HOLY CRAPOLA I AM STUNNED

Normally I don't mind throwing stones at those who routinely use deception, trickery, prevaricating and wealth all with malice aforethought in order to make /save more money by doing environmental damage. I am going to try and avoid editorializing here because I just don't know what all is going on. The facts are this: Sitting on Union St. in Elmira, looking west while between First Ave. and Howard Ave. you will see very large piles of gravel. They are sitting on the old Varnicolor Chemical site. Behind them is a very large excavation that I originally estimated as eight feet deep by 75' x 75'. On second estimation I believe 8' deep by 50' x 50'. Nevertheless I spoke with two people present in the area and asked them what was being built there as it certainly appeared that this was an excavation for footings and a basement. Their answer stunned me particularily so as hindsight is twenty/twenty and I had received complaints about odours over the last few weeks nearby. The answer was that nothing was being built, the owner was "airing out the soil". Keep in mind that this site was "remediated" twenty years ago with massive removals of contaminated soil being replaced with clean fill. I pointed this out and again was stunned by the directness and knowledge of the response. Yes the top few feet of gravel were clean but below that the clay is saturated and very contaminated. If the owner "XYZ" wants to develop or build or sell he has to clean up the soil first. Well this is a first for me as it appears to be a home made probably illegal environmental cleanup. I phoned the M.O.E. both in Hamilton and Guelph and talked to Officers I know personally and neither of them had any knowledge of remediation or current excavations on the old Varnicolor site. The ramifications of this information are quite dramatic and more will follow here.