(FIFTEEN YEARS & COUNTING - ELMIRA ADVOCATE) HEY SANDY & MARK: STOUFFVILLE APPEAR TO HAVE AN HONEST MUNICIPAL ELECTION COMPLIANCE AUDIT COMMITTEE

A family member set up my Elmira Advocate Blog for me in early May 2010. It continues generally six days per week less holidays. The focus is on Uniroyal Chemical/Lanxess Canada however municipal, regional and provincial corruption issues are also included.

Just a tiny little article in today's Waterloo Region Record titled "FORMER MAYOR FINED $10,000".  Wow apparently the MECAC  (Municipal Election Compliance Audit Committee)  that handles Stouffville and area take their duties and responsibilities a little more seriously than Woolwich Township does. Can you believe that a sitting Mayor who lost the election decided not to file their election Financial Statements despite the Municipal Elections Act (MEA), a provincial piece of legislation, stating that it is mandatory, regardless? Yes there are some who view our beloved Woolwich Township as "Dogpatch" but that's not really fair. I guess it's mostly the calibre of our politicians as many of the MECAC folks were former Woolwich and area politicians who felt that political loyalties  mattered more than the law. Or at least when it was one of their own who flagrantly broke the law. 

This article doesn't go into a lot of detail but the violations of the MEA here back in 2015 including former councillor Mark Bauman failing to file Financial Statements for Two or Three elections really was egregious. What is even more concerning is our Waterloo Region judicial systems rallying around the admitted guilty parties who appeared to view the whole thing as some frivolous joke. I am including prosecutors as well as judges. 

I guess some municipalities have stricter views on the law than others. Perhaps the rule of law applying to everybody depends on both who you are and where you are. Not a good picture.

ALTERNATE UNIVERSES & REALITIES: GROSS CONTAMINATION STILL IN THE CANAGAGIGUE CREEK

 

The first report I am aware of was the 1966 Ontario Water Resources Commission (OWRC) report on the Canagagigue Creek. It painted a very serious situation detailing dioxins/furans, DDT, DDD, DDE, Polyaromatic hydrocarbons (PAH), mercury, PCBs etc in the Creek. Next there was a Ministry of Environment (M.O.E.) 1996 report by R. Jaagumagi and D. Bedard that likely shocked the M.O.E. who in hindsight I expect had been hoping for "improvements" over time as the contamination in soils and sediments eroded and were washed downstream. Then we had the 2012 study initiated by George Karlos (M.O.E.) who stated that he hoped that study would put citizens fears to rest. Clearly he too thought that these Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) would have kindly moved along and enhanced the living experiences of downstream wildlife in the Grand River into which the Canagagigue empties.  He was likely correct in that some did erode and migrate downstream during high flows and especially seasonal floods.

So what has been happening? The only logical conclusion is that much of these contaminants are still coming off the former Uniroyal Chemical site. Whether by solvent enhanced groundwater dissolution or by surface water /stormwater flow or even by air migration all of these POPs are mobile by a multitude of methodologies. Further sampling in 2013 and 2014 only made it clearer and clearer. Finally there were two major investigations in 2017 and 2020 both of which painted a bleak picture. Besides creekbank soils, some floodplain soils and bottom of the Creek sediments there was even fish tissue sampling much of which exceeded provincial or federal health guidelines, some by smaller amounts and some by huge amounts. So we all thought action and cleanup will finally come!

It did ! Lanxess and the now MECP (former M.O.E.) announced that they would be doing a state of the art HHERA or Human Health & Ecological Risk Assessment. The only thing state of art about that bought and paid for result of "no unacceptable risks" in the downstream Creek was the verbiage, the mealy mouthed excuses, the puffery as to how wonderful all the participants were etc.  Obviously health criteria and scientific knowledge can be manipulated and defeated through many forms of green washing including environmental assessments as well as risk assessments. Oh and to top off the insult the results of both the 2017 and 2020 "investigations" were undermined by often using laboratory Method Detection Limits that exceeded the health criteria producing a plethora of semi phony Non-Detects. Also the use of shovels to sample sediments versus proper core samplers also reduced the concentrations of detected toxic contaminants.  All in all a total crock. Thank you Ontario MECP for holding Lanxess's hands throughout and providing cheerleading instead of honest criticism.

SO (NOT) SORRY IF I"M ANNOYING LANXESS, MECP & WOOLWICH TOWNSHIP

 

I'm sure that none of you want to see the topographic contour picture of  Uniroyal Chemical ever again. Bad news on that front. You will be seeing it! At a time of my choosing and my convenience it will jump out and accuse you of corruption. Just think that something as mundane and straightforward as ground surface elevation contour lines (i.e. topographic) can prove that you lie. Shocking isn't it? 

What is your motivation for this behaviour? Is it to please a relatively large, local industry? Is it to please local developers who have succeeded in putting the Elmira By-pass on the east side of town instead of the west side? Is it to please certain landowners on the east side who are looking for a large, financial windfall? Is it for status and prestige as promises were made years ago that you feel you must deliver on?

Of course none of these reasons are in the public interest but then that's not what politics is about. Politics is the art of making people think that your plans, ideas and scams actually are theirs and in their benefit. Politics is dragging other politicians, money and influence on board your gravy train by making it look tasty to them as well. By making them believe it's good for them, their colleagues, their families and all their futures. You need allies and support in order to make decisions and changes not readily apparent to the public. You especially need this support when an informed public tell you that you are full of it. This of course is why tame and preferably bent politicians  are so necessary. Our current Ontario Premier is an excellent example of all these things.    

FIRST SEMINAR SHOWING LIQUID WASTE FLOW ONTO STROH ( & LIKELY MARTIN) PROPERTIES WAS A SUCCESS

Take that professional liars whether privately employed or publicly employed although I have more contempt for those publicly employed. I don't care if they are doing what their corrupt employer orders them to do, it still is disgusting behaviour. You are actually being paid by the taxpayers and being told to obfuscate to the public is just plain wrong 99% of the time. 

The seminar, granted was  a fairly small affair but the questions and interest were amazing. I also learned some new things including ... hmm how much do I share with the guilty parties here? Yes they are misleading and deceiving former TAG members and TRAC members with their bull pies but they are backing it up with some clever gymnastics. I even wonder if the likes of Luis and Hadley are smart enough to know exactly how deceptive their bull ****  (pies-honest) are/is?  Especially Hadley whom I suspect of being the smarter of the two may not know all the ins and outs as she has much less site knowledge and experience than Luis does. 

