At least for a few short years in the early 1990s both Uniroyal Chemical and the Ontario Ministry of Environment kept their egos and arrogance in check. When they didn't they were apt to get their ass** handed to them verbally by any number of citizens including myself, Susan B., Sylvia, Henry Regier, Shannon and others. I recall a few occasions when Shannon let loose and really put Dr. David Ash in his place. Citizens were rightfully angry and the guilty parties (Uniroyal/M.O.E.) had to mind their manners with a mixture of lies (sorry we didn't know) and guilt (we'll do better).
Slowly things began to change as the media as well as locals lost interest. Truthful promises of clean (?) water from Waterloo combined with false promises of remediation calmed people down. Even in those days I knew that most citizens attending were not doing the work necessary to keep informed. Likely the plethora of reports, investigations, monthly meetings and Minutes was intentionally difficult for lay persons to stay on top of so most didn't. This was certainly demonstrated in January 1994 when the APT coordinators ignoring both the known DNAPL facts as well as a DNAPL report written by Sylvia, Glenys and I went along with Sylvia's verbal claims that all was well with DNAPLS, completely contrary to reality.
In hindsight putting councillors Quentin Martin and Grace Sudden on the UPAC committee was simple reassurance that Uniroyal's interests would be protected and they wouldn't be overburdened by citizen demands. Similarly having Greg Pimento of Sulco as the Chair of UPAC was for control purposes as was later on possibly having councillor Ruby Weber as Chair of UPAC.
Then I began to notice some oddities. New faces would show up at UPAC meetings simply on the recommendation of one UPAC member. I objected and wanted to know why we weren't all consulted regarding a potential new member. Nobody else really seemed to care. I also noticed that Susan B. was getting friends and neighbours onto the committee again without any formal or informal consultation with the rest of the current members. I also noticed that Rich Clausi and other working citizens including APTE members could never attend the daytime meetings that Uniroyal/Crompton/Susan B. and later Pat McLean so favoured. Those day time meetings excluded almost everybody and I had to lose a half days pay in order to attend. That was bullshit and thank you very much Susan and Pat.
Nowadays there are credentialed folks on TRAC who literally don't have a clue as to what went on for the first twenty or twenty-five years of UPAC and CPAC. They are left with asking Lanxess for God's sake as to past history. What a farce! The polluter fully captured the public consultation process long ago albeit with the full support of the M.O.E. and Woolwich Township to their utter shame. The removal of CPAC members in September 2015 at the behest of Chemtura and the M.O.E. to Woolwich Township was the icing on the cake. They now have a tame committee who wouldn't say sh*t if their mouths were full of it which they often are.
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