KIND OF AN ODD TAG MEETING LAST EVENING

First off everybody behaved nicely including Sandy Shantz politely and respectfully giving me her condolences on the passing of my father-in-law, Aden Brubacher. A couple of others did as well. I thanked them sincerely including our pretend mayor, Sandy. No I did not call her that but treated her as respectfully and courteously as she treated me.

The meeting was odd for many reasons. First of all there were no MOE staff present. Neither was Ramin Ansari, Dwighte Este, Helder Botellho from Lanxess present. Therefore as usual exactly zero questions could be asked by either TAG members or the public of the MOE (MECP) or Lanxess which is exactly as those two bodies seem to prefer. As if the public could ask questions even if the MOE and Lanxess were present courtesy of the horse.... Terms of Reference for TAG and RAC. Also odd was Sandy Shantz (RAC co-chair) sitting at the front with TAG chair Tiffany Svensson. Sandy has spent the last two meetings in the gallery with the rest of us plebes and that's exactly where she should be sitting, not at the front. What the hell is she doing...supervising or micromanaging her own appointee as chair of TAG???

Two new TAG members were introduced last evening namely Katharina Richter and Dustin Martin. They both live in Elmira, Woolwich Township whereas another TAG member Susan Bryant lives in neither. Both new members certainly seem well qualified although I believe that both have zero experience regarding Uniroyal and Elmira issues. That they will eventually (years) get up to speed is likely if they become keen and continue on. It will take years partly due to the history and complexity of the issues and also due to the reduced number of meetings per year. Unfortunately last night's meeting was incredibly dull and somewhat technical with lots of acronyms being thrown around. The dullness is partly due to the lack of input from MOE and Lanxess. While UPAC and CPAC have suffered in the past from too much time taken up by Conestoga Rovers on behalf of Uniroyal/Crompton/Chemtura the opposite is currently happening.

Tiffany and TAG have messed up again. The earlier messup was accepting the 5.9 inch (15 cm.) only sampling and later excavations on the north-west side of the Stroh property. This one is accepting Lanxess's (Ramin's) self-serving refusal to do soil testing further south on the Stroh property in and around the Stroh Drain, Ditch and Berm (SDDB). This was done despite TAG member Sebastian Seibel-Achenbach's disagreement.

David Hofbauer advised that in his opinion the MOE in their comments to Lanxess were attempting to get more data into the Risk Assessment process unless Lanxess/GHD can better explain why it isn't needed.

Jason Rice replied to Tiffany Svensson's request for information regarding Method Detection Limits (MDL). Clearly ALS labs testing is inferior to both the MOE labs and probably Maxxam who have been used for years by Uni/Crompton/Chemtura. When I say inferior I strongly suspect intentionally inferior as they (ALS) were likely contracted to do the less expensive and less accurate testing and inherent higher MDLs by Lanxess all in the name of saving money AND in the name of generating many more NON-DETECTS (ND) in the soil and sediment samples in the downstream Canagagigue Creek. This is what occurs when the MDLs are higher than the criteria and health guidelines. Instead of more exceedances of criteria in the samples, simply more ND are generated. Talk about a win-win for Lanxess and a lose-lose for the public and the environment. The extent of gross and toxic contamination in the Canagagigue Creek is once again minimized thus lowering cleanup costs dramatically.The scam and sham of the Elmira cleanup continues. Bless you all politicians, fellow travellors and self-serving bureaucrats for keeping your heads down and letting them get away with it.