Suffice it to say that the facts are available although probably not for distribution to just anybody anymore. That might really be pushing  Lanxess/MECP luck to the limit. I believe that there is a market/interest for my message of private/political cooperation/corruption. People are mesmerized by large scale conspiracies to the point that those involved in them love to denigrate those people as conspiracy nuts. News flash: Everybody conspires whether it's as minor as doing a minimum of volunteer work in order to pad one's resume or as serious as vandalizing colleagues work in order for you to get a leg up on the next promotion.  

Water flows downhill by gravity. So do toxic liquid wastes. I am sorry Lanxess Canada if these facts jeopardize your narrative that they didn't flow onto the Stroh property. Yes parts of the Stroh property right next to the former Uniroyal Chemical are at a measurably lower ground surface elevation. Yes there is a completely viable route for toxic liquid wastes from RPE 1,2,3,4,5 to have flowed from 1944 through to nearly 1970 onto the low lying property where they soaked into the ground. Yes just like your bogus "cleanup" along the property line between Lanxess and Stroh that was only 5.9 inches deep you have done even less than a bogus/sham investigation of the Stroh and Martin properties. By the way your bogus property line cleanup was bogus for more reasons than the 5.9 inch depth. 

You like your predecessors are all about deceit and manipulation. What however is reprehensible is the privtae/public conspiracy and corruption to misinform the public on environmental matters affecting both wildlife and human beings. 

 

FORMAL POSTGRAD COURSES ALSO REQUIRED FOR THE NEXT GENERATION OF BUREAUCRATS, POLITICIANS, HINKY CIVIL SERVANTS & NDA SIGNING REGIONAL CHAIRS

 

I am not obsessed with those in positions of authority who feel that lying to the public is the go to solution when either errors have been made or serious consequences have been incurred through poor management, incompetence or whatever. I mean the Region and Cambridge sort of fessed up to the million dollar goof that happened in undercharging Amazon their development fees for their new warehouse in Blair. As far as I know no heads have rolled over that and no one has even called for any kind of punitive action against those who goofed.

What about Regional Chair Karen Redman signing a Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA) with the province of Ontario not to tell her constituents any details about the Wilmot Land Grab.  Personally I wonder if anyone has actually seen that NDA . Wouldn't that document be embarrassing or worse to the Premier ? If it exists would it even be legal and binding? Is it possible that the NDA itself is a lie to be able to avoid exposure of other white lies or worse?

Back to Elmira, Ontario.  There is documented proof indicating that Uniroyal/Crompton/Chemtura and Lanxess probably have lied about the location of a gravel pit (GP-1) on their site.  Yes a lousy gravel pit that we are to believe magically was turned into the final resting place for overflowing east side toxic waste pits and ponds (RPE-1,2,3,4,5). Now most likely Lanxess and fellow travellors believe that it's their business where they determine a stupid gravel pit is located on their property. Not so fast Polluters' Rights groups and  far right pro business folks who believe that shareholders' rights trump public health concerns. Once it was proven that Uniroyal Chemical poisoned the water supply for the town of Elmira, everything changed. The company became accountable to their victims, the local citizens and to their authorities. Now of course as all good corporations know it's much cheaper buying off the politicians than buying off the unwashed masses. Hence that is exactly what they did.

It doesn't change the facts. GP-1 has been constantly evolving in size, shape and location as the owners have determined the safest location for it to be situated so as to avoid the appearance of liquid waste runoff  eastwards onto the Stroh property not to mention the Martin property mostly south of Stroh. I believe that the alleged "voluntary" partial cleanup of GP-1 in 2013-2014 along with the regrading and partial covering of GP-2  was actually a red herring to deflect attention away from the contaminated Stroh and Martin properties.

Why did the local politicians embrace this charade? It served their development plans for the east side of Elmira including a road by-pass, commercial development and putting cleanup demands to the east side of Uniroyal to rest. 

ADVANCED GILDING THE LILY, OBFUSCATION & DECEPTION CLASSES TO BE MADE AVAILABLE TO ENGINEERS, HYDROGEOLOGISTS, POLITICIANS & SPECIAL QUALIFIED PERSONS

Now don't get me wrong. Where would we be without engineers and hydrogeologists and other technically knowledgeable and certified people? Maybe we wouldn't all be living in mud huts but who knows? Bridges and large buildings certainly would be much more suspect without the services of such qualified folks. 

But there have been abuses. About thirty-six years of abuses here in Elmira, Ontario as the cheapest, least effective and most dangerous toxic waste disposal by Uniroyal Chemical has been replaced by the cheapest, least effective cleanup possible.  All of this pump & treat technology has lowered concentrations of toxic chemicals in our groundwater from levels hundreds of times greater than Ontario Drinking Water Standards to levels only two to twenty times higher.  Now maybe this means that drinking Elmira's contaminated water will take much longer to kill us. Or maybe we'll get a different kind of cancer. Or maybe we'll live almost as long albeit with more pain and discomfort. Regardless our politicians and authorities will be right there holding our hands and telling us how much better things are than they might have been.

The Canagagigue Creek flows north-west to south-east from it's source to its' mouth at the Grand River just below (south of) West Montrose. It also flows north-west to south-east through the Uniroyal/Lanxess property. When the "Gig" floods it also floods some of the property both on the west and the east side of the Creek.  What is most dramatic however is how the south-east corner of the site and more is inundated. Other than for a narrow, diagonal ridge of high ground also running north-west to south-east the entire south-east corner is under water. Oops I also forgot! There is also a very narrow strip of dry land above the flooding Creek maybe twenty-five or thirty feet east of the Uniroyal/Lanxess property line. It's on the Stroh property and runs north to south literally at the east side of the man made (1983) Stroh Drain, Ditch & Berm (SDDB). This strip of dry land is the "B" (berm) of SDDB.

