SOIL CONTAMINATION NORTH OF UNIROYAL/LANXESS

 Well of course there is. In fact there is soil contamination north, south, east and west of Uniroyal/Lanxess.  Not all of it comes directly from them but lots of it does. North by the way for those geographically challenged means Church St running east/west (Hwy #86) along the north side of the former Uniroyal property, Bolender Park and the former Bolender Park Landfill. How is it that thirty-four years after the 1989 Elmira Water Crisis we are just "discovering" this soil contamination?

That's an easy question. It's because you will never "discover" that which you refuse to look for. Woolwich Township especially as well as the Region of Waterloo and the Ontario Ministry of Environment (MOE) conspired to minimize the extent of Uniroyal's soil, water and air contamination along with their very own extent of culpability.  Culpability or guilt is a very powerful incentive bit it's a double edged sword. It can motivate positively or negatively.

So what evidence is there of soil contamination under Church St. alongside the Uniroyal/Lanxess property? How about several truckloads of contaminated soil being removed as per conversations between nearby residents and road construction personnel involved in the rebuilding of Church St (Hwy #86) and the bridge over the Canagagigue Creek this summer.  Work was delayed while this recently "discovered" soil contamination was removed.

Shallow soil sampling at the minimum should have been done at several Elmira locations back in the very early 1990s as part of the so called "investigation" into the source of NDMA, chlorobenzene, benzene, toluene etc. found in the Elmira Aquifers. Instead locations such as Borg Textiles, Sanyo Canada, Varnicolor's Lot 91, Thur, Elmira Furniture, Nutrite, McKee were all intentionally given a pass so as not to further embarrass the Ontario MOE by finding other sources of contaminants directly related to the MOE's long standing incompetence and failure to do their jobs.. 

The 1991 Control Order insisted that "new" Uniroyal contamination discovered had to be properly dealt with. I guess for our authorities that means doing it quietly and surrepticiously. No need to further embarrass already grossly guilty parties and their fellow travellors.