Achi news desk-
People living in Puslinch, Ont. Maybe there is the answer to why their water smelled so bad last year.
“It was horrible. It was like rotten vegetables, it was disgusting,” said Jacqueline Fell, who lives along the affected area of ​​Route 6.
She is among several residents who noticed something was off with their water in July 2023.
“It took a while to get anybody to notice because when people think about private well water they think, ‘Well, you just need a treatment system or you need to do your own testing. It’s up to you,'” Fell said.
Residents continued to push Puslinch Township staff on the issue and eventually the Ministry of Transportation (MTO) was called to clean a ditch along Route 6 and investigate. The Ministry of Environment, Conservation and Parks (MECP) also investigated.
“[They said] ‘Do your test. Everything happens naturally.’ They didn’t give us any recommendations or any explanation as to why this happened,” Fell said.
The residents were not satisfied with the lack of answers and therefore asked the municipal council for another investigation. The town hired the consultant Harden Environmental Services Ltd.
They discovered that the smell was caused by a “chemical leak of an unknown substance”. The report also says that Harden “does not interpret the identified odor-causing compounds as naturally occurring.”
This contradicts what residents were told by MTO and MECP last year.
“We weren’t crazy,” Fell said. “So this report gives validity. But at the same time, it’s disappointing that we’re only getting it now, almost a year later.”
Fell says she didn’t get Harden’s report in the mail until Thursday.
The reason is that although the report is dated January 2024, a city spokesman said it was prudent for them to check with the MECP given their authority in such matters, and given that the MECP responded to the initial complaints.
“After the town completed its investigation, the town submitted its findings to MECP for review and MECP requested that their review be conducted prior to releasing the information to affected residents,” Puslinch Interim CAO Courtenay Hoytfox said in an email.
CTV News asked the MECP about Harden’s findings, which they disagree with.
“The office’s technical staff reviewed the information and opinions contained in Harden’s draft report and found that there was no substantial evidence linking the odors in several private wells to the alleged roadside leak,” an email from MECP spokeswoman Lindsey Davidson said in part.
For Pell, the situation is eerily similar to the experience she had when she was 13.
At the time she was living in Walkerton, Ont. where she grew up The town’s municipal water supply was contaminated with E. coli, which killed seven people and sickened over 2,000 people – including her.
“I know all too well the devastating effects of a lack of transparency when it comes to the health and safety of tap water. It’s been over 20 years since I drank tap water. This incident validated why,” she said.
Residents say they learned earlier this week that the town may send the samples to California for further testing.
With many questions still unanswered, affected residents hope to get more clarity on May 23 at a meeting with city staff.
