RAC AGENDA FOR THIS THURSDAY

Mostly the purpose is to present to the public something that looks good and feels good. In other words the impression they (Lanxess, MECP, Township etc.) are trying to convey is one of professional concern, care and competence. The reality is that they fail on all counts however with enough credentialed experts combined with some elected politicians all helping, the public are often successfully misled.

Item. 6 is the RAC and TAG Terms of Reference Update. CPAC were unsuccessful in obtaining an appropriate private meeting with the Woolwich councillors on this matter but I'm sure that won't inhibit a feel good report advising that all is O.K. when in fact it is not. 

Item. 7 is a Status Update on the 2028 MECP Order Deadline. Allegedly the Min. of Environment are going to deal with Uniroyal Chemical and corporate successors groundwater cleanup failure with a new Control Order. Well the last one certainly didn't do the job so I wonder why this one will. 

This meeting will be much ado about nothing but you have to attend to pick up occasional nuggets of gold from among all the crap presented. 

UPCOMING RAC MEETING DECEMBER 7, 2023 5:30 pm.

 RAC stands for Remediation Avoidance Committee. Wait a minute: It stands for Reliably Avoiding Cleanup.  Hmm how about Really Asinine Committee? Maybe it stands for Retrenchment AT all Costs. well whatever as we all know a rose smells great by any name and in this case RAC stinks by whatever name it is called.

RAC membership includes its' Chair Sandy Shantz as well as the TAG Chair Tiffany Svensson. Then we have the Grand River Conservation Authority (GRCA), Region of Waterloo, Ministry of Environment (MECP) along with Lanxess attending.

Similar to TAG, Disclosures of Pecuniary Interests is a farce. Every single group present has a pecuniary interest in attending and in supporting the entire scam and sham. From our six digit salaried mayor to Tiffany's $30,000 very part time honorarium to the GRCA's budget (municipal & regional tax dollars) to the MECP  's long shrinking budget everybody has a financial reason to support the status quo and pretend to clean up Elmira. The fact is the cleanup is based upon groundwater dilution, surface water dilution (Canagagigue), air dilution and natural attenuation all slightly assisted by pump & treat technology including more dilution in the Creek.

The last meeting was held in early September and RAC appears to average about four meetings a year. This avoids and minimizes nasty citizen input that is only partially allowed at RAC and not at all (no Delegations/no questions) at TAG. This folks is the Sandy Shantz joke of public consultation here in Elmira/Woolwich.

COWARDS DO NOT HAVE THE COURAGE OF THEIR CONVICTIONS

 The unholy foursome of Uniroyal/Crompton/Chemtura/Lanxess have never been up front with the public. I expect however that in private sessions (which are most common) with the Min. of Environment (MECP), Woolwich Township, Region of Waterloo etc. they likely have been. All four made it plain early on that Elmira/Woolwich would be worse off without the economic engine which a chemical company is.  Wages, raw materials, water and power consumption are all paid for by a manufacturer. 

Hence here we are in the thirty-fifth year since Uniroyal Chemical shut down our drinking wells (1989). The "cleanup"  has not been successful and in fact it seems clearer and clearer to me that for all intents and purposes Lanxess really aren't trying that hard and the MECP is O.K. with it. Afterall if there are no sanctions for failure (none so far)  then why should Lanxess continue to spend full bucks on pumping and treating? I believe they have degraded their offsite pumping to the point of merely trying to stop the spread of the contamination. While that has been the intent with on-site pumping & treating for decades they are supposed to be pumping & treating to the point of both containment and actual cleanup of the off-site aquifers. By Conestoga Rover's own figures that would require closer to 150 litres per second versus the current 64-68 l/sec. total off-site well pumping.

Lanxess will likely continue telling the public one thing while keeping our authorities in the loop. This also allows our political authorities the cover of "plausible deniability". For example if the company decides to cut and run all our politicians will publicly cry foul and claim that they did not know it was coming.

UNIROYAL/LANXESS DEVIATION FROM CONTROL ORDERS

DNAPL removal, full hydraulic containment (Nov. 1991 Control Order); 2028 full remediation of groundwater (2000 Control Order).

Further MECP & Lanxess failures:  Canagagigue Creek cleanup not mandated according to Lanxess.

