Elmira Advocate

THE INVESTIGATION IS EXPANDING

2012-03-20T08:13:00.001-04:00

Yesterday one of the excellent CPAC members used the expression "Someone let the cat out of the bag". This was in reference to the October 7, 1991 sweetheart deal between Uniroyal Chemical and the Ontario M.O.E.. Envision this scenario. A thief is caught after stealing a government owned truck. The policeman and the thief decide that in exchange for not turning him in, the thief will give the policeman $10,000. They write up a contract to do so. That contract is your sweetheart deal. The public who owned the truck lose it and the thief and policeman are both ahead.

Many faces and voices from the past have been approached for their knowledge and recollection of this deal between the Ministry of the Environment and Uniroyal. These include journalists and newspaper editors from twenty years ago. They include lawyers who represented parties at the Environmental Appeal Board hearings. They include former members of a local environmental group namely APTE. Also included are better known and more widely diversified environmental activists with an interest in Uniroyal/Chemtura affairs. What is the common thread? None of them had any knowledge of the details of this Settlement Agreement or sweetheart deal. They like the general public knew a private agreement had been reached but they had never seen a copy of it. Indeed further investigation is slowly exposing the knowledge that the six parties to the Environmental Appeal Board all received complete copies. Besides the M.O.E. and Uniroyal that was the Region of Waterloo, Woolwich Township, Nutrite, and APTE Environment. Not APTE's lawyer by the way but one individual.

That one individual allegedly did not share this document with either the membership nor even with the rest of the co-ordinaters. The information of a complete Release/Indemnity for Uniroyal regarding DNAPLS for example, explains a lot of what to date has been inexplicable behaviour.

SIDEWALK PLOWS IN ELMIRA

2012-03-19T14:57:00.001-04:00

To date I've had very little if anything to say on this debate. Here goes. I have a corner property and while in good health and physically strong, I must admit to enjoying not having to shovel two long stretches of sidewalk after all three or four storms this winter. In other words I am getting older. That being said my joy of observing bare sidewalk that I have not shovelled is routinely dampened by the inability of the plough operator to stay on the damn sidewalk. Each and every time he/she tears up either my lawn or the boulevard. WE are NOT amused ! The next point of greater environmental concern is this. Are these plough operators shareholders in Sifto Salt or the salt mines in Goderich?. If not then what the hell is the matter with you? I can't believe how much stupid, environmentally damaging salt is being used on my and my neighbours sidewalks. This sidewalk ploughing is a great idea, especially for we very fast approaching retirement aged people but are these above problems really that insurmountable? If they are then please stop ploughing my sidewalk. I'll go back to doing the whole thing myself but at least it will be done properly.

MORE ORIGINAL PAGES FROM THE SWEETHEART DEAL

2012-03-17T08:45:00.002-04:00

I had promised to post the whole 22 pages of this October 7, 1991 "Settlement Agreement " aka "sweetheart deal" but I'm having troubles with the mechanics. At the moment I've posted the first (front) page and page #15 RELEASES here on February 21 & 22, 2012. Today I'm quoting exerpts from pages #12, 14 and 16 of the following Nov. 4, 1991 Amended Control Order which show that it is subservient to the Settlement Agreement and I'm also including an exerpt from page #16 of the Settlement Agreement/sweetheart deal titled ENTIRE AGREEMENT.

Starting with page #12 of the Amended Control Order: "d) The longterm collection and treatment system referred to in paragraph 3(a) shall be implemented and paid for in accordance with the Settlement Agreement."

Page #14 of the same document "(f) The waste materials referred to in paragraph 5(a) will be further dealt with in accordance with the Settlement Agreement."

Page #16 same document "(c) Further investigation of DNAPL shall be carried out in accordance with the Settlement Agreement. The costs of the further investigation shall be paid for in accordance with the Settlemnt Agreement."

I'm now over to the actual "Settlement Agreement" or sweetheart deal. Page #16
21.0 ENTIRE AGREEMENT
21.1 With respect to the subject matter of this Agreement, this agreement (a)sets
forth the entire agreement between the parties and any persons who have in the past or
who are now representing either of the parties(b) supercedes all prior understandings and
communications between the parties or any of them, oral or written, and (c) constitutes
the entire agreement between the parties. each party acknowledges and represents that
this Agreement is entered into after full investigation and that no party is relying upon
any statement or representaionmade by any other which is not embodied in this
Agreement. each party acknowledges that it shall have no right to rely upon any
amendment, promise, modification, statement or representation made or occurring
subsequent to the execution of this Agreement unless the same is in writing and executed
by each of the parties.

Remember the first three quotes (pgs. #12, 14 & 16) are from the Amended Control Order which was produced one month AFTER the private two party Settlement Agreement between Uniroyal and the Ontario M.O.E. These quotes within the body of the Control Order show that these three cleanup items are subservient or "in accordance with" the Settlement Agreement of Oct. 7, 1991.

Secondly the 21.0 ENTIRE AGREEMENT within the Settlement Agreement clearly spells out that that document is preeminent and can not be overuled or trumped by any other document whatsoever. Therefore as the Settlement Agreement is paramount, hence it's page #15 RELEASES is as well. This page categorically states that Uniroyal are indemnified ie. off the hook for all "presently aware" contamination as of October 1991 on their Elmira site.

MORE LOCAL MEDIA ON THE SWEETHEART DEAL

2012-03-16T09:28:00.000-04:00

Firstly bless Woolwich Township's good fortune in having not one but two local newspapers. Last week the Woolwich Observer opened things with their article, albeit a little off the mark, about the October 7, 1991 Settlement Agreement aka "sweetheart deal". This week it is the Elmira Independent with this headline: "Discussion on "sweetheart" deal to wait". The Independent are reporting my presentation to Woolwich Council back on March 6/12. As indicated Mayor Cowan stated that he felt Council wasn't the right time or place for that discussion. Really? Might have been a tad embarassing for the Mayor, for his Council to publicly learn that he was witholding significant game changing information from them regarding the alleged "cleanup" at Chemtura. Regardless the good news is that again the public have been advised that the next public CPAC meeting is scheduled for March 29/12, 6 pm. in the Council Chambers. Our Mayor has promised that this agreement/deal will be on the Agenda for discussion. As the last three public CPAC meetings have all been cancelled, let's actually see this one go forward as promised.

ROMA (Rural Ontario Municipal Assocn) CONFERENCE

2012-03-16T09:11:00.002-04:00

Yesterday's Elmira Independent carrys this story: "Township meetings at ROMA "got a lot accomplished"". I view this story has a politician's delight. It primarily advises citizens and voters that their elected representatives are on the ball, attending a very appropriate conference and putting forth the interests of the Township. Apparently Mayor Cowan and CAO Dave Brenneman met with the Provincial Minister of Transportation, Minister of Health, Minister of Natural Resources and finally the Minister of Energy. While all of these meetings are certainly appropriate, indeed imperative, one glaring absence was the Minister of the Environment, Jim Bradley. That being said it is my expectation that Mayor Cowan has been in very recent contact with him regarding the Chemtura non cleanup and the recent rediscovery by CPAC of the October 7, 1991 "sweetheart deal". Although a rediscovery of that agreement I am still awaiting feedback from two media sources who are checking their archives as to whether there was any public discussion or acknowledgement back then that the agreement included an Indemnity for Uniroyal/Chemtura.

Other Woolwich issues discussed by the Mayor and CAO include Woolwich Bio-En, gravel pits and Highway # 7 connections into Breslau. There was also discussion around an additional Doctor being needed in St. Jacobs. I am trying to believe everything implied in this story. Although none of us were there for these discussions, I personally hope that Woolwich interests were vigorously pursued regarding the plethora of proposed gravel pits and of particular interest here in Elmira of the proposed bio gas facility on Martin's Lane.

IT WAS A SWEETHEART DEAL TWENTY-ONE YEARS AGO AND IT STILL IS

2012-03-15T10:37:00.001-04:00

Well this story continues to unfold. I have been talking to, e-mailing and phoning all kinds of individuals with both current and past knowledge of the Elmira water crisis which started in November 1989. As is usual after the passage of twenty years there are different memories from honest people of various events which transpired. The words "sweetheart deal" were used in newspaper reports twenty years ago, although extraordinarily infrequently. The criticism of the agreement between the M.O.E. and Uniroyal was harsh, angry and reasonably detailed. The focus, and this is based upon my review over the last nineteen hours of old newspaper reports, was upon the lack of an alternate water supply for Elmira and the simplistic solutions to clean up the Elmira Aquifers. Keep in mind that it was only yesterday that all of us were reminded by one of our local papers that yes afterall this Settlement Agreement was made public twenty-one years ago. What to date I am still pursuing is why there appears to be so little notice of page #15 of this "Settlement Agreement" between the two guilty parties. Page #15 is titled " 16.0 Releases". Yes Woolwich Observer it is the smoking gun! It is the Indemnity or waiver of legal and financial responsibity given to Uniroyal by the Ontario Ministry of the Environment. It is a despicable and contemptible piece of work by our provincial government.

I have been keeping the CPAC members up to date with all unfolding information that I am aware of. This includes my reading of the old Control Order of August 28, 1990, the "Settlement Agreement" of October 7, 1991 and the immediately following Amended Control Order of November 4, 1991. I have to date carefully compared the differences between the two Control Orders which of course are due to the Sweetheart Deal ie. Settlement Agreement which was consumated between them timewise. Yes I think the word consumated is a good one as the public got s...... . The M.O.E. for various reasons, mostly for their own self interest, totally sold the farm. The public were grossly sold out and the repercusions of that deal haunt us to this day and explain why we still don't have readily accessible DNAPLS removed from beneath the west side operating ponds at Uniroyal/Chemtura.

Dan, Richard & Ken: Intellectually I agree with you so why is it so hard for me to do it in practice?

2012-03-15T09:07:00.002-04:00

I have been blessed with friends and colleagues who do their best to keep me grounded and aware of the bigger picture. Whether or not they agree o% or 100% with my opinions nevertheless they often are able to point out to me how my energy and enthusiasm could be misinterpreted. In the heat of writing this Blog I always attempt to be painfully honest whether criticising the Ministry of the Environment, Chemtura or local politicians. The problem arises with personal criticism of individuals. Perhaps my wee mind thinks that if the responsible individuals are willing to accept praise for their actions they should also be willing to accept personal criticism. Nevertheless I have accepted the overall principle that the three individuals above have suggested to me. Therefore as a start I am going to remove a couple of rude comments/adjectives/nouns that I used in yesterday's posting. I will endeavour to remain honest and direct while being less personally critical of individuals. In other words as I am advised, criticize the behaviour not the person. If only it were easier to do but I will continue to try.

OVERWHELMING ARROGANCE

2012-03-14T09:04:00.000-04:00

Is there a better term to describe a Mayor who would appoint a panel of intelligent, worldly citizens to a very difficult committee with the expectation that he and he alone could absolutely control their decisions, their direction and their conclusions? Did he believe that by unilaterally cancelling both private orientation meetings as well as public CPAC meetings that he could continually keep them off balance? Did his control of the process through appointing himself Interim Chair make him feel omnipotent and invincible? This process includes Agenda items, Minutes and whether or not to reschedule meetings. Finally did his removal of one of his appointees early on (last May) make him think he had intimidated the rest of them? What an absolute ... he has shown himself to be.

The question is why. If he believed that the old CPAC were co-opted and had strayed from their mandate of restoring the Elmira drinking water aquifers; then why is he behaving badly and treating this CPAC disrespectfully? In hindsight I believe that he got rid of the old entrenched CPAC members because he knew he couldn't control them. His private reason given to me and others was indeed correct and a good one but not his real reason. His disrespect and ... behaviour towards the new CPAC extends further than what I have written here today or in the past. In my opinion his arrogance and disrespect have put him on a collision course with his own handpicked Chemtura Public Advisory Committee. These are honest, intelligent people who sincerely want to fulfill their mandate. This includes working in the public interest regarding cleaning up the local aquifers. They are not interested in saving Chemtura money nor in saving face for the Ministry of the Environment.

On two (Editor's note: now appears to be only one) occasions within the last eight days the Mayor has indicated that he is not on board with the notion that the October 7, 1991 Settlement Agreement is also a blatant sweetheart deal which indemnifies Chemtura from liability for their decades of local pollution. He may be misleading CPAC by claiming that the silence and secrecy he has demanded around this sweetheart deal is for the purpose of quietly negotiating with the M.O.E. in order to gain concessions. Horsefeathers ! What I believe he is doing is helping them and Chemtura prepare their defence for the March 29/12 public CPAC meeting. I have been e-mailing advice and observations concerning the November 1991 Control Order and the Settlement Agreement to both CPAC members as well as the local media. I have not been including the Mayor in my e-mails. Chemtura and the M.O.E. have money and decades of manipulation under their belts. They don't need any other help.

WOOLWICH DRINKING WATER

2012-03-13T08:30:00.001-04:00

Last Saturday's Woolwich Observer carrys this story: "Clean bill of health for Woolwich's water". You know the easiest way to put this in perspective is to remind residents of all the assurances they were receiving during the 1980's in regards to Elmira's water. Everyone could taste how bad it was yet the assurances from the M.O.E. especially just came on flowing. Then allegedly out of the blue, immediately AFTER Uniroyal completed their cleanout of their west side ponds in 1989, the M.O.E. decided to test for some different compounds. Wowser they found NDMA and less remarkably a half dozen other common industrial solvents.

So I'm telling Woolwich rersidents to take this article and more importantly these water reports with a healthy dose of skepticism. I have posted numerous articles during March, February and probably January describing in detail the omissions and discrepancies in these reports produced by the Region of Waterloo. Do not blame Woolwich Councillors here. They want good news, the Region delivers it and the Councillors aren't looking for problems nor do they want a fight with the Region. Just like the recently exposed sweetheart deal between the M.O.E. and Chemtura; the big shots get what they want and the public takes it again in the ear.

JIGS HOLLOW GRAVEL PIT BACK BEFORE COUNCIL

2012-03-13T08:19:00.001-04:00

Last Saturday's Woolwich Observer carried the following story: "Conestogo residents want more study into impact of Jigs Hollow gravel pit; inadequate to date". Bill Norrish a resident of the Golf Course Road subdivision spoke at last Tuesday's Council meeting. He and his neighbours dispute an assertion that the proposed Kuntz Landscaping pit by the Grand River and between Conestogo and Winterbourne will not have unacceptable visual impacts. Apparently the study of same by the pit applicant only used one nearby vacant property in it's assessment. As a reminder our old Council approved a zone change application for the pit, as one of it's last acts. There is an O.M.B. mediation session scheduled for May 8, 2012.

DELEGATION TO WOOLWICH COUNCIL (March 6, 2012)

2012-03-12T10:31:00.000-04:00

For many years it has been obvious to CPAC members and citizens of Wolwich Township that the so called "bible" for the cleanup, namely the November 4,1991 Control Order was a paper tiger. It was ignored at will by both Chemtura and by the Ontario Ministry of the Environment. I have for a number of years been advising CPAC, the public and the media that a sweetheart deal existed between Chemtura (Uniroyal) and the M.O.E. Indeed current CPAC member Ron Campbell has found and shared this document with the rest of CPAC. Amazingly this document was written right in the midst of the Elmira water crisis, while the story was national news. This document is dated October 7, 1991 and is a bilateral agreement between Uniroyal Chemical and the Ministry of the Environment. At the top of the first page this document is referred to as Schedule H of the agreement between Uniroyal, the M.O.E. and the Region of Waterloo which was dated March 1993. These two documents explain many things including the Region sending their designated denier, Eric Hodgins, to a private Woolwich Council meeting a few years back to refute my claim of "other sources" here in Elmira.

I am assuming that the Interim Chair of CPAC (Todd Cowan) has shared this incredible news with Woolwich Council (Editor's note-he hadn't) . I am also disappointed that to date Woolwich Council have not shared this information with the general public. The sweetheart deal was signed one month prior to the signing of the Amended Control Order of Nov. 4, 1991. It has been kept a secret from CPAC members and the public for over twenty years. That is not to say that one or two co-opted CPAC members might not have known about it. The rest of us present at CPAC meetings either as formal members or not had no knowledge of this secret sweetheart deal. What this document does on page 15 is to release Uniroyal Chemical from all liability, legal and financial, on its' Elmira property due to contamination. For twenty-one years Chemtura and the Ontario Ministry of the Environment have been playing a game with the citizens of Elmira. They have deceived, manipulated and lied constantly. They have lied through omission and through commission. They have shamelessly led this committee of Council around in circles all the while knowing that Uniroyal/Chemtura didn't have to lift a finger. As this document was in the possession of Woolwich Council most likely for the entire last twenty-one years, one could jump to a conclusion that Woolwich Council are also guilty of deception. On futher thought while it is entirely likely that past Councils had full knowledge of this contemptible sweetheart deal, I have no reason to believe that the current, barely over a year old Council knew of it. Regardless the public have been lied to, deceived and manipulated and treated with the utmost contempt and disrespect by the Ministry of the Environment and by Chemtura. My expectation of this Council is twofold. I expect you to immediately advise the public of the existence of this document and the significance. Secondly I expect some action from this Council directed towards both Chemtura and the M.O.E. You (Council) at the moment have the moral high ground as I believe that you do not share blame for this betrayal of the public. Some appropriate and significant action including expressing your condemnation of the reprehensible behaviour of these other two parties is required . After twenty-two years of having to deal with these persons/wor.. I do not think I, nor the public, should be expected to be patient any longer. Woolwich Council what are you prepared to do?

Alan Marshall Elmira Environmental Hazards Team

LOTS OF LOCAL HOT ENVIRONMENTAL NEWS

2012-03-10T08:18:00.002-05:00

First off Chemtura have failed their most recent *Responsible Care* verification. This isn't a big surprise. For me the surprise is that the CIAC (Chemical Industry Assoc'n of Canada; formerly CCPA) are insightful enough to realize that giving Chemtura the go ahead would tarnish the CIAC's credibility overall. I emphasize that this is my take on the situation only and I acknowledge that local folks were involved in the verification process last summer. This Report is dated February 24, 2012. A very big part of their failure relates to their relationship and communication with the community.

The next news relates to the Hawk Ridge Homes Ontario Municipal Board (O.M.B.) hearing which I posted about earlier here in the Advocate. There is an article in this week's Elmira Independent titled "Residents present concerns about Hawk Ridge Homes". These three residents are all former members of the old CPAC although Sandra Bair had only been a member for a short period of time, possibly a year. That being said I had been impressed with her performance overall at the old CPAC and she and former member Ken Driedger were the only two former CPAC members that I had recommended be kept on the new CPAC. Unfortunately they both eventually decided to join their collegues in removing their Applications from the new CPAC even though the other old CPAC members by that time knew they weren't going to be reappointed anyways. At the O.M.B. hearings these three spoke to the Board about the safety of putting a new subdivision so close to Sulco and Chemtura. The former Chair of CPAC who I believe was much to palsy with Chemtura for years sang a somewhat different tune at the O.M.B. stating "The company (Chemtura) doesn't really seem to care about Woolwich residents". Why weren't you this honest and forthcoming when it really mattered Pat?

The third news of course deals with the sweetheart deal between Chemtura and the Ministry of the Environment (M.O.E.). It is appropriate that there is an uproar and I believe it will only get bigger. The story has been carried, somewhat poorly, but nevertheless carried in the Woolwich Observer. On-line I have added one comment to that story and this morning I note there is another comment consisting of a story from here (Elmira Advocate) that was picked up by the Cambridge Advocate. At the moment I don't know who posted that comment. The hits here in the Advocate have been off the charts lately and yesterday was no exception. I have the 22 page sweetheart deal as an attachment on an e-mail and I will be posting it in it's entirety soon. It is my hope that CPAC will also be addressing this issue shortly. The next regularily scheduled public CPAC meeting is Thursday March 29/12 at 6 pm. in the Woolwich Council Chambers.

LET THE "SWEETHEART DEAL" LYING BEGIN !

2012-03-09T09:34:00.001-05:00

Firstly Thank You Woolwich Observer for finally publishing the most momentuous news regarding the Elmira non-cleanup in decades. Today's front page story is titled
"20-year-old agreement causes a stir". It's not on-line yet but when it is I will add a link to it. Yes you appear to have naively accepted the words of the two recipients at face value, namely the Ontario M.O.E. and Chemtura. This I find strange as I've become a fan of Steve Kannon's insightful Editorials. Of late he has taken accurate and penetrating shots at politicians, money men, corporate elites and how ordinary citizens are taking it in the ear from our so called authorities.

