OH WHAT A CPAC PARTY!

Last evening at 6 pm. in the Woolwich Council Chambers, I believe we turned a corner. Five of the six CPAC (Chemtura Public Advisory Committee) members were present including Interim Chair (Mayor Cowan). Dan Holt was absent due to a personal marital commitment (ie. anniversary). The last two CPAC meetings in June, while monopolized by first a M.O.E. Orientation and then a Chemtura Orientation, were nevertheless in my opinion dominated by Dan and Vivienne's personality and strength of will. Well last night was truly a team effort and boy did CPAC make the Ministry (M.O.E.) and Chemtura squirm. Sebastian, using his words , was like a dog with a bone. He wouldn't let go of the three page, eight item July 2003 CPAC Request for Action. Vivienne also made it clear that she wasn't interested in getting bogged down in minutia and trivia but wanted to focus on the basic cleanup. Mayor (Chair) Cowan suggested a DNAPL 101 course as well as asking if Ron Campbell and David Marks would give CPAC a Hydrogeology 101 course. They both agreed to it probably in September.

There has been a conscious and sucessful effort by the Chair to more fully engage the audience/gallery by permitting questions of Chemtura and the M.O.E. during the body of the meeting, rather than just at the beginning or end. Mayor Cowan made it very clear that he welcomed questions or comments from the others in the gallery with personal invites to them. This is a huge step towards an improved public consultation that better reflects a wider range of opinions.

Rich Clausi gently but firmly advised Chemtura that here in the Council Chambers in plain view of both appointed CPAC members as well as the general public, was the appropriate place for them to discuss Long Range Plans, Dioxin removal and DNAPL cleanup versus private "technical" meetings. Furthermore he questioned how it was possible that the old CPAC could unanimously support and endorse the eight item July 2003 Request for Action and then allegedly water it down into fifty-nine different items. What came back from a clearly flustered Dwight Este of Chemtura was the very defensive comments that Chemtura weren't responsible for a couple of CPAC representatives properly taking back to the whole CPAC, changes that they had made.

I must thank both David Marks and Ron Campbell of CPAC. Thay are the very first people at CPAC to speak up and suggest that indeed there are other sources of contamination to the Elmira Aquifer than just Uniroyal/Chemtura. David went so far as to ask the Ministry of the Environment to come back to the next CPAC meeting with a rationale for their having dismissed other sources from contention, twenty years ago. My Delegation to CPAC was about Varnicolor's Lot 91 as well as DNAPL (Dense Non Aqueous Phase Liquid) found by Conestoga Rovers (CRA) by the water tower between First and Howard Ave.. My Delegation also included references to the First St. Landfill as well as Borg Textiles and Sanyo Canadian.

Rich Clausi also pointed out that the Minutes from last month's CPAC meeting failed to mention his endorsement of my being back on CPAC. Then to add further garnish he suggested to Chemtura that they could prove their commitment to openness and transparency by asking that their biggest critic be reappointed to CPAC. Considering that Chemtura have lobbied hard to keep me off, I've got to give Richard full marks for chutzpah.

Garth Napier played defence well for the M.O.E. although in a losing cause. He did however promise to come back to CPAC with a fuller more comprehensive response and status update of the CPAC July 2003 Request for Action.

Shannon Purves-Smith who was present in the audience, suggested that many of CPAC's questions had already been asked and answered in former Annual Monitoring Reports written by CRA. While certainly glad of her participation (aka the 2nd paragraph above) I would respectfully suggest that she is incorrect. The A.M.R.'s, all of which I have read, essentially are a monument to CRA's reliance on Hydraulic Containment. They do not address Source Removal on the Chemtura site nor do they remotely suggest even the existence of other off-site sources despite CRA having discovered the DNAPL by the water tower in 1998. I would suggest that Shannon is demonstrating loyalty to her colleagues on the old CPAC and speaking personally, loyalty is a wonderful thing. It would be beneficial to the real cleanup if Shannon and other APTE members would show up to future public CPAC meetings and participate.