Tuesday, February 11, 2020

NOVEMBER 28, 2013 CPAC MEETING



The story for this meeting was carried in the December 5, 2013 edition of the Elmira Independent and written by Editor Gail Martin. What a devastating loss to Woolwich Twp. and the residents of Elmira when the Independent closed less than two years later.

It was an unusual meeting as the pair of co-optees spoke (bragged?) about a recent trip Pat McLean had taken to Alberta. This was most likely yet another all expenses paid junket for the National Advisory Council of the Chemical Industry Association of Canada (CIAC) of which Chemtura were a member and recipient of *Responsible Care from them, oddly enough with the support of Pat and Susan. Also note that while CPAC from (2010-August 2015) permitted both the public to speak as well as the former CPAC members who got bounced by Mayor Todd Cowan's council, the next incarnation of public consultation has refused to let either the public speak at RAC and TAG public meetings or the previous CPAC members who also got bounced by Mayor Sandy Shantz and her council. This will eventually bite both Woolwich Council and Chemtura/Lanxess in the ass when either or both make further false claims about appropriate public consultation having taken place.

Pat advised that the petrochemical industry in Alberta have a number of superior communication strategies with the community in regards to air quality monitoring. These include a website, the use of Facebook and other methods. Pat also urged Chemtura to follow through on past promises including fence-line air monitoring (still not done) and that they address the ten year old July 2003 Request For Action prepared by CPAC 's Soil & Water Committee which I had done the bulk of research for. Many items of that still are not done and others done improperly.

All in all it was a brazen performance by a brazen pair who while they maintain overall public approval, the list is shrinking as their self-serving behaviour has become apparent to more and more honest persons.

4 comments:

  1. These two guilty souls you mentioned are simply compromised and just the "sellouts" much like the Mayors and the other politicians and staff managers (dreaming up paths of least resistance in desperation) ...but it is the eastern landowner beside the chemical company and the chemical company that are motivated purely by profit and greed and THAT IS WHERE "discovery of the exposure" is critical to prove the contamination and the negligence. So where exactly have they always resisted testing? and why? Oh how obvious does it need to be? These people are denying logic and common sense and it is because they know that science can be used in their favor ONLY till the evidence of contamination is uncovered at the sources. My question is how can the mayor and council and TAG as a whole and especially the chair of TAG continue to be so gutless and useless?

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    1. Lanxess refuse to test on the Stroh property just off their south-east corner both in the Stroh Drain, Ditch & Berm as well as a few metres further east where the lowest ground surface contours exist. This is where Uniroyal Chemical's overflowing east side pits mostly ended up.
      As far as TAG and their Chair go they are burdened with impossibly bad Terms of Reference courtesy of Mayor Shantz and Woolwich Council. TAG has zero authority and can only advise the GRCA, Region of Waterloo, MECP (MOE), Woolwich Twp. and Lanxess who all attend RAC (Remediation Advisory Comm.) meetings. Lanxess don't even have to pay attention to the other RAC members if they don't want to. It's make believe public consultation.

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  2. Of course the mayor and most of the council past and present are part of the weird local fake-do-gooder club where anything goes to prop up a facade. Public trust is not respected, it is actually being abused! Yes TAG seems like a bad joke because only the wise become aware that they are simply "being used" as consensus builders of blatant lies and a massive cover-up.
    From the most analytical and strategic perspective, these spots you and a few on the TAG have positively identified are probably the Achilles Heel and is definitely the(smoking gun)of this whole stinking mess both on site and offsite. This is the area and scenario that will produce the evidence to prove negligence AND corruption and cover-up, all at the same time. Have Lanxess given reasons why they refuse to do the proper testing in the most probable areas of contamination? is it verbal and or on the record?

    In addition, it has become common knowledge that chemical company and their consultants are corrupt... Just how corrupt (knowingly and or unknowingly)is the east side landowner? Is it not true that what this family knows would expose everything needed to make this whole mess actionable and enforceable? Is it really true that the truth is going to be buried forever?

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  3. Lanxess's reasons not to test are primarily verbal and they are ridiculous and self-serving. The landowner is merely looking out for his own interests.Yes the family past and present knew what was going on.

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