On page 7 Steve quotes parts of section 16(releases). He stops prematurely however. Here is the rest of the sentence: "...and the province are presently aware, which against Uniroyal... the province ever had, now has or which the province or its assigns, can, shall or may have by reason of or arising out of contamination on the Uniroyal site in Elmira." Keep in mind the "presently aware" part. This was signed during the SECOND Environmental Appeal Board hearing and AFTER both the 1984 and August 1990 Control Orders. Both parties had excellent knowledge of the current horrid state of the Uniroyal site which was at least partially responsible for the shutdown of all the municipal wells in Elmira.

Dwight Este of Chemtura and Steve Martindale of the M.O.E. are the long time front men and designated deceivers. Their two employers are and have been partners in pollution literally for decades. Clearly truth is temporarily unavailable for these two as it has been for most of the last twenty years. Their claims that the document has been public since it was drafted is drivel. They then claim that they issued a press release the same day as if that was evidence of something. A self serving, self congratulatory press release is not making the document public. This is not the first time these two bodies have hidden documents or deals and I'm also sure that more will be discovered in the future.

Dwight Este also claims that pump and treat groundwater work and further work along the banks of the Canagagigue Creek is evidence that the company did not get a "free pass". More hooey! If he's referring to Dioxin removal at GP1 & 2 then this was contamination they were not aware of in 1991. It was discovered in 2002 as part of the SSRA (site specific risk assessment). The pump and treat is also part of this October 7, 1991 sweetheart deal. Twenty years plus of public meetings and criticism of Uniroyal/Chemtura and the M.O.E. for not removing DNAPLS (dense non-aqueous phase liquids) and NEVER did either of those parties admit that they had given or received a Release that let them off the hook for that contamination of which they were "presently aware".

Shortly I will be releasing my written remarks to Council (last tuesday nite) and I will attempt to post the entire 22 page sweetheart deal on line. Currently I have posted the 1st and 15 th pages on line here in the Advocate. Please also note the comment I've put at the bottom of the article on the Woolwich Observer which is linked at the top of this posting.

WOOLWICH TOWNSHIP POLITICS

2012-03-08T09:25:00.002-05:00

O.K. I was offended once more by my reception at Woolwich Council Tuesday evening. This is not new although I will say that generally the more complimentary and flattering I am towards Council the better their response. This may be normal human behaviour but I've got news for Council. Not everyone, myself included, speaks to Council only when things are good and they have no concerns. You are going to be appropriately criticized from time to time and if you disagree then inform the Delegate before you of their possible misunderstanding of the facts. That being said it has been clarified for me that Councillor Bauman's criticism of my submitted document was based upon the inference that as a past Councillor he had a copy of the "sweetheart deal" between Uniroyal and the M.O.E.. Councillor Bauman vehemently denies this and as I have no evidence to the contrary I am prepared to accept him at his word. This brings up two issues. Certainly past Mayors had to have been informed of this deal. Afterall the document was in the Township's possession. The second point is that four weeks after this document was "discovered" our Mayor has not shared it with his own Council. He has not been keeping CPAC in the loop and up to date on this earthshattering gamechanger nor has he been keeping Council in the loop. This kind of explains his ridiculous remarks to me Tuesday night. I've let the cat out of the bag. The Mayor did vaguely repeat the magic hocus pocus word "process" a few times. Sorry Mayor Cowan but "process" is usually no more than a bureaucrat's excuse for not consulting or sharing pertinent information . Regarding CPAC you and you alone have blundered over and over again. You've lost my confidence and your continued penchant for secrecy and keeping them in the dark and out of the loop isn't going to restore it. They have been appointed by Council to deal with Chemtura /cleanup/M.O.E. issues. Consult with them regularily and often. Quite frankly even the newest and least experienced of them are way ahead of you and your CAO's knowledge on this subject. The most experienced of them combined with their access to outside knowledge totally dwarf anything you've got inside Woolwich Township. Quite frankly you are only as effective as the information available to you. Did you appoint me originally and the rest of CPAC, both experienced and inexperienced, simply to give the appearance of public consultation? Has this been an intentional one or two man show from the beginning?

SWEETHEART DEAL PRESENTED TO WOOLWICH COUNCIL

2012-03-07T08:32:00.001-05:00

Very interesting. The only two Councillors who spoke in response to my Delegation last evening were the two with cards in the game. Councillor Mark Bauman as usual waited until I had sat down then he criticized my written report to Council. Councillor Bauman is the only returning Councillor to Council and he knows where the skeletons are buried. The Mayor Todd Cowan rambled on and made some ridiculous remarks about oh this document (sweetheart deal) wasn't really a secret and it probably was on-line somewhere. Give me a break! Basically Todd was trying to downplay my statements that this was a secret backroom sweetheart deal between the Ministry of the Environment and Uniroyal Chemical. That is exactly what it is and what planet is the Mayor from? As two CPAC members were sitting beside me last night including the one who discovered the document and shared it with CPAC, the Mayor's comments were unsettling. Is he already staking out a position for the Township with zero input from CPAC? Is he planning on stickhandling around his handpicked citizens committee? Even more interesting is the surprised looks on Council last night. It sure looked as if they had not been remotely briefed by the Mayor on this major, game changing development.

I have a twenty-three year history of being deceived and lied to by all levels of government involved in the Elmira "water crisis". Woolwich Township, the Region of Waterloo and the Ontario Ministry of the Environment have all deceived and manipulated the citizens of Woolwich and Elmira. Yes the M.O.E. are certainly the prizewinners but they've needed the ongoing support of the two lower tiers of government. I did get the Mayor to publicly state last night in front of both the Woolwich Observer and the Elmira Independent that negotiations with the M.O.E. would be conducted at public CPAC meetings. This is huge not because I believe it so much as because when it comes out that he and Township reps have been negotiating privately, we will have a better handle on our new Mayor's credibility. Mayor Cowan also referred to a "process" that he is going through. By implication he was criticizing my going public with the October 7, 1991 "sweetheart deal" between Uniroyal and the M.O.E.. Any "process" Mayor Cowan that excludes Council, CPAC and the public is not a process. It's simply more of what we've already had namely a litany of backroom, secret sweetheart deals that are not in the public interest.

TRANSPARENCY & M.O.E. SECRECY

2012-03-06T09:11:00.000-05:00

Our courts may be hypocrites but at least they say the right things such as "Justice must not only be done, it must be seen to be done." Obviously this is small comfort to the wrongly convicted whose numbers both in Canada and the United States are becoming legion. Imagine when groups like Project Innocence and The Association for the Wrongly Convicted move on to freeing people for wrongful convictions other than murder. Does anyone seriously think our courts screw up so often and so badly only on murder charges?

Getting back to transparency and justice being seen to be done- political and bureaucratic bodies such as our Ontario Ministry of the Environment have a long history of talking out of both sides of their mouths. At the same time as they are either publicly or privately telling citizens and media that they are indeed going to hold the polluter to account, they are privately sitting down and negotiating "deals" to absolve the polluter of liability. These deals must of course be in the interests of the M.O.E.. If they are in the interests of the public that is sheer coincidence.

In the case of the Elmira "water crisis" the public demanded not only a cleanup and restoration of the Elmira Aquifers but that also the guilty parties be held publicly accountable. The "sweetheart deal" of October 7, 1991 not only absolved Uniroyal/Chemtura of all liability it also specifically stated that nothing in the deal was to be interpreted as admissions of guilt or wrongdoing by any party. Incredible. Perhaps Paul Bernardo and Karla Homolka should have negotiated such an agreement between themselves. If they had it would have been held up to public ridicule and thrown out as offensive to common decency and morality. EXACTLY AS THE M.O.E. / UNIROYAL DEAL SHOULD BE.

It is therefore with this background that Woolwich Township and Council must break this cycle of secrecy and backroom negotiations. No you do not privately twist the M.O.E.'s arm and blackmail them into paying you off. No you do not twist their arm privately while promising them some face saving out. All that will do is reinforce their dispicable behaviour and ensure it continues. You deal with them publicly. This is exactly why you have CPAC. This is exactly why the M.O.E. lie and deceive the public because they are confident that if caught they can deal privately with the municipality and offer them some of their own taxpayers money back in exchange for confidentiality. Woolwich Council you need to break this cycle. This secrecy is what got us into this mess in the first place. Lift up the rock that the Ontario M.O.E. and polluters have been hiding under and air out their dirty laundry. Be forthcoming with your CPAC and discuss and negotiate at public CPAC meetings with the Ministry. They will scream bloody murder and that is the proof that you are on the right track.

DELEGATION TO TOMORROW NIGHT'S WOOLWICH COUNCIL MEETING

2012-03-05T08:59:00.002-05:00

At this point in time I'm getting my ducks in a row and confirming that other than via four websites/blogs there has been no newspaper or other media reports dealing with the "sweetheart deal' signed by Uniroyal and the Ontario M.O.E. twenty-one years ago. I am also confirming that to date any actions/plans by Woolwich Township or the Mayor/CPAC Chair have not been shared with the Chemtura Public Advisory Committee (CPAC). Keep clearly in mind that it was a CPAC member who first discovered this smoking gun.

Although the blame for this putrid document can not be laid at the feet of any Woolwich Council, what can be attributed to certain past members, is keeping it a secret from the public. In general, transparency and accountability in government action should always be paramount. Any time the public are told one thing while guilty parties negotiate privately and consumate deals with our government, democracy has been subverted. In this case the biggest and baddest polluter in town got a free pass from the Ministry of the Environment while all parties assurred the public of the following lies: 1) The Elmira aquifers will be cleaned up 2) The responsible parties will pay the freight. All parties include Uniroyal/Chemtura, M.O.E., Region of Waterloo and Woolwich Township. Tomorrow night at a public Council meeting I am booked as a Delegation. The media as always will be present. I will be respectfully putting the question to Woolwich Council. No more secrecy as in the past. What are you doing about this situation including the betrayal of the citizens of Woolwich Township by Chemtura and the Ministry of the Environment?

NEWSPAPER NOTICE FOR WOOLWICH DRINKING WATER REPORTS

2012-03-03T07:36:00.000-05:00

Well that was a whole lot of nothing. I've been going over the Region's reports for the last few weeks and I knew they were missing some Woolwich Township locations such as Elmira and St. Jacobs. They were also missing Breslau and Heidelberg. After seeing the Drinking Water reports advertised in the Woolwich Observer; stating that they could be found on Woolwich's website (under Township Services- Engineering/Public Works) I looked them up. What a waste of time . All they say is SEE REGION OF WATERLOO. There is no data for these systems presented. You can either go to the Region of Waterloo website and look it all up or go to my archives for February. There you will find a link to the Region's Annual Water Reports on February 25/12. This is very peculiar because with the exception of Breslau, Elmira & St. Jacobs all the other small towns and villages have their own on site wells. Thanks a lot for nothing Woolwich. Apparently you can add crap to your website quickly but you can't seem to remove crap at all. I'm referring to your link to Chemtura mixed in with your CPAC link. This is especially annoying after the revelation of their backroom sweetheart deal with the Ministry of the Environment twenty-one years ago.

Just for the record Elmira/St.Jacobs' water comes up from Waterloo via a pipeline. It might not have NDMA in it but who really knows. The Province and the Region in their infinite wisdom don't advise us of any NDMA results good or bad in their drinking water reports. Incredibly stupid under the circumstances. All the other failures of these Annual reports apply equally to the Townships reports. Far too many ubiquitous chemicals simply aren't tested for. In Heidelberg with the old gas station present I wonder why they don't test for gasoline related compounds such as Toluene, Xylenes and Ethyl Benzene. Both the Conestogo Golf and West Montrose wells are affected by the Grand River. Again there are upriver sources of industrial chemicals that are not being tested for. Shame on all parties.

MAYOR'S SUPPORT IS FALLING

2012-03-02T09:28:00.001-05:00

Normally the popular support of the Mayor of Woolwich Township is not that directly relevant to the Chemtura Public Advisory Committee (CPAC). That however is the situation when the so called "Interim" Chair is none other than Mayor Cowan. Some CPAC members had felt last May that his stepping in to replace Councillor Julie-Ann Herteis would add prestige and weight to this committee of Council. At the time he enjoyed the tepid support of one local paper and very strong support from the other (Observer). Boy how things have changed. Right now the Observer on a weekly basis are lampooning the Mayor with their cartoons, including today, and also through their Editorials on occasion.

What concerns me regarding the mayor are his campaign promises. I believe he can take some credit for the sucess with the Saving of Victoria Glen. However the Hawk Ridge subdivision appears to be more than a done deal courtesy of provincial policies. Bio-En Fuels is dragging on and it shouldn't be. If this issue flops then excuses aren't going to cut it. The mayor will probably wear that going into the next election. Gravel pits are also still up in the air. Why do these issues literally take years to be resolved. I suggest that is intentional and usually works in that citizens , unlike politicians, are not being paid for their time and efforts. It then becomes a battle of attrition. Finally we come to CPAC. The Mayor had a lot to say about getting a new CPAC back on course to clean up Elmira's Aquifers by 2028. He and CPAC had momentum and both the M.O.E. and Chemtura on the defensive and on the run last fall. Since then nothing. And I do mean NOTHING. No meetings, no press releases, no pressure. The Township are sitting on their butts right now giving Chemtura breathing room. They are giving Chemtura and the M.O.E. respect they do not deserve. Both those parties are taking full advantage. Zero promised monitoring results from the Ministry since last fall and zero lab results promised by Chemtura regarding their Dioxins have benn forthcoming. Also the Township should have PUBLICLY roundly condemned both parties for their disgusting and contemptible Sweetheart deal of October 7, 1991. Instead NOTHING. CPAC it is make or break time now. Seize control from your Interim Chair. Go publicly to Woolwich Council and tell them exactly what your Chair is NOT doing. Yes Council have the option of booting all of you off CPAC. If they do that then they will have condemned themselves to public ridicule and outrage. That is better than Mayor Cowan and his advisers continuing to do nothing and condemning the Elmira cleanup . It has been a sham for twenty years and this Council and Mayor promised to turn it around. To date their promises have been wind and hot air.

REAL LOCAL CONSULTATION ON GREEN ENERGY

2012-03-01T08:29:00.001-05:00

Clearly the provincial Liberals must be feeling the sting of no longer having a majority. Premier McGuinty was speaking at the Rural Ontario Municipalities Association (ROMA) in regards to green energy when several politicians walked out on him. McGuinty then advised the remaining audience that local municipalities would soon have more say over wind and solar energy projects. This article was in Tuesday's (Feb. 28/12) Waterloo Region (K-W) Record under the title "Municipalities to be given more say on wind, solar farms, McGuinty says". Both opposition parties in the legislature have attacked the Liberals position and their forcing through projects that local municipalities and citizens do not support. Here locally in Elmira we are still awaiting word on the location of Bio-En Fuels which is proposed for Martins Lane in Elmira. Opposition has been strong including the Stop The Stink website that the BFCC or Bio Fuels Concerned Citizens have had for some time. It seems more than strange to me that our local citizens remain in limbo waiting for a no-brainer decision from the province. There is an alternate site available and the Mayor has been pushing it for some time. Usually stalling is a sign that the authorities do not have good news. One of the local activists, Dr. Dan Holt, has been engaging a M.O.E. technical adviser, trying to get a firm answer. To date it appears as if everything is still on hold.

MORE ON REGION'S ANNUAL WATER REPORT

2012-02-29T10:09:00.000-05:00

Eleven months ago I received a response to a number of my questions from Mr. Peter Clarke, RMOW Water Specialist. This response was extremely disappointing in that it seemed as if Mr. Clarke was passing the buck from the region to the province. My questions of course all dealt with last year's Annual Water Report which came out in February 2011 and covered the testing results for 2010. This years results which to date I still have not completely in detail examined, do however share the same, in my opinion, fatal flaws as its' predecessors. Mr. Clarke would have me assign this blame to the Province of Ontario rather than the Region of Waterloo. To a certain degree I can understand Mr. Clarke's position. However the Region needs to be far more forthcoming both to the local Municipal Councils and to Regional Council regarding the inherent flaws and weaknesses in these reports. There are huge relevant data gaps that need to be addressed whether or not the province has mandated them. Region of Waterloo this isn't a case of going the extra mile. The Province have totally wimped out in their mandated list of chemical parameters required to be tested for. This is no accident as these parameters are ubiquitous in our water supply and we the citizens have a right to know if they are indeed present or not.

Quoting Mr. Clarke: "The Ministry of the Environment (MOE) provides an Annual Water Quality Report Template for owners/operators of drinking water systems to fill out. There is no regulatory requirement to test for the parameters listed above." The parameters listed above are the ones I asked him about in my letter : "Why are the following common contaminant results not listed namely Toluene, Xylenes, Ethyl benzene, NDMA, Dioxins, 1,1,1 TCA again throughout the reports?".

Keep in mind that Toluene, Xylenes and ethyl Benzene are components of gasoline. All cities have old, leaking gas stations. NDMA has been found in groundwater and well water in both Elmira and Cambridge in the past. 1,1,1 TCA is in Cambridge groundwater courtesy of Rozell (GE) on Bishop St. in Cambridge.

Another question to Peter Clarke was: "Also why aren't other by-products of disinfection listed with their numerical values such as Chloramines and Chloroacetic acids?" Mr. Clarke's answer: " There is no regulatory requirement to test for Chloroacetic Acids or Chloramines."

Finally I asked "How come there are no results for Radiological compounds?" Mr. Clarke's answer: "There is no MOE requirement to test for these compounds.".

My last question to Mr. Clarke dealt with high method detection limits (MDL). These detection limits when set too high can readily hide low level detections of contaminants. I asked Mr Clarke: "Is there any reason why the Region couldn't use lower MDL's?" Mr. Clarke's response: "As noted previously, MDL's are set by individual accredited laboratories.".

It is my opinion that Mr. Clarke's answers are unsatisfactory. He may be assigning blame elsewhere but that does not improve these Annual Water Reports. They are masquerading as proof that our drinking water is fine but they are ignoring important and crucial data that we have a right to have.

MORE ON HAWK RIDGE HOMES O.M.B. HEARING

2012-02-29T09:26:00.001-05:00

It is grossly disappointing. If the information I've received off the record is correct, and I have no information otherwise, then the fault lies with the province. This hearing seems to be no more than lawyers arguing about the height of the fence proposed to run parallel to Union St.. The idea is that this fence whether 3 or 4.5 metres high will insulate the new residents from the noise of trains shunting nearby. Apparently the health and safety issues arising from fires, explosions and chemical leaks are not encapsulated in any Provincial planning legislation. I am advised that individual citizens will be speaking to the Board, possibly on Thursday, on those matters. At the same time I'm advised that those issues are not legally significant. If indeed that is so then shame on the Province because putting more people in harms way is reprehensible. All the waivers and warning clauses in the world on these new homes do not and will not release those responsible down the road when tragedy strikes, most likely because of Chemtura .

ACCORDING TO THE DUCK THEORY, IT'S A SELLOUT

2012-02-28T13:01:00.002-05:00

Is today's ongoing Ontario Municipal Board Hearing a sellout? It restarts at 1:30 pm. after lunch and there are only three parties namely the Region, the Township and the developer. Now besides Chemtura dropping out, so have Sulco Chemicals! Members of the old CPAC and myself were in attendance this morning. All parties have agreed that the only remaining issues are noise from shunting trains and designation of a little parkland. WHAT THE HELL! What about the health and safety of future residents dealing with fires, explosions and fugitive air emissions? Is the Planning legislation that incredibly biased in favour of development that noise is more important than life and death? My guess is that Chemtura and Sulco have received some kind of indemnitys protecting them from liability if these proposed new citizens die due to emissions from these companies. Afterall, sweetheart deals are no strangers to the Region of Waterloo and certainly not the Province of Ontario. Where and what are the Township of Woolwich doing? It is beginning to indeed appear that provincial legislation once again is overiding commonsense and local knowledge.

