NATURAL "ATTENUATION" MOE STYLE

The Canagagigue Creek continues to transport Uniroyal and Varnicolor Chemical liquid toxic wastes downstream to the Grand River. Uniroyal's wastes are both from their site as well as from two in-town landfills in which they disposed of their wastes namely the Bolender Park Landfill and the First St. Landfill. Varnicolor's wastes continue discharging into the creek via the two same landfills as well as from their Lot 91 site at the east end of Oriole Parkway.The Lot 91 site was saturated with solvent wastes at incredibly high concentrations. Unlike Varnicolor's Union St. site it was never hydraulically contained nor was anywhere near the volume of contaminated soil removed from it. The excuses of the MOE and their consultants were less than pathetic.

There's an old saying about the dose being the poison. In other words there are some incredibly toxic poisons that if taken in infinitesimal tiny concentrations may actually be of some benefit to the human body. Many medicines that are helpful can certainly be fatal if over consumed. The Ontario Ministry of Environment and their "clients" (polluters) seem to have embraced this theory with a vengeance. Unfortunately there are also some poisons which have no threshold level below which they are harmless. Dioxins fit into this category and based upon the incredibly low drinking water standard for NDMA of .009 parts per billion it may be another.

The discharge to the Canagagigue Creek from all sources essentially made the creek devoid of life in the late 1950s and through the 1960s and 70s. The real improvements happened after the construction and eventual improvements in its effluent in the late 1960s. The next major improvement was after 1997 with the Upper Aquifer Containment & Treatment System (UACTS). Of course none of that stopped the discharges from either of the two landfills nor from Lot 91. Yes there are fish in the creek however they are full of Dioxins, DDT, mercury and PCBs and likely so much more that hasn't even been measured. Also most of these fish are of the hardier, more pollution resistant kind such as carp, suckers, shiners, bullheads etc.

The creek will never improve further until the other sources of discharge to the creek are stopped. Currently it's all about denial and our local council has led that parade for decades. Uniroyal and its successors have had their number for decades due to past councils having made incredibly huge and incredibly bad concessions to them related to their disposal of toxic wastes.