Thank You Maude Barlow As We Remember Site 41

March 22, 2012

Thank You Maude Barlow As We Remember Site 41

Taken from response to For The Water,
http://www.dominionpaper.ca/articles/2858

Submitted by Paula LaPierre on Thu, 2012-03-22 10:33.

The Alliston Aquifer is part of a 12,000 year old water history of the area tracing back to the melting of glaciers and the creation of the great glacier lake known as Lake Algonquin. Lake Algonquin was a pro-glacial lake that existed in east-central North America at the time of the last ice age.

At about 7,000 years ago, the lake was replaced by Lake Chippewa, named after another Indigenous Peoples closely associated with the Algonquin, as the glaciers retreated and 3,000 years later by the current Lake Michigan. Remnants of the former lake are now Lake Huron, Georgian Bay and inland portions of northern Michigan. Throughout its course of visible existence this impressive ancient lake varied considerably in size receding gradually through climate changes to the current Lake Huron and Georgian Bay that we experience today.

This ancient lake whose existence would have been directly experienced by the Indigenous Peoples of that area for thousands of years.

Because of the abundance of water Indigenous societies prospered in the area for thousands of years, developing profound spiritual, cultural, and economic relationships with the waters they found themselves so reliant on.

Traditional Values Claim Water And Women Are Our First Line Of Defense For Healthy Lives and Environment

Embedded within these cultures and socio-political structures of our founding nations were an innate abiding awareness of the special relationship between water-life-motherhood-women and the Anishnabeg Kwe were given a special obligation to protect this vital gift of the Creator.

The Alliston Aquifer was chosen for a dumpsite many years ago.

Ontario Environment Commissioner Gordon Miller has stated that if the decision were to be taken today, the Alliston aquifer would never have been chosen for a dumpsite.

Since then much has been learned in Canada and around the world about the need to protect watersheds and water basins. In 2006, recognizing the crucial need to protect Ontario’s water resources, the government passed the Clean Water Act, which states that stopping contaminants from getting into our drinking water supplies is the first line of defence in protecting our environment and our health.

Internationally Unique Ecosystem

Numerous media quotes refer to statements made by Professor William Shotyk, a Canadian geochemistry professor at the University of Heidelberg in Germany in which he emphatically claims;

“It’s the best water on Earth. This is an area of artesian wells, where water frequently rises out of the ground under its own pressure….This is kind of like the old growth forest of natural waters.”

Some of his additional studies demonstrate that not only is the site unique because of the quality of the water but it is also unique as an ecosystem that actually generates that quality of water…..and even more interestingly, it seems able to produce this quality of water from substantially damaged elements.

In tests referred to in Soil: The perfect water filter Dr. Shotyk “followed the certain elements of anthropogenic sources “flows from the atmosphere to soils, and from there into some streams and lakes of the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence forest region. Lead isotopes (206Pb, 207Pb, and 208Pb) clearly show that the lakes are dominated by Pb from anthropogenic sources, but the concentrations in the aqueous phase may be extremely low (comparable to ancient arctic ice) because of various processes in soils, as well as the removal of soil-derived particles and colloids from the water column.”

Aquifers have been used to measure and compare recent sources of tritium contamination with pre- anthropogenic examples of water quality.

Anthropogenic effects or sources, are processes or materials are that are derived from human activities, as opposed to those occurring in natural environments without human influence.

To put these findings in perspective, these Pb concentrations are at the lowest levels ever measured anywhere on earth, and are testimony to elaborate and efficient removal processes in soils…..they are unsurpassed water filters….As the quantity and quality of global freshwater resources diminishes through population growth and climate change, this additional importance and value of soils to society will only increase.”

Groundwater is an increasingly important resource to human populations around the world, and the study and protection of groundwater is an essential part of hydrogeology.

Aquifers have become fundamental tools for tracing the recharge, history, and contamination of groundwater. Monitoring the aquifer and protecting it as an important international reference has two essential aspects.

First, the aquifer and the deep water sources provide us with resources for comparative analysis concerning groundwater contamination. This is of extreme importance now in a world very aware of the seriousness of environmental degradation and the particular negative affects of water sources.

Canada has no national water policy and one of the worst records of pollution enforcement of any industrial State.

Existing Canadian policy also allows for the destruction and privitization of valuable monitoring resources and expert research that could have a positive impact on understanding various aspects of pollution and effects on ecosystems, help maintain important monitoring evidence and preserve historical standards of environmental quality, and develop new, safe, green national remedial technologies.

How do we ensure creasingly scarce life sustaining resource such as clean water can be effectively monitored?

How should we ensure important environmental and scientific evidence regarding is sustained?