LARGEST CLEANUP FOR REDEVELOPMENT IN KITCHENER'S HISTORY

2012-02-28T09:15:00.002-05:00

This is a another feel good, pro business, redevelopment story from the Waterloo Region (K-W) Record. As usual it does a service to the business community while ignoring far more fundamental health issues of the local residents. The title in yesterday's Record was "Site cleanup seen as big step in Kitchener's urban landscape". The site was home to Breithaupt Leather and Pannill Veneer afterwards. The writer Terry Pender informs us "...the company had to remove 70,000 tonnes of lightly contaminated soil from the site..." Who said it was "lightly contaminated"? The developer perhaps? Nobody removes any "lightly " contaminated soil much less 70,000 tonnes. Bullshit & PooPoo del toro ! Riley Leather Co. was one of the contributers to the TCE (trichloroethylene) contamination in Woburn Mass., USA made famous by John Travolta in A Civil Action. Leather companies use acids and solvents in their processes. A veneer company most likely used glues to combine the wood together. That would also involve the use of solvents. Has this writer even gone and looked at the site? It and the excavations are absolutely massive. Does anybody seriously think that this much contaminated soil was not contaminating the groundwater beneath? Where are the environmental reports? Where are the groundwater and nearby drinking well studies? Do the nearby residents have even a clue as to the danger to their health? Why are our authorities municipal, regional and provincial not looking out for the health of these citizens? The answer is because they are much more concerned with the financial health of the local economy and businesses than the health of modest income nearby homeowners. Shame on you and shame on the Record for your complicity.

O.M.B. HEARING FOR HAWK RIDGE HOMES

2012-02-27T13:18:00.000-05:00

This Ontario Municipal Board Hearing into the proposed subdivision across from Sulco, Varnicolor (former) and Chemtura started in Woolwich Council Chambers this morning at 11 am. but was quickly adjourned. It will resume tomorrow morning at 10 am. at the same location. Clearly there have been errors of omission planning wise in years gone by as this location should not have ever been zoned residential. My expectation is that once again the public (taxpayers) will be paying off the same private enterprise who influenced poor decision making in the first place.

M.O.E. IS ALL ABOUT APPEARANCES

2012-02-27T08:40:00.000-05:00

"Provincial Government Not Environmentally Friendly" is the title of an article in this month's Ontario Out Of Doors (Fishing Annual 2012) magazine (pg. 20). Apparently our Environmental Commissioner, Gord Miller, has strongly criticized the Ontario government in his last annual report. In relation to the Ministry of Natural Resources (MNR) and the Ministry of the Environment (MOE); "He says funding cuts make it difficult for both ministries to carry out their core functions. Their combined budgets only comprised .76% of the Ontario government's 2010/11 operational expenses.". This clearly is NOT putting your money where your mouth is. Furthermore "Since 1992/1993, the MOE has lost 45% of its budget and MNR 22%. Then their combined budgets accounted for 2.15% of tax dollars spent.". Clearly these reductions have adversely affected the ability of the Ontario M.O.E. to either protect or rehabilitate our environment.

Commissioner Miller has suggested that at the very least these ministries should be honest with the public and tell them clearly how limited their resources are to do their jobs. That unfortunately would not be seen to be the politically correct route. Puffery seems to be the way that politicians prefer. Puffery is the verbiose and bombastic bullshit used by liars to cover up their shortcomings. An example is the overused claim that Ontario is "world class" in their protection of their environment. What they are world class in is lying. See last week's postings here regarding the M.O.E.'s "sweetheart deal" with Uniroyal Chemical in Elmira, Ontario. Twenty-one years of appearing at public consultation (CPAC) meetings pretending to clean up the Elmira aquifers and Uniroyal's site, knowing all along that you had given the company a private Release/Indemnity absolving them of all liability. Now that's world class lying.

ANNUAL WATER REPORTS

2012-02-25T08:00:00.002-05:00

These are produced by the Region of Waterloo as mandated by the province after the water crisis in Walkerton. They are on line (click on Region... above). Yesterday I just had time for a quick perusal so I immediately jumped to the wells in Kitchener, Waterloo and Cambridge that can be counted on, year after year to be contaminated with industrial chemicals. Sure enough old faithfuls came through again this time (2011 results). The William St. wells in Waterloo have been contaminated with Trichloroethylene (TCE) just about forever and still are. There are four wells and with careful manipulation of them the concentration of TCE is between 1.4 and 2.0 parts per billion (ppb) well below the drinking water standard of 5 ppb. The three wells in the Parkway well supply system in Kitchener manage to keep their concentration down to .6 ppb. Mind you this is the result of only one test during the entire year so maybe they got lucky at testing time. We then swing over to the Middleton well field in Cambridge. This wellfield has been the long time winner throughout the Region of Waterloo in terms of high TCE readings. I felt this year that they would be relinquishing the title due to the upgrades known as AOP or Advanced Oxidation Process. Surprise they haven't finished them yet! Once more their concentartions of TCE are between 1.9 and 2.9 ppb. This is however a huge reduction from last year's high of 3.1 ppb. Way to go Middleton wellfield. Finally well G9 located near the old Allen-Bradley and Long Mfg. again this year still has TCE although at only 1.6 ppb. Well G6 up near the former Ciba-Geigy site also still has Metalachlor in it at .68 ppb. It seems that industrial solvents and pesticides are a lot like true love in that they last forever. So next Valentine's day forgo fattening chocolates and give your sweetie some toxic industrial waste. More will be coming on this year's Annual Water Report.

HUNDER GRAVEL PIT

2012-02-24T10:24:00.000-05:00

Today I picked up from the Elmira Post Office an envelope from the firm of Garrod*Pickfield Environmental, Minicipal and Planning Law. It was a notice directed from the Ontario Municipal Board to the lawyers for the proposed Hunder Gravel Pit located between Conestogo and Winterbourne. The Notice was an upcoming Prehearing Conference to be held Tuesday April 17, 2012 10:30 am. at the Township of Woolwich Municipal Offices, Council chambers located at 24 Church St. West in Elmira. For students of Elmira's environmental history, Stephen Garrod was the lawyer who represented the Township at two Environmental Appeal Board hearings concerning Uniroyal a little over twenty years ago. His partner's wife Barbara Pickfield was hired to give advice and counselling to UPAC/CPAC back in the 90's as they were foundering. The cause of their foundering was eerily similar to the problems today, being overzealous control of the committee by Woolwich Township officials. Further problems would include the blatant pro Uniroyal bias on the citizens committee in the early days. That much at least has changed for the better. This Prehearing Conference will deal with the normal issues such as Identification of parties, participants and issues. There will also be discussion of start dates and duration of the hearing.

INTEREST IS PICKING UP

2012-02-23T08:07:00.001-05:00

Today is the fifth day in a row that I've posted in regards to the Oct. 7, 1991 Sweetheart deal between Uniroyal Chemical and the Ministry of the Environment. There are numerous local environmental issues here in Woolwich township and I try to cover them all. Every once in a while something so particularily important happens that I tend to focus on it for a few days. This particular issue is of huge significance.

At the moment including this site there are four websites carrying this story. They are the Cambridge Advocate, Stop the Stink and the Huffington Post. Simply googling the first should get you to it otherwise I believe it's at www.cambridgeadvocate.com . The second can be googled and or is also under the BFCC or Bio-Fuel Concerned Citizens and the last is at www. huffingtonpost.ca . This last website is a newspaper and apparently the Federal Environment Minister, Peter Kent, is to be their guest today for an interview. This interview will be him answering environmental questions that have been submitted on-line by the papers' readers. You guessed it, the owner of the Cambridge Advocate has submitted a question dealing with "backroom" deals (ie sweetheart deals) between polluters and the Ministry of the Environment. This is specific to Uniroyal and the M.O.E..

Further media interest to date has come from both the local newspapers in Woolwich Township namely the Elmira Independent and the Woolwich Observer. Also the Waterloo Region (K-W) Record has expressed some interest. I'm hoping all three of these papers will very shortly be publishing relevant stories and information. Our local news radio 570 has been e-mailed as has CKCO-TV. Again we will have to wait to see.

FIRST PAGE OF THE SWEETHEART DEAL

2012-02-22T08:29:00.005-05:00

SCHEDULE "H" TO THE SETTLEMENT AGREEMENT DATED
MARCH 1993 BETWEEN UNIROYAL, UNIROYAL
CHEMICAL, THE REGION and THE PROVINCE

THIS AGREEMENT made this 7 TH day of October, 1991.

BETWEEN:

UNIROYAL CHEMICAL LTD., UCC INVESTORS
HOLDING, INC., UNIROYAL CHEMICAL HOLDING COMPANY,
UNIROYAL CHEMICAL ACQUISITION CORPORATION, and
UNIROYAL CHEMICAL COMPANY, INC.

and

HER MAJESTY THE QUEEN IN RIGHT OF THE PROVINCE OF ONTARIO,
as represented by THE MINISTER OF THE ENVIRONMENT

1. RECITALS

1.1 The Director issued the Control order, (as defined in Section 3.0
of this Agreement), to Uniroyal Chemical Ltd., UCC Investors Holding, Inc.,
Uniroyal Chemical Holding Company, Uniroyal Chemical Acquisition Corporation,
Uniroyal Chemical Company, Inc. and Walter Cook.

1.2 By letter dated September 12, 1990, Uniroyal Chemical Ltd. requested a
hearing by the Board (as defined in Section 3.0 of this Agreement) with respect
to certain provisions of the Control Order.

1.3 By letter dated September 17, 1990, UCC Investors Holding, Inc., Uniroyal
Chemical Holding Company, Uniroyal Chemical Acquisition Corporation, Uniroyal
Chemical Company, Inc. and Walter Cook, requested a hearing by the Board with
respect to the whole of the Control Order.

1.4 By letter dated July 30, 1991, the director issued a new Order to Uniroyal
Chemical Ltd. supplementary to the Control Order with respect to Part IV, clause
5 of the Control Order for the remediation of the Buried Waste, (as defined in
Section 3.0 of this Agreement).

THE SWEETHEART DEAL (Paragraphs)

2012-02-21T08:35:00.001-05:00

Following is the wording of Paragraphs 16.1 and 16.2 on page 15 of the Release/Indemnity (Agreement of Oct. 7, 1991) between Uniroyal Chemical, contributer to the destruction of the Elmira drinking water aquifers, and the Ontario Ministry of the Environment. Where I have put... simply indicates five lines of additional corporate names for Uniroyal, their officers, directors etc. .

" the province does hereby remise, release and forever discharge Uniroyal ... from all actions, causes of action, damages, claims, and demands whatsoever of which both Uniroyal and the Province are presently aware, which against Uniroyal ... the province ever had, now has or which the Province or its assigns can, shall or may have by reason of or arising out of contamination on the Uniroyal site in Elmira" .

Following paragraph 16.1 is 16.2 which is as follows:

" Uniroyal does hereby remise, release and forever discharge the province and its assigns of and from all actions, causes of action, damages, claims and demands whatsoever, of which both Uniroyal and the Province are presently aware, which against the Province, Uniroyal ever had, now has or which Uniroyal, its successors and assigns or any of them hereafter can, shall or may have by reason of or arising out of contamination at the Uniroyal plant site in Elmira."

How can our government legally pardon Uniroyal from their actions? This occurred in the middle of a legal proceeding known as the Environmental Appeal Board Hearings. What information did Uniroyal have on the Ministry of the Environment that was so damning? Was Uniroyal going to expose M.O.E. corruption either at the Appeal Board Hearings or at their threatened followup civil suit? We may never know now because of this sweetheart deal. Uniroyal saved hundreds of millions of dollars in cleanup costs and the M.O.E. saved what little was left of their tattered credibility and reputation. And who knows, did they avoid some kind of criminal charges or were they merely civilly culpable?

MORE ON THE M.O.E. BREECH OF THE PUBLIC TRUST

2012-02-20T10:31:00.000-05:00

The Ontario Ministry of the Environment (M.O.E.) initiated a public advisory committee via Woolwich Council back in 1991. Since that date the M.O.E. have kept this committee in the dark and covered in (bull) shit, hence the expression the mushroom treatment.

The October 7, 1991 Release/Indemnity given to Uniroyal Chemical by the M.O.E. is referred to at the top of its' first page as Schedule H of the March 1993 Settlement agreement between the M.O.E., Uniroyal and the REGION of WATERLOO. Hmm! Is this only about Uniroyal allegedly providing the wherewithal for the pipeline from Waterloo to Elmira, or is there more? Regardless the fact that the REGION had the Oct. 7,1991 Uniroyal/M.O.E. sweetheart deal at least since March 1993 explains their behaviour since. They have gone so far as to send their designated denier (hydrogeological) to Elmira to spin factually incorrect fictions to Woolwich Council in front of me, regarding other sources of contamination in Elmira.

Back to the M.O.E.'s behaviour here in Elmira. They and or their employees have been caught red handed tipping off polluters about upcoming Ministry raids (Varnicolor). They have also denied the existence of buried tanks while standing on top of them and mugging for the cameras. They have blatantly suffered from fictitious disorder syndrome while denying the presence of half buried drums on Varnicolor's Lot 91. They have destroyed evidence directly opposed to promises they made beforehand to citizens. Then there is the paperwork sneaky stuff. They consult with the public about a Control Order and get their approval. Then without further consultation they change the Order significantly to the polluter's benefit. In June 2000 the M.O.E. quietly amended the November 1991 Control Order in regards to full on-site hydraulic containment in all aquifers. THEN they approached CPAC (Chem Public Advisory Comm.) to BEGIN discussions on a process they called "optimization". Allegedly this process was to prove that full on-site hydraulic containment was not necessary. For three years we argued and debated not knowing it was a done deal even before we started.

Citizens this is your Ontario Ministry of the Environment. The sweetheart deal was signed by Uniroyal management including Wally Ruck. His claim to environmental fame was his comment that "NDMA is not in our vocabulary". It was also signed by then Minister of the Environment, Ruth Grier. To date Woolwich Township have decided not to release the Uniroyal Indemnity/Sweetheart Deal to the public. The Mayor has at least temporarily convinced CPAC to give him some latitude on the matter. I have major confidence in CPAC's integrity but a little less in the Mayor's. ABSOLUTELY NOBODY HAS THE MORAL OR LEGAL RIGHT TO FURTHER DENY THE TRUTH TO THE PUBLIC !

MIN. OF THE ENVIRONMENT SWEETHEART DEAL EXPOSED

2012-02-19T12:33:00.001-05:00

Over the years here in Elmira, Ontario I have seen some grotesque examples of Ontario Min. of the Environment incompetence, corruption and deception. This time I am less shocked because I had a number of years ago put the pieces of the puzzle together. The M.O.E. basically are a government buffer between polluting industries and outraged citizens. They pretend to be unbiased third parties looking out for nature and the environment.

If you look on the website for the Township of Woolwich you will see under the heading of Council, the Chemtura Public Advisory Committee (CPAC). Among other purposes and goals, CPAC are to work towards the cleanup of both the Elmira aquifers and the Chemtura (Uniroyal) site. Through discussion and collaboration they are to determine the best course of action for the environmental cleanup here in Elmira. The M.O.E. in the past have been caught misrepresenting facts. They have had one of their Officers charged and convicted for attempting to assist in the coverup at Varnicolor Chemical. They have been a party to the "phantom mound" which was a hydrogeological artifice used by Chemtura to indicate that they had greater hydraulic containment on their site than they actually did. They have amended the Nov. 1991 Control Order first and then gone to CPAC and asked to discuss the possibility of doing that which was already done. We all thought that the Control Order still mandated full hydraulic containment on the Chemtura site, seven years after the requirement had been removed.

The 1991 Control Order also mandated the "removal of DNAPL as a contaminant source". Or so we thought. That's what the document said. Not only did it not happen but the M.O.E. routinely sided with Uniroyal/Chemtura and their consultants when they produced reports whose conclusions were in glaring contrast to the data produced. DNAPL report after DNAPL report constantly minimized both the presence, the significance and the remediation necessary.

Eventually it became obvious to me that the M.O.E. and Chemtura had some kind of formal or informal sweetheart deal in place. Twenty-one years after the fact this has been confirmed. On October 7, 1991 Uniroyal and the M.O.E. signed their deal. It was a blanket Indemnity to Uniroyal for their destruction of the Elmira drinking water aquifers. It was formalized one month prior to the November 4, 1991 Amended Control Order. In fact this Control Order was merely the public face put on the non cleanup of the Elmira aquifers. This private deal known as Schedule H was to give Uniroyal the right to ignore calls for the cleanup of their grossly contaminated site. Unknown to the public and the public consultation body supposedly formed to assist with the cleanup, Uniroyal had a free pass. The province of Ontario permitted them to walk but were careful not to tell the public. If they had there would have been a huge outcry both in Elmira and probably across Canada. The "Elmira crisis" was national news at that time. The M.O.E. and Uniroyal repeatedly misled the public when they insisted that the cleanup would be done and it would be done right. The only thing that was done right was the sweetheart deal.

This sweetheart agreement known as Schedule H has only come to light inadvertently. It was handed out unkowingly to myself and the new CPAC members by Woolwich Township. If it wasn't for the almost complete turnover of Council and Mayor in the last Municipal election, we still wouldn't have this smoking gun. Make no mistake this is the smoking gun proving the close ties between polluters and their supposed regulators. This agreement documents the grotesque breech of the public trust by the Ontario Ministry of the Environment. They have sold out, deceived and betrayed the public in Elmira, Ontario for the last twenty- three years.

CHEMTURA PROGRESS REPORT- JAN. 2012

2012-02-18T08:17:00.003-05:00

For the last year I've been vociferously complaining about the lack of off-site pumping at Chemtura. These complaints are because the alleged cleanup of the Elmira aquifer is based upon pump and treat technology being undertaken at a computer modelled rate. These rates are W3- 11.4 litres/second W4 (ie. well #4)- 11.4 l/s W5A- 1.9 l/s
W5B- 1.9 l/s E7 - 26.5 .

Coincidentally or not the off-site pumping rates have been in the dumpster since November 2010 which is the first month after almost our entire Council got thrown out of office. Isn't that weird? Well finally I can report a major change. The off-site pumping has dramatically worsened! It has been literally years since it's been this ridiculously low. It's probably the worst its' ever been with the exception when it was shut down in 2008 for the construction of the new Ammomia Treatment System. But wait the news gets worse. Now the on-site pumping is in the crapper. The on-site pumping is supposed to keep the subsurface dissolved contamination from flowing off site whereas the off-site pumping is supposed to actually clean the Elmira aquifer. Well at the moment neither is even close to occurring.

For the month of January 2012 W3- 0.0 l/s W4- 3.8 l/s W5A- 0.0 l/s W5B- .2 l/s
The on-site pumping was verbally promised a few years ago to be 6.0 litres/ second. The written target rate turned out to be 5.2 l/s. For January 2012 the actual pumping rate was 1.7 l/s .

The excuses are always colourful and entertaining. Maybe some of them are actually truthful. I don't care anymore. Hydraulic containmant was and is a scam. At the very least you would think that the M.O.E. and Chemtura could manufacture and maintain their own illusion and sham. They aren't even that competent.

CPAC IS CANCELLED AGAIN & AGAIN & AGAIN, LITERALLY

2012-02-17T07:55:00.002-05:00

I commented here in the Elmira Advocate on Tuesday January 17, 2012 with the title "CPAC IS CANCELLED AGAIN". That story can be accessed through the Blog Archives on the right side of the page and down slightly. At this point in time the public CPAC meeting has been cancelled for December, January and now February. If you thought I was upset and disturbed a month ago, guess where I am right now. Also last Saturday February 11/12 I posted an article namely "CPAC AGENDAS NEED WORK". This was a list of important items that desperately needed to be on this month's CPAC Agenda. These are items that are not only important but also items that have fallen by the way since the first public CPAC meeting with the current membership, last June 8/12.

CPAC members please listen carefully. IF you have regular monthly public meetings at the same time, location and date you will get public attendance. If however you continue to be irregular and inconsistent and most especially keep CANCELLING meetings you won't. Simple as that.

Momentum and pressure are linked. You had both, big time, by the end of the November public CPAC meeting. You quite literally had the M.O.E. and Chemtura on the run. You have now completely lost both pressure and momentum.

You inherited a vast backlog of issues partly because of the huge delay and procrastination of the new Council and Mayor from November 2011 until your first public meeting last June 8/12. You are exacerbating your own backlog of items and issues which need to be dealt with. This has been happening ever since the cancellation of last August's meeting and is fast becoming insurmountable.

The next date of March 29, 2012 is unacceptable. CPAC you need to step it up. RESCHEDULING may occasionally be necessary but cancelling AGAIN for another five weeks is appalling. WHY DO YOU THINK THIS HAS GONE ON FOR TWENTY-TWO YEARS? I've seen and watched delays and cancellations every single time CPAC makes an inch of progress. Most of the time it's been intentional. I know that some of you believe this time was unavoidable and indeed personal commitments of family etc. do come first. Nevertheless you need to reschedule quickly even if you all can't be present.

