Water Deep Down: The Revell Report

Digging into the water data for Melgund Township

Here in Northwestern Ontario, water isn’t just a resource; it is the lifeblood of our daily routine, from fishing near Dyment to drawing well water in Borups Corners. As we look at the proposed Revell Site for the Deep Geological Repository (DGR), the most critical question on many of our minds is: what is happening with the water, both on the surface and deep underground? The Nuclear Waste Management Organization (NWMO) has released their initial findings, and as your neighbours in Melgund Township, we are unpacking what this Impact Assessment actually says versus what we still need to know.

What We Are Learning

The NWMO has been busy drilling and testing. Their report focuses on two main worlds: the deep rock where the waste would go, and the surface water we see every day. Regarding the deep rock, they claim the granite is incredibly tight. They use a term called “transmissivity,” which basically measures how easily water moves through rock. Their data suggests the rock at the repository depth is solid, with water that is salty, ancient (over a million years old), and barely moving. On the surface, they report that our local water bodies are generally healthy, though they did find some existing issues with bacteria and metals.

The Reality Check

While the summary sounds reassuring, a closer look at the technical data reveals some things we need to verify.

• What is being promised: The deep water is isolated and has been sitting there for a million years, meaning no radiation could easily travel up to us.
• What we need to verify: This conclusion is based on only six deep boreholes across the entire site. In a project of this magnitude, is checking six spots enough to guarantee the whole block of rock is crack-free?
• What is being promised: Surface water is normal for a northern environment.
• What we need to verify: The data actually suggests exceedances for E. coli, mercury, and copper right now. The report notes these levels but doesn’t explain why they are there.

What are people saying about this issue? 

The potential degradation of Lake Winnipeg and surrounding watersheds is a recurring focal point for respondents. Comment #71 asserts that any leaching of nuclear waste into this watershed would devastate the ecological health, recreational enjoyment, and economy of the Lake Winnipeg area, which is already undergoing extensive recovery efforts. Similarly, Comment #30 and Comment #34 emphasize that the lake is currently in a degraded state, and the introduction of radioactive pollutants would have far-reaching socio-economic and heritage consequences for the communities that rely on it.

A primary grievance from Melgund Township is the profound lack of direct consultation and marginalization. Comment #391 and Comment #192 assert that despite their immediate proximity to the site, residents were never given the opportunity to vote for or against the project. They argue that the “willing host” framework utilized by the proponent effectively disenfranchised them, granting decision-making power to municipalities located much further away while ignoring the populations that will bear the most direct physical and environmental impacts

The public registry demonstrates an overwhelming, highly concentrated level of alarm regarding the protection of water resources, the threat of mercury, and the inadequacy of the NWMO’s geological testing. The lack of trust in the proponent’s hydrogeological claims raised by many commenters is profound and widespread.

Regarding the deep rock and the risk of fracture pathways, numerous experts and residents have challenged the NWMO’s assumption of a solid, impermeable Canadian Shield. Commenters explicitly criticized the reliance on a statistically insignificant number of boreholes to characterize the massive rock unit, noting that rock is dynamic, prone to movement, and inherently fractured [Comment Ref: 256, 251, 200, 198, 373, 289, 276, 130, 38]. The fear that undetected fissures will act as super-highways for radionuclide migration into the biosphere is a dominant theme.

The presence of existing toxins, particularly mercury, and the broader threat to the interconnected watersheds of Northwestern Ontario have contributed to massive public opposition. Residents, Indigenous groups, and environmental organizations have repeatedly warned that introducing a Deep Geological Repository into a watershed already burdened by historical mercury poisoning is an act of environmental injustice [Comment Ref: 606, 456, 238, 184, 18, 711, 607, 623, 435, 669, 604, 601, 599, 587, 581, 578, 562, 560, 559, 557, 555, 554, 544, 541, 536, 532, 518, 517, 509, 485, 475, 457, 451, 450, 441, 432, 423, 420, 417, 399, 396, 392, 388, 376, 374, 368, 364, 356, 347, 344, 336, 332, 319, 299, 277, 275, 273, 271, 269, 267, 258, 257, 255, 254, 252, 250, 249, 248, 246, 244, 242, 240, 239, 237, 236, 234, 230, 229, 227, 225, 221, 219, 218, 216, 214, 209, 205, 204, 203, 199, 190, 189, 186, 180, 178, 176, 165, 164, 161, 158, 153, 151, 150, 147, 146, 145, 142, 141, 139, 137, 136, 135, 129, 127, 126, 125, 124, 123, 122, 120, 119, 116, 115, 113, 109, 106, 104, 103, 100, 99, 97, 96, 95, 94, 93, 92, 90, 88, 86, 84, 83, 82, 81, 80, 79, 78, 75, 73, 72, 71, 70, 69, 68, 66, 64, 63, 62, 61, 60, 59, 57, 56, 55, 52, 51, 50, 48, 47, 45, 43, 42, 41, 40, 39, 37, 35, 34, 32, 29, 25, 24, 22, 17, 16, 14, 12, 11, 8, 7, 5]. The sheer volume of these citations underscores that the protection of water is the paramount concern for the region.

