GOVERNMENTS STICKHANDLE AROUND TRANSPARENCY LAWS

I've been posting on my "Elmira Advocate" Blog the last week or so in regards to the Region of Waterloo's Annual (Drinking Water Reports). These Reports are a huge disappointment in that they can hide numerous water quality problems right up to the point that the Region shut them down or take them out of service. Extremely high Method Detection Limits (MDLs) which basically only advise readers that there aren't contaminants above a certain concentration are one example. When we are advised that Glyphosate (Roundup) is <25 ppb. (ie. less than 25 parts per billion) we are basically being kept in the dark. Is there 10 ppb of Glyphosate in our treated drinking water, perhaps zero or as high as 24 ppb.?

Other problems include ubiquitous compounds found throughout urban areas including Toluene, Ethylbenzene and Xylenes, all courtesy of old and leaking gasoline stations, that are simply not reported. Even NDMA it turns out is much more common than we were advised it was twenty-five plus years ago in Elmira yet it is rarely if ever tested for and reported.

New wells are regularily added to wellfields and others shut down without a whisper. No explanations are given when they should be. Wells can have sleeves or liners put inside them in order to bypass contaminated aquifers or zones within aquifers and the wellscreen put into a different aquifer or even the same but at a different depth.

Wells with low levels of solvents can be diluted by having other wells raw water pumped into their reservoir thus combining them. Wells can be taken out of service and used as Interceptor Wells which basically capture contaminated groundwater coming from a specific source. The contaminated groundwater can be then pumped to waste with or without treatment. Also wells with low levels of solvents should stated in their Annual Reports as to which company, gas station etc. is the source of the contamination. I suspect there would be a much greater incentive for corporations to do better cleanups if their name was plastered all over these Annual Reports literally in some cases for decades after minimal "cleanups" have occurred.

In West Montrose the Region of Waterloo have been trucking water in to their reservoir for years but not advising either residents or the public as to how much of their drinking water is imported versus the highly contaminated (bacteria) raw water being treated on-site.

We the public cannot advise governments of our periorities as long as we are receiving censored or filtered information especially on important matters such as drinking water.