DNAPL and LNAPL remain on the former Uniroyal Chemical site both as residual and as free phase DNAPL and LNAPL. Locations are known and mostly shallow.

Full hydraulic containment in all aquifers never occurred. Three quarters of Upper Aquifer, namely north-west, north-east and south-east are not contained for egregious and or false reasons. Municipal Lower is not hydraulically contained nor is the Bedrock Aquifer. Municipal Upper routinely fails to achieve its' Target pumping rates.

 2028 full remediation of groundwater is admitted by all parties to be unattainable. This is due to the polluter being in full charge of the cleanup and the least expensive, least effective methodologies have been used despite excellent recommendations from various citizens plus UPAC and CPAC.

Only recently have we the public been advised that the cleanup of the Creek is voluntary. Good God!  The Creek soils, sediments and fish are full of DDT, dioxins/furans, PAHs, mercury and PCBs plus more most well above the provincial or federal health criteria. Human beings living along the Creek are also exposed. Lanxess claims that their bought and paid for Risk Assessment says that there are no unacceptable risks downstream. That is a lie produced for money by professional, self-serving manipulators. 

SETTLING FOR CRUMBS

 Will Lanxess play the same game that Todd Cowan tried with me back in 2010.  Todd and I had sat down on two or three occasions and discussed the status of the Elmira cleanup. He already was unimpressed from various other professional sources that he had talked to. I was the cherry on the cake and promised to continue my work keeping up to date but as a member of Woolwich Council appointed CPAC (Chemtura Public Advisory Committee).  Then lo and behold as he advised me that I was being put onto CPAC, he and Dave Brenneman added a condition. I either had to give up my Blog (Elmira Advocate) or else promise not to discuss any Chemtura/Elmira/ CPAC issues in it. I was stunned and angry. I basically advised Todd and David in no uncertain terms that I had agreed to do volunteer work on behalf of the public interest and if they thought that I should somehow have to "pay" for the privilege then they were out of their minds  I was appointed without conditions.

Right now Lanxess (Ramin A.) are telling TAG (Technical Advisory Group) that they are in favour of doing something extra for the community in regards to the Canagagigue Creek. They emphasize that their whole Risk Assessment and or any extra are all voluntary. I do not know how they managed to wiggle out of both financial and legal liability for the devastation they caused in the Creek but the Ministry of Environment are not disagreeing with Lanxess's position. 

So will Lanxess go to their proven lousy poker player whom they've bluffed and bafflegabbed for thirty years and ask her for some form of ringing endorsement of them if they agree to say cleaning up two hotspot areas? Will Lanxess advise Woolwich Township that good press quoting Woolwich Township praising them is desirable  prior to them spending their money on any hotspot cleanups. Maybe if Lanxess have enough brass (they do) they might even sell their cleanup costs for good press from the Min. of Environment. Again if you will this is Lanxess's desired outcome. Do the absolute minimum (moral, ethical-legal?) AND get praised for doing it. 

It is without a doubt a fine time to be a dirty polluter.

JUSTICE JAMES RAMSAY IS NO ROBERT RILEY

 Thank goodness! Or am I just caught up in the euphoria of the moment? Did I see this judicial victory described in both yesterday's K-W Record and today's ahead of time? I did not. There was of course absolutely no doubt that the Waterloo Region District School Board (WRDSB) and their stooges are complete bullies and idiots. That was not ever in contention with myself. I've been on the receiving end of that former pack of gutless wonders nearly thirty years ago.

Robert Williams and Luisa D'Amato in today's Record lay bare what Justice James Ramsay had to say about former Chair Scot Piatkowski as well as about the Board's behaviour. When I say the Board I usually am referring to the senior administration however right now I'm referring to them as well as to the Trustees as a group. They are a contemptible pack of biased and woefully ignorant citizens not working in the public interest but in the School Board's interest. That is the proof of their ignorance (as a group) as they have through their public stupidity exposed  themselves and the entire WRDSB to the public contempt and derision to which they've long deserved. To be clear there are at least a couple of trustees who do not deserve my contempt and that would be Mike Ramsay and Cindy Watson. I suspect that one or two more may have voted against the majority of trustees in agreeing with the then Chair Scot Piatkowski to remove Caroline Burjoski from the public meeting she was speaking at way back in January 2022.

