THE OLD CPAC WENT ALONG TO GO ALONG

They were long co-opted. Some were knowingly co-opted, most probably were not. Susan Rupert (Gow) warned APTE almost twenty-four years ago that if they agreed to private meetings they would be co-opted. Pat McLean and Susan Bryant have long been advocates of just such a strategy. Both of them have been rewarded for their "flexibility" whether by Chemtura or by the Region of Waterloo. These rewards have included status, expense paid trips, awards, paid work and membership on the National Advisory Panel of *Responsible Care, a chemical industry initiative. Just to be clear I don't believe that Pat McLean went "rogue". I believe that her behaviour was exactly what the Woolwich Mayor wanted at the time.

Transparency and accountability are gone when the polluter advises what issues he does not want discussed at public advisory committees. The citizens committee is co-opted when some meetings are by invitation only. CPAC is co-opted when the Chair and her sidekick, who are privately benefiting from their co-operation with Uniroyal/Chemtura, decide to remove the biggest thorn and most knowledgeable citizen, myself, from CPAC. Both Chemtura and the Ontario Ministry of the Environment have also been lobbying for the past four years plus to keep me off of CPAC. This will continue not because the current CPAC aren't honest and strong but precisely because they are. I am a catalyst and I have proven myself willing to assist CPAC members with data, history and information to bring them up to speed quickly.

This past year has been extraordinary. The discoveries of deception and misinformation are incredible. The list of individuals and groups who are now willing to publicly state that they don't believe that Chemtura will clean up the Elmira Aquifers to drinking water standards continues to grow, including the Region and Township. Two experts in the field have written reports contradicting the long stated positions and opinions of Chemtura and their consultants, Conestoga Rovers. Dr. Gail Krantzberg (McMaster U.) and Peter Gray of MTE Consultants were hired by CPAC and have both weighed in on major cleanup issues. The latter's report is key in tieing all the other east side discoveries together including the Stroh Drain, possible collector trenches and increasing concentrations of DDT downstream in the Canagagigue Creek.

Chemtura and the M.O.E.'s desperation is clear to see. Their last minute boycott of the November CPAC meeting is but one example. Chemtura's changing positions and responses regarding the scar, line, trench on their property is yet another. The M.O.E.'s shameful "site visit" a couple of summers back in which George Karlos declared there was no reasonable pathway for contaminants to leave Chemtura's property and move towards or into the Martin swimming pond is beyond negligence. My expectation is that both parties will do what they do best. That is crow and brag about their self proclaimed "sucesses" and then run for the hills as they have been caught redhanded having deceived and misled Elmira citizens for decades.