A COUPLE OF FURTHER POINTS RE: THURSDAY'S CPAC MEETING

A former CPAC member who had been assiduously and conspicuously avoiding attending public CPAC meetings has begun attending them on occasion. She had raised an issue in regards to a farm pond downgradient of the Chemtura site and specifically downgradient of the proposed scraping and capping of GP1 and GP2. Her issue was a concern that maps appeared to show an overland flow path from the GP1 and GP2 area directly towards this farm pond which was used as a swimming pond. As these two Chemtura areas are badly contaminated with DDT and dioxins and more; her concerns certainly need to be addressed. The fellow from the M.O.E. who presented the results of the Downstream Monitoring Report mentioned that there were no sediments in the bottom of the pond due to a geotextile membrane that was installed. I asked him a couple of questions about the permeability of this geotextile. In other words was its' purpose to be a waterproof liner hence keeping groundwater out or was it simply to keep mud and plant growth off the bottom and sides of the pond. He had absolutely no idea. He was able to suggest that berms around the top of the pond definitely would prevent overland flow of water from entering. The former CPAC member asked for and mostly received assurances that the M.O.E. would consider testing of this bermed soil for Chemtura contaminants. I still am a little concerned about contaminated groundwater infiltrating this pond and hope the M.O.E. consider testing for that as well.