MONDAY NIGHT'S RAC & TAG REPORTS

The first "Update to Council on RAC and TAG Activities" took place last Monday evening. In my Delegation I advised of a couple of errors in Sandy Shantz's two page introduction. Firstly she stated that "In late 2014...other main stakeholders (M.O.E. & Chemtura) had stopped attending meetings.". I clarified by stating the exact month the two stakeholders together did not attend CPAC. It was November 2014 and both of them sent their Regrets ahead of time with reasons. There was absolutely bo suggestion of a boycott or refusal to attend. Therefore it was not until early 2015 that there was any indication of a boycott and even then the two parties did not explicitly say so. Isn't it peculiar how Sandy Shantz in an e-mail advised Dr. Dan Holt, CPAC Chair, well prior to the second missed CPAC meeting that the two parties were no longer attending.

The second issue was in regards to Sandy's claim that "All stakeholders have returned to the table....". That was clearly untrue as Council essentially threw out the original November 2014 Applications that CPAC had all filled in. To my pleased surprise Council agreed to my first request and appeared tentatively to agree to the second.

In his Briefing Notes Dr. Dick Jackson criticized the lack of suspended sediment monitoring over the decades at the Chemtura site. He further advised that there are multiple reasons and issues why the Federal government should be involved with this site. They include Agent Orange production for the U.S. military, the federal Fisheries Act, the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement and federal assistance for Agent Orange cleanup in Vietnam. Dr. Jackson recommends a full assessment of streambed and suspended sediment contamination by Dioxins/furans and DDT as the M.O.E. sediment surveys to date have not been "spatially comprehensive". He also recommends removal of sediments , similar to Vietnam with concentrations of Dioxins in excess of 150 parts per trillion (ppt).

Dr. Jackson has predicted a confrontation with the Ontario Ministry of the Environment in the coming months. I expect that when push comes to shove Woolwich Council will effectively abandon him and side with the M.O.E.. Council will of course couch this in terms of economics, practicality, best science, keeping a major employer in town and any other Mom and apple pie terms they can dream up. Woolwich Council have over a half century of bed partner experience with Uniroyal/Crompton and Chemtura that they don't want to disrupt.