SHAME ON WOOLWICH COUNCIL, CHEMTURA & THE MINISTRY OF THE ENVIRONMENT

Yesterday I received a phone call from CBC Radio in London. They interviewed me with the possibility of CBC Radio Kitchener picking up the story/interview. I had left them a phone message on Friday and suggested they call either Dr. Dan Holt (Chair) or Ron Campbell, both of the Chemtura Public Advisory Committee (CPAC). Now Dan in hindsight has headed south to visit family and Ron who works and travels extensively due to his company Acute Environmental; may actually be enjoying a little time off work this long weekend.

With this in mind I have spent about four hours so far today reviewing the Agent Orange, Dioxin, GP1 & 2 files I have. Further interviews may or may not occur but I have decided to have everything fresh if not outright memorized . This current non-cleanup being done by Chemtura and endorsed by the M.O.E. is far too important not to. With all due respect to both the current CPAC and the old one there is virtually no one even close to my level of hydrogeological knowledge on the subject. That combined with my four hours effort today has given me an insight into Woolwich Council. They are literally know nothing, ungrateful, petty jerks. Quoting my friend Richard Clausi, what kind of a team benches their best player, permanently? The answer is a very stupid one. Now for the provisos. Not all of Woolwich Council voted against my membership on CPAC; only the incredibly stupid ones. Secondly there is a current CPAC member who is technically very competent although his experience is primarily on dozens/hundreds of other sites. That would be Ron Campbell. Thirdly and this pains me greatly to say but here goes. There was a four page report dated April 2012 with comments about the gravel pit investigation (GP1 & 2) written by the APT Chemtura Committee (ACC). Richard likes to refer to this group as Chemtura's APT Committee. Regardless this report is insightful and makes some excellent points. Now I know Pat McLean has never seen a technical report that has any interest for her; therefore the only possible author would be Susan Bryant. The tragedy is that she and Sylvia Berg sold out the APTE members and co-ordinators back in the early 90's in regards to DNAPLS (dense non-aqueous phase liquids).

Both myself and the current CPAC also wrote critiques of Chemtura's planned work in GP1 & 2. Today's homework has driven home for me the misdirection, deviousness and outright bullshit that Chemtura will indulge in in order to save a few million dollars. They claim there are no solvents in the groundwater. The reality is that there are only low levels of solvents in the Upper Aquifer 1 (UA1). These would include NDMA, Chlorobenzene and Ammonia among others. The other reality is that there are high levels of solvents in UA3 and in the MU (municipal upper aquifer) beneath Chemtura's south-east corner. These have been there for decades. These solvents came from the overflow of the east side pits which drained for decades into GP1 & 2 by gravity flow. This drainage was assisted by Chemtura (Uniroyal) ploughing furrows to help the liquid overflow from RPE 1, 2, 3, 4, & 5 flow downhill into GP1 & 2. We have lists of the chemicals and their concentrations in the east side pits and they were horrific. Solvents by the dozens intermingled with pesticides including DDT, and the wastes from Agent Orange production contaminated with Dioxins all flowed into GP1 & 2 where they ponded and slowly sank into the ground. The ground held a little topsoil but was mostly sand and gravel thus aiding deep infiltration. The groundwater levels are very high as this area is floodplain for the Canagagigue Creek which is barely fifty feet away from GP2. Just a few of the known solvents in the deeper aquifers would include 2-MBT, aniline, benzothiazole, carboxin, toluene and many more. Dozens of these are listed as the components of the consolidation pits, RPE4 & 5.

Chemtura's greatest strength is not doing their due diligence and then bragging about how they haven't found Dioxins or other solvents in the groundwater. They also brag that the highest concentrations of Dioxins are at the surface. What they ignore is that they have refused to test the deeper aquifers recently for solvents and they have refused to do deeper (UA3, MU) soil testing looking for Dioxins, DDT or anything else. This south-east area was highly contaminated and the remaining Dioxins/DDT on the surface are merely the tip of the iceburg. Shame on Chemtura, their consultants, the M.O.E. and a Woolwich Council that aid and abet Chemtura by benching their best players using red herrings, innuendo and bald faced lies.