This flooding water from the "Gig" simply cuts across the very low lying SE corner of the Uniroyal site and across the Stroh, and Martin property taking a shortcut as it rejoins the "Gig" downstream.  The fact that the water from the Creek which is a few hundred metres farther away (west) from the Stroh Drain, Ditch & Berm (SDDB) than the east side pits, crosses from west to east (i.e. Uniroyal to Stroh property)  tells the tale. As per the topographic contours the Stroh property at this location is LOWER  than the rest  of the land on Uniroyal's south-east corner hence why liquid surface flows end up on the Stroh and later Martin properties.  

The extreme brass required to deny the obvious actually condemns the entire cleanup from beginning to end. Only professional liars with total and complete backup by local authorities and politicians would attempt such a stupid and blatant subterfuge. 

SO WHAT IS THE FINAL SOLUTION FOR ELMIRA?

 

As best as I can determine from 35 years of careful observation, reading, attending and watching UPAC, CPAC, RAC/TAG and finally TRAC as well as written critiques of so called technical documents, the final solution is very simple. Thirty-five years of obfuscation, deception, and delay have gotten our authorities and polluting companies to where we are now which is failure in all aquifers, all connected surface waters and on the former Uniroyal Chemical site itself. The polluters have gleefully watched as the myriad contaminants have leaked, oozed, flowed and migrated by all possible physical and chemical means off their site. They have evaporated into the air, dissolved into the aquifers, bonded with soils and sediments and been uptaken by both the benthic community (midges, chironomids etc.) as well as by fish in the Canagagigue Creek.  Native fish eating species predators such as mink, coyotes, racoons, hawks and herons have also likely been impacted.  Certainly domestic cattle as well as their human supervisors have also been impacted. Our authorities have refused human health studies as well as serious and honest investigations of local domestic and wild life.

We are now into the second generation of professional liars working on their own behalf and unfortunately against the public interest. I believe that their plan is exceedingly simple as well as stupid. Do not burden the polluters, the economy or the taxpayers with the real cleanup bill. Talk, talk and talk until as much opposition as possible has fallen aside. Literally outliving activist citizens is one of their strategies despite both Min. of Environment and Uniroyal long term apologists retiring and or passing on just as has occurred with citizen activists.

To be clear they are going to say one thing while doing the opposite. It takes  special kinds of people to be able to cash their pay cheques and go home to their loved ones while also lying to them about what Mommy or Daddy does for a living. After three and a half decades of nonsense I believe they are ready to pull the plug, publicly proclaim success as well as graciously accept kudos and honours from our dishonourable politicians .  They crave externalizing pollution costs upon the public purse while also greenwashing their personal culpability.  They are going to eventually, probably sooner than later, stop or reduce pumping even more and just let nature take its' course. It could take one or two hundred years of this to eventually break down and flush much of the Uniroyal pigpen downstream to be inflicted upon both wildlife, human life and the overall environment. As long as share prices are unaffected it's all good with them. My only question is whether they are corporate sociopaths or psychopaths.   

HERE WE GO AGAIN TRYING TO GET TRANSPARENCY & ACCOUNTABILITY THROUGH SOME KIND OF IN-HOUSE COMPLAINTS PROCEDURE

 

Or maybe I'm just a pessimist after being on the receiving end of 36 years of lying and propaganda from almost all parties involved. Surely never having dealt with the National Newsmedia Council before I should have some sort of confidence in them.? Shouldn't I ????

O.K. perhaps the "in-house " comment above isn't exactly so. I'm not sure but I think that this group is some kind of voluntary Transparency/Accountability effort by the print media here in Ontario. In other words I think that member newspapers basically are in control of it but again I would love to be wrong about that. Regardless there are a few reasons for my concern. Firstly I tried a number of times to telephone them with their published phone numbers including their Toll free number. Nothing! No response. Then I began e-mailing and yes I have heard back from them basically being told to go through their formal on-line complaints procedure. Much of those questions I found a tad bizarre but answered as best I could. These included a detailed description of my complaint which then oddly (to me) was repeated later in the process although I was supposed to do it in a particular format with a particular type of file. 

My computer skills are super basic. Asking me to submit this or that via a particular file is ridiculous so I then sent a separate e-mail to my contact at the National Newsmedia Council advising them that I have in writing (e-mail) as well as earlier in their formal complaint form clearly outlined what my complaint is hence this request to do it all again but in some special file type was beyond my capabilities.

Now a skeptic (who me?) might suspect that this complaints procedure was designed to weed out complaints not by their veracity or seriousness but by the complainant's (me for example) lack of computer familiarity. The proof will be in the pudding. If I get an e-mail back saying that I didn't properly comply with all their hoops and loops and they won't accept my complaint then I will know that they are just one more phony oversight body just like MECAC (Municipal Elections Compliance Audit Committee) that darkened our door here in Elmira several years ago. On the other hand if they get back to me and suggest a different/simpler way to comply with that one question that I had difficulty understanding then I will begin to believe that they are for real.

STRANGER THAN FICTION OR NOT? & INCREASED LOSS OF HYDRAULIC CONTAINMENT ON LANXESS SITE

 

Since my Tuesday afternoon e-mail cancelling the Wednesday morning (10:30 am.)  meeting with Record reporter Terry Pender I have heard nothing from him or any other Record reps. I have a wee suspicion that his (to me) very difficult planned trip to Elmira wasn't going to happen anyways. I repeat that that is no more than a suspicion. He had advised me that he and his bicycle would be making the trip to Elmira from K-W via bus. Yes at my age and mobility I found that astounding almost to the point of weird.  That said if he was serious then kudos to him. My complaint about the current lack of a correction or reasonable clarification of the source of the disputed statement is still with the National Newsmedia Council as well as with Mr. Pender and the Record. Frankly I am shocked at the resistance to a very simple correction or clarification and no the provided by Mr. Pender anonymous close relative of a woman with cancer who worked at Uniroyal Chemical doesn't cut it. In fact I seriously wonder if this is as simple as conflating cancer problems at the former Strange St. Kitchener Uniroyal tire factory which issues are well known and public.  

The April  2025 Progress Report has been issued and pumping problems continue. Essentially the criteria for on-site pumping in the Municipal Aquifer(s) has been 4.7 litres per second for many, many years. Last month they pumped 3.84 litres per second while pumping about 59 litres per second off-site in the Elmira Municipal Aquifers. There has always been a tug of war we have been advised between the on and off-site pumping wells. Too much off-site pumping can overwhelm the much smaller volume being pumped on-site which can cause on-site hydraulic containment to fail hence allowing more highly contaminated groundwater to leak off-site and further contaminate the Elmira Aquifers. I believe that this has been going on for some time now although Lanxess have just introduced a new pumping well (PW6) to replace the old and long failing PW5.

