VARNICOLOR CHEMICAL WAS NOT A WATER PISTOL IN A THUNDERSTORM - LANXESS & GHD SAY SO

 

Here's the rub. The compromised beyond all repair, Ont. Min. of Environment (MECP), hasn't even commented publicly if you can believe that. It was their lawyer/prosecuter Stan Berger who made that  comment about Varnicolor at the Environmental Appeal Board Hearings back in the early 1990s. The then M.O.E. wanted all pressure and leverage they could get against Uniroyal Chemical so they actively lied and covered up Varnicolor's guilt. It was yours truly along with Rich Clausi, Ted Oldfield and Susan RUPERT (not Bryant)  who dragged Varnicolor out of the shadow of Uniroyal and exposed their intentional dumping among other sins.

Lanxess and GHD have recently listed four or five different chlorinated solvents that they now admit migrated from Varnicolor into the Municipal Upper Aquifer under Elmira. This is one of the two drinking water aquifers that have been contaminated for decades. Early on in the 1990s there was a hydrogeological report known as the Golder Report which described the horrid state of Varnicolor's shallow aquifer. It included evidence of both LNAPLs and DNAPLs yet at the time we the public as well as APTE and after 1994 the Elmira Environmental Hazards Team (EH-Team) knew very little about how insidious both could be.  

Around 1994 it was suggested to us that a decade of shallow aquifer pump & treat at Varnicolor would clean up the site. Elmira Pump bought the property approximately in the early 2000s and have been trying to obtain a Record of Site Condition from the MECP at least since 2016 unsuccessfully. By the way the M.O.E. (Min. of Environment) promised to install deep monitoring wells way back in the early 1990s and then immediately reneged on that promise when Phillips Environmental showed an interest in buying the site.  To the best of my knowledge (due to MECP secrecy /shame?) the Varnicolor/Elmira Pump site still requires some environmental work. 

Regarding political corruption it is of some interest to note that former Woolwich CAO Bill Kowalchuk after leaving Woolwich Twn. immediately was hired by Varnicolor to help increase the variety of waste class licenses they held.  This required conversations and lobbying with the M.O.E. and with the Ontario government which did allow a serious expansion of their solvent inventory and further mismanagement. 

Thank you to all levels of government oversight for your ongoing protection of polluters and systemic suppression of honest citizens trying to improve our environment.