The Rural Voice, 1990-07, Page 32HOW
WELL
IS OUR
WATER?
Groundwater
in Rural Ontario
by Wayne Kelly
Durl Hopper and son Shawn drilling a water well
near Exeter, Ontario: While optimistic about the
availability of good quality groundwater in most of
rural Ontario, Hopper does not minimize the
growing threats this natural resource is facing.
"Water, water, everywhere
Nor any drop to drink."
Few lines of English poetry have
been remembered like those two from
Samuel Taylor Colendge's poem "The
Rime of the Ancient Mariner" (1817).
The ballad was penned in the
"romantic period" of English verse,
when imagination was exalted over
the power of reason. But there is
nothing romantic or reasonable about
the prospect of running out of drink-
ing water.
Still, a growing number of Can-
adians think the prospect is possible.
In a Gallup Poll published in
October of 1989, 95 per cent of those
surveyed expressed concern about the
quality of drinking water in Canada.
As each month passes, hundreds of
Canadian households are switching to
the use of bottled water only or are
attempting to purify tap water by
filtration devices or distillation.
With scientists now able to detect
traces of toxic substances in parts per
quadrillion (1 quadrillion = 1 million
billion), the presence of dozens of
chemicals can be detected in virtually
any sample of drinking water. And
with growing awareness of environ-
mental issues and regular environmen-
tal reports in the media, Canadians
will continue to express their concerns
about the water they drink.
Neil Hopper, though, thinks some
of the concern is unfounded.
"I think the media is kind of pan-
icking people these days. They hear
all kinds of stones about bad water
and they just don't know what to
believe," says Hopper, the co-owner
of W. D. Hopper & Sons Water Well
Drilling in Seaforth, Ontario.
As past president of the Ontario
Water Well Association (OWWA),
Hopper believes the public needs to
"hear the other side of the story" and
be educated about the advantages of
groundwater over surface water as a
source of both rural and urban needs.
Surface water comes from lakes,
rivers, and streams. (Ontario contains
or borders on one-fifth of all the avail-
able fresh surface water on earth.)
Groundwater, on the other hand,
comes from wells and natural springs.
28 THE RURAL VOICE