ENVIRONMENTAL POLITICS

2012-02-16T08:39:00.002-05:00

I received this report two days ago from a friend. It's dated Feb. 13, 2012 and is an on-line report titled The U.S. Veteran Dispatch. The address at the bottom of each page is http://www.usvetdsp.com/agentorange.htm . It appears as if the authors have reproduced a report that they published twenty -two years ago as the title is "The Story of Agent Orange" and below that in smaller letters it says "U.S. Veteran dispatch Staff Report November 1990 Issue".

I have over the last twenty years read enough reports and documents concerning Agent Orange production and history to recognize certain facts and data presented in this document. That being said this is the first in depth historical review of the blatant political fraud and corruption surrounding the entire Dioxin and Agent Orange issue. This report claims that political interference including from the White House was an ongoing situation during various and assorted testing and research into health issues affecting U.S. servicemen exposed to Agent Orange during the Vietnam War. The methods and subterfuges used to manipulate study results are incredible. The political talent used to delay, minimize and obscure some truly terrible results of exposure to the Dioxins in Agent Orange was ongoing and immense. Even the CDC (Centre for Disease Control) is named as a co-conspirator in the coverup. Keep clearly in mind that the U.S. Federal Government was using its' immense influence, power and resources to essentially protect U.S. chemical manufacturers at the medixal expense of its' own citizens and veterans. It is quite clearly a disgusting indictment of the U.S. Federal government as well as various chemical companies particularily Dow. Other manufacturers named included Monsanto, Hercules and Uniroyal.

Fast forward to here in Woolwich Township and particularily Elmira. Uniroyal Chemical, now known as Chemtura produced Dioxin contaminated Agent Orange for the U.S. military. Does anyone think that the U.S. government's handling and coverup of Dioxin toxicity is any different here? Does anyone think that our Ontario Ministry of the Environment are incapable of coverups and gross lying to the public? Why do you think the real cleanup of Dioxins and more has done nothing but spin its' wheels for twenty-three years? Do you really think that it's by accident or due to a lack of knowledge or hard data? Not at all. The evidence of a private sweetheart deal between government and our local polluter is overwhelming.

NEWS FLASH: IDENTICAL DIOXINS LESS TOXIC IN ONTARIO

2012-02-15T08:30:00.000-05:00

This following article came off of Yahoo! News yesterday. The title is "Man who lost wife to cancer fights Veterans Affairs for Agent Orange payment". The second last sentence in this news release reads as follows "Agent orange was part of a toxic cocktail of herbicides sprayed at CFB (Cnd. Forces Base) Gagetown in 1966 and 1967 by the U.S. military, with permission from Canada."

That above sentence absolutely stuns me. The U.S. military is doing chemical testing in Canada. Secondly it was done "...with permission from Canada." Odd I was a teenager then and reading newspapers. I must have missed the plebiscite. Or perhaps it was an election issue. The focus of this article is that this particular woman's family have missed out on a $ 20,000 payment for victims of Dioxin poisoning carried out by the U.S. military on Canadian soil. The real issues are more likely the fact that the $ 20,000 is a pittance and frankly disgusting. Also is the fact that Canadian authorities are buying their way out of moral and legal accountability.

Then there is the issue I've indicated in my title for this posting. They sprayed poison namely Dioxin also known as 2,3,7,8 TCDD onto the ground down east. Here in Elmira Ontario the very same Agent Orange containing the very same Dioxin was manufactured for export to the U.S. military. Here in Elmira, Uniroyal Chemical aka Chemtura sloppily spilled, pumped, buried and drained Dioxins into the air, soil, groundwater and even into the Canagagigue Creek. To this day they are still on that site merrily being transported down river onto floodplains all the way to the Grand River just below West Montrose. How fortunate for us, our neighbours, our children and wildlife that we are magically immune here in Ontario to cancer causing Dioxin. I mean surely we must be immune. Our governments, regional, provincial and federal have cheerfully ignored our pleas and demands for over twenty years to clean up this poison. Dioxins are below ground, readily accessible on both sides of the creek at Chemtura. We know exactly where they are yet the Region of Waterloo and the Ontario Ministry of the Environment would rather protect Uniroyal/Chemtura than the citizens who live here. I surely hope the politicians involved are happy with their payoffs be they political, financial or social.

SERIOUS CONSEQUENCES FOR ENVIRONMENTAL CRIMES

2012-02-14T08:30:00.004-05:00

Today's K-W Record in Section D advises us that in some political jurisdictions there are real consequences for criminal environmental offences. The title of the story is
"Canadian asbestos industry not worried by prison, $59 million damages for execs in Italy". Construction firm executives "...were handed 16-year prison sentences for negligence following a trial that officials called historic." The convicted men "...failed to stop asbestos fibres at factories in northern Italy from spreading across the region." Apparently there had been more than 2,000 asbestos related deaths. The defendants were also ordered to pay millions of dollars to their towns where their victims lived.

Contrast this with Canada and Ontario. Right here in Elmira and Woolwich Township we have carcinogenic materials still buried and readily accessible on the Chemtura site. We also have DDT and Dioxins pinpointed years ago within a few metres of the Canagagigue Creek, also readily accessible for removal. And all we get are broken promises and downright deceptions. Mickey Mouse fines and charges over the years. A Ministry of the Environment that looks after themselves and the polluter first instead of the interests of the public.

TRUTH DELAYED IS TRUTH DENIED

2012-02-13T12:08:00.001-05:00

The Saturday before last (Feb. 4/12) the Woolwich Observer had an amazing article describing one of our provincial Ministrys. The title of the article written by Steve Galea was "Truth delayed is truth denied in a world run by spin doctors". The Ministry which Steve was describing was the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources. Steve said "...every query, no matter how simple, needs to be taken up the ladder to their communication people so that the answers can be massaged and politically sanitized before coming back.". Mr. Galea who is an outdoors writer both for newspapers and for the Ontario Federation of Anglers and Hunters had been making inquiries of the M.N.R. regarding bear hibernation. Specifically he wanted to know from the experts, whom we taxpayers fund for our mutual advantage, when bears come out of hibernation and what percentage of their body fat they lose in the process. Instead of a fairly quick response he got the runaround as his questions got pushed up the ladder. "Maybe you need to put a spin on bear hibernation. Otherwise it might indicate that bears get bored with Ontario winters and that would be hurtful to tourism at a very difficult time.". Mr. Galea has further indicated his concern with asking questions about bird migration for fear of receiving the following answer: "Our MNR spin doctors would probably suggest that while waterfowl go south, it's only because thay have dual citizenship."

The point that Steve Galea is making with humour, albeit it actually happened, is that our provincial Ministrys are less than honest with us, the citizens and taxpayers. Clearly political correctness and political expediency trump the honest truth even in matters of minor significance. Just imagine in serious matters how our governments are willing to deceive, manipulate and massage the truth.

CPAC AGENDAS NEED WORK

2012-02-11T08:16:00.004-05:00

Following are a list of items that should be on the next AGENDA for the upcoming public CPAC meeting of Thursday February 23, 2012. Some of them have fallen by the wayside over time, others have been intentionally ignored by various parties but none of them are new.

As was brought to the attention of CPAC last fall, years ago CPAC passed a Motion to make the July 2003 Request For Action a standing Agenda item. Put it on.

David Marks many months ago asked the Ontario M.O.E. for their rationale for not pursuing "other sources" of contamination in Elmira. Still waiting M.O.E. .

125 barrels in various states of disrepair were excavated in the M2 area (south-west) of Chemtura last summer. To date we have no pictures and no soil or water results. How much soil if any was removed as well?

GP1 & GP2 lab results have been witheld from CPAC and the public since last fall. These are Dioxins and DDT and more to which we are all exposed environmentally.

Groundwater results for the two Varnicolor sites were promised to CPAC and the public last summer. where are they? You know both Chemtura and the M.O.E. that you don't have to wait until a CPAC meeting to hand out this data. There are things nowadays such as e-mail, and snail mail.

The ongoing and particularily bad off-site pumping over the course of 2011 should be on the Agenda. The pumping has been disgraceful and if that failure is not discussed at CPAC, it will be more disgraceful.

The BLE-25 spill from the fall of 2010 was supposed to be peer reviewed and brought to CPAC a long time ago. Shamefull!

The ongoing discussions (except publicly at CPAC) around Chemtura's proposed site wide certificate of Approval for Air have been backroom negotiated for several years now. CPAC and the public have been kept totally in the dark. CPAC please kick this idea and its' disgusting process to the curb ASAP.

The Responsible Care reverification at Chemtura seems to have become invisible. I've been hearing for months that they failed to pass and quite frankly that is appropriate. How about the long suffering public getting something official on this? Last but not least this item has been raised by me for about the last three years. DNAPLS 100' below ground at OW57-32R beside the Elmira water tower and just west of Varnicolor. Do not let Chemtura and the M.O.E. out of the room without them confirming the fact of its' existence and what they plan to do about it. Obviously they hope to continue to ignore it. DON'T LET THEM!

To date the six CPAC members have not had honest input into the Agenda. This may explain why appropriate items are not getting onto it. Chair and Mayor Todd Cowan has been advised before and will continue to be advised: CPAC is not a one man show, nor is its' process to be dominated by one man. Delegate before you destroy CPAC.

WOOLWICH TOWNSHIP WEBSITE

2012-02-10T09:46:00.000-05:00

It is embarassing. To err is human, to forgive divine and to fix it is just plain commonsense. Someone at Woolwich Township did indeed fix the monumental, boneheaded error of posting (secret) Minutes of a private CPAC (Chemtura Public Advisory Committee) meeting on the Township's website. First off I have no problem with this particular meeting being private because I do believe that it was primarily educational in nature dealing with a Hydrogeology 101 course. Secondly I referred to the Minutes as secret not because I have any knowledge that they were so intended. They were "secret" in that the CPAC members were not advised that the usual public taperecording was underway and even more importantly these Minutes from the September 19/11 meeting were not distributed to the CPAC members prior to their publication either out of courtesy or for amendments.

What has not been fixed to date has been repeatedly pointed out to Mayor Cowan both by CPAC members and myself. I even went so far ten days ago of speaking publicly to Woolwich Council about those errors. They are still there. They include a direct link to a Chemtura website imbedded in the CPAC information. The Chemtura link is highly self promotional including patting themselves on the back for their adherence to the industry Responsible Care program. Aside from the fact that is typical Chemtura BULLSHIT, one it's false and misleading and two it's giving the incorrect impression that they and CPAC are on the same page with their website being linked in the middle of CPAC information. The Township's website also still hasn't got the Agenda or Minutes for the first public CPAC meeting of June 8, 2011. How do I know it existed and was public? Well for one I attended and for two I've got a copy of the Minutes AS SHOULD THE PUBLIC! These Minutes go into detail regarding Chemtura's failures to remove Dioxins , easily accessible , on their property. Also to date the Minutes from the last public CPAC meeting (last November) also are not up yet. Perhaps a Draft has finally been released privately but get the final version up on your website Woolwich Township and in future NOT THREE MONTHS AFTER THE FACT!

COAL TAR SUIT SETTLED

2012-02-09T09:47:00.000-05:00

Well I'm glad that the lawsuit described two days ago here in the Advocate has been settled. Yesterday's K-W Record advises us in a very tiny article that the City of Kitchener and Everest College have settled the $800,000 lawsuit filed against the City. "The college operations and parking lot were disrupted by the $19 million cleanup during the winter of 2006-2007." One concern I have is the statement that the details of the settlement will not be made public. This is a typical political manoevre which is totally inappropriate. It is taxpayers money above and beyond the original cleanup cost and should be public knowledge. These same governments blatantly advise us that they need more tax money while cutting social services; yet they refuse to disclose tax expenditures. What kind of democracy is that? Furthermore if EVERY public expenditure were made public there would be much more public accountability of where OUR tax money goes.

GLOBAL WARMING/GREENHOUSE GASES/PERMAFROST

2012-02-08T08:53:00.002-05:00

The longer I write here in the Advocate the more I understand the broader implications for Woolwich Township environmentally. Originally I thought Woolwich environmental issues would only be Chemtura, Bio-En, gravel pits and the like. Not so . That which affects the air and climate particularily also affects Woolwich Township,

In this case we have an article from the K-W Record dated last December 1, 2011. the title is "Permafrost thaw a "vicious cycle" of greenhouse gases". Apparently decaying plants after thousands of years in the north that were trapped in the ground by permafrost, are now being released as the permafrost thaws. "The permafrost scientists predict that over the next three decades a total of about 45 billion metric tonnes of carbon from methane and carbon dioxide will seep into the atmosphere when permafrost thaws during summers." Between now and 2100 the prediction is more than 300 billion metric tonnes of carbon will belch from the thawing earth. Methane is worse than carbon dioxide however they are both greenhouse gases and thus this "vicious cycle" of global warming will magnify its' own effects as the permafrost thaws.

COAL TAR IN KITCHENER

2012-02-07T08:37:00.002-05:00

The story was in the K-W Record on February 2, 2012 and was titled "Settlement studied in downtown coal tar lawsuit". This refers to a lawsuit filed three years ago against the City of Kitchener by Everest Colleges who rent a city owned building on the corner of Gaukel and Charles St.. The initial problem revolved around the 2007, nearly $20 million cleanup of coal tar under the old post office which was formerly a coal gasification plant. The College alleges that they lost students due to the cleanup and foul odours and that they lost parking revenue and had costs associated with air and water quality tests they took to protect students.

For me this case like so many other municipal coal tar problems and cleanups is almost a classic political story. The coal gasification plant operated from 1882 until 1958. It left behind massive quantities of toxic sludge which had been dumped into shallow pits. Coal tar contains not only the usual suspects such as benzene, toluene and xylenes but also a number of much worse components such as bezo a pyrene. Perhaps in 1882 we didn't know better but by 1958 we certainly did. Obviously city fathers (ie. politicians) made a shortsighted decision not to spend a half a million dollars then for cleanup in favour of leaving it for the next batch of politicians to have to resolve. Twenty million dollars later and perhaps another million to settle with Everest College plus legal expenses now versus doing it initially. All these costs aren't even considering the environmental and human health damage over the decades. Do you really think the groundwater in the area wasn't contaminated? Do you really think there wasn't some vapours over the decades in buildings on top of that awful mess? Coal tar residues courtesy of coal gasification plants have been removed from many municipalities over the decades including from Waterloo where we get our water piped in from. Those municipalities who have as yet not cleaned up, have ticking time bombs which most probably are negatively affecting the air and water of local residents.

BEETLES & COYOTES IN THE NEWS

2012-02-06T09:27:00.002-05:00

The most recent coyote article in the news is in today's Kitchener-Waterloo Record; the front page headline no less: "Coyote sightings alarm residents". The pine shoot beetle on the other hand has only been in the K-W Record a couple of times and only in the Local Section, most recently on January 6, 2012. This beetle may very well be thriving due to the milder winters we've been having. This is one more result of global warming and human intervention. Apparently Conestoga Lake had issues with these beetles in the 1990's as Laurel Creek Conservation in Waterloo currently is. As per its' name , the beetle is very destructive to pine trees and at Laurel Creek Conservation the authorities are removing dead and dying trees. Furthermore they are"...thinning and replanting with more diverse species.".

Regarding coyotes it seems that it's become more than the odd individual coyote spotted as a pack of about eight animals has been seen a couple of times. Indeed a pack this size potentially could be much more of a concern than the odd individual coyote. Southern Ontario is ideal for coyotes with the combination of rural areas and bush as well as urban areas with parkland for hiding. Also their natural enemys, wolves are farther north. Coyotes can and do coexist in the same areas as wolves but are sometimes targetted by the wolves who see them as competition for prey. Currently the Bechtel Park area in Waterloo, near the intersection of University and Bridge St. is home to this pack although they have been seen further afield. Some of the common sense warnings are similar to those in bear country namely don't be leaving food outside either loose or in plastic bags.

BURNING WOOD VS WIND ENERGY?

2012-02-04T08:36:00.000-05:00

Surprisingly it's Saturday morning and I still can't get this week's edition of the Elmira Independent on-line. Well if you're interested you'll have to go out and buy yourself a copy which I do every week by the way. On the Opinion page (pg.4) Chuck Kuepfer has an interesting story titled "Entering the wind-energy debate". He mentions the Ontario Federation of Agriculture recently coming out against wind energy expansion for rural Ontario. Chuck then goes on to desribe a talk given recently at an agricultural conference in Ridgetown Ontario by Dr. Patrick Moore. Patrick Moore as you may recall was one of the original founders of Greenpeace although like many others is no longer with them. Mr. Moore seriously believes that both solar and wind power projects are a waste of tax dollars and in fact are in the long run are counterproductive. For him it's about the costs and the diverting of money into overall higher energy costs that does more harm than good. Well that is certainly a different take on things and at least is worthy of discussion. Of even more interest is his suggestion that as far as renewable energy goes "...wood is the most favourable renewable energy resource on the planet." Wow! I heated our house in West Montrose for ten years with wood and often wondered environmentally, as in air emissions, how good of an idea that was. It certainly was far less expensive than oil, gas or electricity although it did require considerable labour overall.

THE MAYOR HAS A CONFLICT OF INTEREST

2012-02-03T09:36:00.000-05:00

Unfortunately as of this moment, yesterday's Elmira Independent isn't on-line yet, thus I can't include a link to their front page story: "Township celebrates completion of roadwork". This story is the icing on the cake for two of my recent postings here, namely yesterday's "INDEPENDENT OVERSIGHT - MY ASS" and January 11/12 "DEMOCRACY IS MESSY". Yesterday's Independent story starts with this sentence "Woolwich township took time on Friday to celebrate the completion of a trio of road reconstruction projects, made possible with funding from the upper tiers of government." This Independent article ends with the following "THANKS FROM MAYOR Woolwich mayor Todd Cowan thanked both the provincial and federal governments for the stimulus funds- and hinted at working in partnership again to address additional infrastructure needs. "We have over 20 roads and bridges that need to be upgraded or improved," Cowan said. "We have a number of projects that are shovel ready." "

One of our mayor's jobs is to solicit money from the higher tiers of government ie. provincial and federal to be spent here locally in Woolwich Township. Keep in mind this is our money as we are the taxpayers whether municipal, regional, provincial or federal. Although we would all like to think that provincial and federal money always flows to the municipalities with the most urgent needs that is by no means guaranteed. Just look at projects such as the Cambridge Hospital expansion and the long promised highway #7 expansion from Kitchener to Guelph. This same Mayor (Todd Cowan) has appointed himself as Chair of CPAC, the Chemtura Public Advisory Committee. This allegedly arms length, independent citizens committee has been strangled, delayed and frustrated by Mayor Cowan for the last year. They are an exemplary group of citizens whose efforts, despite the Mayor, have led to public breakthroughs regarding the need for Source Removal of contaminants both on and off the Chemtura property. They have exposed other sources of subsurface contamination in Elmira at the same time bringing to light the "recklessness" of the Ontario Ministry of the Environment. Simply put this citizens committee must be on a collision course with upper levels of government who have participated in a sweetheart deal with our local polluter. CPAC are out of duty and honesty attacking the falsehoods spread by the Ontario Ministry of the Environment that Elmira's groundwater is under control and will be restored by 2028. These important public duties are in direct conflict with the Mayor's duty to solicit and obtain funding from the province and feds. Mayor Cowan is in a gross conflict of interest position as long as he is Chair of CPAC. MAYOR COWAN PLEASE RESIGN IMMEDIATELY AS CPAC CHAIR. It's better for you and everyone and much more honest.

INDEPENDENT OVERSIGHT - MY ASS

2012-02-02T09:14:00.001-05:00

Citizens of Elmira and Woolwich you have been fed a tasty dish called public consultation. It is an invention, a facade and a sham of politicans worldwide. Its' purpose is to give the veneer of legitimacy, transparency and honesty where none truly exist. Our new Mayor was elected in large part on a platform of increased environmemntal action. To date the jury is still out on the Bio-En proposal (maybe), the numerous local gravel pit applications and on the Chemtura cesspool here in town. The jury is not out on the psuedo "cleanup" of the Elmira aquifer by 2028. The "jury", namely the new CPAC, have done what the old CPAC refused to do and that is to state emphatically that the cleanup will not and can not happen by 2028. This failure by the old is to their everlasting shame and this pronouncement by the new is to their everlasting credit.

There is no independent oversight whatsoever of the Chemtura and Elmira cleanup. It is run and controlled by the Mayor and his advisers. It is control based upon determining the CPAC Agenda, the location (Township building) of all public and private meetings, the Mayor having made himself Chair of CPAC, the precedent of two different Councils having dismissed in midterm a CPAC member for disagreeing with the actions of the Chair, firstly Pat McLean and secondly Julie-Ann Herteis. In both cases these Chairs are long gone and appropriately so. In both cases the Chair's positions were wide open for concern and criticism and in fact in the second case there was unanimity amongst the CPAC members that the Chair's position was ridiculous.