 Am I being too ecstatic in my praise of Justice James Ramsay? Maybe because I don't believe that I know him at all. Am I being too harsh in my condemnation of Justice Robert Reilly? Not at all. I know that as+hole only too well. He is a biased coward and bully who uses his judicial pulpit not in the public interest. Frankly he disgusts me. Getting back to Justice James Ramsay I would very much like to believe that his decision hammering the Trustees, Scot Piatkowski and presumably the senior WRDSB administration is the real deal. 

That's the rub. I've seen asinine decisions out of judges at the Ontario Superior Court in Kitchener in the past. Also at local lower courts nearby. I've also seen a far too cosy relationship between senior police admin and the WRDSB in the past. So is this decision from Justice James Ramsay the proper decision based upon the facts and based upon the law or is it just one more set up by a group of professional liars and manipulators?  This recent decision shouldn't even have been entertained by the courts in the first place. The WRDSB filed a Motion to dismiss Caroline Burjoski's Defamation lawsuit against Trustee Chair Scot Piatkowski. This Defamation lawsuit was directly mentioned by Judge Ramsay as he indicated his opinion that it was a very worthy/credible ? lawsuit based upon the facts and evidence before him. 

Time will tell but it is typical for the inward looking, intellectually incestuous idiots at the Board to file a SLAPP (Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation) Motion against Caroline Burjowski after she was publicly defamed by the Trustee Chair.  Oh and just for the record up until the Burjoski incident I was a fan of Scot Piatkowski. Boy has that changed. 

A PUBLIC MEETING WILL BE ANNOUNCED SOON

 It was not my idea. I am not in charge of this upcoming meeting. Its' purpose will be to update Elmira and Woolwich citizens regarding the status of the alleged remediation of the Uniroyal Chemical toxic dynasty. This so called remediation has been underway since January 1992. In fits and starts. In stop and starts. What has been constant is the propaganda and puffery coming from Uniroyal Chemical initially and their three corporate successors since (Crompton,  Chemtura,  Lanxess Canada). 

Uniroyal's toxic dynasty includes gross soil contamination, gross ground and surface water contamination, gross air contamination and gross downstream creekbank soil and creek sediments contamination. Plus throw in some floodplain soils contamination as well. Now of course it goes without saying that gross truth pollution has also occurred by those responsible for the environmental pollution as well as their fellow travellors.

Fellow travellors have included most of our political and semi political authorities to their everlasting shame. Of course lying to the public is all in a day's work for professional politicians whose motivation is their own self-interest versus the public interest. Seriously is it possible for any but the newest Canadian residents to still think that our governments are here for our benefit?  Think provincially with Doug Ford and the Conservatives blatant lying and corruption over the Greenbelt. Think about Justin Trudeau and the Liberals cheerfully bringing in many hundreds of thousands per year new immigrants without having first upgraded our housing stocks, our transportation routes, our sewage treatment plants, our water supply and on and on. Did they do this on humanitarian grounds or did they do this to massively increase the supply of labour, decrease wages and weaken unions? It may be true that Canada needs a certain number of working immigrants per year but why are so many underemployed in relation to their skills? Why with the Covid pandemic are restrictions on both foreign nurses and doctors practicing in Canada still maintained? Why are highly educated Canadian applicants to medical schools being routinely denied admission?

We are a country of self-serving producers and professionals all looking out for number one who are also smart enough to be politically active. Professional lobby groups both pressure and financially reward our governing parties to do their bidding. This obviously includes input into legislation whether to weaken government attempts to control collateral damage to the public or to further strengthen individual groups stranglehold on their part of the economy.

Our municipal, regional, provincial and even federal governments have not acted in the interests of Elmira and Woolwich residents. They have permitted the downstream discharge and leakage of Uniroyal Chemical's toxic wastes from 1942 up to the present. Along with that they permitted decades of toxic air emissions and groundwater contamination. Our governments have taken the measure of local citizens and opposition and decided back in November 1989 to continue their support of a very dirty polluter. This has been done both with subtlety  at times and blatantly at others. Citizens have paid the price through shortened lives and increased health issues.         

It is my hope that citizens will leave this public meeting knowing that they must step up and demand government action. The pressure must be renewed for any appropriate cleanup to take place.