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The way the system was setup, the well that was contaminated was treated as a "deep well" that cannot get contaminated by surface water. Unfortunately, it wasn'
by alricb 11y ago
The way the system was setup, the well that was contaminated was treated as a "deep well" that cannot get contaminated by surface water. Unfortunately, it wasn't the case at all. They might have figured it out in time if they'd followed proper procedure, but the guy in charge was completely incompetent, being unaware of concepts they teach at the beginning of a water management course (such as "turbidity").
It was compounded by the fact that they were trying to hide their improper handling of another well; ironically, that other well was in fact a deep well and did not cause the contamination.
I don't know about Ontario, but here in Quebec the rules on water management in agriculture have become much more stringent in recent years. You need to have a plan in place for all the land and all the animals you own.
- schiffern 11y agoWow, yeah that's really bad. Good to hear that sane water management is prevailing! You're right, in general the actual water authorities tend to do a pretty good job, because they know their stuff and how complex it is (that guy excepted, obviously). Most of the damage comes from outdated agricultural practices imo. Fundamentally it's wealth concentration doing most of the damage, by gradually replacing self-sufficient farmers invested in land stewardship with paycheck-to-paycheck mortgage slaves on a tractor 18h/day. This is mainly via regulatory capture leading to our [routinely] bass-ackwards farm bills.