Let us assume for the moment that I and the current CPAC members still have faith in the overall environmental concern expressed by Mayor Cowan. This is not enough. Besides putting the credibility and reputations of local citizens at risk of damage if and when the Mayor chooses to pull the plug on them; then there are the two environmental professionals on the CPAC team. Can you imagine both the personal, financial and career implications for them if they were let go by the Mayor or Council because their professional opinions were in conflict with his political opinion/position? This is untenable and totally unacceptable. The Mayor and Council MUST publicly state that THEIR appointments to CPAC will last for the four year term of Council. The only exception should be resignation by the individual's choice for health or personal reasons.

LAST NIGHT'S COUNCIL PRESENTATION

2012-02-01T09:24:00.001-05:00

Following is the presentation I made to Woolwich Council last evening at 6 pm.. Written copies were left with Council, the Elmira Independent and the Woolwich Observer. As usual Councillor Bauman played defence after my delegation but he has learned to avoid asking me questions because he doesn't care for the answers. As a result he and the Mayor tried a little stickhandling by suggesting that all was copacetic at CPAC. It isn't.

DELEGATION (Draft # 3) TO WOOLWICH COUNCIL (Comm. Of the whole) Jan.31/12

Good evening Mayor, Council, Staff , Media and the public

Two months ago I appeared here and gave Council an update in regards as to how their appointed CPAC were doing. I advised Council that they had chosen wisely and that the CPAC members were performing their duties well. I also gently advised Council that the model of public consultation was however a poor one. Since that time , despite the best efforts of CPAC members, there has not been a single public CPAC meeting . Chemtura and the Ministry of the Environment had been feeling the heat generated at the public CPAC meetings and I believe they are very appreciative of this three month break from that. It can not be pleasant spending a fortune on consultants and lobbying , only to have new members of CPAC politely advise you to quit stalling and start digging.
I applaud CPAC living up to their name ie. Chemtura Public Advisory Committee. Some people think CPAC are only supposed to advise the Township or perhaps the M.O.E.. This is incorrect. They are to do as their name implies which is to be a public advisory committee. It is on this basis that I suggest that the mistake made on the Township’s website should not be held against them. Mixed in with five public CPAC meeting Minutes was the Minutes of a private, educational CPAC meeting. This meeting was recorded and Minutes produced unknown to the CPAC members. Hence they were a little more open and less diplomatic than they might otherwise be. One of the professional environmental persons explicitly stated that the Elmira Aquifer would NOT be restored to drinking water standards by 2028. This is incredible news that must be shared with the community who have been told otherwise by both Chemtura and the Ontario M.O.E. for the last twenty years. Personally I welcome this confirmation of what I’ve been saying on line and to the old CPAC for the last few years.
Two environmental professionals who are CPAC members have also stated that Source Removal of subsurface contamination must be undertaken. This Source Removal is both on and off the Chemtura site and again it is in direct conflict with Chemtura , the M.O.E. and even certain politicians suffering from “fictitious disorder syndrome”. Another off-site source which no politician to date has acknowledged is the Chlorobenzene and DNAPL found 100 feet below ground , west of Varnicolor Chemical, near the old water tower. Perhaps it’s been easy ignoring this contamination as long as the M.O.E. and Chemtura continue to do so. To date they adamantly refuse to comment, confirm or deny its’ existence despite their own consultants, Conestoga Rovers, having discovered it in 1998. Furthermore Chemtura are still denying CPAC and the public the lab results they received four months ago regarding Dioxins on their property in GP1 & GP2.
Almost coincidentally with the swearing in of the new Council, Chemtura’s off-site pumping of groundwater has been in the crapper. This pumping is to allegedly clean up the Elmira Aquifer by 2028. On its’ own it will not succeed even if the company meet their own computer modelled pumping rates. The problem is they are still trying to sell an inferior system while not even being able to maintain the pumping rates to the standards they have determined as necessary.
Your CPAC are referred to on the Township website as an independent body. This is inaccurate and will certainly remain so until your Mayor, CAO and Municipal Clerk decide otherwise. Also on the Township website, the Agendas and Minutes are still in error. The offending Minutes have been removed but the missing Minutes have not replaced them. Also the incorrect September 19, 2011 Agenda is still present. There are further errors in the ostensibly Amended Minutes that still need correction. Furthermore a number of CPAC members have informed the Chair that they are not particularily pleased with the Chemtura link located where it is in the midst of the CPAC information. I personally was offended by this as well, because it gives the impression that Chemtura are somehow working cooperatively with CPAC. If you think that is so then you definitely need to communicate much better with your CPAC.
It is my position that your CPAC members are doing well despite stolid and vigorous opposition by both Chemtura and the M.O.E.. What is currently holding them back is you Woolwich Township. You can read between the lines as to which personnel need to loosen the reins. Your CPAC are neither horses nor children . They are your volunteer citizen appointees. Give them your confidence and respectfully let them perform their duties .

Alan Marshall Elmira Environmental Hazards Team

One interesting point is that Mayor Cowan did advise Council and the public that there was a private CPAC meeting this evening (Wed. Feb. 1/12). It will be very hard for him to again cancel this meeting unilaterally as he has so many others. Also the Agenda of this meeting is typical in that it appears once again not to be an Agenda of concensus but an Agenda put together by anyone but the CPAC members. Also keep clearly in mind the CPAC members are NOT subject to the federal Official Secrets Act. Amazing how petty municipal officials believe they have a right to keep all their bad decisions private and out of the public eye. They have no such right except in their wee little minds.

COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE MEETING AT 6 PM.

2012-01-31T08:27:00.000-05:00

Tonite in the Woolwich Council Chambers on Church St. at 6 pm. yours truly will be a delegate. I will probably post my written report here in the next day or two. Essentially I will be advising Council and the public about a number of ongoing environmental problems originating with Chemtura Canada Ltd., in Elmira. These problems will include everything from intentional delaying by the company to their attempts to soften opposition from the current CPAC members. Both the Ministry of the Environment especially, and Chemtura have been unhappy with the amount and directness of the criticism that has been given to them.

FIBBING POLITICIANS? HOW CAN THAT BE?

2012-01-31T08:18:00.003-05:00

Last Saturday's (Jan. 28/12) K-W Record has a small story by Jeff Outhit titled "Politicians fudging transit costs". Apparently using creative accounting practices and by shifting money and costs from one budget account to another it is possible to pretend that our tax increases are being held to one percent per year for our expanded public transit. The reality says Jeff Outhit is closer to 1.5 % increase per year due to transit expansion including the LRT. He also states "Shuffling money this way is self serving." Furthermore "They are implementing the transit expansion they approved. It costs what it costs. They should show some spine and own it." Is it any wonder that ordinary everyday citizens have such little confidence in the honesty and integrity of our politicians? Is the willingness to fudge (lie) on even relatively minor things making it easier for them to tell whoppers when there is something big at stake, such as an election for example?

THE MEMBERS ARE GREAT, THE MODEL IS NOT

2012-01-30T09:21:00.002-05:00

The current model of public consultation in Elmira called CPAC is open to misuse and abuse. There is some disagreement as to the history around the formation of CPAC formerly called UPAC. Yes the Ontario M.O.E. did approach the Township of Woolwich back around 1990-91 looking for some community forum ostensibly to include citizen viewpoints and opinion in regards to the best cleanup of Uniroyal Chemical and the Elmira Aquifer. Hindsight being twenty-twenty the M.O.E.'s purpose was to dilute and deflect the enormous impact that the then citizens' group APTE was having on the water crisis. APTE under the leadership of Susan Rupert was a populist, democratic and honest voice for concerned Elmira citizens who had seen and heard the untruths and gibberish coming from the authorities for years. APTE realized this and there was great internal debate about joining this public consultation process. Susan Rupert was not in favour, understanding that it was an intended sham.

It was Pat McLean who dragged UPAC/CPAC into being a committee of Council in 2000. That being said there is at least one former Woolwich Councillor who felt that UPAC already was such. Nevertheless there was great debate and discussion at CPAC and yours truly was strongly against the whole idea precisely because it would mean CPAC would no longer be independent and could be manipulated by Council if they so wished. Again hindsight being twenty-twenty it is clear that CPAC being a committee of Council is fraught with peril. A benign Council in theory could allow CPAC to be independent. Having for example one Council member having one vote out of six to ten votes of the rest of the citizen members would be an example. The problem is in having the Mayor on CPAC as Chair, usurping literally all decisions on process and procedure. In theory said Mayor could add or drop Agenda items for public CPAC meetings at will. In theory said Mayor could reschedule or cancel CPAC meetings at will. In theory said Mayor could threaten member removal at will and then follow through with Council in camera and said member not even be allowed to speak on his or her own behalf. Important items like the Minutes already are and always have been under the sole control of Woolwich Township. This includes their storage and retrieval and even perusal looking for past important Motions for example.

It would be very easy for our current Council to look at themselves and say "Hey we're honest and forthright. We wouldn't abuse our control of CPAC ". That may be so but Council should look ahead while looking behind at the history of UPAC/CPAC. Your Mayor during the municipal election campaign made it clear that CPAC had taken much too long to do much too little in regards to the restoration of our groundwater. He was correct and that was due to the control of CPAC through the longtime Councillor who was Chair. Woolwich Council needs to assure that CPAC are truly an independent citizens' committee. Currently it's not even close.

ANOTHER FARM GROUP HAS REQUESTED A WIND FARM MORATORIUM

2012-01-28T18:35:00.001-05:00

The Thursday January 26, 2012 Elmira Independent carrys the following story: "CFFO applauds green energy taxation decision". Although the tax decision is their main concern what I found interesting is that nearly three years ago the Christian Farmers Federation of Ontario asked the Ontario government to put a moratorium on further wind power projects in Ontario. This is the second agricultural group to now ask for a moratorium and I truly wonder how much longer the province can ignore the citizens at ground zero. Of interest is that the article earlier this week in the K-W Record detailing the concerns of the Ontario Federation of Agriculture has been followed up with a similar article titled "Wind power versus rural power" also in this weeks Elmira Independent.

BIO-EN PUBLIC CONSULTATION IS A FARCE

2012-01-27T09:36:00.001-05:00

I'm going out on a limb here and saying that Bio-En is coming to town and will be located on Martin's Lane in Elmira. Not only do I believe that the final location is decided but I believe it's been that way for a while. The local group BFCC (Bio Fuel Concerned Citizens) and their appropriately named STOP THE STINK campaign have effectively been ignored. Their input, petitions, letters, e-mails, lawn signs and thoughtful and accurate research appear to mean nothing to the Ontario Ministry of the Environment.

The BFCC have kept the doors open to communication with the M.O.E. From Ed Speers in the beginning to Dan Holt and all the other volunteers and activists involved, they have been open, honest, polite and respectful. Mayor Cowan campaigned on a promise that his connections to the McGuinty Liberal government would assist him in persuading both the Bio-En proponents and the M.O.E. to look at and accept an alternate location, hopefully in Woolwich but not next to a residential subdivision. It appears to be all in vain.

A week ago disturbing information was received by the BFCC. They appropriately e-mailed their M.O.E. contact person with a very simple and direct question. Is the Martin Lane location in Elmira a done deal? Within a couple of hours they had a response. It was bureaucratic doubletalk about technical design work. They immediately, last Friday, e-mailed him back and politely pointed out that he had deflected their question. No new answer for a few days so another e-mail was sent to the same M.O.E. person. This one he responded to stating he hadn't received the second e-mail last Friday. Patiently the same question went back to him . Again a simple yes or no answer was avoided by the M.O.E. person. In the middle of his response dealing with the facility design not yet meeting regulatory requirements, he did however have the following sentence. "PLEASE NOTE THAT IT IS THE PROPONENT'S DECISION TO SELECT THE PROJECT LOCATION" (I have printed the quote in capitol letters).

My opinion, and I emphasize it is exactly that, is that the M.O.E. have pulled a bait and switch whereby the citizens concerns around location, for a myriad of legitimate reasons including traffic and odours, have been arbitrarily shifted to design concerns by the M.O.E. which said design change may or may not have some minor mitigating effect on odours only. If I was a betting man I'd say that Elmira citizens have gotten it again in the ear from the Ontario Ministry of the Environment.

HONEST EXPERTS STATE ELMIRA 2028 GROUNDWATER CLEANUP WON"T HAPPEN

2012-01-26T11:09:00.002-05:00

This is just too precious. The Township of Woolwich website has made a little boo boo. Under Council on the top left side, if you click on it, four options come up including Chemtura Public Advisory Committee. Click on that and for the last three to four weeks including this morning they've had a list of Agendas and Minutes supposedly from the six public CPAC meetings since June 2011. Unfortunately they left off a public meeting held in early June and in it's place they included a private CPAC orientation and education meeting that was held on September 19, 2011. This private meeting is where some incredible, supposedly off the record, statements were made.

Page three of the published Minutes state and I quote "David Marks enquired as to whether or not pressure can be put on the MOE for source removal." Keep in mind that David is a certified hydrogeologist. Furthermore David said "The priority is source removal as opposed to pump and treat. David Marks noted that pump and treat has to stay and has its place but it was the technolgy of the day. Ron Campbell remarked that it is obvious that Chemtura will not meet the 2028 deadline as the technology does not exist to reach the target." . The last quote from David Marks was "He noted further that the MOE was reckless allowing Phillip Environmental to buy Varnicolor with no accountability." This last statement was after a discussion of a number of other sources of groundwater contamination within Elmira.

Readers please keep in mind that these were not public discussions but they were however within the appropriate context of a Hydrogeology 101 educational presentation and discussion given to the CPAC members. Also keep in mind that the Township publishing CPAC Agendas and Minutes is totally proper and should have been done for the last twenty years. Finally also keep in mind that I expect this is simply an honest error which I have advised CPAC of. My publishing the honest but astounding comments of environmental professionals regarding the failures of the Ontario Ministry of the Environment and Chemtura and their consultants with regards to old technology is not for the purpose of embarassing either CPAC or the Township of Woolwich. You the public have the right to know that honest professionals in the field do not agree with the opinions of Chemtura and the M.O.E. regarding the restoration of Elmira's water by 2028.

CALL FOR WIND FARM STOPPAGE

2012-01-25T09:26:00.000-05:00

Last Saturday's K-W Record (Jan. 21/12) printed the following story: "Farmers want wind farm development suspended". The President of the Ontario Federation of Agriculture, Mark Wales, has issued this request to the Province of Ontario. This is no small thing. It certainly gives the appearance that all is not rosy in rural Ontario and in fact that there is huge concern for the O.F.A. to come out so strongly against further windfarms. Large scale industrial wind turbines have been sprouting like mushrooms in Ontario and often the most likely candidates landwise would be on farmer's agricultural land. Clearly the Province has been making financial deals with individual farmers but at the same time they haven't been making deals with the farmers' nearest neighbours. Mr. Wales states "...residents have been pitted against their neighbours over concerns with health impacts and quality of life issues relating to wind turbines.". Furthermore this Record story states "Several lawsuits have been launched against wind farms attributing health issues such as sleep disturbances, headaches and memory problems to wind turbines.". To my mind it appears both unwise and a shade arrogant for our Premier to continue to push ahead with wind turbine projects as he's stated he will, in the face of lawsuits and opposition by a large well respected group, namely the Ontario Federation of Agriculture.

DECEMBER 2011 CHEMTURA PROGRESS REPORT

2012-01-24T08:30:00.001-05:00

Last week I did a posting titled "A History of off-Site Pumping". This compared the off-site pumping starting in 1998 up to and including 2011. With the exception of 2009 and 2010 the pumping rates were far below the computer modelled target rates required to allegedly sucessfully restore the Elmira aquifer to drinking water standards. I had not received the December 2011 Progress Report at that time so I averaged the first eleven months to obtain an annual average pumping rate for 2011. With the December 2011 off-site pumping rate in hand I can advise that it is not only well below the required target rate but it is also below the average rate for the rest of 2011. Of the five off-site wells, in December, well E7 at the extreme south end of Elmira met it's target pumping rate. Wells W3, W4, W5A, and W5B were not even close.

Of equal or greater concern is the lack of on-site containment in the UA or Upper Aquifer. Both the UACS (Upper Aquifer Containment System) failed to provide complete hydraulic containment for the extremely contaminated south-west area but also the south-east UA was discharging directly into the Canagagigue Creek. This of course is where the Dioxin contamination is largest namely at GP1 & GP2. This can be found both on page 8 as well as in figures D3 and D4 in the Appendices.

In regards to surface water, again there are four chemicals measured at higher downstream concentrations on the Chemtura site than upstream and they are NDMA, NMOR, Toluene and Ethylbenzene.

With or without the argument that Source Removal is required both on the Chemtura site and off it; what is obvious is that Chemtura and their consultants are failing in every category and measurement of their own goals and targets. These monthly Progress Reports need to be on the AGENDA and discussed PUBLICLY every single month. To date we haven't had a public CPAC meeting since November and the next scheduled one isn't till February 23, 2012. That is unless MAYOR COWAN UNILATERALLY CANCELS IT AGAIN ! SHAME ON THE MAYOR AND HIS CLOSEST ADVISERS. It's not just your lack of knowledge it's your efforts to subvert public consultation and remove the voices of those citizens far more knowledgable on this topic than you will ever be.

THE ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM

2012-01-23T08:51:00.000-05:00

Saturday's (Jan. 21/12) Kitchener-Waterloo Record has the following story "Raising a stink over the smell of gargage". This story by Jeff Outhit, on the fourtieth anniversary of the Erb St. landfill, describes exactly what the title indicates. It is all about the odours and the effects on neighbours. It also advises indirectly that the planning process in Waterloo Region is broken. When this landfill was opened in 1972 there were very few neighbours. Now with urban sprawl there are homes, businesses and even a golf course nearby. Clearly both the lessons of the Ottawa St. landfill in Kitchener have been forgotten as well as plain common sense. Landfills smell, they leak methane and they pollute groundwater. None of this is rocket science much less even news. It is the groundwater situation that is the elephant in the room. In Kitchener the Greenbrook wellfield was recently shut down for a year while special treatment was installed for one particular industrial chemical namely 1,4 dioxane. This chemical and other solvents including benzene all migrated from the Ottawa St. landfill to the pumping wells on Greenbrook near Stirling Ave.. Although a significant distance it is by no means a prize winner for plumes of chemicals to travel. Also at the Ottawa St. Landfill (McLennan ski hill), methane found it's way into townhouses built near the base of the landfill. They were abandoned for years while technologys were looked at to remove or divert the methane. Canada Mortgage and Housing were stuck with the mortgage costs for years, which I would expect meant that Joe taxpayer picked up the financial fallout from both private development and political stupidity. Apparently we've learned nothing from both similar follys in the U.S. as well as our own folly here in Waterloo Region.

Although the Erb St. landfill now has a leachate collection system, it operated for at least two decades without. Groundwater contamination has been found off-site which again should be no surprise to anyone. I have by no means absolute faith in their current retrofitted leachate system. Why should I? Engineering controls are certainly helpful but perfection is probably an impossible goal, especially after the fact. The nearest wells would be the Erb St. wellfield (W6A, W6B, W7, W8) followed by the municipal wells in St. Agatha. The City of Waterloo boundary with Wilmot Township is nearby but they are both in Waterloo Region. It is my expectation that Waterloo Region know full well that they've long ago comprimised the majority of their groundwater by industrial pollution and all their talk of protection (and action) after the fact are simply to delay the inevitable: a pipeline to Lake Erie. The current date for construction is 2035. If through protection twenty to fifty years after it was needed they can hold off a massive water pipeline then they will be happy.

THIS DOESN"T LOOK GOOD

2012-01-21T08:16:00.000-05:00

A year ago we had a new Council here in Woolwich and I'd received a ton of attention from one of them and a ton of promises. I thought I'd died and gone to heaven. A couple of friends outside of Woolwich Township as well as one nearby close relative warned me not to get my hopes up so high. It turns out they were right.

