just like themselves sitting in legislatures and parliaments as well as on municipal councils and realize that citizens themselves are lazy enough and dumb enough to vote in riff raff. Hard to respect the public based upon the choices they make to represent themselves in government.

The public are occupied with keeping their jobs and hence salaries and wages. Non union work especially requires constant vigilance and watching which way the wind is blowing. More jobs are lost due to personality clashes than to inability to do the job. Citizens know that constantly toeing the line also means in non work matters and opinions that do not match your supervisor's or bosses. Political complacency by the public results from feeling detached from all decisions and having zero say in them. Again expressing strong political opinions at work can eventually lead to your head on the chopping block albeit employers are smart enough to dredge up some kind of pathetic work related excuse prior to dropping the axe. 

Politicians have learned that voters have short memories and long loyalties. Most first time voters follow their parents footsteps. Voters only vote about every four years and in between it's all about keeping their jobs , raising families and if they are fortunate at today's prices, buying homes. Then there are school issues, bills, social lives and so many important, in your face matters on a daily basis.

Politicians do learn on the job. They learn how to lie via using weasel words and phrases that allow them to backtrack when necessary.  Phrases like "when necessary" or "under the circumstances" gives them an out when their statements become ridiculous down the road. Quoting made up statistics that can never be checked such as "Canadians are fearful of gun violence" is a good example to justify whatever stupidity is the flavour of the day. Inventing crises is also a tool for ethically challenged politicians. So is using a legitimate crisis such as Tumblur Ridge in British Columbia. Odd how we learned that a disturbed individual committed firearms murders but we still have no knowledge as to why the authorities had returned those previously seized firearms to the family. Nor do we know if the "guilty" firearms used are on the government's banned list or not. All very strange how we the public are kept in the dark on important matters strongly related to current and ongoing highly criticized government initiatives and activities.     

Politicians are masters at deflecting appropriate criticism. That unfortunately is their greatest strength. 

GOOD NEWS & BAD NEWS : YES WE HAVE DNAPLS IN OUR ELMIRA BEDROCK AQUIFER BUT NOT TO WORRY BECAUSE SO DOES WATERLOO AND CAMBRIDGE

Isn't that great! Here we are already having the precedent of long term DNAPLS (TCE) in our drinking water aquifers hence we should be able to live with them up here in Dogpatch (Elmira) just as folks have for many decades in Waterloo and Cambridge. The ones in Waterloo are in the William St. Wellfield located at the corner of Regina St. and William St.. The Cambridge ones are at the very well known and most expensive ground water treatment location in Waterloo Region namely the Middleton Wellfield. This is located at the south end of Cambridge literally beside the Grand River. Despite a local hydrogeological consultant advising me that the source of the TCE there is NOT Canadian General Tower (CGT) perhaps a hundred metres away I am very skeptical. Yes there are dry cleaners also in the vicinity however so maybe they contributed or not.

Other good news is this. TCE or trichloroethylene is much more toxic than the chlorobenzene that we have here in Elmira courtesy of Uniroyal Chemical and maybe others. So if the good folks in Cambridge especially can both breathe TCE in the Bishop St. community and drink a little from their taps and not die immediately then we are looking good! 

The sources in Waterloo may include Canbar and Sunar and even possibly the old Seagram's plant but keep in mind our authorities truly enjoy muddying those waters and not being forthcoming.  The proof of course is the long term and ongoing detections of TCE in those drinking wells over a period of decades. Normally dissolved TCE should have all been pumped out by now but that is the joy and excitement of DNAPLS. They can exist in the subsurface, most especially in fractured Bedrock, sometimes for centuries and only very slowly dissolve into the groundwater and get pumped to surface. Now of course our chlorobenzene has been with us here in Elmira, just like NDMA, for far more than the 36 or 37 years since it was allegedly discovered in November 1989. 

If it is still in our groundwater, even in low concentrations, in ten or twenty more years then I think even the most professional liars are going to be looking for a hole to crawl into. But hey by then the few remaining honest and knowledgeable citizens should be long gone.  Liars are mostly simply buying time for themselves.  

THE APTLY NAMED STRANGE ST. WELLFIELD

 

It's the deception that gets to me. It's the ingenuous choice of wording. It's the never ending gilding of the lily in order to hide ugly truths. That's what I don't like about our regional government. This deception may partially be in order to protect the guilty. It may be in order to protect the names and reputations of so called "captains" of industry and or persons who built factories and provided jobs in Kitchener-Waterloo. However it's also about protecting their own butts. Some of these politicians have been around for decades and they literally have blood on their hands from decisions they've made and decisions they've avoided. 

Anybody remember the Uniroyal Tire plant on Strange St. for decades? How many know the long and toxic list of airborne contaminants that employees there worked in, some for decades? How many know the battles some of those employees fought to get pis* as* compensation from our provincial government's Workman's Compensation Board (WCB) later renamed to something more politically correct?   

Toxins included benzene, toluene, xylenes, chlorinated solvents and a plethora of other petroleum and rubber related toxins. These toxins don't just exist as air borne contaminants. If they leak, if they are mishandled, if they are negligently stored and most especially if they are buried on site they can and do migrate through the subsurface. Hence a nearby wellfield is the perfect way to introduce some of those same toxins that the Uniroyal workers were breathing, into the water supply. Many decades ago some BTEX chemicals (listed above) were found in low concentrations in some of the Strange St. wells. Who was the most likely contributor, Uniroyal or a nearby day care or school?

The initial Strange St. Wellfield consisted of wells K10A, K11, K13. This is an old wellfield. Current wells are named K10A, K11A, K13B, K18 and K19.  We are advised that well K13B is a direct replacement for well K13A completed in 2023. Oddly both K13B and K11A appear on the maps provided in the Grand River Source Protection Area reports as further west than the original wellfield. We are not told that wells K10A, K11 and K13 were still pumping and producing water for consumption until the very early 2000s. K18 and K19 on the other hand did not appear to be contributing to the drinking water supply until 2006 several years later. Also oddly they are located even further away (westwards) from the original wellfield than K11A and K13B.  Now I do have a memory of reading years ago that several of the Strange St. wells had been closed down and replaced with wells either slightly north or mostly west of their original location. 

Nobody apparently wants to point fingers or besmirch corporate heroes hence it seems to me that instead citizens drank contaminated water for years (just like in Elmira) while regional bureaucrats and politicians decided how best not to identify contaminated wells while either relocating them, shutting them down, or "managing" their pumping rates so as to stop pumping as the plumes approach the wells. 

When asked why our cancer rates keep rising I advise that it is the air we breathe, the food we eat and the water we drink. As soon as you stop doing that you stop feeding your body carcinogens. 

 

THE LANCASTER ST. WELLFIELD - A HISTORY OF LOW WAGES, HIGH PROFITS AND HIGH ENVIRONMENTAL & HEALTH DAMAGES

 

Many of the longtime nearby residents don't remember the "good old days".  The stench of acrid, acidic fumes leaving the site. The generally modest albeit well built homes nearby on Edwin St., Loiusa St., St. Leger etc. A company called Pannill Veneer operated on the site for decades before it closed down. Prior to Panill Veneer however was the Breithaupt Tannery. Solvents, acids and heavy metals were common and well recognized from the tannery industry. It operated approximately from the 1880s until about 1950 before shutting down. There were other tanneries in Kitchener-Waterloo and they too made a mess and left the mess for others to clean up. These industries like so many others were protected by the politicians that they helped to get elected. These same politicians minimized the negative environmental and health effects of these companies both on employees and residents while they were operating and making money as well as after they cut and ran. This is what politicians do especially if they hope to have the funds to get re-elected.

The very same politicians and their successors allowed all the anti social aspects of these heavy, stinking and loud industries, often situated beside residential areas, without proper safeguards or even reasonable mitigating efforts. Then when they packed up and departed little to no effort was made to hold them accountable to clean up the mess they left behind. These were very unhealthy messes combined with high costs to clean them up. Politicians did what they always do. They lied like dogs and passed the costs on to the public taxpayers as much as possible. The Breithaupt Tannery $ 9 million cleanup was the most expensive in Kitchener's history. It was funded by the City of Kitchener (taxpayers), The Region of Waterloo (taxpayers) and the developer (Queensgate Dev't.) who by the way complained that the Province of Ontario (taxpayers) failed to chip in.  Three levels of taxpayers but all out of the same pockets.

