Saturday, August 20, 2011

CHEMTURA CANADA PROGRESS REPORT - JULY 2011

July's on site pumping (hydraulic containment) was the second lowest it's been in the last nineteen months. In a sense this is an indication that since the start of 2010 on site pumping has been actually very relaible as July's average pumping was 5.2 liters/sec. Of greater concern is the offsite pumping which has been poor for the last two months in a row. On a longer comparative basis however offsite pumping has been below target six of the last nine months. This again tends to leap out as the pumping for the first ten months of 2010 was consistently above target rates. All in all I suggest the long term trend of up and down pumping with great inconsistency continues on. Even pretty reliable well E7 at the south end of Elmira had electrical problems and fell below its' target rate this past month.

Table A.1 shows us analytical data concerning the combined on and off site treatment systems. The influent from Yara (Nutrite) shows us the expected high Ammonia readings but also of significance are the Chlorobenzene and NDMA readings. While neither one is of prizewinning proportions nevertheless contrary to the public perception, they do appear to be homegrown (as in Yara) contamination versus from Chemtura next door. Toluene from the Upper Aquifer wells and Chlorobenzene from PW5 are extraordinarily high and prove the existence of free phase LNAPL and DNAPL still existing in the southwest subsurface of Chemtura.

Table A.3 also shows us data for the treatment system and the prizewinning largest number of individual contaminants still goes to the Upper Aquifer wells. Clearly more through good luck than management the bulk of the contaminants are still shallow and haven't yet all moved downwards into the deeper aquifers.

Table C.2 deals with surface water in the Canagagigue Creek and as usual careful comparison of the upstream averages versus downstream shows us the presence of NDMA, NMOR, Ethylbenzene and Toluene in the creek. Trust me there are lots more goodies than that however between method detection limits and not testing for all compounds lots gets missed.

This is a typical "Progress Report". Hydraulic containment continues to slow the leakage and spread horizantly while doing almost nothing towards source removal. Future generations will look back in disgust with what was and wasn't done here in Elmira.

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