SCAPEGOAT FOR SALE

It never really made sense. Uniroyal Chemical geographically are the farthest chemical company, manufacturer and polluter from the south wellfield which is located beside Voisin Motors at the south end of Elmira. The general flow of all the aquifers shallow and deep is from north-east mostly south and slightly south-west. Between Uniroyal and the south wellfield we had Sulco Chemical, Varnicolor Chemical, Canagro, Borg, Sanyo Canada and Lot 91 (Varnicolor). Don't get me wrong here. Uniroyal/Chemtura are a dirty polluter of the most extreme kind. They however designed their "waste management" pits and ponds to effectively drain into the Canagagiue Creek. This worked so well that in the 60's and 70's the "Gig", for all intents and purposes, was devoid of life. They killed everything even microscopic biota. They leached vertically through the shallow aquifer and into the Municipal drinking water aquifer below. But the bulk of their toxins went downstream intentionally. Imagine Uniroyal's distress and outrage in 1989 to learn that nature had failed them. Their toxins allegedly had travelled all the way south approximately 800 metres (1/2 mile) to the south wellfield. Something was very wrong here.

Without naming names Uniroyal knew that other local polluters had been operating under the cover of their umbrella. Uniroyal had been on the radar of the OWRC (Ontario Water Resources Commission) and the Ministry of the Environment for decades. Uniroyal were so convinced that they alone were being singled out that they offerred a million dollars to go towards a technical study of ALL sources of groundwater pollution in Elmira. There were no takers. Uniroyal appealed the August 1990 Control Order which assigned all blame to them. At the Environmental Appeal Board hearing in the spring of 1991 Uniroyal's lawyers flatly stated that Varnicolor had contributed NDMA to the Municipal Aquifer. Then the EAB adjourned for the summer and the M.O.E. decided that a fix was in order before too much more damaging information came out. Damaging to the credibility of the Ontario M.O.E..

To this day there are ongoing and annually updated plume maps showing NDMA, Chlorobenzene and Ammonia plumes spread out across the town of Elmira. These plume maps show these chemicals in the Municipal Upper Aquifer, the Municipal Lower Aquifer and even NDMA AND Ammonia in the Bedrock Aquifer. Based on the flow direction of the groundwater (north-east to south-west) it can be interpreted as if everything starts at Uniroyal/Chemtura and heads to the south wellfield. The smoking gun of course would be plume maps in the shallow or Upper Aquifer. All contaminants are introduced at surface.They then leach downwards. Why have Uniroyal's consultants never produced Upper Aquifer plume maps for the Town of Elmira as they have for the other aquifers? The answer is obvious. Those plume maps would destroy the twenty-one year coverup and sweetheart deal between Uniroyal and the M.O.E.. The other dirty polluters in Elmira would be exposed as contributing to the destruction of our drinking water and they don't have an Indemnity like Uniroyal.