Never any health studies, never any environmental studies until after a developer decided they could make money on the site. Breithaupt Tannery did not just mess up people's health through noise and air emissions. They also contaminated the nearby Lancaster Wellfield which supplied water to Kitchener citizens. How many of them died prematurely and or with compromised health issues while the bast**d politicians and industrialists laughed all the way to the bank? 

The nearby Lancaster Wellfield has been shut down now for a very long time. Do you think they shut it down the day the Tannery closed? Did they shut it down before the toxic contaminants reached the drinking wells? Meanwhile Waterloo Region are recommissioning other shut down, contaminated wells so why not these? Allegedly there has been a major cleanup. Or was it? Regardless if we are so desperate for water the Region can reopen these wells with or without an Environmental Assessment. Just like local industry in Elmira and K-W,  Waterloo Region knows that Environmental Assessments are easy to "fix". Afterall it's politicians who write the legislation, warts and loopholes and all.

DNAPLS - THE VERBOTEN WORD FOR LANXESS & THEIR CORRUPT "REGULATOR" THE MECP

 

A little bit of irony here. The stupid twits invent a weird pretend scientific test to prove one thing and actually prove the very last thing they intended which is that there both have been and are free phase and residual DNAPL in the Municipal Upper and Lower Aquifers beneath the town of Elmira. Keep in mind how late in the game the dirty polluter and their fellow travellors decided that the high concentrations of both NDMA and chlorobenzene needed further efforts. Not back in 1998 when the off-site groundwater pumping began but many years later they added pumping wells W8 and W9 to address specific problems on the east and west sides of Union St. not very far from Park Ave. The east side of the street was actually at the edge of the Yara (Nutrite) property and the pumping well went right down to the Municipal Lower Aquifer. High chlorobenzene concentrations were embarrassing and needed to be reduced in order to continue the DNAPL coverup which said that free phase DNAPLS had never left the Uniroyal Chemical site. The W9 pumping well also went right through to the Municipal Lower Aquifer and in fact its' well screen rested on the surface of the exposed Bedrock Aquifer.  There is no LAT (Lower Aquitard) located here thus providing a direct route for contamination. Yes this is one of the main routes that has contaminated the Bedrock Aquifer with both NDMA, chlorobenzene and everything else despite the professional liars on behalf of Lanxess Canada/Uniroyal Chemical saying otherwise.

Table 2 (CH38A  ML aquifer) gives us our first hint. This observation well located by Industrial Dr. and Oriole Parkway (Sanyo Canada right there) reacted strongly to the cessation of pumping at W3R almost two hundred metres southwards. From Non-Detect for chlorobenzene on June 25/26 before pumping stopped, it in a few days jumped to 40 and later 45 ppb. after pumping was stopped at W3R. After pumping was restarted concentrations of chlorobenzene fell to Non-Detect again. This is due to likely residual DNAPL left over from the years long heavy pumping at W4 further north and a little east of CH38 and had caused unusually high concentrations of chlorobenzene at that well for decades. W4 beside the Howard St. Water Tower and observation well OW57-32R was the location of free phase DNAPL 100 feet below ground surface originally confirmed and then denied by CRA, Uniroyal and the M.O.E..

Table 2 (OW119-27  MU aquifer) tells a somewhat similar story. Prior to pumping being stopped this well three metres north of pumping well W3R had a concentration of 68.1 ppb. of chlorobenzene and within a few days of the cessation of pumping it was at 30.7 ppb. dropping down to .98 (yes less than 1) ppb over the shutdown weeks and then jumping back up to 83.3 ppb. after pumping at W3R was restored. Clearly the core of the chlorobenzene plume has been drawn towards W3R by its' pumping and then drifts away when pumping stops. The ongoing chlorobenzene concentrations up to the drinking standard criteria of 80 ppb. after nearly thirty years of pumping are the obvious and clear  result of subsurface residual or free phase DNAPL presence which dissolves very much more slowly in water than NDMA and most other solvents. 

Table 2 (OW155-32  ML aquifer)  This observation well is located about five metres north of pumping well W5A and had a chlorobenzene concentration of Non-Detect prior to the shutdown of pumping. Within a few days its' concentration had jumped to 135 ppb. It stayed above the drinking water standard throughout the pump shutdown period and then somewhat oddly remained high (151 ppb) even more than two months after pumping restarted at W5A. I see two possibilities here. This pumping well is very close to the south-west corner of the Uniroyal/Lanxess site and either free phase or residual DNAPL  exists very nearby or since pumping well W4 to the west (Water Tower area) was shut down several years ago the remaining contaminant plume has via W5A pumping migrated eastwards towards  itself (i.e. W5A). Either way this again is the second area where DNAPL left the Uniroyal site decades ago and has permanently contaminated the Elmira Aquifers (including Bedrock).

Lastly we have Table 2 (CH44D  ML aquifer)  Here we have a monitoring well twenty metres north of pumping well W8. I guess I may have saved the best for last. Its' concentration prior to the cessation of pumping was 4.56 ppb (parts per billion). Within a few days of pumping being stopped the chlorobenzene concentration had soared to 703 ppb. !!!  It remained high throughout the shutdown period exceeding 1,000 ppb. on two occasions. Then in November two months after pumping restarted it was back down to 20.1 ppb. !!!  This tells me a couple of things. Firstly either residual or free phase DNAPL is present right there in the ML aquifer very close to W8 and CH44D and the volume of groundwater impacted is small leading to amazingly fast reactions to both stopping and restarting the pumping regime. Also based upon a similar reaction to pumping by NDMA I suspect that the NDMA may very well be mixed in with the DNAPL . 

What have I slowly learned over thirty-six years? Thin skinned and faint of heart individuals have a much higher tolerance for well dressed, well spoken liars, cheats and thieves than they do for those who would point out these character deficiencies and speak of them. Hence my apologies to the Jens, Sandys, Sebastians, Nathans and others who are far more impressed than I by the Ramin Ansaris, Allan Deals, Lou Almeidas, Steve Quigleys, Hadley Stamms, Lubnas, Jasons, and so many more. While I don't share your character priorities I try to understand them despite occasionally finding them grating. Also the term "cheats and thieves" may be interpreted as more figurative than literal.    

  

"GHD HAVE PRODUCED ANOTHER REPORT FOR PUBLIC CORRUPTION" - A ONE WORD CHANGE FROM YESTERDAY'S BLOG POSTING'S FIRST SENTENCE

  

I replaced the word "consumption" with the word "corruption". Both are accurate. Basically TRAC just like previous iterations of Woolwich Council controlled CPAC and UPAC are out of their depth, corrupt bodies by intention. Their mandates are typical Dave Brenneman (CAO) BS. CAO stands for Chief Executive Officer and BS does not stand for Brotherhood of Sisters. Some of the TRAC members, especially the newer ones,  may believe the propaganda whereas it is difficult to believe that the longer  running TRAC (previously TAG) members don't know any better. Susan Bryant in particular has known what's been going on for decades and has enjoyed herself playing the game with the local bigshots, polluters, bureaucrats and politicians. 

Today I'm looking at the Figures and Tables presented in the extremely recent "Lanxess Canada Municipal Aquifer Steady State Conditions Trial Report".  As mentioned yesterday there actually is no steady state being examined. Not only is pumping well E7 doing its' thing at the south end of Elmira but the two Municipal Upper Aquifer wells are pumping at the north end on the Uniroyal/Lanxess site. Add to that the failure of pumping well W5A at the crucial moment and you've really got very little science going on. This report is recommending further similar tests down the road albeit of longer duration which is a very bad idea. Honest brokers doing experiments on contaminated aquifers is one thing but long term, client driven, for profit consultants is something entirely different. My and everybody else who are knowledgeable and honest (barely a handful locally) legitimately can suspect not only junk science and nonsensical conclusions but also no more than a financial holiday from pumping for Lanxess Canada.  

