THE LONG TIME INTENTIONAL FOG OF COLLUSION IN ELMIRA IS CLEARING

I believe that David Brenneman, current CAO of Woolwich Township, is a part of it. Many years ago I approached him both verbally and in writing for information that was in the hands of Woolwich Township regarding the incidents of solvents in the Howard St. storm drains. There was a formal investigation by the Township and they allegedly could prove nothing although Varnicolor Chemical were the focus of the investigation. These incidents, in the early 1980s, occurred on a number of occasions in the storm sewers running between Varnicolor Chemical and Borg Textiles on Howard Street and their discharge point, Landfill Creek which empties into the Canagagigue Creek. Mr. Brenneman intentionally stalled and delayed for many months with no followup or response and then pulled his usual whining and crying that I was rude to him when I demanded an answer. What an arse. Sorry David, I keep forgetting that I seem to be the one in public service and that I report to you.

In hindsight why would Borg Textiles send any of their liquid wastes through the storm sewers when they had a perfectly good creek (Landfill Creek) running through the back (south end) of their property which discharged directly into the Canagagigue Creek anyway? The surface topography of their site means that all waters flow south into Landfill Creek. Also the storm sewer on Howard Avenue is on the north side of the street. To this day in fact there are catch basins (grates) on both the Elmira Theatre Company property next door to the former Varnicolor as well as on the Elmira Pump co. property which is the former Varnicolor site. Clearly it would have been almost impossible for Borg to discharge high strength liquid wastes into the Howard Street storm drains without running a hose across the road and into the catch basins whereas it would have been simplicity itself for Varnicolor to do so on their own property.

This leads back to the alleged lack of chlorobenzene found in the shallow groundwater on the Varnicolor site. Did the Ontario MOE fudge those lab results? Did they fudge the samples they sent to the lab? Did they fudge the written reports afterwards and replace detections with non-detects (ND) knowing that any detections of chlorobenzene would both likely prove Varnicolor's guilt in the early 1980s regarding the storm drains as well as implicate them with the Elmira Water Crisis as chlorobenzene was a major compound found in the Elmira aquifers? The MOE were desperate to cover up the extent of Varnicolor's pollution on both their sites.

Then we have the ongoing coverup of the extent of remediation on the old Varnicolor site since about 1993. Extensive shallow excavations were done across the site. It looked impressive. Deep testing, despite the initial control order demanding it, never occurred or if it did occur was never reported to the Varnicolor Liaison Committee, myself or presumably APT. If the data was given to either Susan or Sylvia then they buried it as Richard Clausi, Ted Oldfield and myself never saw it. Please tell me that pair weren't actively undermining public consultation that early on.

Finally deep monitoring wells were ordered by the MOE at the expense of Elmira Pump in March 2010. Again the MOE are hiding and refusing to give that information to the public. They are so far past being liars it is incredible. Even now they are refusing to give Elmira Pump their Record of Site Condition (RSC) so that they can sub-divide their property and build commercial storage units on the surface of the site. Over two years ago this RSC was allegedly imminent after the presentation of the results of a Risk Assessment. Still nothing allegedly!

There is but one reason for all this subterfuge and that is that Varnicolor contributed NDMA and possibly chlorobenzene as well as at least half a dozen other toxic chemicals to the Elmira Aquifers, all on the MOE's watch. Bad enough the MOE couldn't control Uniroyal, a multi national, but they couldn't even stop little, dinky Varnicolor. That is pathetic and that folks is your Ontario MOE tax dollars at work, protecting industry, both large and small.