WELL, WELL, WELL - TAG WORTHWHILE ON A FEW FRONTS LAST EVENING

Every now and then a little glimmer of truth and reality pokes through the nonsense, deception and deceit. Last evening was one of those times. What I am about to present to readers I view as good news. Mostly. O.K. here goes. Communication is key to good public consultation which is exactly why we do not have good public consultation in Woolwich. Communication must be a two way street. The public speaks and the parties and other stakeholders listen. Then the parties and other stakeholders speak and the public listens. Simple but the public are absolutely denied the right to speak directly to TAG, Lanxess, GHD, MECP etc. The public can neither tell them anything nor directly ask them questions. Yet something major happened last evening. Lisa Schaefer and Tiffany Svensson spoke to me, pretty directly. ................................................................................................................................... A little background. Generally speaking all the stakeholders pretend that they don't read this Blog. Once several years ago I mentioned to Dwight Este (Chemtura/Lanxess) that Lanxess Germany had visited as per my Statcounter program. He vehemently denied that and admitted that it was Lanxess Canada (i.e. Elmira) that had read my posting. Well last night we had a major breakthrough as Lisa Schaefer (TAG Support Specialist) reminded everybody (especially me) that the Minutes of TAG meetings were put on the Township's website. She even indicated where to find them and the fact that these recent Minutes that she always sends out to TAG (and me) a week before the meeting have actually been on the Woolwich Township website since November! Well! This is shortly after I once again made a big deal here out of how ridiculously slow they are to get to TAG members, the public etc. Do I feel embarassed? Not a bit. This is exactly why communication, face to face, is necessary. There are enough bones of contention already so why not open the door and talk directly to the public, me and CPAC and clear some things up? .................................................................................................................... And it happened again! I posted here about how pathetic TAG's response to me was regarding the four DNAPL letters that I sent them and the fact that DNAPLS were not on last evening's Agenda. Also I might add that any written Delegations that I have sent TAG over the last six and a half years are always ignored. No questions, no comments no nothing and that's what they pretend is public consultation. Well lo and behold if Tiffany (Chair) didn't raise DNAPLS for discussion! She referenced the four letters from two hydrogeologists that I had sent TAG and then asked if there were any comments or thoughts from TAG members. Susan Bryant spoke up and I thought here goes her bullsh.t again about concensus on the issue. Not so. She stated that DNAPL results and efforts were very unsatisfactory many years ago at CPAC. She added that promises were made and information presented that was not followed through upon. Geez I call Mark Bauman Mr. Flip Flop, I may have to call Susan Mrs. Flip Flop. APTE (Susan & Sylvia) sold the farm on DNAPLS in 1993-94 and then Susan & Pat M. again in 2006-2008. What's the matter Susan, have you finally realized that Uniroyal's promises are hollow? Giving them concessions and selling out supporters, based on future promises from Uniroyal and successors is just stupid. Next came Sebastian Seibel-Achenbach who advised his TAG colleagues that the 2011-2015 CPAC found that Chemtura always dismissed DNAPL issues. Jeff Merriman (Chemtura) acknowledged that there were on-site DNAPLS but not off-site DNAPLS. Finally Tiffany chimed in and reminded TAG that Neil Thompson (U. of Waterloo) had mentioned DNAPLS in his Conceptual Site Model (CSM) and how there was a large amount of unaccounted for chlorobenzene in the Municipal Aquifer (drinking water aquifer). Chlorobenzene is but one DNAPL chemical and I'm stretching here but possibly the unaccounted quantity was 1,000 kilograms. That clearly suggests that free phase DNAPL in the subsurface has been slowly dissolving for decades into the groundwater and will continue to do so. Kudos to Tiffany. ................................................................................................................................... Tiffany suggested that DNAPL's need to be put on TAG's radar. Yes they should be! This will of course upset Lanxess and the MECP. Good! What really needs to happen is action as suggested by both Jaimie Connolly (MECP) and Wilf Ruland to remove known areas of on-site DNAPLS whether still free phase or residual DNAPL. ................................................................................................................................... Likely I will finish last night's TAG meeting report in tomorrow's Blog posting.