The Figures allegedly show groundwater elevation changes as well as some difference in flow direction during the shutdown and later startup of off-site pumping underneath parts of Elmira.  The Tables allegedly show groundwater contamination concentrations for numerous known Uniroyal Chemical contaminants over the course of the test. Except they don't! They show a grand total of seven monitoring well results including double counting the observation wells screened in both the Municipal Upper and Municipal Lower aquifers namely CH38, OW155 and then three others namely OW 119, OW175 and CH44D screened in one aquifer. That's it which hardly gives a full picture of the levels of contamination throughout Elmira's subsurface. 

Getting back to the number of contaminants tested there are allegedly sixteen VOCs and SVOCs (volatile organics/semi volatile organics) in total including NDMA and chlorobenzene. Even here the company cheaped out and worse by not  testing them on a weekly basis before, during and after the shutdown and startup as they did their favourite two namely NDMA and chlorobenzene. Unbelievably they tested the majority (14 of 16) just prior to the shutdown and then just prior to the restart of pumping. A couple of extra contaminants also got tested in November 2025 two to three months after the restart of off-site pumping. Despite less than surprising results at most of the specifically chosen well locations there were a few surprises of both higher and lower results than expected with NDMA and chlorobenzene. This is why all the listed Uniroyal contaminants should have been fully tested equally with NDMA and chlorobenzene. Of course doing so just might have surprised them particularly with the other (than chlorobenzene) four chlorinated solvents including chlorophenols, dichlorophenols and even perhaps non chlorinated aniline. 

This report is just one more in a long litany of self-serving, public relations tools by Uniroyal/Lanxess to build and maintain the facade that they and their fellow travellors are and have been doing everything possible to remediate the Elmira Aquifers. Unfortunately sweet talk, puffery, psuedo science and phony public consultation  does not clean aquifers. Good science, honest intentions and communication and money do.

THE INTENTIONALLY BLIND LEADING THE TRULY BLIND - "DNAPL " IS VERBOTEN

  GHD have produced another report for public consumption . Like many of the rest it goes best with lots of sugar, artificial sweetener and or grease to help it slide down.  Perhaps money and self-interest are the very best forms of grease as they tend to ensure that alleged troublemakers, radicals and activists are ignored while bought and paid for intellectual prostitutes are given undue respect and credibility. The report is titled  "Lanxess Canada Municipal Aquifer Steady State Conditions Trial Report".

Basically the entire premise of the report is a croc. It is supposed to examine monitoring wells throughout the Elmira Aquifers to determine if there is significant "rebound" in contaminant concentrations AFTER  pumping in the Elmira aquifers has stopped. Well it never fully stopped as the major pumping well at the south end of Elmira (E7) continued pumping it's little heart out. There was also the somewhat embarassing issue with pumping well W5A located just south and west of the Lanxess site.  It kicked the bucket just BEFORE the so called pumping trial began. Oops! Also the number of monitoring wells and their location were not appropriate for what was supposed to be the rationale of the trial. No where near enough monitoring wells and all were located way too close to the pumping wells causing immediate drastic results either when the wells were shut down or when they were started up again.

As usual the maps/Figures supplied are too small for most eyes over 40 years old plus the text in attached Tables to them are even worse to read. Finally colour printers are required for those of us who no longer rate hard copies and must download tiny, coloured maps/Figures electronically. It's all a good way to thin out the field of critics. The analytical Tables provided could also have used two, vertical lines on each  showing when pumping was stopped and then restarted. It would have made the Tables more understandable.

Discussion and Conclusions are basically pathetic. There's a fair bit of jabber regarding anaerobic conditions, ORP (oxidation reduction), RPD (relative percent difference), ammonia, phosphates and nitrates plus DO (dissolved oxygen) that may excite biologists but not so much hydrogeologists. At least these big words make GHD look smart and help muddy the waters as probably intended.

Most importantly Lanxess, GHD and the MECP (Min. of Environment)   have scrupulously avoided the one word which must NOT be spoken, written or uttered upon excommunication from the Royal Order Of  Flamboyant  and Treasured Water Investigating Testifiers otherwise known as  ROOFTWITS. The magic word that they must not utter is     DNAPLS    . Under no circumstances they insist could either free phase or residual DNAPLS ever be the reason for high chlorobenzene concentrations or persistent chlorobenzene detections nearly thirty years after groundwater remediation by pump & treat has been ongoing. Oddly every other site with gross chlorobenzene and lots more chlorinated solvents contamination is recognized as a DNAPL site but here in Woolwich Township by the waving of magic wands and the intonation of non satanic chants; DNAPLS have been kept at bay. 

Thank God for their majesties Ken Seiling, Sandy Shantz and even Karen Redman.   

LETS MAKE A DEAL - HOW THE ONT. MIN. OF ENVIRONMENT NURTURES DIRTY POLLUTERS

 

First of all contrary to every credentialed sod and suit who have lost their credibility and integrity and agree with Lanxess Canada and the Ontario Min. of Environment that there is not any chlorobenzene in the Bedrock aquifer; I say this. Intellectual prostitution is no more glamorous than the real thing. In some aspects it is worse.

The reason that this lie suggesting that sure there is NDMA in the Bedrock Aquifer but not chlorobenzene is because NDMA is more easily dissolved and more easily pumped. It can be removed much easier from both aquifers and aquitards than chlorobenzene, a DNAPL chemical. Hence just as the leadership of APTE (Susan B. & Sylvia) were coopted in the early 1990s into becoming DNAPL deniers so both Uniroyal Chemical and the Ont. Min. of Environment (MOE/MECP) colluded in their October 1991 Agreement and November 4, 1991 Control Order to pretend that there were no free phase DNAPLS (Dense Non Aqueous Phase Liquids) either on the Uniroyal site or off their site having migrated into all the aquifers below the town of  Elmira. 

It is obvious to honest people with even a little bit of hydrogeological knowledge. Looking at the "Schematic Of Hydrogeologic Units Lanxess Canada Co." which are produced by Uniroyal/Crompton/Chemtura and now Lanxess over the last thirty-six years makes it very clear. These one page subsurface "maps"  are also known as Conceptual Site Models. From the top right corner showing the Creek ("Gig") and the UA (Upper Aquifer) one can follow the blue coloured aquifers downwards into the MU (Municipal Upper) then follow the blue MU leftwards (west & south) until it reaches more blue (marked LGR -low gamma resistivity) and descends further downwards into the ML (Municipal Lower) . From there moving to the right (i.e. north and a little east) one comes to the following FOUR wells all pumping NDMA, chlorobenzene and so much more namely W6A, W5A, W9 and W8. By the way there is also likely a window just to the right of W8 which corresponds to OW58 as stated in yesterday's Blog posting. It goes through the MAT (Municipal Aquitard) and connects the MU with the ML. 

Meanwhile and here's the kicker. THE BEDROCK AQUIFER IS DIRECTLY CONNECTED TO THE MUNICIPAL LOWER AQUIFER exactly where three of the four pumping wells (W5A, W6A, W9) well screens sit directly on top of the Bedrock. They are pumping both ML water and BR water albeit the free phase chlorobenzene (& more) DNAPL that gravity flowed into this location are from either or both the north-east window (near OW58) or from the south-west window (near W4, OW57-32R, Howard St. water tower); is likely long gone into the fissures and cracks of the fractured Bedrock Aquifer. There could be some free phase DNAPL still left in the ML or not but certainly that which is into the Bedrock Aquifer is there forever. 

This is but part of the coverup, collusion and corruption between Uniroyal Chemical and the Ontario Ministry of Environment (MECP). Surviving APTE members may some day be able to figure out how early on their leadership betrayed them. Or not. Time will tell.     

LANXESS & MECP FINDING IT HARDER TO COVERUP THE TRUTH AS PLUMES SHRINK BACKWARDS TO THEIR SOURCE

 

You know most children by the age of six or seven have learned that lying usually only makes things worse. Statements like the dog did it or the baby did it rarely fly with parents. Unfortunately as a society we have learned to condone dishonesty in many forms. 

