NEW REMEDIATION /CLEANUP GOALS ARE COMING

Back when Elmira residents were angry about the eminently forseeable environmental damage done by Uniroyal Chemical and the Ministry of Environment's negligence, the promises of a Cadillac cleanup were front and centre. Everything from a total restoration of our groundwater to a total cleanup of the Canagagigue Creek were absolutely being given by the guilty parties. There were absolutely no ifs, ands or buts. It was an attempt by the guilty parties to mitigate their guilt by accepting responsibility and promising a total cleanup. ..................................................................................................... That was then whereas now it's all a different tune from the MOE/MECP and Lanxess Canada. Now it's all about being reasonable and accepting the inevitability of a less than perfect cleanup. Now we are being advised that the new and upcoming MOE/MECP Control Order will be flexible. It will possibly not even have a new mandated completion date because Lanxess don't want one. It was all a mistake etc. back in 1989 to have ever given out a date, apparently, they now say. .................................................................................................................. This of course is the charade that the MOE/MECP routinely play on the public. They initially lay a strict Control Order on polluters with the nudge, nudge, wink, wink private understanding that down the road, as soon as the public and media have been distracted with other issues, the onerous Control Order will be "amended". In other words it will be made much more palatable and much less onerous on the polluter. Also the cleanup will be much less expensive and of much less quality.