TIDBITS & SNIPPETS

As early as May 1983 Uniroyal Chemical were whining about disrespect showed to them by the citizens on the Technical Steering Committee. Wow. Apparently Uniroyal folks figured that just because they had been polluting the air, the creek and the groundwater for the previous three decades plus that it was somehow O.K. Keep in mind that as of 1983 they hadn't been proven to have contaminated the north and south wellfields although there was suspicions in the community. This information was found in a May 13, 1983 internal MOE letter from Grant Mills to D.P. Caplice Assistant deputy Minister, Regional Operations Division. In the same letter were references to Mayor (at that time) Ken Seiling complaining about "having the citizens committee "dropped in his lap"". Interesting.

In 1961 several private residential wells south of Uniroyal had phenols found in them between 2 and 6 parts per billion. In 1961 !!!
The residential wells included those of E. Reist, E.B. Martin and P.B. Martin.

An earlier internal MOE letter from Mr. Mills to Mr. W. Bidell advised that at an Open House on July 28, 1982 the public were well behaved. In fact he said "During both sessions the attitude of the public was calm and reasonable, with no emotional outbursts." Well at least he didn't suggest that he was talking only about ladies present or that citizens didn't have a right to complain about lousy tasting tap water or stenches throughout town from Uniroyal Chemical.

In the early 1980s the MOE (originally OWRC) were on the hunt for dioxins at Uniroyal Chemical. They also were fully aware of Varnicolor Chemical`s Lot 91 storage site also known as the ``valley of the drums``. It was stated that ``Leakage has been noted``.
Now that is a major understatement.