SO LANXESS HAVE YOU FINALLY DECIDED WHERE ALL THE DDT & DIOXINS ARE COMING FROM?

Really it's been close to seven years since Chemtura announced that they were narrowing down the cause of spikes in Canagagigue Creek soils and sediments. Allegedly they were likely from on-site sources along the creek as it passes through the Uniroyal/Chemtura/Lanxess property in Elmira. Whether in the north from piles of soil stored on the west side of the creek or south of the dam by former waste areas P1 and P2 or even possibly from GP1 & 2 which were partially excavated and capped in 2013.

Meanwhile the SSRA train is rolling inexorably along as Lanxess proceed with their second major risk assessment whose real purpose is simply to scope down their cleanup responsibilities and costs in and around the downstream Canagagigue Creek which they have poisoned. SSRA of course refers to site specific risk assessment and is a mathematical and procedural ploy which allows the Ontario Ministry of Environment in conjunction with the polluter to reduce legislated cleanup criteria in soils, sediments and waters in order to save both money and face. The company saves the money and the MOE/MECP saves face. The MOE get to pretend that the cleanup is satisfactory and meets its standards by redefining those standards based upon site conditions. In the hands of unscrupulous polluters it's a get out of jail free card and with much lesser fines as well.

Meanwhile despite the best junk science efforts from GHD the readings of DDT and dioxins continue to be way too high in the creek soils, sediments, floodplain soils, and lifeforms in the creek such as fish, benthic communities etc. The elephant in the room continues to be the Stroh AND Martin properties on the east side of Uniroyal/Chemtura/Lanxess. Yes I would not be remotely surprised if some of the DDT and dioxins are coming via still contaminated and uncontained groundwater on the Lanxess site as well as erosion but the east side waste pits and both surface and groundwater flow on the east are also contributing. Lanxess, GHD, MOE/MECP have all made it clear that despite superficial examination of the east side that they do not want to open that expensive and time consuming can of worms.

For me it is obvious that there most likely is a "sink" of hydrophobic compounds located in the lowest lying soils to the immediate east of the Stroh Drain, Ditch and Berm (SDDB). There may also be the same somewhere on the Martin property. Finally the entire length of the Stroh Drain (SDDB) from the soils around the Drain and the sediments in it all need to be tested. There are areas of the Stroh Drain that have branches and blockages that slow it down and allow sediments to fall to the bottom. Of course in high rainfall or creek flooding scenarios they are all mobilized again and move downstream.