Yesterday's July 23, 2026 report by GHD sent to the Min. of Environment (MECP) and titled "Municipal Aquifer Steady State Conditions Trial" is an example of what my Blog title is all about. I understand that exceptions to the fibbing rule exist which include two dishonest parties sending knowingly false information back and forth in order to reinforce their agreed upon self-serving "truths". No one is offended because both parties have long ago agreed to the deception. Examples abound such as President Bush lying about Iraq's Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD). England and the U.S. needed some justification for attacking Iraq so they jointly made sh*#  up. Countries do it, individuals do it and polluting corporations do it. 

There are a host of made up falsehoods regarding the Elmira Water Crisis.  Only a very few to date have been debunked or admitted to such as Allan Deal (GHD) admitting to TRAC that Varnicolor Chemical contributed chlorinated solvents to the Elmira drinking water aquifers (MA) as per the Minutes of their September 12, 2024 meeting in Council Chambers. This was on page 7 and on page 6 of these Minutes is also finally the admission of DNAPL existing near pumping well W4 by the Howard St. Water Tower and beside monitoring well OW57-32R. 

The page 6 admission regarding off-site DNAPL presence is important in the context of yesterday's  report as it clarifies why Figures 5 & 7 clearly show both the remaining Municipal Upper and Municipal Lower Aquifer locations of chlorobenzene in Elmira's subsurface. They are located  to the immediate east of former pumping well W4 as well as of monitoring wells OW57-32R and OW57-38 . The remaining plumes in both aquifers (MU, ML) are directly beneath the former Varnicolor Chemical site with Howard Ave. on their south side and First Ave on their north side. Both plumes cross under Union St. as they are slowly pulled towards pumping wells W5A/B in each aquifer. Also of interest in yesterday's report is the statement on page 15 in the Conclusions that  "GHD notes that extraction wells were drilled in the core of the existing plumes at the time of installation.". This explains the location of pumping well W4 beside the free phase DNAPL clearly discovered prior to the startup of the off-site pumping in August 1998 but denied originally at a CPAC meeting around 2004-5 when I presented a writeup about it found in a monthly Progress Report. It was then denied repeatedly for years until the admission of its' presence at the September 12, 2024 TRAC meeting. 

DNAPLS (chlorobenzene & more) left the Uniroyal Chemical site decades ago in at least two locations ending up by the Howard St. Water Tower and by monitoring well OW58-24 on the property line with Nutrite/Yara via a "window" through the Municipal Aquitard.  Both Uniroyal and the Ontario M.O.E. colluded to hide and deny this fact from the public in order to preserve their sweetheart deal which covered up the Ministry's negligence and incompetence and which reduced Uniroyal's cleanup costs by millions of dollars. 

Sorry for the upset and disruption to thin skinned individuals at Woolwich Township who insist on playing nice with those who don't play nice, much less legally. 

EXACTLY HOW MANY YEARS HAS THE GREENBROOK WELLFIELD BEEN SHUT DOWN SINCE 2000 ?

 

This is but one of the retreaded wellfields that Waterloo Region are reopening in their desperation to keep builders and developers happy. Don't worry they do the risk calculations and theoretically at least while your risk of getting cancer will certainly rise with all these contaminated aquifers being put back in service; the numbers may be tiny such as an increase from 2 or 3 "excess" cancers in a million to a marginally greater 4 "excess" cancers in a million. No worries there especially as hardly any of us have friends, colleagues or relatives suffering cancers, past cancers or fatal cancers. Right?

 The Greenbrook Wellfield wells, K1, K2, K4B, K5A and K8 located near Homer Watson Blvd. and Stirling Ave. in Kitchener were all on standby status from at least 2003 until 2007. Newspaper accounts also advise us that that situation has continued during the 2020s whether from a chlorine/ammonia screwup and explosion or from the 1,4 dioxane contamination that came from the Ottawa St. Landfill. Now there have also been well redrills and replacements in this wellfield as the current wells are now known as K1A, K2A, K4C, K5A and K8.  These machinations if you will are common practice for the Region when they have "problematic" wells and examples in Cambridge for example include drilling past and through a contaminated zone of a well in order to pump water from a deeper less contaminated or uncontaminated zone.   

It is my opinion that this Grand River Source Protection Area Assessment Report Chapter 8, July 29, 2025 is unnecessarily thick and inflated with data that is at best filler or meant to make reading difficult and tedious. That said with enough patience and tenacity and overall knowledge a serious person can find much to be concerned with regarding this wellfield. Firstly the chances of 1,4 dioxane being the only toxic contaminant to reach the Greenbrook Wellfield from the Ottawa St. Landfill is somewhere between zero and nil. Look for benzene, chlorinated solvents and all the usual array of industrial solvents that were dumped there including by Elmira industries such as Varnicolor Chemical and if I might hazard a guess probably Uniroyal Chemical as well back in the day. Paper restrictions were strong whereas physical restrictions were not.

Other issues include high chlorides and high sodiums maybe from road salt but also common from industrially contaminated aquifers. Also I should applaud at least a couple of the Figures in this report as they do identify the Total Number of Significant Threat Activities as well as the Total Number of Properties with Significant Threats. Those numbers are huge (630, 379). They also indicate both High Unadjusted Intrinsic Vulnerability levels for this wellfield as well as High Adjusted Intrinsic Vulnerability threats to water quality. 

Waterloo Region are desperate to keep the water flowing and in my opinion they are risking your and my health for their own benefit. What else is new when it comes to water protection. 

WAS AND IS THE MANNHEIM EAST WELLFIELD IN WATERLOO REGION A BUST ?

This wellfield is located on Kitchener's west side near Trussler Rd. and the boundary with Wilmot Township. It consists of multiple Supply Wells (i.e. pumping wells K21A, K25, K29) along with Recovery Wells (RCW1-2) originally and now RCW 2-4.  Aquifer Storage & Recovery Wells (ASR1-5) are to accept treated Grand River water for storage to be pumped later into the distribution system by the Recovery Wells RCW 2-4 .   There are also a set of wells known as Peaking wells and they are designated K91-94). 

I would very much like to see audited up to date pumping rates for all these wells because the data I do have does not jive with the reality of a system constantly needing to expand along with our population. I have long suspected that the entire Mannheim  Aquifer Storage and Recovery System has not lived up to expectations whether through misadventure, bad luck or poor planning. Regardless again the data for all these wells that I have shows pumping rates well below the permitted volumes. This alone without ever greater population growth would cause pressure on other nearby well systems to take up the slack. This would include the Mannheim West Wellfield in Wilmot Township as well as the just down the road further west Wilmot Centre Wellfield which has been causing well interference complaints from local residents.

Under all the circumstances well interference is hardly surprising but what is, is the Region's hardas# attitude towards these residents and their water shortages possibly caused by again misadventure, bad luck or poor planning. 

WATERLOO REGION'S CREDIBILITY CONTINUES TAKING HITS

 

Wow! Today's K-W Record advises us that our vaunted LRT (Light Rail Transit) is having more than teething pains. The lawsuit by  GrandLinq is for $110 million. That's a chunk of change . Regardless of who's right, who's wrong and whether or not we taxpayers yet again end up on the hook; it tends to make us at the very least ask the question: "Are we getting value for money in our political governance?" Or do we have a lot of dead wood on regional council who are simply literally bums in chairs pretending to be administrators and managers of the public interest? Is it possible that half or more of them simply show up in order to receive their pay cheques with absolutely no  concern for the issues or the public interest? It has been said that the greatest and most important skill of a politician is their acting abilities. Pretending to care and pretending to want to resolve problems and disputes would seem beneficial in giving hope and confidence to citizens and residents.

If and when the entire truth is exposed around the destruction of our fabulous water resources; I predict there will be a wholesale abandoning of the ship of state. Politicians may quickly decide that early retirement sure beats being shamed and harassed into resigning mid term. I predict that as early as tomorrow or as late as the August 21 deadline for registering to run in this fall's municipal election; many rats will give varying excuses for stepping down. 

