MOE/MECP RESPONSE TO MY OCTOBER 30/19 E-MAIL REGARDING RE-EVALUATION OF Contaminants Of Potential Concern (COPC)

Last Friday I had mentioned my recollection of Jason Rice's (MECP) response sent to TAG about my October 30 e-mail and its' overview of the SSRA (site specific risk assessment) process. I stated last Friday that my recollection was that Mr. Rice had not really addressed my e-mail very directly. In fact I have just reread Mr. Rice's comments. In fact he addressed a grand total of one paragraph out of eleven in my e-mail to the TAG Chair plus members. That one paragraph was the second paragraph in which I advised that Dr. Henry Regier had seriously examined and researched SSRA's back "around 2004" and found them wanting. Mr. Rice then suggested that somewhere in that time area that the MOE had changed their process around SSRAs. He suggested that formerly SSRAs were based on MOE 1996 "Guidelines..." and that as of October 2004 they based their SSRAs on "Brownfields regulation (O.Reg. 153/04).

Jeez are you kidding me? Mr. Rice ignores the specific and substantive multiple paragraphs harshly criticizing Lanxess, GHD and the MOE/MECP for their studies and testing of the Canagagigue Creek sediments, soils and floodplain soils and he comments solely on the basis of Dr. Henry Regier's conclusion that SSRA's are being used in Elmira, Ontario by polluters and their regulator for "greenwashing" purposes. I also included a link to my book (Chapter 7) that contains Dr. Regier's complete report on the matter.

The "cleanup" of the Elmira Aquifers and the Canagagigue Creek are and always have been a sham. The process is all about minimizing the extent of the contamination as well as minimizing Uniroyal/Lanxess's costs to clean it up properly. That is and always has been the priority of the guilty parties including the Ontario Ministry of the Environment. They have been and continue to be securely in bed with Uniroyal and their corporate successors.

Mr. Rice's comments are simply yet another diversion. He refuses to address the serious criticisms in my October 30/19 e-mail and seems to be suggesting that ah gee we the MOE/MECP fixed our internal processes and hence Dr. Regier's comments and conclusions are invalid. Horse manure! A long captured, corrupt regulator can change their internal processes inside out, year in and year out, but without a substantive housecleaning from the top down nothing will change. Decades ago (early 1990s) some sort of formal investigation of the MOE was suggested and reported on in the media after multiple instances of deceit, lying, tip offs and more were unearthed regarding Varnicolor Chemical as well as suspicious events around Uniroyal Chemical. It never got off the ground but should have. Clearly pro business, pro corporate attitudes at the expense of the environment at the very top of our provincial government protected the guilty parties.