OUR INHERENTLY CORRUPT POLITICAL SYSTEM CONTINUES NOT TO PROTECT OUR ENVIRONMENT AND THE ELMIRA AQUIFERS

Truly astounding chutzpah! Brass balls beyond all belief. For thirty years Uniroyal/Crompton/Chemtura and Lanxess have fought tooth and nail to minimize, minimize and minimize the extent of the contamination, their liability, their guilt, and most importantly their costs. They have sacrificed their honour, their credibility, their humanity in so doing. They have hidden behind their corporate veil while spouting blatant "factual inaccuracies" and cheerfully having their consultants produce junk science to back it up. ..................................................................................................... Now thirty years later, after they have ignored, minimized, obfuscated, deflected the advice and hard work of appointed citizens to the various public advisory committees (UPAC, CPAC etc.) and the general public, they should be reaping the results of their dirty deeds. Their hostility to persistent and informed questioning was shameful. Their refusal to even acknowledge the legitimate and accurate statements of their critics and expert opinions presented at public meetings was beyond dogmatic. Their solicitation of citizens on the advisory committees and their planting or removal of others was Machiaevellian. All of this they could not have achieved without the assistance of corrupt people in positions of authority. ............................................................................................ Against all independent advice from citizens, academics, environmental experts, and activists they refused to open mindedly consider anything but PUMP & DUMP. Oops that in their terminolgy is PUMP & TREAT. Way back in the early 1990's a hydrogeologist (Belanger) on behalf of the Region of Waterloo referred to the proposed partial hydraulic containment of the Upper Aquifer as the least expensive and least effective "solution". Citizens and experts together advised that Source Removal of "hot spots" both on and off the Uniroyal site could speed up the cleanup process. Mostly they were ignored with some exceptions. ........................................................................ Uniroyal/Crompton/Chemtura/Lanxess fully own the failure to clean up the Elmira Aquifers to drinking water standards. They fully own the DDT, PAHs, herbicides, dioxin & furans, mercury and PCBs in the Canagagigue Creek ("Gig"), its fish and other lifeforms. They own any and all damages to terrestial wildlife caused by their still ongoing leakage of contamination to the creek. They own human environmental damages within the farm communities downstream in the "Gig". And neither they nor our local and provincial politicians give a damn about any of that. They just want this public embarassment to go away. They want to be able to declare a victory. ...................................................................................................... Lanxess are proposing a "Flux Based Approach". This approach drastically lessens their financial input into cleaning the Elmira Aquifers. Our local authorities will pretend to require public input on the idea while lobbying for it behind the scenes. Various "experts" and "personalities" will be recruited to bolster the plan. A Flux based approach is the natural extension to a thirty year failed cleanup plan. Our favourite local polluter and its syncophants are both trying to save face and to prematurely end their cleanup of the Elmira Aquifers. The Region of waterloo have been drawing drinking water from contaminated aquifers in Kitchener, Waterloo and Cambridge for decades. The "Flux Based Approach is simply an attempt to make a virtue out of a sin. It is contrary to the principles espoused at the Walkerton Inquiry and should not be permitted. Lanxess and various politicians are relying on the public's apathy and lack of attention to pull this off.