OLD RESENTMENT RESURFACES - RECORD REPORTER REACHES OUT IN A PROFESSIONAL MANNER

Yesterday bright and early (9:15 am.)  I received a long awaited phone call from K-W Record reporter Terry Pender. He was polite and professional throughout and in fact left me feeling more optimistic than I have in a long time regarding media coverage of the failed cleanup here in Elmira.  In this first phone call yesterday we barely discussed, if at all, the corrections I am looking for in his May 1/25 article titled "50 YEARS after the Vietnam War". This was because he had numerous questions for me covering topics such as the cleanup, little current media coverage, source removal versus (or in addition to) pump & treat remediation here in Elmira.  He also astoundingly to me offered to attend  one day next week here in Elmira to learn first hand things such as location of the Lanxess plant, off-site pumping wells and other relevant Elmira features.

Now this phone call was ended about 9:40 -45 am. due to my upcoming 10 am. Zoom meeting with two friends. Mr. Pender suggested that I call him back immediately after the Zoom meeting which I advised was 40 minutes long and I understood that he would be immediately available which it turned out he wasn't. Nevertheless he did call me back about 11:45 am. and we continued our discussion. Regarding the requested corrections he agreed to remove the plurals for the word "plants" (referring to a factory) but gave me his "evidence" or source if you will as to why he thought there had been fighting between workers, companies and the province of Ontario over compensation for Agent Orange exposure causing cancer among workers. He advised that his source of this information was a woman who had a close relative who had worked at Uniroyal Chemical and gotten sick (cancer).  I viewed this information as second hand at best and without names to be rather weak. It certainly was NOT remotely matching his words in his article about "...workers, companies and the provincial government..."  During both this conversation as well as the earlier one I had found many of his questions regarding remediation to be reasonable and expected although there were a few questions regarding supporters, my 2019 book and a couple of others that to me at least seemed "off". He also suggested that we didn't have to wait till next week for the Elmira tour in my car and further discussions so I suggested the next day at 10:30 am. which he accepted. 

Afterwards I began thinking. One at no point did he actually state that the Record wanted a news story regarding opposition to the Lanxess/MECP and Woolwich alleged cleanup plans. While I thought that it was implied I don't believe he actually said the words which made me curious as to what the story he might write would be about. The second problem of course is that perhaps unknowingly (?) he had neatly deflected my attention away from my requested corrections in his article by his offer to come here to both tour Elmira and talk. By yesterday afternoon I e-mailed him plus three or four K-W Record Editors (?) advising that I had changed my mind and that the tour and discussion for today were off. Here is where I discovered at least partially what was bothering me and that was a lack of trust of the K-W Record itself for both actions and non-actions over the decades relevant to both myself and to the Elmira Crisis. I attempted to minimize my concerns with Mr. Pender's article as well as what I view as delays in either correcting it or providing some kind of substantive backup for his claims. 

Now here is the interesting part. I do not believe that the words regarding "...workers, companies and the provincial government were fighting over compensation..."  are accurate although I wish and hope they are because that would give Elmira citizens more ammunition to demand a cleanup of the downstream five miles of Canagagigue Creek which currently are well studied but with zero downstream cleanup.

Finally readers keep in mind that much of my reason for cancelling today's meeting which I certainly have an absolute right to do, is based upon .some old wounds as well as a gut feeling that this interview is a setup of some sort. Yes there have been other attempts to set me up by other parties in the past which may or may not be related to Elmira's pollution issues. Is it possible that I'm over reacting to today's overture by a Record reporter? Absolutely! Past history and my gut however tell me that I've made the right decision. I will continue to focus on the necessary corrections for Mr. Pender's article and frankly I have found his stories in the Record about the Wilmot Land Grab to be excellent reading. 

   

"THE CLEANUP IS A SHAM" - IS THE GLASS HALF FULL OR HALF EMPTY?

 

Way back in the mid 1990s I put a large sign on the roof of my car which read "The Cleanup is a sham". Now I was mostly referring to the ongoing (and still going) DNAPL scam and sham. I honestly back then had no idea of the perfidy, ruthlessness and lengths to which our authorities were willing to go to protect their own as**s versus those of their constituents. 

Thirty years later I understand that my criticisms were in fact understated and muted but they were based upon the facts that I had at the time.  Here is the perspective of where we are today versus in the 1990s. The Canagagigue Creek has been studied , sampled and monitored to the point that we know that PCBs, mercury, DDT and dioxins/furans are in Creek soils (creekbanks), Creek sediments (Bottom of the Creek) and in fish tissues all above health standards. Other than mercury the chemicals involved including PAHs (polyaromatic hydrocarbons), DDT, dioxins/furans and PCBs are all Persistent Organic Pollutants (Pops).  Nothing has been remediated or removed from the approximately five miles of downstream Creek from Uniroyal/Lanxess all the way to the Grand River just south of West Montrose.

Small areas on the former Uniroyal site have been excavated such as RPE 4 & 5 on the east side of the Creek. The only real improvement in my opinion is the Elmira aquifers. As miserable and relatively cheap as Pump & Treat is, it does appear to have substantially lowered the concentrations of NDMA , chlorobenzene and presumably all the other solvents etc. in the aquifers. The issue for me and other unbiased but informed citizens is the bulk of liquid contaminants just upgradient on the Lanxess site. If the company sells or cuts and runs and the on-site pumping stops then we are in BIG trouble. Already they are cutting back on on-site pumping and the majority of twits on TRAC are saying nothing. Either they don't know or they don't care or both. 

Trust the Ministry of Environment (MECP) to step in, in that case, is the mantra of our politicians and other  self-serving crooks and fellow travellors.  Absolutely not. The MECP got us into this mess and they have never done their duties appropriately here in Elmira, Ontario.  Lying to and misinforming the public is NOT supposed to be their mandate but as practice makes perfect they have indeed approached perfection.

