Thursday, April 12, 2018

ARE YOU KIDDING ME? THIS IS DISGRACEFUL EVEN BY THEIR STANDARDS



I've been posting here for the last week and a half about the 2017 Canagagigue Creek Sediment and Floodplain Soil Investigation report. I have expressed my difficulty about aligning the text with numerous Figures showing soil and sediment results on maps as well as with multiple Tables also showing DDT, DDD and DDE results along with Dioxin results in creek sediments and creekbank soils. Well yesterday I came to a conclusion. GHD are completely inept. Or should I say that it is the same former Conestoga Rovers folks screwing up only at a new level of incompetence? Whomever this is both an insult to citizen volunteers reading this report as well as a damning indictment of what passes for public consultation here in Woolwich Township. This report was issued on March 19/18. Volunteers and professionals alike have had it for weeks. Have not the likes of Dwight Este and Ramin Ansari of Lanxess read this ridiculous nonsense? What have the Ontario Ministry of Environment been doing? Are they really going to bull their way through and pretend that this report is remotely an acceptable example of a consultant's scientific work? The first public meeting (TAG) is one week away and the second (RAC) follows one week later. Get this mess passing as text in your report fixed and new copies distributed BEFORE the public meetings.

Monday and Tuesday of this week I posted here about both the number of exceedances of health criteria in the creek soils and sediments as well as the number of discrepancies in the text. These discrepancies in the text are with both Figures 6.1-6.11 as well as with Tables 3-11. I earlier on mentioned other errors and inconsistencies in the text such as labelling New Jerusalem Road and Station 21 as "Reach 2". Reach 2 is shown on Figure 4.1 and is further downstream starting east of New Jerusalem Rd. and going right to Northfield Drive (#22).The text around pages 16-21 also repeatedly state that the criteria for total DDT in sediments is .078 parts per million (ppm). It is not. It is .007 ppm.. Furthermore Station 21 appears not to be specifically defined or shown in this report. From previous reports I know that it is located just on the west side of New Jerusalem Rd..

There are constant references in the text to 2,4-DDT + 4,4-DDT (ND*.05) whereas the Figures and Tables refer to this total DDT as having a non-detect of .5 versus .05 . It would be appropriate for this to be explained.

The constant failure to ignore 2,4-DDD + 4,4-DDD exceedances in the text as previously mentioned requires explaining. There is none.

Page 18 claims that the criteria for DDE in sediments is .05 ppm. That is inaccurate. It is .005 ppm.. These references are in regards to samples from New Jerusalem Rd. and Station 21. This is where I was trying to reconcile the text results with Table 6.2 on page 17. It was hopeless. Table 6.2 is titled "Summary of Sediment Sample results" and many, not all, of the numbers in that Table do not match up with anything I can find.

I was able to confirm many of the numbers listed in Table 6.1 titled "Summary of Soil Sample Results" contrary to the mess that is Table 6.2 .

I believe there may be a transposition between 6.3 "Reach 3 and Downstream of Station 20" starting on page 19 with 6.4 "Lanxess Facility" starting on page 20. 6.3.4 "Dioxins/Furans in Sediment (page 20) at downstream of Station 20 has the identical text and results as 6.4.4 Dioxins/Furans in Sediment (page 21) for the Lanxess facility which is an entirely different location further upstream from Station 20 which by the way is also poorly defined or located in this report, thank you very much. Again I can't match up the numbers for Dioxins/Furans in Sediment for the Lanxess facility with Table 6.2 . I believe this is because the entire paragraph of text has been inexplicably duplicated from the previous page. Maybe these are somehow printing errors but regardless why haven't they been caught and CORRECTED and then distributed to all stakeholders?

This is a mess. It is impossible to figure out what the hell they are doing or talking about as they've garbled it beyond recognition. Fix it you twits. Don't deny or sit on it knowing most citizens will throw up their hands and wrongly assume that they simply can't follow an already complicated and difficult report.



2 comments:

  1. Yes it is a mess especially for me as an outsider not having access to the previous studies. Reading these blogs has been a challenge without the report, Figures, Maps, Tables and today I found out their were photos on a memory stick. My compliments to Alan for struggling through this report and wonder does no one else including Ministries, the Consultants, Town Council or worse yet the Company responsible. What a sad state of affairs on the Environment.

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  2. please include after the word responsible "have anything to say or comment on" Need an edit button on the comment section to add things one may miss initially.

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