Waterloo Region in the past was blessed with large, medium and small manufacturing which provided jobs and business opportunities for many. Some of the larger manufacturers included Lear-Siegler (auto seats), Budd Automotive (car frames), B.F. Goodrich (rubber products), Uniroyal (Strange St.-tires), A.R. Kaufman (shoes/boots) and Electrohome (electronics & furniture). I believe that these are all no longer with us but they have not left us with nothing to remember them by. Groundwater contamination almost seems to be the norm. Some of this contamination doesn't rear its' ugly head until redevelopment time comes around despite staff and employees having known sometimes for decades that there would be a day of reckoning. Furthermore if I know about them it's hard to believe that the Region of Waterloo did not.
There are three other manufacturers who come to mind . Uniroyal Chemical in Elmira, Canadian General Tower (C.G.T.) in Cambridge along with the now departed Northstar Aerospace also from Cambridge. We will be focused on the first two of these today as they are whom I've referred to as the NORTH/SOUTH CHICKENS in the title above.
The perpetually understated and under remediated Uniroyal Chemical in Elmira basically stole water from Kitchener-Waterloo by destroying the Elmira Aquifers. Those aquifers could have been capable of supplying Elmira and furthermore sending water south to the twin cities. That probability is long gone. This company is now known as Lanxess Canada and in combination with the Ministry of Expanded Corporate Pollution (MECP) have become the North Contamination Chicken.
Next we have the Middleton Wellfield in Cambridge beside the Grand River. Just like the Ciba-Geigy lies about oh we've only had a single spill of Dinoseb that caused our contamination also in Cambridge; C.G.T. initially claimed minimal releases of chlorinated solvents. I am aware of at least one consultant who claims that the TCE (trichloroethylene) in the Bedrock Aquifers literally across the road from C. G. T. is not theirs. C.G.T. and the Middleton Wellfield are what I refer to above as the South Contamination Chicken. Yes TCE can come from dry cleaners and other sources for example. I am however highly skeptical.
The Middleton Wellfield has the highest treatment costs of any groundwater in Waterloo Region precisely because of their Advanced Oxidation Process (AOP) used to lower (not fully remove) TCE concentrations in the treated water for public distribution. We have been told by Record reporters that mixing water from the two now apparently different systems, namely Mannheim (Grand River water) and the Cambridge or Middleton System produces bad smells. Interesting! Of course any water supply system which likely means all significant or large systems must by law be chlorinated. One way or the other. And chlorine smells as we all know. This can include what is known as chloramination which the Region switched over to perhaps 13 - 15 years ago.
My understanding is that Grand River water is chock full of bacteria including Total Coliforms and the really bad ones E. Coli (from septic systems or possibly even Sewage Treatment Plants). Excess chlorine needed to kill all the nasty bacteria can lead to toxic by-products of disinfection known as Trihalomethanes (THMs). Hence the switch to chloramines likely mostly for Grand River water. Chloraminated water by the way is lethal to aquarium fish but generally is seen as less harmful to human beings even though it can also produce HaloAcetic Acids (HAA). Middleton St. well treatment with its AOP system likely uses chlorine only.
So is the truth that mixing chlorine treated water with chloraminated water causes odours or are the odours likely regardless? Or is the truth that water treatment on its' own has to be carefully regulated in order to avoid producing excessive by-products of disinfection such as THMs and HAAs? Also perhaps the truth is that the toxicity of THMs and HAAs is magnified when they are both together in the drinking water. The Region, and by the Region I mean regional councillors not staff, have in my opinion never been honest with the public. This makes sorting out the wheat (truth) from the chaff (bull) very difficult.
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