REGION OF WATERLOO'S PLANNING DEP'T NOT LOOKING GOOD

So exactly what are the responsibilities of member municipalities within the Region of Waterloo to fully and completely inform regional council and its members of all relevant facts pertaining to their local matters being decided by regional councillors? Is there a broad gentlemen's agreement that as much as humanly possible, regional council will avoid stepping on individual members' toes? After all it was the Region who approached the member municipalities (Townships & Cities) soliciting "rationalization" of their urban/countryside boundaries. Or was it? Is this entire "rationalization" process simply a scam to legitimize various sketchy or otherwise urban expansions? Certainly the one in Elmira is way beyond ridiculous yet to date all the Woolwich and regional politicians appear not to have the slightest problem with it. This includes not even answering the questions and concerns of a number of local citizens who have spoken against it at public meetings. Nothing but bland, deflecting statements about the public good and of reducing development costs on the east side of Elmira versus the west side which appears again ridiculous. Where are the numbers to back up these outlandish claims? Development upon the very broad floodplain of the contaminated (even if it wasn't) Canagagigue Creek simply makes no sense. Roads, bridges and buildings will require greater engineering controls (and elevation) to avoid flood andf water damage forever.

The Director's Order (Control Order) laid upon Mr. Stroh whose farm is on the immediate east side of Uniroyal/Lanxess is a Ministry of Environment Order laid in July 2017 demanding access to his property in order to "investigate" toxic contamination which flowed via both ground and surface water onto his farm decades ago. As with most "investigations" in and around Elmira, Ontario it was conducted by GHD, consultants to Lanxess Canada. As usual it intentionally did not sample the most likely areas of contamination but intentionally focused on those areas closest to and most accessible to the Lanxess property i.e. right along the property line. This also minimized the inconvenience to Mr. Stroh's longtime growing of crops on these contaminated soils.

Soil sampling on Mr. Stroh's property was to a depth of 15 cm. or 5.9 inches. Yes even at these shallow depths and despite decades of wind erosion exacerbated by ploughing and turning over of the soils on the active farm, both DDT and dioxins/furans exceeded all safety criteria. They would have done so even more if the testing had been both deeper and further south where overflow from the east side pits settled in the lowest lying areas to the immediate east of the Stroh Drain, Ditch & Berm (SDDB). Groundwater sampling 240 metres to the east of the Lanxess/Stroh property line has found NDMA in both a shallow and deep aquifer. Interestingly these monitoring wells are cross gradient from Lanxess not downgradient which is more bad news. As stated the "investigation" as usual was typical of GHD's predecessor company (CRA) and of their efforts since they took over from CRA.

Meanwhile the Director's Order was kept hidden from TAG, CPAC, the public and probably the Region of Waterloo. This is exactly how politicians manipulate process and procedures in order to achieve their self-serving goals versus the public interest.