It is difficult to be certain without the decency and courtesy of a straight answer from the Ontario Ministry of the Environment but I believe they have betrayed Elmira residents again. By betraying I mean lying. By lying I mean leading residents to believe that there is an honest process of consultation with regards to the proposed Bio-En plant for Martin's Lane in Elmira. Here in Elmira we have had "public consultation" as suggested and promoted by the Ministry of the Environment for over two decades. This "consultation" whether called UPAC or CPAC has been an intended sham from the beginning. Uniroyal/Chemtura have been aided and abetted by the M.O.E. ever since their immoral and unethical private sweetheart deal consumated over the summer of 1991, which permanently ended the then temporarily adjourned Environmental Appeal Board hearings. Local citizens are fighting through the system to relocate Bio-En out of Elmira. Despite their best efforts it won't work, not because the system is broken but precisely because the system does work for the benefit of existing government priorities and for the benefit of the friends of that government. ATTENTION ORGANIZED CITIZENS OPPOSED TO BIO-EN OPERATING IN ELMIRA : The standard operating practice is for the authorities to tell you that you've won. They will tell you that your organized, respectful opposition has forced concessions from the proponent and the Ministry of the Environment. These will be lies intended to let you save face while they do exactly what they've wanted from the beginning which is to put their facility in your community for their profit and your inconvenience and sufferring.

POST WALKERTON CHANGES KEEP COMING

2012-01-20T09:02:00.003-05:00

On January 11/12 the K-W record carried a story titled "Region poised to approve flood of water rules". On the exact same subject is an Opinion piece in today's (dated tomorrow) Woolwich Observer titled " New "downloading" - paying for useless rules". The differences in these storys are quite remarkable. Essentially the Region while suggesting that they were on top of things anyways believe that the overall idea of more water rules and regulations is O.K. because it will assist in water protection across the Grand River watershed and with provincial backing and authority. Steve Kannon of the Observer and Dave Brenneman of Woolwich township are much less pleased. They feel that many of these changes are knee jerk, superficial rules which penalize the majority of municipalities that were doing a conscientous job in the first place in regards to their water protection and treatment.

Perhaps this is a typical "slam the gate closed after the horse has bolted" scenario. I do know from reading I've done that the Walkerton disaster was a perfect storm. It was a result of provincial failures (M.O.E.) to enforce the rules on the books. It also was a failure in oversight by the Municipal authorities responsible for water safety in Walkerton and finally it was a horrid failure of individuals in Walkerton who were incompetent and grossly negligent. Finally it was also a failure decades earlier when the offending wells were drilled. They were in a ridiculously vulnerable location and warnings given at the time were both ignored and finally forgotten. What was needed was not more rules but more enforcement, competence and common sense. None were available.

CANCER AND THE ENVIRONMENT?

2012-01-19T09:10:00.002-05:00

Today's K-W Record carrys an article about cancer rates and prevalence. The title is "Cancer prevalence rates up due to aging population". This is one of those times when I'm particularily glad that it's a short newspaper article and that I'm able to get a link to it. The reason is that my connection between Cancer and the Environment in my above title is strictly mine. This article does not mention the word environment nor other than normal aging does it give any causes for higher rates of cancer in the population. This I've always found unfortunate because other than obvious lifestyle changes such as stopping smoking, less alcohol, more exercise and losing weight, Canadians are given very little insight into the causes of cancer. My admittedly non medical understanding is that many causes of cancer are one form or another of irritation/inflammation. The obvious example here would be skin cancer from the sun's rays. Similarily lung cancer can be caused by lung irritation from things like nicotine, asbestos and air pollution. Regardless this article which I hope you will read, quite frankly because I had difficulty with it, claims that higher prevalency rates are a mixed blessing. Yes it says more people are getting cancer but importantly more on living with it rather than dying right away. There have been a very few newspaper articles that I've read that bluntly come out and say that the food we eat, the air we breathe and the water we drink is killing us. The reality is that air, food and water are all contaminated by toxic, industrial chemicals. "Experts" however love to reassure us that these toxic chemicals are all below mandated health standards. Individually most may very well be but as I've long said no one has the math or science to be able to determine the health results of multiple chemicals via multiple routes of exposure such as air, water and food. Furthermore even the individual standards are political in nature and the result of biased risk assessments and other mathmatical games.

TRAVELWISE TRANSPORTATION MANAGEMENT ASSOCIATION

2012-01-18T09:18:00.002-05:00

Today's K-W Record advises us that a new program has been started in cooperation with the Region of Waterloo and numerous large employers in the Region, including the three biggest cities and two Universities. The record story is titled " Program encourages drivers to get to work other ways ". According to this story written by Terry Pender "The main objective is to reduce the number of people driving alone to work". The various alternatives include public transit, car pooling, car sharing, walking and cycling for example. This program has additional incentives above and beyond the up front financial and environmental. Individuals who sign up to a one year commitment will receive a 15% discount off of a monthly bus pass. This reduces the price from $63 a month to $53.55 . It's funny how we delude ourselves in our quest to stay in our cars. At first blush I considered $63 a month expensive for public transit. Then I remembered that I put $26 of gas in my car last week and $30 in yesterday. By the way I'm driving a four cylinder, tiny Hyundai; not remotely a gas guzzler. My gas costs alone are double the price of a bus pass and that doesn't even begin to compare when you consider purchase price, insurance and maintenance.

CPAC IS CANCELLED AGAIN

2012-01-17T08:29:00.000-05:00

This is ridiculous. We've now had only six real public CPAC (Chemtura Public Advisory Committee) meetings in the last sixteen months. If you recall there was a lame duck meeting held by Pat Mclean in November 2010 after the Municipal election the prior month. Exactly how much pressure can be put on either Chemtura (Uniroyal) or the Ontario Ministry of the Environment to clean up the site properly with a total of eighteen hours (6x3 hours) of public exposure over a time period of 16x31x24=11,904 hours? None of this is the fault of the new CPAC. All of it is the fault of our new Mayor. Something has gone incredibly far off the rails here. Personally I've seen all this nonsense before. Everytime the old CPAC Chair was unhappy with how things were going at CPAC she would arbitrarily cancel public meetings. Usually it was only a meeting here and there although back in the fall of 2007 and spring of 2008 she shut it down for six or seven months. Mayor Cowan cancelled a public CPAC meeting last summer, this past December and now the January 2012 meeting. In all fairness there wasn't a lot of opposition to the December shutdown. Then of course was his still unexplained snooze from December 2010 until the first public CPAC meeting in June 2011. When I say unexplained I should clarify by saying satisfactorily, logically or intelligently explained to the citizen volunteers who were ready and willing to go from January/February 2011 onwards.

The Mayor's so far unexplained behaviour regarding CPAC is damaging any possibilty of actually getting Dioxins removed from the site. It is damaging any chance of removing shallow, easily accessible DNAPLS from the south-west corner of the site. It is giving both the M.O.E. and Chemtura a free ride past any public scrutiny and accountability. Their hopeless Pump and treat System both on and off-site is going nowhere fast (see yesterday's Advocate posting). We do not stand a chance of having drinking water in the Elmira aquifer by 2028 and the Township of Woolwich both past and I'm sorry to say present take some responsibilty for that. When I say the Mayor's behaviour I'm referring to his penchant for autocratic control of CPAC even while Chairing meetings this fall which caused the M.O.E. to cry for their Mommys. Both Chemtura and the M.O.E. were appropriately feeling the heat, in these public meetings from the CPAC members, which the Mayor did conduct in a civilized and democratic manner. Unfortunately the appearance being given is that he is listening to their whining about being picked on by the citizen volunteers appointed by Woolwich Council. His listening essentially means that he is prepared to unilaterally stall and delay allowing this asinine twenty-three year Farce to go on forever.

Woolwich Council you have delegated the CPAC Chair's position to Mayor Cowan. Yes none of you wanted it including the Councillor originally appointed to it. You as a group are ultimately responsible. If you don't want a CPAC at all then at least have the honesty and courage to say so. Some of us are tired of decades long games being played. I asked you last May to get off the pot and let CPAC get going. In your ignorance and with bad advice, you shot the messenger. You did at least get CPAC started with a date for the first public CPAC meeting shortly afterwards. What are you going to do this time? CPAC are being hobbled, delayed and hampered by your Mayor. He is turning this into a sham and Chemtura and the M.O.E. are very grateful for his efforts. IS THIS REALLY THE INTENTION OF WOOLWICH COUNCIL?

HISTORY OF OFF-SITE PUMPING IN ELMIRA, ONTARIO

2012-01-16T08:46:00.001-05:00

Last night I e-mailed with two documents attached, a history of the off Chemtura site pumping wells in Elmira. This information I sent to the entire voting CPAC membership as well as to two other friends and colleagues. The attached documents included a graph showing the total average litres per second of groundwater pumped from five off-site wells namely W4, W4, W5A, W5B and E7. Marked on this graph is the target pumping rate determined by Chemtura's consultants via computer modelling, that will allegedly achieve cleanup of Elmira's water to drinking water standards. Last Thursday (Jan. 12/12), here in the Advocate, I posted reasons why this cleanup is impossible. This graph and the included text show how patheticly low the pumping has been for the last nearly fourteen years. As a result even if one were to accept the initial grossly faulty premise that all the source areas are on the Chemtura site, they still have not achieved the volume of pumping that their own consultants have determined is necessary. The original target pumping rate for the five off-site wells was 64.5 litres per second. From 1998 till the end of 2008 they couldn't get within 20 litres per second of this rate. In 2009 the target rate was lowered to 53.5 litres per second and this they achieved for 2009 and 2010. Last year (2011) their off-site pumping plunged again well below even their reduced pumping target rate. This "cleanup" is nothing but smoke and mirrors. SHAME ON EVERYONE WHO IS A PARTY TO THIS PUBLIC DECEPTION.

ENVIRONMENTAL COMMISSIONER WEIGHS IN

2012-01-14T08:08:00.003-05:00

Gord Miller, Ontario's Environmental Commissioner is not a happy camper. Ontario has lost their elm trees, is losing our ash trees and he feels that maple trees are next on the list. This is due to a combination of climate change and an invasive species coming up from New York state. Furthermore as the Ontario government has announced across the Board cuts he feels that both the Ministry of Natural Resources and the Ministry of the Environment are in the sights. Last November he already had warned that their budgets had been slashed to the "tipping point". Mr. Miller's overall point was that the Ontario government is clearly unprepared for upcoming environmental threats including threats to biodiversity.

GO TRAINS

2012-01-14T08:01:00.000-05:00

This week in the K-W Record, Luisa d'Amato gave us her opinion on the new GO train service. It was titled "Give GO train a chance- cars get backed up too". She suggests that just because the GO train got delayed due to a downtown Toronto fire is no reason to suggest that it is less reliable or always slower than going by car. This is clear to anyone who's been stuck in 401 traffic . What she also clarifys is the emotional reasons people continue to drive even when the driving experience is both horrible and dangerous. The GO train is less expensive than driving your own car, less stressful and far better for the environment.

WATER UPGRADES FOR WATERLOO REGION PLANNED

2012-01-13T10:41:00.001-05:00

Today's Kitchener-Waterloo Record has a good news story from Terry Pender titled
"Province kicks in nearly $3M for water upgrades". Mr. Pender ostensibly backs his story with interviews and quotes from the following persons: MPP John Milloy, Mayor Carl Zehr, Kitchener's Director of Engineering Grant Murphy, Regional Chair Ken Seiling, and Regional Councillor Jane Mitchell. Wow that's impressive. One high level Municipal employee and four long time career politicians covering Municipal, Regional and Provincial levels.

"The City of Kitchener received $1 million to find ways of keeping sediments removed from stormwater ponds out of landfill sites. The research will help cities save millions of dollars by reducing disposal costs to $5 a tonne, down from $70 a tonne." That is an interesting quote. My bullshit metre is ringing very loudly. Perhaps new and different disposal methods are possible which would reduce the number of tonnes but how does that remotely reduce the per tonne cost? Zero explanation given.

"Kitchener and Waterloo received almost $1 million for a public education program to help property owners take practical steps to reduce stormwater runoff". Are they completely nuts? The vast majority of property owners own nothing more than their own homes, if they're lucky. Fifty to a hundred years ago residential subdivisions and homes were always built on high ground with hopefully a low watertable. Not anymore. Floodplains are discouraged and everything else is just fine. Storm sewers, pumping stations and mandatory sump pumps in new homes are now the norm. At my home I do everything possible to get rainwater to run off my small property rather than soaking into the ground around my foundation.

"And the Grand River Conservation Authority gets $903,000 for a new Grand River management plan." The claim is made that we are approaching a water crisis both in supply and quality and hence need to spend more money to study and research technologies to address it. Bullshit ! Sure there is a crisis and it starts at the top namely immigration and population plans. There is only one Grand River in Waterloo Region. All our Sewage Treatment plants dump into it. All our industries directly or indirectly dump into it. Our environment including water will only sustain a certain level of human beings in this Region. The growth economy including population is unsustainable. We have had technologies to improve sewage treatment at our plants for decades but politicians would rather build edifices than improving infrastructure. Drayton Theatre in Cambridge is just the most recent example.

Jane Mitchell states that the total cost for the new Grand River management plan will be in excess of $ 1.8 million. This costly local taxpayer funded plan will tell the politicains what they already know and yet refuse to do. It will join the thousands of reports before it, sitting on shelves. As my colleague Rich Clausi likes to say "When all was said and done, more was said than done."

SHAM ELMIRA CLEANUP CONTINUES - BADLY

2012-01-12T09:18:00.001-05:00

Elmira, Woolwich and Ontario citizens have been sold a bill of goods. This bill of goods is that Elmira's groundwater will be restored to drinking standards by 2028. This is virtually impossible whether one does or doesn't follow the basic assumptions put forth by Chemtura's consultants. This basic assumption is that yes there is grossly contaminated soil and residual DNAPL on the Chemtura property but it has been contained on site. Off-site there are areas of heavy groundwater contamination which can and will be remediated by pump and treat technology over a thirty year time span (1998-2028). These off-site assumptions are plain wrong and all the recent and ongoing cleanups throughout Elmira testify to this. Whether Voisin Motors, Strauss Fuels, Beckers, the old Gord's Garage, Varnicolor Chemical (ongoing), Nutrite (Yara) there are numerous sites throughout Elmira which have contributed to our groundwater contamination for decades. Many others are possible but uninvestigated yet.

For the moment let's ignore reality. Let's assume that all the sources are at Chemtura and the rest of Elmira only has dissolved contaminants versus source areas. CRA on behalf of Uniroyal (Chemtura) have a hydraulic containment system within Elmira. It consists of wells W5A, W5B, W4, W3 and E7 down at the south end of Elmira, right beside the new Voisin Motors. With a computer generated model they have determined exactly how many litres per second of groundwater must be pumped off the Chemtura site and throughout Elmira. This magic number of litres per second, over a thirty year time span is supposed to clean up the dissolved contaminants in Elmira's groundwater. The magic number, determined by CRA was 64.5 litres per second for the five wells listed. From the start of the Off - Site Containment and Treatment System in the summer of 1998 the yearly average of total monthly pumping rates has NEVER achieved this. OOPS! In June of 2009 under pressure from myself at CPAC to explain their failure, CRA and Chemtura lowered their computer generated target pumping rate to 53.1 litres per second . For the record as of the start of 2009 they still hadn't been able to meet this significantly reduced target rate EVER.

It is now January 2012 and the last Monthly Chemtura Progress Report distributed is for November 2011. Chemtura achieved their REDUCED off-site pumping rate on an annual basis for 2009 and 2010. The success after eleven years of failure in a row seems to have gone to their heads. 2011 off-site pumping has been pitiful. They have been unable to achieve again even their reduced pumping target rates. The bottom line is this. They are going through a Review and Update of their hydraulic containment system. This may be part of their so called Five Year Review. Regardless of what they call it, it is a sham. The goal of this Review/Update/Work Plan is to "...evaluate the progress of groundwater remediation of the off-site Municipal Aquifer (MA) beneath Elmira, Ontario." The "progress" has been abysmal. They have set the targets necessary to achieve cleanup and they have continually failed to come even close over the past fourteen years. How many different ways is it necessary to measure failure? I believe that this whole "cleanup" is nothing but smoke and mirrors and a delaying tactic until Chemtura decide to leave town and leave us their mess.

DEMOCRACY IS MESSY

2012-01-11T08:46:00.001-05:00

Democracy is filled with contradictions and disincentives to honesty and integrity. Individual citizens have the numbers and hence the votes. The money and power however are held by the few. Personal benefits and considerations are also part of the equation. How many politicians after losing an election receive a golden parachute from the monied few? How many get appointed by the government of the day to a well paid commission, board or other perk? The Senate comes to mind.

Local/Municipal politicians are especially vulnerable to manipulation by higher tiers of government. Imagine that you are a local, activist Mayor, elected by the citizens as a protest against the old way of doing business. You want to put people first, not money and corporations. You begin reforms locally by fighting never ending expansion of gravel pits. You attempt not to block but to relocate a proposed bio-fuel plant that would generate increased truck traffic in your small town as well as most probably generate odours. Your small town already has a huge history of pollution from local industry and neglect and incompetence from the provincial Ministry of the Environment.

You enter office with hope and optimism. Then reality sets in. You as Mayor are automatically sitting on the next higher tier, namely Regional Council. Both the carrot and the stick are evident. Regional roads need upgrades in your community. The local Sewage Treatment Plant needs expansion if you want to have capacity for new developments and subdivisions. These are Regional decisions. Do you want the support of your colleagues for your local projects? If so then there is some give and take. Your current Regional Chair was voted in by his colleagues on Regional Council decades ago precisely because he did not represent one of the major urban centres in your Region. If you play your cards right you could replace him down the road as retirement can't be too far off. If you play your cards right.

Then there is the province to deal with. You are generally on good terms with them. They however have an election upcoming. They absolutely don't need you raising a ruckus about their long comprimised, underfunded and generally hopeless Ministry of the Environment. You are asked to make concessions in regards to your vigour in pushing them, especially publicly. You are asked for the sake of harmony and future benefits to your community, in other areas, to soften and to quiet any criticism coming from, for example, citizen committees of Council. You are advised that it is always in the best long term interests of a Municipality to listen carefully to the very few strong "requests" from the province.

Perhaps during all this pressure, local industry also comes knocking on your door. Lobbying let's call it. They too are displeased with your apparent grassroots bias. They feel that rather than you trying to please those who elected you in the recent past, perhaps you should be looking to the future. For example donations to Mayoral campaigns are always a good thing aren't they? Perhaps if a large employer feels too pressured locally to conform to provincial environmental laws that the M.O.E. are willing to let slide, then this large employer might move up his plans to retreat to a more business friendly environment. How would that look on a new Council and its' Mayor?

The pressures are enormous and the reality is that you can not please everyone. This is where a politician learns to stickhandle. No one is asking you to publicly deny your past supporters or your beliefs. Just modify them a touch. Comprimise and delay are always a smart move when you are doing something controversial. Things aren't really black and white. So learn how to take baby steps without offending others. Life will be so much easier if you adjust your direction according to the pressure upon you. Congratulations you are learning the art of politics.

REGION OF WATERLOO - PUBLIC NOTICE

2012-01-10T09:10:00.001-05:00

Now this is a strange one and I quote from today's K-W Record:
"Notice of Public Input Meeting of the Planning and Works Committee Proposed Modifications to the Implementation Guideline for Road Allowance Dedications On and Adjacent to Known and Potentially Contaminated Sites".

Date: Tuesday January 31, 2012
Time: 9:00 am.
Location: Regional Council chambers, 2nd Floor 150 Frederick St. Kitchener

There is a report on-line that with a little digging is accessible . Basically there are concerns that the Provincial infilling policies dealing with development are causing the Region to have to assume environmental liability for road allowances dedicated to them, beside contaminated sites, within municipal borders. This report requests changes that could include things like indemnities for the Region or for more rerports hopefully indicating the contamination is within acceptable levels. An optimist would hope that this infilling mandated by the province would result in more cleanups of contaminated sites within our cities. The reality is simply more stickhandling via rule changes to allow new development including residential upon contaminated lands. I have downloaded this report and will continue to study it.

LRT- PUBLIC CONSULTATION CENTRES

2012-01-10T08:56:00.001-05:00

I received yesterday in the mail a letter from the Region of Waterloo advising that there will be three Public Consultation Centres this month in regards to their proposed Light Rail transit system. These PCC's are supposed to discuss potential impacts the rail project could have on the environment. They are scheduled for Tuesday January 24/12, 3- 8 pm. at the First United Church , 16 William St W. in Waterloo. The next is for Jan. 25/12, 3-8 pm. at the Region of Waterloo, 150 Frederick St, Kitchener and the last for Jan. 26/12, 3-8 pm. at the United kingdom Club, 35 International Village Dr., Kitchener. A pessimist could be forgiven for suggesting that these PCC's have the potential to be no more than dog and pony shows.