The Region have most recently mistreated Wilmot residents both with the still surreptitious huge land grab as well as the refusal to acknowledge well interference even after breaking the 1980 agreement with Wilmot over the Wilmot Centre Wellfield pumping. They have also broken faith with Woolwich (Elmira) residents for the last 36 years regarding our contaminated local aquifers caused by both private, industrial greed and negligence as well as by provincial oversight gross failures.  The Region's day of reckoning is overdue.

ARE TRAC CAPABLE OF LOOKING STUPID PUBLICLY WHILE LOBBYING BEHIND THE SCENES ?

 

I don't know that to be true but I guess I'm hoping it is so because there are at least two people on that committee (Technical Remediation Advisory Committee) that I believe to be inherently honest. Indeed it is likely to be a couple more but I just don't know them well enough to confirm that. Generally speaking I do know the deadbeats etc. well enough and know who they are.

Jen Lyndall of Integral possibly may decide never to work for Lanxess and her old buddy Hadley ever again. Or otherwise if she has no problem sleeping at night by counting sheep jumping over dead animals, livestock and or human beings.   

I'm going to repeat last Saturday's health criteria here for those with a serious bent for eye blurring numbers. These are the health standards for dioxins/furans and for Total DDT both in creekbank soils and in the sediments on the bottom of the Creek (Canagagigue). None of the criteria change based on depth i.e. surface versus subsurface soils and surface and subsurface sediments.

Soils:               DDT      .078 ppm (parts per million)

Sediments:      DDT      .00119 ppm.

. 

Soils:              dioxins/furans      7  ppt. (parts per trillion)

Sediments:     dioxins/furans       .85 ppt

DDT   in   fish     tissues                 14 ppb. (parts per billion)

dioxins/furans in fish tissues             .71 ppt (parts per trillion)

These are the numbers/concentrations that Jen Lyndall of Integral has utterly failed to put on her Tables and Figures.  Likely/possibly they are buried somewhere in her report. Or not. Starting from Figure 4-24 and going to Figure 4-63 the data tells TRAC, the public and most certainly the politicians absolutely nothing worthwhile without the health criteria being clearly marked on each and every Figure.  Is this failure Jen Lyndall's or did Lanxess (Hadley ?) ensure that this vitally important information was not to be found where it should be?

THIS IS THE FOLLOWUP THAT TRAC NEVER DO REGARDING LANXESS FUNDED SHABBY, IRRELEVANT & RIDICULOUS PRESENTATIONS

 

Regarding Tables 3-3 to 3-6 which describe Total DDT and Dioxins/Furans TEQ (toxic equivalency) generally in Creek Reaches 1-4 except for the last Table which oddly only describes Reach 4 (the Lanxess site). These Tables also represent both surface and subsurface Soils and Sediment readings. Sediments of course are in the bottom of the Creek beneath the water and soils refer to creekbank soils above the waterline. 

Previously mentioned by myself is the fact that in four pages of Tables;  Dioxins/Furans over the four Creek Reaches plus Background (below Reach 1/Grand River) and with 889 samples over many years have an average of 99.87% detection rate. This is beyond incredible, is not remotely normal or ubiquitous and speaks to massive past and ongoing releases of Dioxins and Furans downstream from the Uniroyal/Lanxess property. THIS IS BEYOND SHAMEFUL and no wonder TRAC is so tightly controlled by agenda, membership, meeting times, minutes and limited public access and less.

Total DDT detections are also high although not at the same level of Dioxins/Furans.  The lowest detection rate through five locations is 10% and the highest 100% (twice). The average detection rate in the four Reaches plus Background (Grand River) is 57% . Keep in mind this is for DDT only albeit in both Sediments and Soils both surface and subsurface. This also is not "normal" nor ubiquitous.

Regarding concentrations above health criteria the results are startling. Sediment detections are very high for both surface and subsurface DDT and in fact ALL detections from the highest to the lowest EXCEED the health criteria of .00119 ppm. (parts per million) again for Reaches 1-4 and Background (Grand River). Soil detections for DDT on the other hand while ALL maximum concentrations per area (Reach etc.) EXCEED the health criteria of .078 ppm.; minimum concentrations are all below the health criteria.

Dioxins/Furans maximum concentrations in surface Sediments ALL exceed the health criteria of .85 ppt (Parts per trillion) while only two of five areas (4 Reaches & Background Grand River) of the minimum concentrations exceed the health criteria. Subsurface Sediments maximum concentrations for Dioxins/Furans ALL EXCEED the health criteria whereas only one of five of the minimum concentrations for the five areas exceeds the health criteria. 

Dioxin'Furan Soil maximum concentrations ALL exceed the heath criteria of 7 ppt. whereas 0 of the five minimum concentrations exceed the health criteria. This is the same for both surface Soils and subsurface Soils.  

The title above states that TRAC never do necessary followups to ridiculous presentations. Let me add the following. Maybe they do privately but this is a public process and needs to be clarified to the public each and every time a deceptive, dishonest or blatantly foolish and non factual presentation is made.

 

 

  

GOT SIDETRACKED (WESTWARDS/WILMOT) : BACK TO JEN LYNDALL'S (INTEGRAL) SILLY REPORT TO TRAC

 

Silly is a nicer word than deceptive, evasive, phony or corrupt. As I have mentioned it's hard to write an intelligent and honest data Summary of dozens of sad, pathetic and client driven pieces of garbage (GIGO-garbage in, garbage out). Half the battle is won simply by a single presentation to TRAC followed by...nothing. It takes time to read carefully, analyze, understand and form an intelligent response. I've got that time and ability whereas most TRAC members who have the ability simply don't have the time or the incentive ($$$) to do so. They have paying jobs and careers and homes and families to take up their spare time. 

One of the biggest, most nonsensical pieces of crap that she bestowed upon TRAC are a series of Figures as in Figure 4-24 to 4-63. She referred to these Figures as I believe Box and Whiskey Plots. I don't know the origins of that name. These Figures allege to show large (many not all) amounts of data recorded for DDT and dioxin concentrations in Surface Sediments, Subsurface Sediments, Surface Soils, Subsurface Soils, versus either Location (Reach 1-4, Background) or Time (eg. 1996, 1997, 2013, 2015, 2017, 2022). 

There are a few issues with these Figures which I have previously mentioned such as the vertical (y) scale for concentrations visually minimizing the extent and amount of extremely high concentration readings of Total DDT and or Dioxin/Furan TEQ (toxic equivalency).There are other problems including large numbers of high Method Detection Limits (MDL) leading to far too many orchestrated Non Detects (N.D.) in the data  however the simplest and most obvious problem is the lack of relevance of the concentrations being shown. Yes you can compare the concentrations with location/distance downstream from Lanxess (Uniroyal) towards the Grand River and even somewhat over time (eg. 1996-2022)  but really and significantly what do they mean and how serious are they? Nobody knows and I think that is intentional.

Ms. Lyndall has failed to include any health criteria whether provincial or federal for either Total DDT or for Dioxins/Furans. The accepted health concentrations (which differ) for these two compounds as well as differing whether for Soils or for Sediments are MIA (missing in action). They need to be written on the Figures as well as most importantly drawn as a horizontal line across the Figures hence immediately showing how many of the data points are above (exceed) the mandated health concentrations.

Doing that exposes the massive and major contamination for five miles downstream from Uniroyal/Lanxess. This report was produced on behalf of Lanxess Canada for the purpose of once more snowing and bulldozing TRAC and the public. Mission mostly accomplished.

I THINK THAT WATERLOO REGION'S WATER SYSTEM IS IN BIG TROUBLE

 

This is based upon multiple lines of evidence. Unfortunately it's also based upon multiple lies by the Region over the years. Also multiple deceptions. Lies, bragging and puffery do not produce healthy, clean water. The Region of Waterloo based upon their own self congratulatory back patting seem to think otherwise.

