NOT EXACTLY ANCIENT HISTORY

Back in December 1993, Bob Hillier M.O.E. hydrogeologist sent Dave Ireland of the West Central Region of the M.O.E. a letter. This letter claimed that the Envirodome was full and that DNAPL had to be left behind in the ground during the excavation of Tar Pit West-2 (TPW-2). Steve Quigley of Conestoga Rovers may have fudged those facts when he advised at UPAC in January 1994 that the Envirodome wasn't really full, it was only as full as practical. He further advised that the toxic waste contents would settle over the winter allowing space for more wastes if they should arise. Meanwhile to this day the rest of the free phase DNAPLS at TPW-2 have not been removed.

The rest of the news in 1994 didn't get any better. There was a chlorine cloud fugitive emission in March followed by Uniroyal's admission that they had discovered a pool of Light Non Aqueous Phase Liquids (LNAPL) on their site consisting of bewtween 10,000 and 40,000gallons of mostly toluene. Lovely. They had sat on telling UPAC and the public for approximately eight months on the advice of their lawyers allegedly.

In June we learned that Uniroyal despite a M.O.E. Control Order demanding full hydraulic containment of the entire site were only planning on containing 25% of the upper aquifer. That would be on Uniroyal's south-west corner only presumably allowing the rest of their contaminated groundwater to flow freely into the Canagagigue Creek as it always had. APT Environment resigned from UPAC in protest over this betrayal. Possibly it also had something to do with APTE's betrayal of the public trust regarding DNAPL issues the previous January and therefore their expectation that Uniroyal would play ball on the shallow aquifer containment. Uniroyal did not.

David Bethune a former hydrogeologist for the Region of Waterloo in July 1994 blasted their lack of preparation and planning prior to the discovery of the November 1989 water crisis.Ouch I bet that stung.