MORE THAN HALF A CENTURY LATER THE CANAGAGIGUE CREEK IS STILL BEING USED AS A SEWER

It (1970) was a signifciant year. The Ontario Water Resources Commission ordered the closing of the Bolender Park Landfill due to its' proximity and obvious negative impact on the Canagagigue Creek. Not to be inconvenienced the town of Elmira kept the First St. Landfill open for a few more years. That landfill was even closer to the Canagagigue Creek. It was also by 1970 that Uniroyal Chemical's leaking and overflowing east side waste pits were taken out of commission. Those liquid wastes started to be diverted to the Elmira Sewage Treatment Plant (STP) in 1965 but on occasion as the STP had start up issues, Uniroyal liquid wastes were sent eastwards back over the creek to the RPE 1-5 series of pits/ponds. ............................................................................................................................................ Currently there is a Zone Change Application underway for part of the former Bolender Landfill. Currently it is zoned Open Space and the new owner (2019) would like it changed to Industrial so that he can expand the gravel parking lot to park trucks and trailers on. The first hurdle of course is that Zone Change which the past owner was given zero to nil confidence by Woolwich Township that they would even consider it. Apparently not so as the current owner has spent time and money buying self-serving consultants' reports AND Woolwich Twn. Planning Dep't. seem to be equally on board. Amazing what a few short years can do isn't it? ...................................................................................................... The good news for the public is that the required bought and paid for reports include soil sampling, groundwater sampling and test pits. The bad news is that unsurprisingly contamination is still present and is in fact migrating through groundwater into the Canagagigue Creek as it has been from day one (approx. 1962). Now of course particularly for the more mobile contaminants it is likely that the really huge concentrations and volumes are long downstream. That said there are low level detections of chlorobenzene, ethylbenzene, xylenes, benzene, toluene, dichlorobenzene, Petroleum Hydrocarbons(PHC) and Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAH) still entering the creek via groundwater. Methane results are also of interest as there are numerous ones exceeding the generally accepted criteria. .................................................................................................. Currently there is no attempt to intercept or mechanically vent methane to the atmosphere. This is odd as after Woolwich Township removed the inadequate active venting system in 2015 they advised the then owner that they wanted access to his property in order to install a passive venting system. Where the hell is it now?