Residents fear effects of increasing quarry activity on Elmvale groundwater, believed to be cleanest in world

Bonnie Pauzé carefully lines up small mason jars full of water on the porch at her farm near Elmvale, Ont. She's collected dozens of them at regular intervals for more than a decade. The water in some is clear, less so in others. Pauzé lifts a jar and points to dirty black sediment, another contains a layer of silt that has settled on the bottom. She shakes it and the water becomes cloudy.

"This is kind of my own little clinical study that reminds me when I lose courage and I lose hope," she said. "I look at the work that's been done and I look at the water and I think, 'Oh, you know what? You've got to keep going.'"

Pauzé says she started noticing changes in her well water when a nearby quarry, now operated by the Dufferin Aggregates division of CRH Canada, started drawing millions of litres of groundwater most days to wash gravel in 2009.

The quarry is located on the northern edge of French's Hill, a groundwater recharge area where rainfall enters the ground and replenishes the regional water flow system.

Owners of at least a dozen wells situated downgradient of the Teedon Pit and its aggregate washing operations have complained of changes in their water, and they suspect wash water is leaking into the underlying groundwater flow system.

Pauzé and her family have lived on their farm below the hill for nearly 30 years. She says until aggregate washing operations ramped up, her well water had always flowed crystal clear. Now it's unpredictable.

Pauzé is on her ninth washing machine since 2010. Even though she has a filtration system, the silt seeps in and any appliance with a pump becomes so clogged it stops working.

During some periods the water has been so cloudy, she bought bottled water to drink. Eventually she had to get rid of her cattle because they often refused to drink the water.

Over the years, Pauzé complained several times to Ontario's environment ministry. It investigated in 2015 and found no evidence quarry operations were having an impact on local water quality, an assertion it stands by today.

The ministry concludes the issues are caused by faulty well construction or poor well maintenance. Dufferin cites the ministry's findings in its reports that conclude its aggregate activities are not affecting residents' well water.

The faulty well explanation has been challenged by an expert Bonnie hired in 2015. In his reports, independent environmental consultant Wilf Ruland wrote, "If there were a problem with  the wells' construction, then it would be an ongoing problem. It would not be something  that was episodic."

The report added, "The timing of the problems developing (both wells delivering excellent water until 2009, and then both wells having  episodic silt issues since then) is also highly unlikely to have occurred by chance."

Pauzé is convinced the groundwater is at risk.

"We need to protect it. It is the canary in the coal mine."