MY PATIENCE IS WEARING THIN FOR ***HOLES WHO THINK THAT THEIR TIME IS SO MUCH MORE IMPORTANT THAN MINE

 

One example is people who initiate an e-mail conversation and then "Ghost" you. This includes currently both the Waterloo Region Record and Sebastian. The Record reporter approached me via e-mail asking for assistance in regards to Agent Orange production at the Uniroyal Chemical plant in Elmira. Then he disappears for eight days until his story "50 YEARS after the Vietnam War" is published. Even then it's only been a couple of e-mails saying he'll "correct" his story and he'll get back to me for a conversation. I'm still waiting!

Sebastian on the other hand NEVER answers his damn phone nor does he return phone calls. E-mails sent to him are routinely neither confirmed as received or heaven forbid responded to.  Only when he initiates, via e-mail, usually asking for technical assistance do I get lucky and have him actually respond, sometimes.  I've been fed up with him before and I'm getting there again. An unreliable environmental colleague Sebastian isn't worth much more than zero. I've never told anyone else this but if you don't start behaving soon then I'll be done with you again.

I expect no response from proven liars, sycophants and fellow travellors.  This includes Woolwich Township, council, GHD, Lanxess, MECP, TRAC and many more.  

WATERLOO REGION WINS "CODE OF SILENCE" AWARD RE: WILMOT TWN. LAND ASSEMBLY

 

The Region of Waterloo could also win the same award for their lack of response to the ongoing decades of gamesmanship up here in Elmira, Ontario. Today's K-W Record advises us about the ongoing efforts at land assembly in Wilmot Township mostly against the wishes of local citizens. Reporter Terry Pender also wrote a separate article that described the "Code of Silence" award mentioned in the title above.

Yes this is the same reporter who wrote the article titled "50 YEARS after the Vietnam War" published on May 1 ,2025.  Yes it is the same reporter whom I've launched a complaint against for his failures to follow through with me in regards to a couple of errors in that May 1 article. Now all this being said I am forced to reconsider from Mr. Pender's position. His two articles in today's Record are both excellent and well written. They are on pages A1 and A2 and well worth reading. What I am reconsidering is Mr. Pender's workload which of course normally none of us would do. In this case I can understand that the hot, local topic is the 770 acre Wilmot land assembly not the fifty year old Vietnam War nor the thirty-six year old Elmira Water Crisis.

Is it possible that Mr. Pender's employer and supervisors have him a little overstretched at the moment? Is it possible that our print media who by all accounts are in desperate financial/readership straits are trying to squeeze more and more out of their employees including reporters? Would it be very understandable if they were? While none of this relieves the Record and its' reporters of transparency and accountability nevertheless these factors could explain the delays in their response and correction of the errors in their article. 

I am not at this time remotely interested in punitive actions against either the reporter or the Record. I can understand if they are both between a rock and a hard place and it is affecting their response time. That said as I advised  Mr. Pender two days ago, I am in my 76th year.  Thirty-six of them have been dealing with a bunch of twits/politicians and worse here in Elmira regarding Uniroyal Chemical. I have long ago burned through whatever patience I used to have dealing with those professional deceivers. Maybe a tiny bit more patience from my end combined with at least a promise of a date for both a phone call and a correction in the Record would be very helpful.  

PUBLIC RELATIONS PUSH IS IN HIGH GEAR AT LANXESS CANADA, ELMIRA

 

Well why wouldn't it be? They sure as hell don't want to spend the appropriate amount of money to either 1) clean up the Elmira Aquifers to drinking water standards 2) clean up the embedded Uniroyal toxins (DDT, dioxins etc.) in the Canagagigue Creek sediments and soils 3) clean up the sub-surface pig pen that is their site. After a tour of their east side property  Luis and Hadley bulls*itted Sebastian and others stating that nothing flows eastwards off their site. This is despite topographical contours showing off-site eastwards flow from their property onto the Stroh property which Lanxess and GHD have refused to discuss intelligently or honestly.

So the most recent PR crap from Lanxess is a light meal and a plant tour for selected individuals. Some of the individuals invited are woefully out of their depths for the very obvious reasons that they've never seriously applied themselves to studying the issues in depth. Many have known for decades that their bread is buttered by Woolwich Township blind loyalty hence what need is there for them to actually know and understand the facts? Others such as Pat Mclean no longer even live in Elmira or Woolwich Township but continue to attend more to socialize than anything else. Seriously though she never did have a serious grasp on the details as she left the reading of technical reports to others such as myself.

Others are attending and sucking up mostly to get appointed to TRAC or whatever the next iteration of a tame, deferential "citizens'" committee will turn out to be. All in all more of the same as talk is so much cheaper than cleanup and always has been. 

Thankfully I was not invited to their dog and pony show so I don't need to formally tell them to p** off. If and when they are dragged kicking and screaming to real discussions/negotiations then maybe, just maybe depending on all the circumstances and conditions I might have an interest. Until then just like Vladimir Putin they are merely liars and obfuscators wasting everybody's time and resources for their own purposes.

YES OUR MEDIA HAVE ESSENTIALLY BECOME PAPER TIGERS

 

I suspect that it was a step by step process over at least the last 25 to 30 years, maybe longer. This morning I sent a pretty gentle e-mail to Terry Pender of the Waterloo Region Record basically asking him to either confirm his claim about fighting between workers, companies and the province of Ontario regarding cancers caused by exposure to Agent Orange in Elmira or to publicly correct it if it's totally false. I also explained the ramifications of the situation regarding the decades delayed remediation of the downstream Canagagigue Creek between the former Uniroyal Chemical (now Lanxess Canada) and the Grand River.

Is it possible that after 36 years of lies, obfuscations, deceit and delay from almost everybody that I may have lost my patience? I should certainly hope so. The e-mail to Mr. Pender included three names of various editors and managers listed on page two of the Record as well as the e-mail address of the National Newsmedia Council. This last one is a self-regulatory body who allegedly investigates themselves when there is a complaint. The whole process has the odour of self-serving protectionism from legitimate complaints and if so it seems to be the future of almost all public services. 

I also sent copies of my complaints to the Woolwich Observer and a couple of other media outlets. I was about to send it on to the Waterloo Chronicle until I recognized a name common between them and the Record. Other copies have gone elsewhere and time will tell although I repeat it shouldn't be necessary to file a complaint, get little to no basic feedback at all and then have to expand one's search for accountability. 

