Despite its relatively small population size (approximately 30 million), Canada is one of the largest consumers of water on a per capita basis. Only the United States exceeds Canada's rate of consumption. In his article, Water from the Ground, Peter Gorrie writes that Canada uses "an estimated 1.5 billion cubic meters of [water] each year", (Gorrie 71). And while Canadians are for the most part are unaware of how much water they consume, they are even less aware of its presence around them. For water is an immense natural resource that rests not only around Canadians, but beneath their feet as well.

In no region is this more pervasive than in the province of Ontario. Ontarians walk above groundwater supplies everyday, without the slightest notion of the extent to which

Another of the large offenders is the mining industry. During the process of mining, large piles of crushed rock (mine tailings) are left behind after the valuable minerals have been removed. These mine tailings pose a major threat to groundwater supplies, because of the iron sulphide they contain. This iron sulphide, when mixed with "water and bacteria converts to sulphuric acid. The acid then dissolves lead, mercury and other toxic or radioactive metals out of the tailings and these can seep down to groundwater", (Gorrie 76). These tailings are not a concern when mines are in operation, because the water must be collected and contaminates separated. When mines are closed however, there is no legislation covering who is responsible for these tailings. This example illustrates yet another way by which big companies have polluted groundwater, and poor government control has allowed them to get away virtually unpunished.

Pollution to groundwater comes in many different forms. Large companies are accused of being the primary polluters, but others who are also responsible include dry cleaners, farmers, residential septic tanks, mine tailing run-off, garbage dumps, and leaky fuel storage facilities. Gorrie points out one of the central problems in reducing groundwater pollution: "Canada has some of the world's leading experts on groundwater, but we have some of the weakest, laziest legislation covering it"(Gorrie 73). In order to gain a greater understanding of the threats to groundwater supplies, it is imperative to look at the causes of pollution and their consequences to the general public.

Those in Ontario who live on the outskirts of towns, and are too far away from sewer lines can play a large role in tainting groundwater. Most of these homes use septic systems with weeping beds. These weeping beds allow the lighter fluids to run of into a tile, that eventually seeps into the ground. The problem is that while the heavy waste sinks to the bottom and is eventually disposed of in a proper fashion, lighter waste is able to seep into the groundwater. This lighter waste can be just as harmful as a chemical plant's waste, because the "homeowners' tendency to put cleaners, solvents and other chemicals down their drains", (Gorrie 76) ends up in the water.

"Out of sight and mind"(Gorrie 69) is an all too common phrase used by geographers to describe the lack of concern over groundwater. Ontario is slowly polluting its groundwater, and making it the resting place for many toxic chemicals. Groundwater moves the fastest through coarse sands or gravels, but it moves at a snail's pace through clays that are found in most of Southern Ontario. Some of these pollutants take hundreds of years to work there way out of the water table, and there are no clean-up solutions worth using.

Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1986
Approximate Pages = 8 (250 words per page double spaced)