Looking at lists of wells and wellfields throughout the Region I find it disheartening to see the following words after too many listed wells namely: Standby, Disconnected, Purge, Abandoned. Also looking at the Number of Significant Threat Activities and the Number of  Properties with Significant Threats as listed in the Grand River Source Protection Area 2025 is downright scary.  Looking at the various listed threats including Nitrates, TCE, Chemicals, DNAPLS, Pathogens, Salt, Chloride  etc. does not build confidence. Another issue I find strange is that despite off and on warnings of water shortages and for example water rationing for lawns, again far too many wells throughout the Region are NOT pumping anywhere near their stated capacities and alleged abilities. Why is that?

I also am aware of the disinterest in soil and groundwater remediation to the point of denial of known facts by our authorities if it will reduce costs and enhance development and building. Growth apparently is never to be stymied or stalled either by lack of water or excess of contaminants. Workarounds, engineering "solutions", natural attenuation or whatever verbal manipulations are required to promote progress and growth at all costs, always wins out. This game is not sustainable and we, our children and following generations will be the big losers.

WATERLOO REGION ARGUE OUT OF BOTH SIDES OF THEIR MOUTHS REGARDING THE WILMOT CENTRE WELLFIELD

 

Among numerous reference sources I've been reading is the RMOW (Regional Municipality of Waterloo) April 8, 2026 staff report to councillors titled "Wilmot Centre Aquifer Assessment". Hoo boy but it is quite the document.  The Region are arguing both in this report and at the Regional Council level that all is fine at the Wilmot Centre Wellfield.

Here's the rub. They are also advising that between past lower rainfall AND higher pumping rates the aquifer level has dropped three to four metres in elevation. Now perhaps on a municipal wellfield level that is not an unusual situation. Perhaps it is. Regardless if you have a private drilled well that extends 32 metres below ground surface for example and the aquifer level drops from 29.5 mbgs  (metres below ground surface) to 32.5 mbgs then guess what? You're sucking air instead of water. Prior to the aquifer's lowered elevation you had 2.5 metres or over eight feet of water level above your wellscreen (intake). 

Other issues that do not add credibility to the Region's position include their admission that certain groundwater elevation triggers have been crossed at the Wilmot Centre Wellfield already just as they have been crossed at the Mannheim West Wellfield. Then however the Region states "Crossing the trigger levels at Wilmot Centre does not mean that adverse impacts are anticipated at nearby private wells in the natural environment. This is a fundamental difference from trigger levels established under the Mannheim Well Field PTTW." (i.e. Permit To Take Water) .

Other problems with the Region's staff report include Table 1 on page 4 & 5. This Table purports to show pumping levels at three wellfields in Wilmot namely the Erb St. Wellfield, the Mannheim West Wellfield and the Wilmot Centre Wellfield. Clearly there has been increased pumping at the Wilmot Centre Wellfield from 2019/20 until 2025 compared to 1980. Also on page 8 the Region confirm that some of this increased pumping was to make up for decreased water pumping and problems at FOUR Kitchener Wellfields namely Strange St., Parkway, William St., and Greenbrook. Finally I find it peculiar that Table 1 does not include the Mannheim East Wellfield immediately beside but just over the Wilmot boundary from the Mannheim West Wellfield. Perhaps it is the incredible number of wells and total amounts of nearby pumping that is causing likely well interference issues with private wells.

Add to this in the report the Region's immodest attitude is characterized by their self admitted incredible, world class, superior professional and astute management of everything wet in Waterloo Region and you begin to suspect that they've been taking lessons from trash talking MMA fighters prior to losing a major fight (Conor McGregor anybody?). Somewhat like Donald Trump it's almost as if the Region are looking over their shoulder cringing at the expected upcoming disaster but bragging to give themselves courage, or as my father used to say they are whistling by the graveyard to hide their fear.

TOO MANY "GENTLEMENS'" AGREEMENTS BETWEEN POLLUTERS, POLITICIANS & THE JUSTICE SYSTEM

 

I mean one could call it exactly what it is which is corruption. That word however is too coarse for our refined, polished and smooth operators. They are O.K. however with "unwashed masses", lower classes, ne'er do wells,  homeless etc. for all those beneath their high station in life. Supposedly making a buck is a social good according to many. Yes "trickle down" economics is popular especially among the well to do. The theory is that all economic activity from building submarines to widgets helps everybody. The rising tide lifts all boats theory. Naysayers of course suggest that what is "trickling down" may not be of much quality or good. Some even suggest that it is merely the rich peeing on the poor and giving them their refuse, their wastes etc. One example might be the ABTC or A Better Tent City. Geez I hope I've got the right name and location here but my understanding is that the ABTC is situated almost beside the Erb St. Landfill. Lucky them. Not only do they get most likely a plumbing hookup to the nearest water system/wellfield which is the Erb St. Wellfield and it's direct hydrogeologic connection to the contamination plume beneath the dump BUT they also get, depending on the prevailing winds, to enjoy the odours of everybody else's garbage. 

Just try calling the police for illegal dumping on private property albeit with a shared aquifer beneath it. Just try to get a Crown Prosecutor to lay criminal charges for off-site toxic chemical odours leaving an industrial site. There are direct connections between TCE, vinyl chloride, NDMA, benzene and many other volatile organic compounds (VOCs) routinely leaving industrial sites and serious to fatal diseases. Thousands of people die every year just in Ontario from air pollution. Where are the manslaughter or murder charges especially for repeat offenders?

It is our politicians who write our laws including the exceptions and loopholes. How many loopholes do you see for owners of semi detached homes, townhouses or lower cost housing who accidentally spill a couple of gallons of gasoline ?  However if you are a corporation or business person the rules suddenly change and you are given opportunity after opportunity to either mend your ways or at least hide them better. How often do you see serious polluters sent to jail? Severin Argenton (Varnicolor Chemical) in Elmira was one of the extraordinarily few. He was sentenced to eight months in jail after the Ontario Ministry of Environment refused to abide by their own initial Control Order and investigate deeper soils and aquifers on his property. Hence it was twenty-five years AFTER he served his eight month sentence (or part of it) and had passed on before Uniroyal/Lanxess and the Ontario MECP admitted publicly that he had indeed contaminated the Elmira Municipal drinking water aquifers with half a dozen chlorinated solvents. That folks is justice when polluters, politicians and justice system members (eg. Robert Reilly) all socialize together at Westmount Golf Club and other non-public venues.

THE LAKE ERIE PIPELINE IS A GIVEN WHICH EXPLAINS BENIGN NEGLECT TO OUTRIGHT GROSS NEGLIGENCE IN PROTECTING OUR GROUNDWATER

 

The last two Blog postings I have been listing some contaminated wellfields in Waterloo Region as well as some of the dirty polluters who did the deeds as well as the toxic chemicals that they either intentionally or gratuitously deposited into the soils and into our publicly owned aquifers. Today I'm filling in some missed data as well as giving my overall impressions as indicated in the title above. 

Firstly B.F.Goodrich (Epton) and Kaufman Rubber should be on the known polluter's list versus merely suspected as I posted last Friday.  Greb Shoe on Hayward Ave. (Kit.) also needs to be listed here. Regarding contaminated wellfields we also have additions as I've been rereading somewhat. The Lancaster Wellfield located near Lancaster and Guelph St. has been disconnected for many years. The source of the problem was the former Panill Veneer Co. near Louisa and St. Leger St. in Kitchener. The real culprit however was a well known local illuminary who owned the original grossly contaminated property known as the Breithaupt Tannery.

Various landfills causing off-site contamination include the Caroline St. location of a former landfill as well as the Erb St. Landfill which is located far too close to the Erb St. Wellfield. Despite cute drawings pretending that the Erb. St wells do NOT pull contaminated water from the known contaminant plume below and off-site of the landfill; that seems highly improbable. Of course the Ottawa St. Landfill has enhanced the Greenbrook Wellfield as most likely has the larger landfills in Cambridge. In Elmira we have the Bolender Landfill leaking into the Canagagigue Creek with Uniroyal stuff, the First St. Landfill leaking more into the "Gig" a little further downstream and the M1 and M2 Landfills. The second is on the Uniroyal/Lanxess property and prior to 1992 helped enrich Elmira's drinking water groundwater. Varnicolor Chemical in Elmira also deposited toxics at various Kitchener, Waterloo and Woolwich Landfills.