After all do we the public not have the right to see accurate information in our media and if human error does occur not have the right to insist upon public corrections thereof? Maybe not.

SO PRETEND TO MONITOR THEN WHEN THAT FAILS PRETEND TO CLEAN UP THE MESS AFTERWARDS

 

That is quite a strategy. I wonder if there actually is a book titled "Playing with Democracy and how to Fool most of the People Most of the Time". It's all about lying constantly to the public while either buying, mollifying or intimidating the media. You want the media on side and if that means destroying them first well all good and well. The media 36 years ago appropriately were all over Uniroyal Chemical and the Ontario Ministry of Environment. They made them pay for their decades of "trust us, we know what we are doing". Alleged state of the art waste handling plus following all provincial rules/legislation were their shields from public scrutiny and or condemnation. In fact it all turned out to be a fantasy. The company basically threw their weight around in a small community and no one wanted to oppose them including our authorities who were elected and paid to protect all of us, not just the wealthy and influential.

Now I will say that the efforts since the 1989 Elmira Crisis have been considerably increased. Not only have they included Pump & Treat remediation but also fake Public Consultation. The Township literally took over that with the aid of Pat Mclean and Susan Bryant and my fellow twits on UPAC went along with it with the exception Of Dr. Henry Regier and Esther Thur. Even then mind you the Township made sure they had two councillors on UPAC (Grace Sudden & Quentin Martin ).  

This is what Democracy has become. Rule by the smoothest liars.  Make sure that the party anoints only those with the "right stuff" to begin with. That right stuff could be a penchant for believing that the ends justify the means or it could be that they are "true believers" in the Party's ideology. At the very worst the two ruling party's don't want candidates who are likely to leave them mid term if they become disillusioned with the Party. Other than that they want candidates who are motivated by being in the public eye and who know how to behave thusly. There are of course exceptions not only in the Party's least likely to form a government but also occasionally in the Liberals or P.C.s.

WHAT IS OBVIOUS NOW IS THAT THERE NEVER WAS THE INTENTION TO REMEDIATE ELMIRA'S AQUIFERS OR CREEK

 

This would have to have been spelled out verbally, likely also in writing, between Uniroyal Chemical, Woolwich Township, Region of Waterloo and the province of Ontario (MOE/MECP) way back in 1991. Successive Woolwich councillors have been bluffed, threatened and coerced into falling in line as if loyalty to a corporation (Woolwich) is more important than loyalty to your constituents. Some few may have actually relished the idea of pulling the wool over citizens' eyes.

This reality first became obvious to me after the 2012 promises to TRIPLE groundwater pumping never occurred in following years. Then around 2016 Lanxess Canada and GHD began suggesting that well despite twenty-seven years of solemn promises , oh gosh they were mistaken. It was a harder job than they had imagined.  

Nary a whisper to actually up their game. Nary a whisper as professionals to dig in their heels, reassess and then do whatever it took to fulfill their decades long promises to Elmira and Woolwich residents. A few days ago the K-W Record published the following saying from Confuscius:  "WHEN IT IS OBVIOUS THAT THE GOALS CANNOT BE REACHED, DON'T ADJUST THE GOALS; ADJUST THE ACTION STEPS."

Plain common sense willfully ignored by all the guilty parties and as well apparently by TRAC our so called citizens' committee. Hand picked to be oh so polite, deferential and friendly. In other words to accomplish nothing but the appearance of doing something. That is exactly what the game has always been. How little can we spend while fooling the public into thinking we are actually going to remediate anything.

YES THE MEDIA ARE STRUGGLING BUT TREATING FOURTY YEAR CUSTOMERS WITH DISDAIN DOES NOT HELP

 

Through thick and thin I've stood by the Waterloo Region Record as well as by the Woolwich Observer. Treated like crap by both of them. I also stood by the Elmira Independent until their final day in 2015. Treated well by them. 

To date no further communications with either reporter Terry Pender, despite promises otherwise, or with the Waterloo Region Record (i.e. K-W Record). I will be sending off a couple of e-mails this morning to the Record asking them some pretty blunt questions such as "Are you going to correct your apparently false assertion that there was fighting over compensation between workers, companies and the province of Ontario in regards to workers' exposure to Agent Orange in the Elmira factory.?"  Also "Why haven't you to date contacted me for clarification whether it be your clarification or mine or both?" Finally "Do you have any intent whatsoever to actually correct your apparent serious error and if not why not?"

 I've often railed here about a lack of transparency and accountability by all our politicians. Now it seems that our media are suffering from the very same disease. To the Media : if long term survival is your goal stop alienating your supporters. 

THEY MAKE IT VERY DIFFICULT FOR US TO BELIEVE IN DEMOCRACY, TRUTH & JUSTICE

 

We've all heard the saying "Justice delayed is justice denied" and it is true. Despite this our idiot authorities continue at every opportunity to delay, delay and delay. It appears to be standard operating procedure (SOP)  for far too many government bureaucracies, ministries and governments themselves. Same thing with so called Complaints Procedures.  Fill out a form, provide a ton of irrelevant but mandatory data and then wait. Often forever. Not so much as a whisper from those at the other end paid to do a job. Oh and then a month or two later (if you're lucky) you'll get a note stating that you failed to provide an answer for section 24 (b) which could be as serious as "What is your wife's middle name?"

I've had two e-mails from Record reporter Terry Pender since April 23rd suggesting that he will contact me for further information about Agent Orange. That is an understandable request as I have spent a considerable amount of time over the last 36 years studying the Uniroyal Chemical site in Elmira and learning as much as I can about their various toxic chemicals and mishandling of same.  Now of course no such request by phone or even further by e-mail has shown up and Mr. Pender published what appears to be a whopper of a falsehood /error about Agent Orange in his May 1/2025 Record story titled "50 YEARS after the Vietnam War". 

Mr. Pender promised me in an e-mail that he would "correct" his story.  Hasn't happened. Yesterday I phoned the National Newsmedia Council to lodge a complaint. What a truly pathetic joke so far. I had to leave a message yesterday as no one answered the phone in person. It is now more than 24 hours later and not even an acknowledgement that my complaint has been received. Nothing! And our asinine authorities at all levels moan about citizen disengagement and citizen apathy. You a**holes have caused that and you've done it on purpose.  

