Good quality ground water starts by having good waste water treatment and you don't need to go north to find communities that have a problem with both waste water and clean well water. :confused4: Not sure how this issue can even be addressed short of sending every household a little table top filtration system, a years worth of filters, a big bottle of iodine tablets and a phase contrast microscope to monitor your own water quality and even that is wasted effort if the water you are collecting is being polluted by your waste water output.
I can tell you one thing people in rural Canada wouldn't want is Toronto tap water, that stuff is nasty.
Toronto HOH is nasty ? Read this, it is more complex than you make it. People are dying from their drinking water. The petro chemical, forest products, and mining industry are still being issued polluted water permits as northern residents die because of the drinking water.
Human rights watch, Council of Canadians, Amnesty International and the UN have all taken Canada to task on the clean water issue.
The following information is from an article by the David Suzuki foundation. full article here
https://canadians.org/sites/default/files/publications/report-drinking-water-advisories-0217.pdf
AAMJIWNAANG FIRST NATION:
A PROFILE OF CRITICAL DRINKING WATER ISSUES NOT COVERED BY DWAS
Tribal Council: Southern First Nation Secretariat
Population: 2,300 people
“Aamjiwnaang (pronounced am-JIN-nun)
Aamjiwnaang First Nation. (2016).
Aamjiwnaang First Nation. (2016).
http://www.aamjiwnaang.ca/about-us/.
16 |
GLASS HALF EMPTY?
RESOLVING DRINKING WATER ADVISORIES IN ONTARIO
“Water is sacred. We are made up of water just like
parts of the surface of the earth. Water is our first
teaching; it sustains life. Can you imagine a place
where the water is considered toxic?
There are 63 petrochemical facilities on the
traditional territory of Aamjiwnaang First Nation.
The facilities now completely encircle the First
Nation. The region is also known as Chemical
Valley and has been ranked by the World Health
Organization as one of Canada’s top hotspots for air
pollution. Residents experience high rates of cancer,
asthma, high blood pressure, headaches, learning
disabilities, birth defects, stillbirths, miscarriages
and a low life expectancy. Polychlorinated biphenyl
(PCBs) and mercury have been found in residents’
blood and hair.
Aamjiwnaang has the first documented case of
endocrine disruption. The air and water supply
has been so contaminated by the petrochemical
industry that two girls are born for every boy. Under
the United Nations recognition of the human right to
water, governments must step in to ensure that third
parties such as corporations or extractive industries
aren’t destroying local water systems.
Despite the impacts the petrochemical industry
is having on drinking water and residents’ health,
Aamjiwnaang is not under a water advisory. There
have been signs around Telford Creek warning First
Nation members not to swim or touch the polluted
waters of the creek.
What’s more, expansion of Line 9, a pipeline that
carries 240,000 barrels of oilsands and Bakken
crude oils per day from Sarnia to refineries in
Quebec, was approved in September 2015 and is yet
another threat to the First Nation’s water and health.
Vanessa Gray, Sarah Scanlon and Stone Stewart
turned off an Enbridge Line 9 pipeline valve to send
the message that they want this pipeline stopped to
protect water, climate and community health.
To date, First Nation members have called
for a stop to an increase in pollution permits,
decommissioning of Enbridge’s Line 9 and other
pipelines, water monitoring, remediation, and
recognition of Indigenous title and water rights.
But these demands continue to be ignored to the
detriment of the people of Aamjiwnaang First
Nation, the waters and the air that people breathe.
The polluted waters in Aamjiwnaang First Nation
are an example of why the federal government must
expand its commitment beyond ending boil water
advisories in First Nations. Some water advisories
are more severe than boil water advisories, such
as do not consume advisories. There are also
Indigenous First Nations that do not have clean,
safe drinking water but are not under any water
advisory, like Aamjiwnaang First Nation. The federal
government must commit to ensuring that every
First Nation has clean drinking water.
I retired from the microscope business remember. 160 foot drilled well here, no runoff here, no industry no cattle or neighbours for miles, I just have to keep the Beaver population at bay, haven't even bothered installing a filter system on my current well. Previous house was on limestone, 20 foot deep well, 22 gallons per minute, that one I filtered, is on a property known locally as spring hill, water is a little harder there but it bubbles right up out of the rock.
