THREE AND A HALF MORE YEARS OF CHEMTURA/M.O.E. STALLING & DELAY

I get a chuckle out of the occasional commenter on my Blog who suggests more patience regarding my approach to the remediation here in Elmira. We are six weeks away from 2016. We are already in the eighteenth year of off-site pumping that started in 1998. We have but twelve and a half years until we reach the 2028 deadline. Keep clearly in mind this is not the thirtieth year since the wells were shut down. Oh no the powers that be didn't start the clock ticking until after nine years had pased from the shutdown of the Elmira south wellfield in 1989.

This past weekend I reviewed a June 27, 2013 report by the Ministry of the Environment. It is titled "Review of Groundwater Flow and Transport Model Update". This is a review of Chemtura/CRA's response to the Resolution passed by CPAC in the spring of 2012, when CPAC with both expert internal and external advice, publicly stated and distributed their conclusion that the 2028 off-site cleanup of the Elmira Aquifers was not achievable by the current remediation plans. Chemtura and CRA produced their alleged, already in the works, similar determination six months later (November 2012). Strange but their howls of protest and denial back in April/May were suddenly forgotten.

Chemtura publicly and repeatedly stated that they would need to both TRIPLE the volume of off-site groundwater pumping and treating AS WELL AS use some form of off-site source removal such as ISCO (In Situ Chemical Oxidation) in order to meet their 2028 deadline. What a turnaround! I was the first in Elmira/Woolwich Township to publicly state "The cleanup is a sham!" a few years earlier. CPAC professionally determined the same and then and only then after much denial, Chemtura/CRA/Ontario M.O.E. followed suit. Do we see a pattern here? Citizens lead and our government follows.

It has taken three years to date to install a few wells and study and reject ISCO as being unacceptable. No alternative technology has been proposed to date. The new TAG Chairrman, Dr. Dick Jackson, has suggested in his TAG 2016 Work Plan that Chemtura/CRA did not properly study or evaluate ISCO. The new off-site pumping, now promised to only DOUBLE off-site pumping is scheduled to begin sometime in 2016. The other kicker is whether this so called DOUBLING will be of either the 2012 pumping rate or even the 2015 off-site pumping rate. Afterall we are now being advised that supposedly there no longer is a need for well E7 in Elmira's south end (beside Voisin Motors) to remain pumping. This well has been the backbone of the off-site pumping for more than eighteen years. It alone has pumped half or more of the water removed and treated from the off-site aquifers. Therefore will this new DOUBLING of the off-site pumping be a Doubling before or after the pumping is cut in half?

Worst case scenario is that Chemtura with M.O.E. assistance has once again totally scammed Elmira and Woolwich Township. Best case scenario is that they have sucessfully dragged out another 3 1/2 years of testing and studies to avoid source removal both on and off-site. Either way they have as usual been assisted by our local Woolwich Council to the detriment of public health and the environment.