I HAVE SENT A FORMAL COMPLAINT TO THE NATIONAL NEWSMEDIA COUNCIL RE: K-W RECORD'S DELAY IN CORRECTING/EXPLAINING THEIR AGENT ORANGE CLAIMS

 

Well here we go again, sort of. I have not to my recollection ever sent a formal complaint  against the K-W Record (i.e. Waterloo Region Record) to anyone. In fact as best as I can recollect I've never sent a complaint about any newspaper anywhere until now. I might add that does not mean that some local newspapers haven't deserved complaints because they have and they do. 

The Record reporter, Terry Pender, has contacted me twice by e-mail promising to talk to me by phone regarding Agent Orange which was the herbicide with dioxin impurities in it, likely from Hooker Chemical in New York State. Now to be a little more specific it is my understanding that Uniroyal Chemical in Elmira, Ontario purchased trichlorophenol (2,4,5-T) from Hooker Chemical back in the 1960s for use in some of their herbicides such as Agent Orange which they sold to the U.S. military to defoliate both trees and crops in Vietnam.  

In Mr. Pender's May 1/25 article titled "50 Years after the Vietnam War" he references "...workers, companies and the provincial government fighting about compensation for workers who developed cancer after being exposed to Agent Orange in the chemical plants in Elmira...".  After I advised Mr. Pender of my skepticism he has since advised in an e-mail that he will get back to me and correct that in the Record.  To date he has not done so.

This is not an insignificant matter. Currently Lanxess and fellow travellors have delayed cleaning up the downstream Canagagigue Creek soils and sediments for over half a century. They have manipulated and massaged various "investigations" always to minimize the extent of toxic contamination in the Creek for decades. Even so they are well in excess of health criteria for numerous compounds including DDT, dioxins/furans , PCBs and mercury. Their explanations, excuses and just plain bullcrap are legion. If it should turn out that indeed Uniroyal Chemical workers have a proven history of excess cancers due to occupational exposure to dioxins then most of Uniroyal/Lanxess and the MECP's (Min. of Environment) hot air, obfuscations and falsehoods are gone.

As has been proven a hundred times over dioxins are extremely toxic through numerous pathways to human beings and many other life forms.

FURTHER DAMNING FACTS & EVIDENCE SENT TO ALL OUR AUTHORITIES...P.S. K-W Record has failed to contact me or publicly correct their claimed Agent Orange errors

 

Both last Saturday's and last Friday's posts have been sent to our authorities by e-mail including TRAC, Region of Waterloo, Woolwich Council, MECP, Lanxess, GHD etc. O.K. some of those (TRAC, Lanxess, GHD) certainly aren't our "authorities" by any stretch although they sometimes behave as if they are. These posts are titled "Wednesday's Nature Walk Otherwise Known as "The Miracle On Erb St." and "Two Issues - Lanxess Chickensh*ts Regarding Stroh Property & K-W Record Are Responding Re: Uniroyal Worker Cancers From Agent Orange ". 

The purpose of my sending these and so many other posts to our authorities is to remove their attempts at "plausible deniability". In other words they have been hiding for decades behind bought and paid for consultants (CRA/GHD) bullcrap - oops I'm supposed to say "client driven" consultants, along with the polluters themselves (Uniroyal/Lanxess).  Deals were done way back in 1991 etc. with the three political bodies (Township, Region & Province) that were not in the public interest but which satisfied our incompetent, lazy and negligent politicians at all three levels who had sat back and watched the Elmira Crisis unfold for the previous twenty-five years while merely going through the monitoring motions. All three levels had both a moral and a legal duty to protect their citizens however they were much more concerned with protecting both the polluter and their own guilty butts. 

The results are now before us. The groundwater is not safe to drink and the Creek is a toxic mess of DDT, dioxins/furans, mercury and PCBs. Far too many local citizens have passed on prematurely from cancers and other diseases exacerbated by bad air and water. Good job politicians.

MY GOD ARE THEY ACTUALLY ADMITTING THAT OUR JUDICIAL SYSTEMS ARE BIASED?

 

Thank you Premier Doug Ford for being so dumb. That at least is both Donald Trump's and Doug Ford's saving grace : they are dumb! Our esteemed premier has been saying nasty things about Ontario judges recently such as : his tirade about unelected judges who "overturn everything right down to the bike lanes." Judicial independence he went on is "a joke" because judges are appointed by governments. Plus criminals go free because "there's a lot of terrible, terrible bleeding heart judges out there." He also said : "We should do what the U.S. does. Let's start electing our judges, holding them accountable."

The problem with Mr. Ford's opinions are that he is such a hypocrite about the judiciary. The system used to be about stuffing the judiciary with party loyalists a system which has since been discredited. Ontario has a Judicial Appointments Advisory Committee to lean the selection process closer towards legal expertise, not partisan connections coming first in determining who becomes a judge. Mr. Ford however stated "We got elected to get like-minded people in appointments,?. Further Ford said "I'm not going to appoint some NDP or some Liberal." Wow how do Ontario electors elects such complete idiots who don't even know how much they don't know. 

THE STROH PROPERTY & THE HEALTH BATTLE AT UNIROYAL/LANXESS

 

The first I estimate as 99.5% a proven issue based upon facts, documentation, maps and long accepted scientific protocols and methodologies. The recently publicly stated (K-W Record May 1/25) battle over compensation to Uniroyal Chemical workers due to cancer diagnoses after exposure to Agent Orange I am less certain of due to less evidence to date. While it certainly makes sense to me that a unionized environment would hold the employer accountable for premature deaths and excess cancers contracted on the job; nevertheless both parties kept it very quiet. That said our (dishonest and corrupt?) authorities will certainly have all the facts available to them. However just like the bogus and failed Elmira cleanup over the last 35 years that could prove of little use to the public interest. Our politicians are securely nestled between the sheets with every level of government and view that as long term in their best interests and the public interest be damned.

Both issues strike to the heart of the failed cleanup. How can Lanxess and the Min. of Environment (MECP) claim that the downstream Canagagigue Creek with Agent Orange (dioxin) in excess of health criteria in soils, sediments and fish tissues  is "acceptable" AFTER they've paid compensation to their own badly affected employees? Similarly how can Lanxess and the MECP claim that they've stopped the discharge of dioxins (& so much more) to the Creek when they refuse to seriously examine publicly the topographical maps that both their consultants (CRA) and the MOE/MECP, Region of Waterloo, GRCA have produced?

