Water Testing

Ross Sutherland | Apr 10, 2024

Thank you for your coverage of the proposal to stop testing well water in the public health labs and close the Kingston Laboratory.

Closing the Kingston lab would remove a  convenient way for local residents to test their water.  Discontinuing free well water testing would be a health threat to all well users, most severely impacting those who are unable to buy bottled water. 

Where did these ideas come from?

They seem to have started in a 2015 government report on how to control the cost of the for-profit laboratories, basically Lifelabs and Dynacare: the most recent report on how to rein-in private labs costs. The Report recommended cutting a further $50 million from their payments.

Somewhat inexplicably the report also suggested transferring many low-hazard public health tests, like well water, to the private labs.  It looked a lot like a bribe to the private labs to try and get them to agree to the new contracting conditions the panel was recommending.

Regardless, the government seems to be running with this proposal to shift work to businesses that have been a source of excess cost for over 50 years and transfer some of the costs directly to residents.

Kingston area rural residents are particularly affected. Ground breaking work by Queen’s University public health researchers shows that we are one of 6 hot spots in Ontario for ground water, and subsequently well water contamination.  They found that 8% of local area well samples processed between 2007 to 2012 were contaminated with e-coli.

Do not worry though, the provincial government has a plan. Residents who rely on well water would still have the option of paying a private lab for the test, completing the cycle of closing a needed public facility and transferring the work, and income, to for-profit multinational corporations.  

Ross Sutherland