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.
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