STAKEHOLDERS WILFULLY & INTENTIONALLY IGNORANT OR HONESTLY CONFUSED AND UNCLEAR?

The above title is not either or. In fact the stakeholders (broadly defined) are both. Some are honestly confused and unclear which is exactly what the willfully and intentionally ignorant stakeholders want them to be. Over the last several months TAG, CPAC and the public have been treated to a cacophony of fact, falsehoods, deflections, distractions, junk science and just plain bullshit.

I believe that suggestions by Joe and Tiffany of TAG that Uniroyal Chemical waste waters were absorbed either in the small pond that Joe spotted just south of RPE-5 or in the former wetlands along the "Gap" area are simply a matter of them at the time not having their heads firmly wrapped around the sheer volume of waste waters as well as of overland rain and creek water during floods. Yes currently the former wetland is dry courtesy of the Stroh Drain, Ditch & Berm (SDDB) and would indeed be capable of absorbing a large amount of water; however prior to the likely 1983 construction of the SDDB the wetland area was exactly that. The water table had not been drained and the area was a wetland and further water flows into it would simply have temporarily raised the water level and then gravity flowed over to the lower elevation Stroh property. I expect that further thought and reflection will clarify this for Joe and Tiffany.

Statements from CRA, GHD, Chemtura and Lanxess that all overland flow of waste waters from the east side buried pits (RPE 1-5) ended up in either GP-1 or GP-2 simply defy credibility, common sense, rational thinking, ground surface contours (elevations) etc. Statements that all the east side overflowing waste waters were contained on site are even less than fantasy and wishful thinking. Just like the west side, the intent was to let everything go into the Creek while going through the motions of discharging on land and pretending/hoping/praying that the sands, gravels, clays and silts would neutralize, attenuate and breakdown the toxic components. Once again this is simple self-serving rationalizations and excuses. Statements from Jeff Merriman that the east side pits were intentionally drained on demand by Uniroyal are equally incredible. Jeff suggested that there was some sort of gate or release mechanism to drain the pits at Uniroyal's will. For the love of ...the environment, please show us some evidence of that. It is difficult for me to swallow that the pits (some) were built on top of a silt/clay aquitard limiting downward migration and at the same time massive volumes of liquids per day were pumped into these uncovered pits which also allowed rainfall entry. These pits overflowed daily and that is why both the admitted north to south furrows were ploughed in the ground as well as the large swales that can still be seen by satellite photos.

The simple refusal by experienced Chemtura/Lanxess/CRA/GHD personnel to acknowledge that the high elevation, diagonal north-west to south-east ridge deflected overland flow south-east onto the Stroh property is the dead give away. Joe Kelly and hopefully the rest of the TAG members present now see and understand the ridiculousness of the Lanxess position that nothing went onto the neighbour's property. Until or unless Lanxess and GHD are willing to acknowledge the obvious then quite frankly everything they say is tainted by their refusal to acknowledge the obvious.