RAIL TRANSIT RISKS AND SECRECY

2012-01-09T09:21:00.001-05:00

Jeff Outhit of the K-W Record is certainly taking the lead on this local, hot potato political item . Last Saturday's front page Local Section story is "Region warned over transit secrecy". Jeff also has a smaller article titled "Rail transit piles risk on risk, scholar says". This second article is very unsettling because it shows the unfortunate human tendency for those in charge to gild the lily when it comes to building support for their pet or legacy projects. Make no mistake, I am a supporter of public transit versus private automobile use. IN THEORY it is fabulous ! I spent five of my adult years in Toronto and the public transit system of buses and subways were unbelievably great. In Waterloo Region I worry that we are comparing apples to oranges. Toronto has an excellent east to west subway (Bloor Line) and an equally excellent north to south subway (Yonge Line). The bus system also runs east to west and north to south. It is easy to learn and understand, it is frequent and it works. Just about everything that Waterloo Region does not have.

Again I repeat I like public transit because environmentally it is superior to individuals driving more cars and spewing out more air pollution. What I don't like is being bulls...... and bafflegabbed. Jeff Outhit's article makes it clear that that is the norm when selling expensive public transit to citizens. Ridership rates are grossly inflated and costs grossly underestimated. The article concerning transit secrecy is in regards to the concept of public-private partnerships. This proposal is supposed to reduce the risk of cost and time overuns by having a private business partner involved. Jeff has interviewed two experts who both focus on the need for key information on these partnerships being made public. This information would include the tradeoffs of profits going to a private enterprise in exchange for the aforementioned risk reduction in cost overuns if they are being assumed by the private developer. In a nutshell I would suggest that these two experts are essentially asking the Region to be more transparent than they currently have been. I agree. Afterall it's our money.

2011 TOP NEWS STORIES IN WOOLWICH

2012-01-07T08:12:00.001-05:00

Both our local newspapers, the Elmira Independent and the Woolwich Observer (Pg. 9) summarized their top stories for 2011. As is to be expected there were a number of overlaps. Both papers had ample stories covering a plethora of gravel pits throughout the Townships including peer reviews, O.M.B. upcoming hearings and Cultural Heritage Landscape designations (West Montrose). Victoria Glen in Elmira, Hawk Ridge Homes also in Elmira and the proposed LRT system for K-W and Cambridge were also mentioned in the Observer. The Independent covered in reasonable detail the delays and eventual naming of the new Chemtura Public Advisory Committee. They also mentioned the resignations eventually of all the former members including one who couldn't seem to be bothered attending while he was a member but nevertheless made a big deal out of his resignation. The Independent also covered the public CPAC meetings as well as the news that the Ministry of the Environment were again, twenty years later, going after the old Varnicolor site for more cleanup. Finally our favourite local polluter, Chemtura, were mentioned in regards to Dioxins and DNAPLS still on site and in the ground.

ARISE SOLAR SYSTEMS IN TROUBLE

2012-01-06T08:41:00.003-05:00

This is very disappointing to see a local well known manufacturer and designer of renewable enrgy in financial trouble. Arise Technologies Corp. filed a notice of intention with the federal bankruptcy office last month in order to stave off creditors while they reorganize their finances. Today's K-W record has the full story in the Business Section titled "Arise hopes to save solar systems division". Arise has installed solar systems at the Region of Waterloo operations centre, the City of Kitchener operations centre and also the University of Waterloo. Clearly their technology is state of the art, accepted and doing it's job. Apparently other aspects of the business, including development costs, have been causing them their financial problems.

ANTI-IDLING BY-LAWS ARE A GOOD IDEA

2012-01-05T09:04:00.001-05:00

Today's Kitchener-Waterloo Record has the following story "Anti-idling bylaw cruises into Year 2". This article focuses on the City of Cambridge by-law while also giving us a rundown on other area municipalities. The by-laws focus on schools and public areas at the moment but will most likely expand to other city facilities such as arenas. Personally I'm constantly amazed at the number of people who let their engines idle, whether summer or winter. It's hard on the engine, wastes gas, invites theft if you've just ducked into the corner store and essentially marks you as a Neanderthal who doesn't understand that air pollution literally kills. This newspaper article advises that education is a key element and that info slips were handed out first rather than tickets. Apparently the old adage that you can catch more flys with honey than vinegar is accurate. Similar to smoking in public places, people are starting to catch on and that's a good thing.

2012-01-04T09:37:00.002-05:00

IT'S ALL ABOUT APPEARANCES

Will the 20th and 21st centuries go down in human history as the "show" and "pretend" centuries? Will they be recognized as the triumph of appearance over substance? This following story, at this point in time, deals with allegations, uncomfortably familiar allegations. Rules are in place, rules are ignored, perpetrators appear to be unaffected and whistleblowers (messengers) are shot.

Today's K-W Record has this story " Keystone "whistleblower" alleges shoddy materials". The whistleblower is both an engineer and an inspector for a company that worked on the original Keystone pipeline from the Alberta tarsands down to the American Midwest. This is the same pipeline that is being proposed to be extended down to the U.S. Gulf States through and above some very environmentally sensitive aquifers. According to a Mr. Klink he raised substantive issues during his inspections including substandard steel, construction methods such as improper foundations for pumping stations and fudged safety tests including leaking joints during pressure testing. For his efforts he was fired. On the surface it would appear that the process of inspections during construction is more about appearances than reality. Yes the construction company can honestly say that they've followed mandated procedures. Yes they've hired inspectors and read their reports. It's a shame that all the inspectors can't take their pay, go home and drink or drug away their guilt. Imagine some inspectors (employees, citizens etc. ) actually having integrity and a conscience. For some employers, politicians and big shots it's all about the money. Down the road environmental disasters can be 'remediated" and most probably for a profit.

2012-01-03T08:15:00.003-05:00

THE BATTLE RAGES QUIETLY

Ever noticed how local issues of great importance seem to disappear for months at a time? Where do they go? O.K. we know that Hawk Ridge Homes is awaiting an upcoming O.M.B. hearing. Same with the Hunder Pit, Kuntz Pit (Jigs Hollow) and also the proposed Murray Pit beside the proposed Capitol Paving Pit in West Montrose. Further testing and excavation are planned for the old Varnicolor Chemical site on Union St. Chemtura claim they will remediate the Dioxins at GP1 & GP2 on the south-east corner of their property while at the same time refusing to hand over soil and water samples obtained last October. The old Becker's site has been excavated and rebuilt. Their will be further remediation of the gas and diesel compounds via a process known as ISCO or In Situ Chemical Oxidation. This process breaks down (oxidizes) the hydrocarbon contaminants. Absolutely nothing is happening regarding the two source areas off the Chemtura site namely the subsurface DNAPL by the Elmira water tower as well as the NDMA source area which shows up at well CH38 by the Sanyo Canada property. Woolwich Bio-En also appears to have gone into hibernation. Anyone know where this project is currently at? Finally there are still more contaminated sites in Elmira which have not been fully (or at all) addressed. Borg is more than a little suspicious as is an NDMA contaminated area west of Chemtura near the old Shirt factory on Park St. Then there are a myriad of former gas stations which have been somewhat cleaned up but with little or no public input or knowledge. Linkbelt also known as Procast has my interest. Location wise it would be good for development being close to the downtown but is it clean?

2012-01-02T09:43:00.003-05:00

CHEMTURA NOVEMBER 2011 "non" PROGRESS REPORT

Last Monday and Tuesday (Dec. 26 & 27) I wrote about the horrendous state of off-site groundwater pumping as well as the unsurprising discovery of more DNAPL (dense non aqueous phase liquid) on the Chemtura (Uniroyal) site. Off-site of course means off the Chemtura site and basically throughout the town of Elmira.

Today I'm going to try and finish this report. There are five drains named 0200, 0400, 0800, 1100 and SWS for surface water system. The first four are also called part of the MISA (Municipal Industrial Strategy for Abatement) system. These first four are all subsurface drains with manholes at the surface to collect rainwater which lands on this industrial site. The problem over the decades is that all these drains deposit chemically contaminated water directly into the Canagagigue Creek. Again unsurprisingly, all these chemicals are ubiquitous to Chemtura's soil and groundwater and routinely contain lindane, aniline, carboxin and NDPA. For twenty years Chemtura and their consultants have tried to convince us that these drains are isolated from groundwater infiltration. At the same time they deny that any of their chemicals are sitting loose on the surface. This is simply one more reason why they have no credibility with informed persons. Their excuses have ranged from off site airborne deposition to blaming the nearby railroad tracks for the contamination of their chemical plant.

Table C.2 lists surface water concentrations of various chemicals in Canagagigue Creek. Chemtura have a program which magically replaces common sense to allegedly advise us if there is a statistically significant difference between upstream and downstream chemical concentrations in the creek as it passes through the Chemtura property. Simply looking at the values in this Table advises us that the arithmetic mean of numerous samples is higher downstream for NDMA, NMOR, Ethyl Benzene and Toluene. Amazingly enough all of these chemicals are in Chemtura's soil and groundwater and any belief that this causes their appearance in the creek as it passes through their contaminated property is merely the ravings of uninformed, biased activists "out to get" Chemtura.

Appendix E deals with on-site groundwater readings at Chemtura in either UA1 (Upper Aquifer 1), UA3 or the MU (Municipal Upper aquifer). Literally dozens of toxic chemicals are found in all these aquifers despite on-site pumping started TWENTY YEARS ago. That's right the on-site pumping started in January 1992. Most amazing to me is not the wells located near the pumping wells which have had reductions over two decades but the massive concentrations still appearing throughout the site. Also interesting are the Method Detection Limits (MDL) in use in some of the more contaminated areas. This is typical for grossly contaminated sites. Essentially there are so many different chemicals present that the labs can no longer readily distinguish chemicals with lesser concentrations in the groundwater. For example on pg. 6 (of 30) Table E.1 there are MDL's of 30,000 and even 50,000 parts per billion. This means that "hits" of 10 or 20 thousand parts per billion aren't even found or recognized.

Appendix F deals with groundwater concentrations off site throughout Elmira. Again particular wells located next to off site pumping wells may have their concentrations reduced as long as those wells are pumping. As soon as the wells stop pumping or slow down, the concentrations rise again as the off site wells are all located close to subsurface chemical waste, whether in solid or liquid form. The number and concentration of toxic chemicals under Elmira is still unbelievably high and the current plans to achive drinking water standards by 2028 are nothing but "factually flexible fictions".

2012-01-01T19:55:00.001-05:00

HAPPY NEW YEAR WORLD !

2011-12-31T08:57:00.003-05:00

TROUBLE IN PARADISE ???

Earlier this month I spoke to Woolwich Council about CPAC. I thought that I had made clear how thrilled I was with CPAC's progress and actions relevant to the cleanup of the Elmira Aquifers. I also however advised Council that there was a fly in the ointment and that was the basic model of public consultation present here in Woolwich. The basic model is what is known as a committee of Council. This model while having a few positives to it, dances on a knife edge of drawbacks and dangers. The most obvious and immediate one is the danger of this allegedly independent citizens' committee becoming nothing more than a mouthpiece of Council. Even worse would be a mouthpiece of one or two members of Council.

Any committee of ordinary citizens can be intimidated, threatened or even bribed into submission. Peer pressure is also a constant whether for good or bad. Even a committee of extraordinary citizens, as I believe we currently have, can be jerked around, manipulated and bafflegabbed. This can be accomplished primarily through control of the process. This process includes things like scheduling of meetings whether private or public. It includes the location of the meetings. It includes who is invited to the meetings. When non voting members are being routinely brought to meetings for example it could possibly be to simply buttress the position of one participant. The precedent can be set that all meetings for example must be in the Township building and hence can only be called by the Township. Who sets the Agenda is vitally important. Who decides unilaterally or otherwise as to what is added or dropped from the Agenda? Who is in sole control of the Minutes? Who amends the Minutes and is it the Amended Minutes that are posted on-line? Who physically controls all old Minutes and are they easily available to all voting members for research or inspection? Are meetings rescheduled or cancelled by consenus or unilaterally? Finally it is the Council alone who decide whom to appoint and whom to kick off. They do this without consultation, without warning and without any form or attempt at fair play or transparency. The Chair and the Township both wield extraordinary power and influence in this situation. The Mayor being Chair magnifies this.

Please do not misunderstand me here. To date this new CPAC has done wonderful things and I have publicly at CPAC, at Council and here said exactly that. But there have been rumblings including public ones. Again I have brought the Mayor to task for his possibly arrogant and critical behaviour towards certain CPAC members at public meetings. This has improved. This CPAC now know what they are up against with Chemtura and the Ontario Ministry of the Environment. What they deserve after being appointed by Woolwich Council is control of their own processes and freedom to pursue their duties in a democratic and fair manner. They do not need a third front being opened simply for ideological reasons or for control purposes by Council or its' representatives.

2011-12-30T08:51:00.004-05:00

COMING SOON TO A TOWN NEAR YOU

Yesterday's Kitchener-Waterloo Record carrys the following encouraging news: "Bruce County towns consider storing nuclear waste". Isn't that just charming? But it gets better. Not only is it Canada's highest level of radioactive waste but one of those "Bruce County" towns is Walkerton. Whoa that's not very far from Elmira (north-west) at all. The other town is Southampton and Port Elgin on the shores of Lake Huron.

I truly wonder if any community would be willing hosts if they had significant alternate employment available. This is the carrot and stick approach. We are in a recession and Bruce County as well as northern Ontario have always had issues providing jobs and keeping young people in the community. A spokesperson for the Nuclear Waste Management Organization stated that "This project will not be imposed on any community". That is only slightly reassuring. The recession has been imposed and they are offerring jobs. Secondly what most likely will be imposed on the community is a gilded version of the truth. How can any informed community have any faith or confidence in either governments or the Ontario Ministry of the Environment? Client driven consultants routinely write the "technical" reports that their clients want. These consultants are selling their credentials to the highest bidder. Mental prostitution it could be called.

2011-12-29T08:17:00.002-05:00

LRT VERSUS GO TRAINS

Jeff Outhit of the K-W Record has used one of my favourite expressions namely it's "...a solution in search of a problem". This is in his Dec. 24/11 article titled "GO train idea better then the service". Jeff was referring to comments from MPP Elizabeth Witmer regarding local citizens supporting relatively inexpensive GO trains versus the very expensive proposed LRT system. The $818 million Light Rapid Transit appears to be a very expensive solution in search of a problem at this point in time. In regards to the GO train from Kitchener to Toronto the problem already exists. It's called the 401 and it's overcrowded, dangerous, frustrating and environmentally unsound. Hence the GO train is a fabulous idea. The problem is both the frequency and the speed of the GO trains. They run twice in the morning and twice in the evening and so far the word run could be replaced with either walk or crawl. As Jeff states the new service "...will draw people who can't afford cars, people who hate driving, people making occasional trips and drivers avoiding the worst weather". Furthermore "People drive because time is precious and public transit takes forever.". This is true in Waterloo Region and with the current GO train. Toronto however has a better idea. Public transit is actually superior in Toronto. It's cheaper, faster and extremely frequent. This is why it is widely used by everyone, not just those who can't afford cars. People are not stupid. If a service is superior, reasonably priced and environmentally sound they will flock to it.

2011-12-28T09:40:00.003-05:00

SEWERS, SEWERS AND MORE SEWERS

Kitchener, Cambridge and Elmira all seem to be discussing sanitary sewers these days. Yes sanitary sewers are the ones most associated with toilets and your local STP (sewage treatment plant). Politicians and bureaucrats seem to favour Wastewater Treatment Plants as their chosen name.

As recently as this month Councillor Bauman at Woolwich Council has indicated that more work still needs to be done to seperate storm water (ie. rain) flows from the sanitary sewers. Apparently above and beyond the issues of eavestroughs and sump pumps in the Birdland subdivision in Elmira being hooked up to the sanitary sewers, is storm water in St. Jacobs physically entering holes in sanitary sewer manhole covers.

In yesterday's K-W Record, Terry Pender wrote an article about sewer pipe upgrades for the City of Kitchener titled " Population increase in Kitchener will prompt sewer pipe upgrades". We are advised that most sewer pipes contents flow by gravity to the STP although there are 23 pumping stations in Kitchener's system to assist the flow towards the STP. Also we are advised that the older the system the more sewage backups occur. Hence Kitchener had five sewage backups (as often into basements of houses) in 2010, Waterloo had ten backups and the prize goes to Cambridge which had thirteen backups.

Speaking of Cambridge they have been experiencing horrible backups pre Christmas into homes, most probably as a result of trucks taking pumped out sewage from the new Conestoga College location and dumping it down manholes in a residential subdivision. For more info about this please see the link to the right which will take you to the Cambridge Advocate website.

2011-12-27T08:53:00.003-05:00

IN THE SPIRIT OF CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT

I have previously written that both the Minutes and Agendas of CPAC (Chemtura Public Advisory Committee) meetings are now posted on the Woolwich Township website. This fulfills one more promise of our Mayor Todd Cowan, in regards to greater transparency and accountability surrounding CPAC and he is due credit for this action.

But..... The last CPAC meeting was on November 24, 2011. Today is December 27/11 and the next CPAC meeting isn't scheduled until late January 2012. Both the public and CPAC members should have the Minutes of this last meeting sooner rather than later. What do you say Mayor Cowan?

And..... Why in the name of anything did the Township include a link to Chemtura along with the CPAC Minutes and Agenda? Primarily Chemtura's website I would normally say is their business. They can put whatever propaganda, public relations drivel or outright bull on it they want suggesting how socially "reponsible" they are. However incorporating that into the CPAC information is both offensive and outrageous. If this company were so socially, ethically and morally upright we wouldn't have had our water supply destroyed in the first place. Secondly they would have cleaned it up properly by now if they were 1/10th as good as their website says. C'mon Todd and company. Please give this a second think.

2011-12-27T08:27:00.002-05:00

DNAPL (Dense Non-Aqueous Phase Liquid) FOUND AGAIN AT CHEMTURA

I am slowly beginning to realize that one of the tactics used by polluters and their consultants is the simple tactic of deflection. For example rather than discussing, debating or arguing how to remove DNAPL from their Elmira property they are instead arguing over what form the DNAPL is in. Is it Free Phase, as in pools of collected heavier than water liquid, or is it Residual which means it is in much smaller ganglia or filaments in the pore spaces between soil particles? To a certain degree these arguments are irrelevant. Both forms of DNAPL cause longlasting groundwater pollution although the Free Phase generally indicates larger, longerlasting volumes.

Free Phase agreed/admitted to has been found on both sides of the Canagagiue Creek running through Chemtura's (Uniroyal) site. It has been found in M2, TPW2, RPW5 on the west side and near RPE2 (OW148) on the east side. When I say found I mean as in physically and visually captured and contained, for example in a sample bottle. Chemtura's consultants (CRA) again in last month's Progress Report, partially discussed yesterday here in the Advocate, reiterate their inflammatory and quite frankly stupid use of the terms direct and indirect evidence. This ridiculous definition, most probably invented by themselves has long been disagreed with by the old CPAC and other citizens. Table D.1 has a very long list of DNAPL chemicals found in the groundwater at well OW10. Some of these chemical concentrations are above the 1% solubility rule indicating the presence of nearby DNAPL. The sheer number of DNAPL chemicals is of huge significance as has been submitted to CPAC in the past by both myself and the former Soil & Water sub-committee of CPAC.

Hence this section in the November Progress Report (Pg. 6 & 7 + Appendix D) is merely one more in a decades long history of reports DIRECTLY proving the existence of DNAPL, both Free Phase and Residual on the Chemtura site. Stop the semantics and bull and start removing it.

2011-12-26T11:16:00.002-05:00

CHEMTURA CANADA PROGRESS REPORT - NOVEMBER 2011

Not too surprisingly (Christmas time) this report dated December 15/11 was delivered late this month namely last Friday Dec. 23/11. The horrible results during 2011 continued throughout the month of November. While the onsite pumping, thank God, is sucessfully keeping up to its' modelled and targeted pumping rate, the offsite pumping continues in the dumpster. Not only has the bulk of November pumping been bad but it's getting worse. The two lowest pumping months (offsite) are October and November. The reasons/excuses given may or may not be legitimate. I'm at the point where I no longer care. What is important is restoring the pumping not whether the reasons given, are or aren't truthful. Examples for November include a computer targeted rate of 11.4 litres/second for both offsite wells W3 and W4. Their actual pumping rate was 2.2 and 3.7 l/sec. These targeted rates are the numbers that Chemtura's long time consultants, Conestoga Rovers & Assoc. (CRA) have modelled in order to allegedly clean up the Elmira Aquifers. It is bad enough being sold a bill of goods in regards to the cleanup of Elmira's groundwater being possible simply by pump and treat (hydraulic containment) technology; what is worse is the complete failure of Chemtura to even be able to follow either their own initially low goals or even their recently (June 2009) reduced pumping goals.

