I thought that our authorities couldn't go much lower than ignoring dioxins flowing into the Martin swimming pond used by local Mennonite children for decades here in Elmira. I was wrong. Based upon last Saturday's K-W Record story written by Luisa D'Amato titled "Will we have enough water?" it appears that they indeed can go lower. In order to keep the money/gravy train running for developers and builders the Region of Waterloo are suggesting dishonestly refurbishing and retreading long closed contaminated wells to put them back into service. Perhaps they will dilute them when possible in order to keep them under some theoretical (but intrinsically inaccurate) concentration protecting human health and maybe they won't especially when supplies are low. I stated that it was a "dishonest" refurbishment because the public have never been clearly advised as to the sources and toxic contents in that groundwater in the first place.
Today's Record carries new information from reporter Terry Pender in an article titled "Gravel pits seek water-taking permits in midst of crisis". Wow clearly both our regional councillors as well as our other authorities (MECP for example) have no shame. Recently the Region have approved a 30 litre per second withdrawal of water from Wilmot Township to be put into the Kitchener, Waterloo and area water systems. Now Esbaugh Sand & Gravel want to remove 9.7 million litres of pristine groundwater per day for use in the new Hallman gravel pit. Do you think they are going to be returning 9.7 million litres per day of pristine groundwater to the deeper aquifers or are they going to be returning dirty groundwater that has been used to wash debris, organic matter, leaves, surface and shallow bacteria, dust etc. from the stones that they have removed and crushed from near surface? The sand and gravel above those aquifers fifty to ninety feet below ground filtered out contaminants and has securely stored that water for decades and longer.
Ms. D'Amato's article from last Saturday briefly mentions that one of the three Parkway wells near Fairway Rd. and Manitou Dr. is contaminated. She did not mention highly toxic trichloroethylene (TCE) or that all three wells have been closed for good reason. These wells are close enough together that whichever one is pumping will very quickly draw the TCE plume towards it . That plume is already within the cone of influence of all three wells. Secondly Ms. D'Amato did not mention long standing problems with the Greenbrook wells drawing contaminated water from under the Ottawa St. Landfill towards themselves. Avid newspaper readers may recall the Regional scandal involving their landfill sites illegally taking liquid toxic wastes from Varnicolor Chemical and other local polluters back in the early 1990s. Perhaps the human error several years ago at the Greenbrook Wellfield in which a driver discharged ammonia into the wrong tank (chlorine) causing an explosion was the excuse they needed to shut those wells down for a long rest. Finally what I suspect may by far be the worst of the lot is the Woolner/Pompeii Wellfields. There are literally dozens of hydrogeological reports from the 1960s, 70s, 80s and 90s showing groundwater contamination naturally flowing downgradient from the back of Safety-Kleen (formerly Breslube) towards the aquifer's discharge point into the Grand River. The fact that the City of Kitchener and the Region had drinking wells known as "river wells" beside the Grand River only exacerbated the speed at which the contaminants flowed from upstream areas such as the "Black Lagoon" (between Breslube and the Grand R.). towards the Grand.
I dare local councils including Regional to continue ignoring these facts. You idiots are headed towards a future involving courts and all the money in the world will not wash the stink off of you.
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