Back to "problematic " we have the Waterloo North Wellfield roughly near the Laurel Ck. Conservation Area with one " disconnected "well which is then described as a "flowing well". This could mean that it is a Purge or Interceptor well being used to catch the front of a sub surface contaminant plume and pump it to waste such as into a ditch or surface water body. The very contaminated William St. Wellfield (TCE) has one purge well pumping as well as one or two others removed from service. The Erb St. Wellfield has well 6A described as "problematic" and not pumping as well as W6B being on "standby". Gee all these pumping wells with provincial PTTW (Permits To Take Water) that either aren't pumping at all or are vastly under pumping what the province has permitted them. You'd almost think that we had excess water available here. The Foxborough Green Wellfield has one well "disconnected" and the New Dundee Wellfield has one well "abandoned".  All the Pompeii & Forwell Wells have been "disconnected" for decades and the Woolner river wells just downstream have been under pumping and or closed off and on. The Strasburg Wellfield has one well that is "disconnected". Likely well E7 at the south end of Elmira will continue as a Purge well in order to protect the never been used for production well yet E10 further south at Scotch Line Rd. 

It isn't just the provincial and regional refusal and failure to stop gross groundwater pollution from 1955 until 2000 that upsets me. It's the blatant lying and denial since to seriously clean up at least the worst of the contamination affecting groundwater, wildlife and human life. Nothing but excuses, drivel and puffery bragging about how technically advanced they are while poisoning everybody. For years I thought that it was misplaced loyalty to both important business people and pro business ideology but now I think that it is worse. It is a long held pie in the sky belief that Lake Erie water will allow permanent growth and expansion in order to keep the money flowing to our industrial and business class also forever. We are on a horrific death spiral and we are being led by greedy idiots.

  

SOME OF THE CHEMICAL ENHANCEMENTS IN OUR WATERLOO REGION GROUNDWATER

TCE is very popular.  Trichloroethylene  can be fatal as a number of persons in the Bishop St. community of Cambridge have learned the hard way. Usually however it leads to years of sickness and ill health first. Dinoseb is some sort of pesticide that we were advised caused the contamination in the northern part of Cambridge. Plasticizers and phthalates have been found in the Grand River and the groundwater at the south end of Cambridge. TCE is also in the same groundwater right beside the Grand River. 1,1,2 Trichloroethane has been found in the groundwater between Bishop St. and the Grand River also throughout the Bishop St. community.

Waterloo has been blessed with TCE in their groundwater and the major wellfield near the downtown. Obviously with coal tar constituents nearby it's difficult to believe that some of them (PAHs?) haven't also been dissolved and mobilized into the wellfield. The same goes for the coal tar found on Gaukel St. in Kitchener by the very old post office. 

Speaking of Kitchener we have TCE in a number of wellfields. It is combined with some other VOCs (volatile organic compounds) that freshened the air inside a former local tire factory. Many workers paid the price for working there. More exotics include P.C.B.s which are better known as floaters on the water table i.e. LNAPLS or light non aqueous phase liquids. Nevertheless they have a small solubility in order to add spice to the groundwater's flavour. Chlorinated solvents as well as oil and gas PHCs (petroleum hydrocarbons) also add to the groundwater mixture between Fountain St. and the Grand River near Breslau.

Elmira literally has dozens to hundreds of chemicals in their groundwater although our authorities have only focused on NDMA, chlorobenzene and ammonia. Lots more PHCs in Elmira as well as Heidelberg. Probably low levels of DDT and Dioxins are also dissolved in the groundwater here.

This is but a sprinkling of the variety available in our groundwater. Let's not forget Glyphosate (Round Up), salt and Nitrates. Lots for everybody  

IS IT RUDE TO SUGGEST PUBLIC HANGINGS IN OCTOBER INSTEAD OF AN ELECTION?

 

Well at least Canada is civilized enough (so far) to cause abhorrence and shock at the title above. That said I just bet that by the end of this post there may just be a few who think it's not that bad of an idea. A little radical and a lot permanent, regardless.

Yesterday's post painted the broad strokes. We have way too much salt, nitrates, pesticides and solvents in our groundwater.  Yes it is fair to suggest that the Region of Waterloo are trying to educate the public about the health threats from two of them namely salt and pesticides. Good but nitrates is at least a little verboten (forbidden) to lecture about because after all it's our farmers who feed us and the world. Politically a no-no. Nitrates are very bad for our older citizens especially those with heart problems. Have we forgotten cryptosporidium I wonder. That's a virus I believe found in cattle crap (dung).  It actually killed several people here in Waterloo Region in the early 1990s. Cattle doing their business in and along rivers and creeks introduced it into the water supply eventually through the Grand River at Mannheim which golly gosh our authorities hadn't considered that special treatment was needed.

The really big one however is solvents which also could include some chemicals also used in pesticides although the Region's focus on pesticides has been primarily garden and lawn overuse. Back to solvents. The following wellfields have measurable, concerning levels of toxic chemicals from industry in them. By the way if you think going after agriculture/farmers is a political no-no; Waterloo Region would prefer to cut off your heads rather than point the SHAME finger at our local industrialists and major polluters. Here goes:    Greenbrook, Parkway, William St., Strange St., Pompeii, Erb St., Middleton, Elmira still!, plus one or two more in Cambridge which have temporarily slipped my mind.  

The business/corporate names include  Ciba-Geigy, Northstar Aerospace, Cnd. General Tower, Canbar, Sunar, possibly the former Seagram's, likely the former Uniroyal Tire on Strange St. (Kit.), Kaufman, Budd Automotive, Safety-Kleen (Breslube), Uniroyal Chemical/Lanxess Canada (Elmira), Strauss Fuels (Elmira), former Strauss service station (Heidelberg),  Kitchener Gas Works (Gaukel St.), Varnicolor Chemical (Elmira), Regina St. Waterloo (coal tar).

Now I've reviewed this list in my memory banks and I'm sure that I've missed several others and as well  I'm wondering now about Kaufman Rubber. Let me transfer Kaufman Rubber at least for now onto the suspected list only, along with B.F. Goodrich formerly at the corner of King and Victoria St. in Kitchener.    

Kitchener, Waterloo, Cambridge and the Grand River. Our municipal, regional and provincial politicians have all been grossly negligent in protecting our groundwater mostly originating from the Waterloo Moraine on the west side and a little north of the tri-cities and actually partially extending under them. In reference to yesterday's Blog post let me just say that nitrates are very bad in Wilmot Township presumably due to commercial fertilizers used to grow crops. The other problems in Wilmot include the Region's admitted over pumping in the Mannheim West Wellfield (Wilmot) AND the hydrogeological connection between the Erb St. wells (Wilmot) and the Erb St. Landfill.    

Speaking of landfills how smart do you have to be to locate a landfill anywhere near a drinking water Wellfield? The Region have done it at least twice maybe more if you look carefully in Cambridge.  The second one is the Ottawa St. landfill in Kitchener which has donated 1,4 Dioxane to the Greenbrook Wellfield causing it to be shut down in 2005.  Engineering solutions translate into more and more expensive treatment of our groundwater. By the way reading the Rules & Regs for all of these landfills means very little. Back in the day I exposed mostly Varnicolor Chemical dumping 45 gallon drums of liquid solvents, illegally, into the Ottawa St. Landfill. That did make the K-W Record at the time.

Our groundwater isn't what it used to be and some of the perpetrators are listed here.  

WILMOT'S WATER IS GOING TO BALE THE REST OF US OUT????? OR MAYBE A PIPELINE IS THE PLAN

 

Who are they kidding? At some point in time there will be another water crisis in Waterloo Region. It's a given. This one however won't mostly consist of developers and builders demanding their profits keep on increasing. This next one will be citizens being told that they are on water rationing. They will be told that there will be so many hours per day when their taps will not provide water. Regional Councils and municipal councils are going to want to fortify their council chambers and administrative buildings. Citizens will be outraged as well they should be.