2011-12-25T07:45:00.001-05:00

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ONE AND ALL AND MAY THERE BE PEACE ON EARTH

2011-12-24T08:14:00.002-05:00

MIXED MESSAGES ON WATER CONSERVATION

The above title is the same one used in a story in yesterday's Kitchener-Waterloo record written by Jeff Outhit. This stoty highlights concerns by a pair of residents of the village of Mannheim, southwest of Kitchener. Apparently one of the Regional wells there has been pumping and discharging water 24 hours a day into a local waterway. This at a time when the Region are preaching water conservation. On top of that is the fact that has per capita water useage is plummeting in Waterloo Region, the per liter rates of water are still rising. This anomoly has not gone unnoticed. This last fact was pointed out just recently by Councillor Poffenroth at Woolwich Council. Mayor Cowan replied that conservation is actually saving regional taxpayers in the long run as it delays the need for a Lake Erie pipeline substantially. Regarding the 24/7 water discharging apparently there is a turbidity (dirty water) issue being overcome with the pumping.

2011-12-24T07:56:00.003-05:00

WIND POWER PROPONENTS

Today's Woolwich Observer has a larges story (2 pages) titled "Wind power likely to grow, despite controversy". This story highlights a Kitchener based company called Local Initiative for future Energy (L.I.F.E.) Co-op. They are currently working on a community project building a turbine near St. Agatha which will be hooked into the provincial power grid. Here in Woolwich Township however, at the moment, only farm scale turbines are permitted due to zoning restrictions dealing with height restrictions. With an Official Plan review underway these zoning restrictions could change and the province is certainly encouraging municipalities to do so. The most recent commissioned by the province has allegedly found no direct health risks to humans from wind turbines. Unfortunately this report was released by the Ontario Ministry of the Environment which in my informed opinion has a little less than zero credibility. I grant you that their latest and newest Minister Jim Bradley certainly has the credentials and pedigree for the job.

2011-12-23T09:15:00.006-05:00

LOCAL NEWSPAPERS WEIGH IN ON ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES

Well today and yeterday are a veritable paradise of local environmental news in both the Elmira Independent and the Woolwich Observer. For a start the Independent has the following article "Township to reject Hawk Ridge subdivision". The Observer has this story "Deeming land use incompatible, Woolwich to fight proposed Union St. development".

Most of the information from both newspapers comes from last Tuesday night's Woolwich Council meeting and I'll try to limit my comments to points that I haven't already written about here in the Advocate. For example Dan Kennaley (Woolwich staff) in the Independent has indicated that Staff could still change their recommendation to Council based upon two upcoming peer reviews of their compatibility concerns. Mr. Kennaley also indicated that as far as he understands the M.O.E. distance seperation rules between industry and residential take precedence not the Worst Case Scenario and related issues as suggested by Sulco and Chemtura. The Elmira Independent are firmly in support of Staff's current position, Council's , and other citizens who have come forward.

The Woolwich Observer have succinctly pointed out that many parties oppose Hawk Ridge and the only supporter to date is the developer, themselves. The Observer and the Independent both quoted Delegations presented Tuesday night from Sulco (Ron Koniuch), APT-Chemtura (Ken Driedger) and from myself (Elmira Environmental Hazards Team). Ken Driedger advised Council "You're going to have blood on your hands-if not legally, then morally". This was after advising Council that people moving into a subdivision should have a reasonable expectation of safety and yet that was not possible in this location.

What is becoming clear to me is that common sense and safety are going head to head with profits, rules and regulations. Woolwich Council are doing the right thing. This subdivision should not be built and as hopefully will not be lost in the process, more must be done to protect already existing homeowners in Elmira's mini chemical valley.

2011-12-22T09:11:00.004-05:00

SOLAR POWER BECOMING BIG TIME?

Yesterday's Kitchener-Waterloo Record has the following story: " Canadian Solar sells solar energy projects". Ostensibly a good news story from the comments of both buyer and seller, nevertheless I'm a little uneasy. The buyer is TransCanada Corp. currently in the news for their proposed Keystone XL oil pipeline . Apparently TransCanada are major players not only in oil and natural gas but also in renewable energy supplies. I can't help but think of a recent television documentary I saw which pretty clearly implied that when General Motors got involved in electric cars ten or fifteen years ago, they essentially scuppered them intentionally. It's very nice to see solar energy being taken so seriously and also to realize that significant energy can be created via a renewable resource (sun). My hope is that ultimately all renewables will be used for the good of both the environment as well as human beings worldwide.

2011-12-21T08:35:00.003-05:00

HAWK RIDGE HOMES DELEGATIONS AT LAST NIGHT'S COUNCIL MEETING

There were three excellent Delegations at last night's Woolwich Council meeting regarding the proposed Hawk Ridge Homes on Union St. in Elmira. A lack of modesty is including my Delegation being excellent along with Ken Driedger's and Ron Koniuch. Ron was representing Sulco Chemicals (Canada Colours), Ken was representing APT-Chemtura and yours truly was representing the Elmira Environmental Hazards Team. Mayor Todd Cowan in his capacity as CPAC Interim Chair I believe did briefly mention informal non support for the proposed subdivision next to the former Varnicolor Chemical, Sulco, Nutrite (Yara) and Chemtura (Uniroyal).

Ken Driedger clarified Chemtura's ongoing tribulations in the U.S. and how they are paying millions of dollars in penalties for numerous contaminated sites there. His concern is that they will be focusing time, effort and money on U.S. environmental problems rather than those here in Elmira. He also emphasized that their local Worst Case Scenario is a legitimate threat and that residential construction next to their plant is totally inappropriate and wrong.

Ron Koniuch the general manager at Sulco described their long term efforts, including their Citizens Advisory Panel (CAP), to make their plant safe for people and the environment. This CAP includes one member of the Elmira Environmental Hazards Team, namely Rich Clausi. Ron felt that a new residential subdivision beside their facility was a huge, dangerous step backwards in their ongoing attempts to be good corporate citizens.

Yours truly asked Woolwich Council not to give approval to Hawk Ridge based upon approvals from either the Region of Waterloo or the Ontario Ministry of the Environment. I went into some detail about the history of their mismanagement and in the case of the M.O.E. deliberate misleading and inaccurate statements about Varnicolor Chemical twenty years ago. The Varnicolor site is located right across First St. from the Hawk Ridge proposal. I also advised that both these bodies had given the new owner (Phillip Environmental) an idemnity from further environmental liability. The current owners however are on the hook for both new deep monitoring wells AND the removal of 200 tonnes of contaminated soil. Clearly the pump & treat (hydraulic containment) system installed in 1994 and designed to remediate within ten years has failed. Furthermore I pointed out two other failures by the Region and the City of Kitchener to protect homebuyers. This was the Ralgreen Cres. subdivision and the townhouses which were abandoned for years beside the Ottawa St. Landfill in Kitchener. Council did vote to go to the impending Ontario Municipal Board hearing, having accepted Staff's recommendation not to approve either the zone change or the plan of subdivision. Kudos to Council for this morally correct decision.

2011-12-20T08:05:00.002-05:00

LRT (LIGHT RAPID/RAIL TRANSIT)

Ususlly when I am commenting on or at least pointing out a newspaper article it is within a day or two of it's being published. Today however I wish to mention a K-W Record article written by Jeff Outhit dated last month, namely November 26, 2011. The title of the article is " Rail transit, fact and fiction". I would interpret this article as a low key disection of the honey, syrup and just plain unadorned lies to which our politicians treat us.

There are only five of the above detailed in this article from costs, purpose, need, technical consultation and demand by either the public or the politicians. For all five we the citizens are being sold a bill of goods. The basic purpose is "Primarily the project is intended to foster intensification and redevelopment within the Region's primary reurbanization area". So much for cheap public transit and environmental improvement. It would seem that there are many political motives involved including grandstanding and being seen once again as leaders within the Ontario community. Perhaps this might also include regional politicians looking at their political futures whether provincial or federal. It might also be simply grabbing this community's piece of the provincial and or federal pie. If funds are available now for transit projects then lets tailor our plan to suit the requirements and guidelines of the upper tier governments doling out the dough. Perhaps pigs at the trough is an appropriate metaphor when you consider that these pigs want both "free" government grants AND more taxes from regional taxpayers to support their grandiose plans.

Now is not the time financially and economically for this project. If and when times improve it may still not be the time for this particular project.

2011-12-19T08:42:00.002-05:00

WOOLWICH PLANNING STAFF AND HAWK RIDGE HOMES

Friday afternoon I picked up a 58 page Engineering and Planning Services Report from Woolwich Township in regards to Hawk Ridge Homes. For most of the last twenty years plus I clearly haven't paid enough attention to planning/zoning issues. There literally are way more issues and concerns around planning than I ever considered possible. At the same time what I read and see between the lines is the overarching belief/resignation ? that all growth, just about everywhere, all the time, is inevitable. Hence the prevalent attitude becomes mitigation. We can mitigate any and all problems.

What I like about this Report is that twice, on page 15 & 25 Staff clearly recommend that Council denys the zone change and plan of subdivision for Hawk Ridge.

What I also like is a huge can of worms that this Application has opened and that Staff are recognizing. Basically Staff are advising Council that new zoning may be required "to discourage or limit future expansion " at Sulco and Chemtura. This of course is due to the already existing nearby homes of Elmira residents. This elephant in the room needs to be addressed before one of the Worst Case scenarios occurs.

There are many things that I don't care for in this Report. One, as I suspected from the beginning these homes are what are deemed as affordable housing. Nothing wrong with that per se. The concern is that we will primarily have first time unsophisticated buyers, thrilled to be leaving rental accomodations, totally relying on government oversight as they leap, eyes tightly closed into their first owned homes. To my mind there is perhaps an attitude by some of preying on the vulnerable here.

Another concern deals with the reliance of Woolwich Staff upon Regional staff and they in turn upon Provincial staff, particularily the Ontario Ministry of the Environment. This process while convenient and easy is WRONG! Any reader of the Elmira Advocate knows of the long comprimised position of the M.O.E. locally here in Elmira. Their credibility, based upon their own poor behaviour and horrible track record dealing with groundwater protection and noxious air emissions, is in the dumpster. No level of government should be relying on them for advice on anything other than public relations and spin doctoring. For example the proponent for Hawk Ridge is advising that the groundwater is potable (drinkable). Really ? And would you or any other informed person actually be willing to do so? It is entirely possible that one aquifer in one location may not have any of their dozen chemicals individually above drinking water standards. To me that is simply more proof of how hopeless M.O.E. standards and oversight are, not how "good" the water is.

I expect tomorrow night will have a number of Delegations and I trust that Council will weigh common sense much heavier than Provincial planning rules and regulations.

2011-12-17T17:47:00.002-05:00

HAWK RIDGE HOMES THIS TUESDAY

I will be contacting Woolwich Township to be a Delegate for this Tuesday evening at 7 PM. regarding the Hawk Ridge Homes subdivision. I expect that there will be a number of delegates appropriately speaking to this proposed subdivision from the viewpoint of potential air emissions coming from either Sulco or Chemtura. My delegation will be in regards to both past knowledge we have regarding Varnicolor Chemical as well as more recent information concerning the continued and ongoing "cleanup" of their site twenty years later. Once again twenty years of hydraulic containment (pump & treat) appears to be showing how truly ineffective it is as any kind of a serious remediation program. It was designed to contain not remediate. Perhaps in medicine instead of heart surgery we can use ongoing C.P.R. to save millions of dollars in costs. It makes just about as much sense as pump and treat technology versus source removal or elimination.

2011-12-16T08:47:00.003-05:00

ADDITIONS FROM TUESDAY"S COUNCIL MEETING

Technically this is additional news from the Committee of the Whole held last Tuesday night. Steve Kannon of the Woolwich Observer picked up on a few items that I missed including the following. Councillor Poffenroth has concerns that the proposed CHL designation for West Montrose would put too many restrictions on development in the area. Dan Kennaley of Woolwich staff was able to advise that the Cultural Heritage Landscape designation would not come into effect for minor changes that require only a building permit.

Regarding the Jigs Hollow Pit numerous residents made it clear that traditional berms were not an acceptable "solution" to the destruction of the beauty of the area. Furthermore residents, Woolwich staff and Council seemed genuinely surprised and upset that the Visual Impact Assessment had missed so many neighbours and residents and that it was so incomplete. The proponent of the pit will be given a second kick at the can in regards to improving the Assessment.

Numerous municipal charges will be increasing including interestingly gravel pit applications. It would be hard to dispute the amount of time and effort that Woolwich Staff have been putting into the myriad of local applications the past few years. Water and wastewater charges are also rising and the major reason seems to be the charges that the Region of waterloo are imposing on Woolwich Township. Councillor Poffenroth noted that conservation is sort of working in that demand is dropping but unfortunately the unit fees are still rising. Mayor Cowan while not totally disputing that observation noted however that $100 million in expansion projects have been deferred due to conservation efforts, including the proposed Great lakes Pipeline. This proposed Lake Erie Pipeline was slated for 2035 but could be pushed back five or more years due to conservation efforts. My wee mind suggests that it should be pushed back forever. Living within your means includes water availability and sewage availability. Do not kid yourselves. Neverending population growth is only possible through the degradation of our environment and planet. In other words it is not remotely sustainable.

2011-12-15T09:20:00.003-05:00

KYOTO, HUMOUR AND FLUORIDE

I admit it, I enjoy dreaming up the titles for my postings. The "Humour" part relates to a political cartoon in today's K-W Record. It shows federal Environment Minister Peter Kent receiving a stocking full of coal on Christmas morning. His response is a joyous "YIPPEE". Our federal Environment Minister is being portrayed as an environmental neandrathal and he's proud of it.

The "Fluoride" part of the headline refers to today's article in the K-W Record titled "After referendum, fluoride battle continues in court". This article has me a little bit stumped. In one sense I'm biased in that I supported the removal of fluoride from our drinking water hence I supported the position of Robert Fleming while opposing Dr. Harry Hoedino and Dr. Ira Kirshen. I attended a couple of the fluoride debates and combined with some research of my own I was very pleased with the referendum results. That being said I'm not sure of the benefit of pursuing the two Doctors in court now for alleged election financing violations.

The third item in my above headline deals with Kyoto. Thomas Walkom of the K-W Record has an Opinion piece in which he takes the federal Conservatives to task for walking away from Kyoto. It's one thing to complain and criticize a less than perfect treaty. Really how many multinational treaties sucessfully cover all the issues and problems? The best we hope for is a general framework and some major principles to be agreed upon and followed by the signatories. Mr. Walkom rightly points out that Canada has done no one any good by essentially kicking sand in the face of the rest of the world. No country is pristine and no country is blameless but Canada's outright rejection of the Kyoto treaty is wrong. My take is that politically the Conservatives are once again courting the United Staes who never signed on in the first place. Two wrongs do not make a right.

2011-12-14T08:30:00.002-05:00

IT'S NOT OVER TILL IT'S OVER

There were three local environmental issues which brought me out to last night's Committee of the Whole meeting in Woolwich Council Chambers. Also I got to see and chat with former neighbours (West Montrose) and colleagues. Hello again to Les, Nancy & Gerry, Tony and Lynne. The three issues in reverse order of time spent last night are Hawk Ridge Homes, C.H.L. designation for West Montrose and finally the Jigs Hollow Pit (Kuntz).

Hawk Ridge Homes was put off until next Tuesday's Council meeting where it will be discussed further. The Cultural Heritage Landscape designation was passed by the Committee of the Whole and will (probably) be ratified by Council next Tuesday. After that it will go on to Regional Council where hopefully it will also pass. Mayor Cowan commented as to the unique jewel that Woolwich and the Region have with the West Montrose Covered Bridge and how important its' protection is to us.

The Jigs Hollow Pit is what brought out the Delegations last night. It is what the above title is all about. Isabella Price, Karen Bleckert, Laurie Breed, Jan Huisson, Lynne Hare, Gord Haywood and Bill Norris all spoke eloquently and passionately about life in the country atmosphere of Winterbourne and the Conestogo Golf Course subdivision. Comments included concerns around "cancer causing asphalt dust", noise, visual impacts and even the suggestion that a C.H.L. designation for the Winterbourne Bridge/Grand River area was appropriate. The asphalt dust issue is in regards to the Recycling aspect of this proposed pit which would include both asphalt and concrete recycling, in and of itself a good thing. The concerns raised by at least two of the speakers dealt with possible false pretenses by the proponents. The reasonable question that they raised was whether or not this is actually a Below Water Table application masquerading as an Above Water Table application. The other possibilty raised is whether this is actually a large scale recycling operation coming to Winterbourne, masquerading as a gravel pit. Apparently it is very easy after being established to amend the license to become a below water table pit and there are no formal limits on the volume of materials that could be recycled. These concerns are based upon recalculations of the volume of above water table gravel deposits available. These deposits are very small and hence the concerns that something is definitely amiss.

My earlier supposition that Council would fight less vigorously regarding this pit than the West Montrose and Hunder Pit in Conestogo has to be revisited in light of the very strong, informed community opposition.

2011-12-13T08:17:00.002-05:00

MORE ON TONITE'S MEETING AND THE JIGS HOLLOW PIT

There were two very interesting conditions imposed on last November's Council approval in principle of the Jigs Hollow Pit. Firstly it had a sunset clause, specifically fifteen years. Believe me that is a breakthrough. Far too many pits have an "estimated" lifespan of ten to twenty years and the reality is that the owners simply slow down extraction near the end in order to keep the pit "open" and available for occasional extraction and loads. The other important condition was "vertical zoning". This means that there must be a maximum depth of extraction stipulated, often a depth which is above the water table. This also is a breakthrough and an excellent idea environmentally.

A peer review of the Visual Impact Assessment (VIA) done by the proponent has been completed. This peer review identifies a number of areas in the original VIA which are deficient. It includes visual impacts from numerous other homes as well as views from the Historic Driving Tour which is a regular tourist attraction promoted by the Region of Waterloo. Also visual impacts as seen from the Winterbourne Bridge were not adequately addressed. Overall I'm a little surprised by these visual impact issues. In my wee mind I would have thought that yes visual impacts are annoying and indeed would lessen property values and aesthetics for nearby residents. My understanding of the Aggregates Act however is that even significant visual and aesthetic values are completely discounted and undervalued. I would have thought that the repeated siting of gravel pits right along the Grand River and hence the removal of the filtering action of sand and gravel on the quality of groundwater discharging to the surface water of the river, would be the main issue. Apparently not. Thus I guess if one more neverending gravel pit is proposed, then those negatively affected must fight it with whatever tools are available.

2011-12-12T08:38:00.002-05:00

GRAVEL PITS & CULTURE TOMORROW NITE AT COUNCIL

I went on-line to Woolwich Township's website yesterday looking for a little headsup regarding gravel pit issues to be discussed at Tuesday night's Committee of the Whole meeting (6 PM.). What I found was seventeen pages about the proposed Cultural Heritage Landscape (CHL) designation for the West Montrose area and fourty-five pages dealing with the Jigs Hollow Pit (Kuntz) in Winterbourne.

I still am confident that between the excellent, years long effort by Bridgekeepers, combined with the support inside and outside the community; that they will sucessfully defeat the destruction of their beautiful community via aggregate extraction. Of interest is the comprimise on the geographical area of the proposed CHL. It does not include the existing Hoffer gravel pit up on Hwy # 86 nor does it include the newer subdivisions within West Montrose. Also the definition of "development" has been clarified within the CHL proposal. I believe that these changes are appropriate to address legitimate concerns of nearby residents.

The Jigs Hollow Pit is going to be a harder nut to crack. The old Council did not help by giving Approval in Principle last November after they had mostly all been removed by the voters. This was their last kick at the can and if memory serves former Councillor Murray Martin voted against that Approval. The new Council has had a number of Delegations from residents asking for a Visual Impact Study. Originally at least Staff were in support of the Approval in Principle for this proposed gravel pit. One Visual Impact Study has been produced by the proponent (Kuntz Sand & Gravel) and there has also been a peer review of that study. Quite frankly at this point in time I haven't fully read the fourty-five pages mentioned but hope to have it completed by tomorrow nite's meeting. My suggestion for those opposed to this pit is to give Council support by showing up tomorrow night at 6 pm.. When faced by an upcoming O.M.B. hearing (May 14-25/12) and prehearing conference (Feb. 16/12) instigated by the proponent; Council are not likely to throw Township money into the fight if they don't see significant citizen support for their actions.