Those topographical contour lines absolutely prove that contaminated surface waters from Uniroyal Chemical's east side pits (RPE 1-5 etc.) overflowed and ran onto the Stroh property and we know exactly where. According to one source they discharged into a deep, pre-dug pit and soaked into the ground from there. Those dioxins, DDT and more have adhered to soils for the last half century plus but can and will be mobilized over decades of erosion and both natural and man made actions such as road building, excavations and construction. Some of these toxins have been leaking for decades and the rest simply await their day to move downstream including into the Grand River and through Waterloo, Kitchener and Cambridge eventually ending up in Lake Erie where citizens will eventually be forced to recycle them back here for drinking water.  

TWO ISSUES - LANXESS CHICKENSH*TS REGARDING STROH PROPERTY & K-W RECORD ARE RESPONDING RE: UNIROYAL WORKER CANCERS FROM AGENT ORANGE

 These are two separate issues although both may speak to the lack of integrity and forthrightness from Uniroyal/Lanxess.  Reporter Mr. Pender has been in touch and has stated that he will be rewriting (part) of his article to correct his error. I am awaiting his phone call which was promised for yesterday by the way. Any more delay will have me strongly reconsidering that maybe, just maybe it wasn't so much an error as an "oopsy" in that he let a huge secret out of the bag.

If and I say IF indeed there was fighting between unionized workers, Uniroyal Chemical and the province of Ontario (Min. of Health??) over cancers from Agent Orange exposure then there will be some serious reassessment of almost everything to do with Agent Orange/dioxin on and off the Uniroyal property. Particularly the self-serving HHERA (Risk Assessment) suggesting no unacceptable risks downstream in the Canagagigue Creek despite high DDT, dioxin and other contaminant levels, will need replacement.

Lanxess SHOW US THE TOPGRAPICAL CONTOURS ON THE EAST SIDE OF YOUR SITE. STOP YOUR UNRELENTING BULL***T AND ARGUE THE DATA AND THE FACTS WHICH ARE THE GROUND SURFACE ELEVATIONS (topography) AND WHERE SURFACE WATERS/LIQUIDS FLOW.

Anything else from you is just your unrelenting, self-serving and dishonest accolades and propaganda. 

WEDNESDAY'S NATURE WALK OTHERWISE KNOWN AS "THE MIRACLE ON ERB ST. "

 

LANXESS CANADA WALK ON LIQUID WASTES & TALK THEM INTO FLOWING UPHILL

Luis Almeida (GHD) and Hadley Stamm (Lanxess) have joined forces and done the impossible. While scientists the world over have long been constrained in determining flow paths of water as well as ground surface elevations via accepted principles, this pair have risen above the mundane. Survey monuments, markers and professional topographical surveys and maps simply are not relevant to this pair. They have achieved a state known to but a few. It is expected that they will together produce a book rewriting all the rules and protocols and principles that engineers, geoscientists and others have been operating under for the last few hundred years at least.

Courage! Talk about courage. Luis works for GHD who merged with Conestoga Rovers (CRA) several years ago . Many (not all) of these topographical maps were produced by the scientists and engineers at CRA. Now Luis and Hadley have gently but firmly rejected these ground surface surveys (i.e. topographical or ground surface elevations) in favour of their own eyes and intellects. Even more incredible is that Chemtura and CRA had such confidence in these documents (2010-2013)  that they distributed them to CPAC members, Min. of Environment, Region of Waterloo, Woolwich Twn etc. Can anyone comprehend the brass, the chutzpah, the overwhelming confidence required to oppose the entrenched status quo?

I have no doubt that both Luis and Hadley may rise to the level of sainthood in the hydrogeological community. Their unflinching willingness to oppose standard, geophysical principles with no more armour than money, power and influence along with that of their partners in pollution, the Region, Woolwich, MECP etc. is a herculean task.

I am sure that their next steps will be either to rewrite all the topographical maps they've already released and or to hold a public meeting in which they demonstrate the new flow directions that they have discovered for their employers. How wonderful that these new flow directions could save Lanxess millions of dollars in cleanup costs (Stroh).

MORE DOUBLEDEALING & HYPOCRISY OR A SIMPLE MEDIA MISTAKE?

 

Today's front page K-W Record story has the following title ""50 YEARS after the Vietnam War".  Now I am going to include the e-mail that I sent Mr. Pender this morning:

Agent Orange2

Yahoo/Sent

• 

  Alan Marshall 

  From:agmarshall@rogers.com

  To:tpender@therecord.com

  Thu, May 1 at 9:25 a.m.

Mr. Pender: I suspect that you have received some inaccurate advice. Today's Record article "50 Years after the Vietnam War" appears to have a major error in it. If so that would certainly be the result of not contacting me for Agent Orange information as you had indicated that you would. On page A3 you state "When workers, companies and the provincial government were fighting about compensation for workers who developed cancer after being exposed to Agent Orange in the chemical plants in Elmira, Tran got angry."

First of all yes there has been decades of public fighting over air, ground and surface water (Canagagigue Ck.) contamination but there has NOT been any public fighting over compensation to Uniroyal Chemical workers (or others) for cancer impacts from Agent Orange.

Now if somehow you have stumbled into an accurate but hidden story regarding workers' compensation it could blow the lid off current delays and refusals to clean up Agent Orange (dioxins) in the downstream Canagagigue Creek.  

I am however skeptical of that because while Mr. Tran could have "got angry" about public environmental cleanup efforts I don't know how he could get angry about private, behind closed doors alleged worker compensation efforts.

Alan Marshall  Feel free to rectify your probable mistake with a phone call or e-mail. (519 6692801)         

   If indeed Record reporter Terry Pender has let slip some super secret negotiations regarding health effects upon Uniroyal Chemical workers from Agent Orange then this could be a game changer regarding the necessity of much greater cleanups on and off site as well as in the downstream Canagagigue Creek.  Or on the contrary if Mr. Pender simply received bad advice from his colleagues or from Lanxess Canada, Ministry of Environment etc. then he has learned who has been less than honest with the public for decades.