Here is the good news, sort of.  The Region will vehemently protest that it's not their fault. It's Global Warming & Climate Change. Their staff are world class leaders in water protection, water conservation, water distribution and all that. They will go to great lengths to suggest that anyone and anything other than themselves have caused this catastrophic shortage. They might even blame the Federal government and ...holy crap...actually suggest that maybe, just maybe 1,000,000 people in Waterloo Region by 2051 wasn't such a hot idea afterall. Perhaps we should have found more water first. Perhaps we should have built more sewage treatment plants before the influx. Perhaps hospitals, doctors and nurses shortages should have been remedied first. And on and on.

Here however is the reality. We and by we I mean our politicians at all levels have given business and industry a free ride for the last century. Frankly they have done the same thing with our farmers and agriculture in general. We are now reaping the rewards of exempting those two industries from environmental laws, environmental enforcement and environmental stewardship. Perhaps cars and roads are also culprits with he alleged amount of salt now in our aquifers. Agriculture has contributed Nitrates en masse to our groundwater. Industry have contributed solvents including TCE, NDMA and chlorinated solvents. Oil and gasoline are also big culprits whether from service stations leaking tanks or other sources. 

The Region of Waterloo have talked a good game. Unfortunately they started way too late and they've continued heavier with the talk and the reports and studies while ignoring enforcement. They haven't even had the backbone to stand up to the impotent and incompetent Ontario Ministry of Environment (MECP). Contaminated soils and aquifer remediations are a pathetic joke even when they do happen. Underfunded for decades, the MECP get pushed around in and out of court by large industry at will. 

Our aquifers are a mess from all these mentioned contaminants. Never fear because the same folks who made money polluting them will now jump on the PIPELINE bandwagon and invest in bringing polluted Lake Erie water here to Waterloo Region. Money will be made just not by you and me. That is not our purpose in life. We, the public, are here to pay the bills via our taxes. The price of water and water treatment will continue to rise until it's a great excuse to build a pipeline. Taxes will still go up but at least we'll have a secure supply of crappy water for a while. God bless democracy.

ARE YOU KIDDING ME? IT'S A MIRACLE! WE MUST ALL BOW DOWN TO THE MAGNIFICENCE OF OUR REGIONAL POLITICIANS & WATER PROVIDERS

 

There are two articles in today's K-W Record. The first is by Joe McGuinty and is on the front page. The second is by Luisa D'Amato and is on page A4. Mr. McGuinty's front page article is dishonestly and deceptively titled "Region finds "significant " new water capacity, easing constraint". While I usually don't begrudge a little literary flexibility in headlines, this one grates me. Absolutely no "significant" new water capacity has been found whether "significant" or "new".  What has been found is a catchall word used by professional liars namely "optimization". It was used up here in Elmira more than twenty years ago and despite serious criticism then and a demand for a clear definition all we got was mumbo jumbo combined with assurances that we, the credentialed suits, know best. In fact  in that case optimization ended up meaning less on-site pumping and treating of highly contaminated groundwater at Uniroyal Chemical's  (Crompton) expense and more off-site pumping and treating which is 50% paid for by the taxpayers.

I might add that the alleged "new" water capacity is the exact same water from the exact same aquifers allegedly being pumped a little harder at one well and perhaps a little lighter at other wells. I have long referred to this regional water management practice as "musical chairs". In Waterloo Region's case they have done it with contaminated wells in order to affect the direction of contamination plumes. As the plume approaches a particular well you shut down pumping and go to another well instead. The contaminant plume will slowly revert to it's natural flow direction under non pumping conditions. Other terms for this practice include "Interceptor Wells".  These are wells that are drilled in front of a contaminant plume and are then pumped to waste hopefully protecting other wells further downgradient.

Not only is there absolutely no new, significant water capacity but in fact what the Region is doing is taking old decommissioned wells due to industrial contamination (solvents mostly) and recommissioning them. I call that retreading them and as I wouldn't put retreaded tires on my car/motorcycle I also don't want to drink water from retreaded wells. 

Ms. D'Amato deserves credit for her article titled "The water crisis is over. Now it's time to ask: Why?" She states that she does not understand what "optimization" really means and : "I'm not a hydrogeologist (and there wasn't one at Tuesday's news conference to ask) but I didn't understand how that worked to increase the overall supply. I wanted more specific answers, and I think the public does, too. "  Ms. D'Amato may be smelling the same horse manure that I am. Apparently yet another "study" is underway that sometime down the road will clarify all this. That is most likely even more bull (or horse) as far too many "professional" studies are simply credentialed suits selling their clients own opinions back to them under the guise of third party, independent and unbiased parties. It's all about credentialism and fooling the general public who are not experienced or knowledgeable on the matters under "study".

IS THE K-W RECORD NO MORE THAN CONTROLLED OPPOSITION FOR THE WEALTHY, POWERFUL AND INFLUENTIAL?

 

I hinted at this yesterday here when I advised that they have full knowledge of  the contamination downgradient from the current Safety-Kleen site and hence should be demanding the release of various hydrogeological reports done decades ago on the area. Secondly on a totally different topic don't you find it strange that despite the Federal government threatening to charge perhaps as many as two million Canadians criminally and then seize their legally acquired private property from them; hardly so much as a tsk tsk out of our local papers. Are they now being financed by federal government handouts in order to survive and at least give the appearance of a strong media standing on guard for Canadian rights and values?

Thirdly is the Elmira Water Crisis. I originally bought the storyline that this is no longer news. It's old hat. It's allegedly not of interest to Waterloo Region citizens, residents and  water drinkers. If perhaps both the Record and the Observer would get off their butts and do their jobs they might just find that this is a huge unfolding story. It's even more than that. It's a coverup of huge magnitude including ALL our local politicians (O.K. only 95%) . Making excuses as they are now doing as the 2028 deadline is looming is one thing. Pretending however that gee willikers there are parts of the Elmira Aquifers that are much less contaminated than they used to be so grab a glass, turn on the tap and we promise you won't die immediately. Honest Injun. Oops! Make that Honest Indigenous because politically correct language including gender pronouns is far more important than minor matters of poisoning (slowly?) Canadian residents and citizens.

  Yes it does go back on us to some degree. If I am virtually the only person ringing alarms and raising red flags locally then we are certainly done. Just mail in your independence, free thinking and rights to demand better from our governments and be done with it. 

IS LUISA D'AMATO BLOWING SMOKE OR JUST PARROTING THE REGION'S LIES?

 

Before expounding upon the title above which is relevant to Luisa's article in today's Record ("Here's the way out of the region's water crisis") I would like to add that I do give Luisa credit for her last Friday article in which she strongly advises the Region not to leave some Wilmot citizens behind as they suffer from well interference issues caused by increased regional pumping of water for our major cities. She makes it clear that the quoted R.J. Burnside 2025 Water Report categorically states, contrary to the regional position, that increased pumping from the Wilmot Centre Wellfield (Shingletown K50/K51)  has lowered the water levels in those wells and in the specific aquifer involved (AFB2).

In today's article however Luisa appears to have swallowed various regional lies . One I would claim is what Luisa calls "Optimization". Here in Elmira we were sold that same big word as if it's official sounding nature immediately makes it true. It does not. In Elmira it eventually meant that rigorous conditions put on the cleanup were relaxed which merely reduced Uniroyal Chemical's cleanup costs and did nothing for the cleanup itself. In fact it may have actually hurt it. 

The second bigger issue is the use of the "river wells" as they used to be called. Luisa stated that these wells on the west side of the Grand River were removed from service because due to water conservation they were no longer needed. HORSE MANURE !  First of all the wells were on both sides of the river with some K80 wells on the west side and wells K70 and K71 on the east side. K by the way stands for Kitchener. The Region I believe lied then when they claimed they were shut down because algae in the very nearby Grand River was causing both odour and taste problems. The reality also consisted of gross soil and groundwater contamination immediately upgradient of these wells located between Forwell Sand & Gravel right next to the river and Safety-Kleen further upgradient (east). The contamination consisted of oils, fuels, solvents and PCBs likely released during the Forsythe or Breslube days prior to Safety-Kleen's purchase of the contaminated property.  

Luisa D'Amato and the Record already know this because I have told them so in writing months ago but perhaps they have a conflict of interest going on.