WOOLWICH CONTINUE TO BURY THEIR HEADS IN THE SAND (METHANE GAS AT BOLENDER PARK LANDFILL)

There are many legitimate concerns about changing the Zoning from Open Space to Industrial for nearby residents on High St., George St., Charles St. and Spruce lane. My concerns as an Elmira resident living a mile or two due west are more environmental including the still existing methane concentrations well above the Lower Explosive Limit of 5% methane by volume. I also am concerned with the toxic industrial chemicals dumped into this landfill without leachate controls or frankly an iota of common sense. Building both Bolender Park right beside it and then adding the childrens' Splashpad is far beyond my comprehension of good planning or good anything. ....................................................................................................................... Various self-serving parties have long minimized the extent of industrial wastes put into the Bolender Park Landfill. That's kind of ironic as it actually is the municipal food refuse which produces the methane particularly under the anerobic conditions present there (high water table). Regardless the latest reports presented by Burnside Assoc. on behalf of the new owner as well as by GSP group paint a clearer picture of what went on. There are references to both items (municipal/industrial wates) particularly although not solely in the "Guideline D-4 Study (Dec. 2021). These include asphalt and concrete debris, building materials (drywall/wood?), bricks, felt (Great West Felt), bottles, organics (foodstuffs) and ashes. Oddly there is no mention of long ago admitted in writing (1991 Environmental Audit etc.) chemical filter cloths from Uniroyal Chemical. Nor is there any mention of Varnicolor Chemical who were caught (with my assistance) illegally sending barrels of liquid and semi liquid solvents to Region of Waterloo landfills in the early 1990s. Oh and let us not forget that Uniroyal senior employee Art Gorman was the Chair of the Elmira Sanitation Committee of Council and he decided which industrial wastes were accepted in the Bolender Landfill. Afterall this is the Woolwich Township way of doing things and laws, people and the environment be damned. .................................................................................................................................. Even now the coverup continues. Burnside excavated twenty test pits of which nineteen were in the east end of the former landfill. Seven of those nineteen test pits encountered industrial wastes. Testpit 2 described them as building wastes perhaps drywall, wood etc. Testpit 3, 9, 10, 11, 12, and 13 also had industrial wastes with no mention of municipal wastes also present. Testpits 9-13 are all along the northern border of the landfill closest to Elmira Pet Products. Is there any connection to fires, explosions and even an extremely unusual employee death on the premises? Did our authorities investigating fires and the tragedy of an at work death receive full information and cooperation regarding the nearby explosive methane concentrations? It would appear that industrial wastes may have been segregated from municipal wastes at the time. Also odd is that Burnside chose not to give any indication of what kind of industrial wastes they found. For example it would have been appropriate to mention any chemical wastes that were found. ............................................................................................................................................... Besides the 20 testpits there were also five Boreholes drilled and eleven groundwater monitoring wells installed. Oddly four of the five Boreholes (BH 1,2,4,5) are in the west end of the site as are seven (MW 1-7) of the eleven monitoring wells (MW). Even odder is the fact that Appendix A in this report only shows some of those boreholes and monitoring wells Logs namely BH 4 & 5, Monitoring Wells 6-11. So what the hell happened to BH 1-3 and MW 1-5 ??? Hiding something are we? ....................................................................................................................................... Appendix B shows results of the Gas Probes installed by Burnside last year as well as Gas Probe GP2-15 installed in 2015. The methane concentrations can best be described as horrific with results from 1.4% methane in air by volume to an astounding 73.8% in GP2-15. 5% methane in air by volume is the LEL or Lowest Explosive Limit. As low as 1% methane in air by volume (or 20% LEL) is considerwed potentially hazardous whereas 5% is absolutely hazardous. A possible good news scenario (???) is that the 73.8% concentration actually exceeds the maximun explosive limit substantially. Or not good news in that it's present. ............................................................................................................ Likely the consultants included descriptions of the industrial waste found in their Draft reports to their client. That embarassing and potentially expensive data was likely expunged long before the reports became public. Afterall it's all about serving the client's needs not the general public. i.e. the public interest be damned when there's money to be made!