Physical and environmental risks to private properties are a major source of anxiety. Comment #192 raises specific concerns regarding the potential for construction blasting to damage private water wells in the township. Residents question whether the proponent has established a clear, legally binding mechanism to cover the high costs of drilling new wells or remediating property damage caused by the repository’s extensive excavation and construction phases.

The Path Forward

To ensure safety for Melgund Township and the surrounding area, we need to close the gaps between the current data and a complete safety picture.

The Gap: The assessment relies on a very small sample size (six boreholes) to characterize a massive area of rock. There is a risk that major fracture zones—pathways for water—were simply missed by the drill.
The Solution: We are calling for a denser network of boreholes. We need statistical confidence that the “tight rock” is the rule everywhere, not just where they happened to drill.

The Gap: High levels of mercury and E. coli were found in local water bodies, but the source is unknown.
The Solution: Before any construction begins, a detailed investigation is required to find the source of this contamination. If we don’t know where it’s coming from now, we won’t know if the DGR makes it worse later.

Why We Say It Matters Here

For those of us hunting and fishing around the Revell Site, these details aren’t just academic. If the deep water isn’t as stagnant as predicted because they missed a fracture zone, it changes the safety calculation for thousands of years. Closer to home, if our creeks already have high mercury, adding a major industrial construction project could tip the balance, affecting the fish we eat and the water quality for our wildlife. Furthermore, the current data lacks input from local Indigenous Knowledge, which often holds the key to understanding how these water systems change over generations, not just during a few years of testing.

To address these critical deficiencies and protect the unorganized territories along the Trans-Canada Highway, we strongly recommend the following immediate regulatory interventions:

We strongly recommend that the NWMO be mandated to execute a high-density deep borehole drilling program. The current reliance on six boreholes is entirely insufficient. A statistically valid grid of boreholes must be established to accurately map the geometry and connectivity of fracture zones across the entire 40 km by 15 km Revell Batholith before any further licensing approvals are granted.

We strongly recommend that the proponent conduct a comprehensive, independent Source-Term Identification Study for the existing mercury, copper, and E. coli exceedances found in the Mennin and Wabigoon rivers. The NWMO must not be permitted to dismiss these toxins as “normal” background levels. A definitive chemical fingerprinting must be established to differentiate between historical industrial contamination, natural geology, and future project-related effluents.

We strongly recommend that the IAAC reject the NWMO’s “low risk” hydrogeological designations until the conceptual and numerical groundwater models are fully completed, published, and subjected to independent, third-party peer review. These models must include extreme climate change scenarios and worst-case fracture connectivity simulations.

We strongly recommend the establishment of strict, quantitative “stop-work” thresholds for groundwater drawdown and surface water quality degradation. These thresholds must be co-developed with local residents and Indigenous rights-holders, ensuring that any deviation from the baseline triggers an immediate cessation of industrial activities.

About the Author

Melgund Integrated Nuclear Impact Assessment Project

Author

Melgund Integrated Nuclear Impact Assessment (MINIA) is a community-led research and analysis initiative focused on understanding the full social, cultural, environmental, and economic implications of nuclear-related projects in Northwestern Ontario. Grounded in local knowledge and lived experience, the project brings together researchers, artists, youth, Elders, and community partners to examine how large-scale infrastructure—such as the proposed Deep Geological Repository—intersects with everyday life, land-based relationships, and long-term regional sustainability.

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