GOODBYE TO 2015

What a truly bizarre year it has been. Woolwich Township Council for the second straight election (Oct. 2010 & 2014) has been totally changed with the one sad exception of the Councillor for St. Jacobs. In my opinion he is best described by the first sentence in today's Woolwich Observer Editorial.

This same Council started their mandate with a campaign to assist our world class polluter, Chemtura Canada, by removing the citizens committee (CPAC) appointed by the previous council. Knowing that this committee single handedly turned on its' head the conventional wisdom held by all authorities that the 2028 cleanup was on track; our newly elected council proceeded to use lying, deception, manipulation and their recently acquired political muscle to slander CPAC and remove those dedicated volunteers from the jobs they did better by far than any other CPAC ever.

This same Council then got their knuckles rapped by the Ontario Ombudsman for holding numerous illegal in camera meetings. Seems that Woolwich Councillors have this idea that provincial legislation simply doesn't apply to them. As long as they can fool and confuse their own citizens with their lying and decption, then the laws don't count.

Again this same Council (O.K. 1/2 of them) tried the same thing with their on-line Financial Statements showing the expenses and donations that they received for their municipal election campaigns. Turns out that once again Woolwich politicians believe that they make all the rules and therefore it's O.K. to break them at will. My favourite nonsensical comment came from Municipal Clerk Val Hummel who stated that it was "Woolwich tradition" not to require acclaimed candidates (read Mark Bauman) to file Financial Statements. The fact that the Municipal Elections Act, the 2014 Candidates Guide and every other reference all specifically state that acclaimed candidates MUST file Funancial Statements was of no importance to our very own Dogpatch (Woolwich Twn.).

On the same subject we have our very own mayor Shantz repeatedly, publicly proclaiming that her missed election expenses were either optional or subjective. Sure they were Sandy. Voting Day Partys and Thank You Notices/Appreciation Notices are all specifically mentioned in the Municipal Elections Act as expenses required to be included in the Financial Statements. Again they are also specifically included by the 2014 Candidates Guide and finally your hiding behind the incompetence of a bureaucrat from the Ministry of Municipal Affairs is simply pathetic. In fact it's exactly like Chemtura Canada hiding behind the Ontario Ministry of Environment & Climate Change. Sandy stated that Tim Ryall of the Ontario Ministry of Municipal Affairs and his incompetent and inaccurate advice excused her from either blame or fault in understating her expenses to the point that they were falsely below the ten thousand dollar threshold which also required her to submit an Auditor's report by last March 27/15. The first breaking of the ten thousand dollar threshold came from her financial contortions ($2,600) on the Contribution (donations) side of her Financial statement.

All in all a banner year for dishonest and or incompetent local politicians. Let's see what trouble they continue to get themselves into (at our expense) during 2016.

MAYOR SHANTZ & PROVINCIAL OFFENCES COURT ARE ONE WEEK AWAY

Back in early December the ten Municipal Election Act (MEA) charges laid against mayor Shantz were adjourned until January 6, 2015 at 9 am.; I believe in either courtroom 101 or 102. Since that date it has become clearer to me as to the legal difficulties involved in prosecuting under the MEA. I have been documenting here since last September all the obstacles, hurdles and checkpoints faced and overcome. I have made it very clear that this is not remotely a user friendly process. That said I have seen some excellent, dedicated professionals with a sincere desire to do their duty. Unfortunately I have also seen a system that is not set up or prepared to accomodate the legal requirements as set out in the province of Ontario's MEA. That is disgraceful.

To date I have been given the wrong forms to fill out only to be so advised weeks later. Then after the charges were accepted by the Justice of the Peace they were sent to the wrong courthouse. We were initially in the Ontario Court of Justice only to find that we needed to be in Provincial Offences Court. Even there, another month later, I thought I heard the suggestion that some of the charges might need to be heard in a different court although I'm not 100% certain of that. Finally the latest procedural snafu or misadventure may relate back to the original laying of charges through the Justice of the Peace. Again all this is over my head but as you can imagine is discouraging.

At this point in time I am beginning to appreciate exactly how big a mouthful I have bitten off. Do I have any regrets? Exactly zero. Woolwich Township procedures and practices involved in this process have proven to be biased and dishonest. MECAC are so far over the line and totally out to lunch as to be beyond any hope of salvage. Tweaking will not give them any semblance of dispassionate honesty. While the courts to date have been slow, cumbersome and unprepared to deal with Municipal Election Act charges, nevertheless they are trying. They say that where there is a will there is a way. That is my hope and will remain so until it is finished one way or the other.

When I started last June 16/15 I knew that mayor Shantz was not the ethical individual I had understood for the previous nineteen years. Yes there had been, years ago, bizarre decisions and behaviour which she did her best to explain away. I naively had accepted those phony explanations (in hindsight) because I wanted to believe that she was the real deal, an honest politician. I was wrong then and she was exactly what she is today namely a politician with a sense of entitlement which includes deceiving and manipulating the public when she sees fit.

I have stayed the course exactly to determine if the system set out in the Municipal Elections Act is the real deal. MECAC are a pack of former politicians, wanna be politicians and political hangers on appointed ostensibly by the Municipal Clerks throughout Waterloo Region; who themselves are beholden to the current multiple Councils for their jobs. Now it is in the courts which have not received direction or probably even resources to do their jobs on this matter. The process has been ridiculously arduous, time consuming and filled with personal attacks and slander all of which are meant to discourage other citizens from ever attempting this process again. But guess what folks? A trail is being blazed. It will be much easier for a second citizen to follow their duty and their conscience. And after the second it will be yet easier for a third. Tremble all ye dishonest politicians.

WOOLWICH TOWNSHIP DISHONESTY

Every single Woolwich Councillor should step up and listen carefully to the Minutes of the MECAC meeting of October 26, 2015. Then they should equally as carefully read these Minutes posted on the Township's website since December 7, 2015. At that point Woolwich staff responsible for them should be given 24 hours to remove them. If you think Councillors that this is too short a time period then relisten for a second time to those recorded Minutes and reread the written version on-line.

Senior staff including CAO have been in possesion of my e-mail listing a number of gross errors in the Minutes, since December 9/15. I and others were informed on December 7 that the Draft Minutes had been posted and would remain so awaiting public comment until December 14/15. They would then be sent to MECAC for their approval and the approved Minutes would be posted by Friday December 18/15. This has not occurred and the grossly inaccurate and misrepresentative Draft Minutes have been posted on the Township's website now for over three weeks.

I have reread them again this morning as well as my December 9/15 e-mail to the Township staff and politicos. As indicated in my December 9/15 e-mail there were many errors and inaccuracies in the Draft Minutes that I didn't explicitly refer to. That said let me acknowledge that there are some important, accurate statements captured sucessfully in the Minutes both from myself and from Richard Clausi. As bad as those Draft Minutes are there is enough truth in them to give pause to any unbiased and knowledgable readers who are familiar with the Municipal Elections Act (MEA) as well as with the responsibilities of a MECAC.

MECAC members have displayed their ignorance in the Minutes with their statements such as page four "...the changes were adequately explained by the candidate.". Further page five "...all issues had been addressed."and " ...that all concerns raised by Mr. Marshall had been fully explained by Shantz.". That last one is especially false. Yes some had been partially addressed and explained by the candidate but that specifically as per case law provided to MECAC, Council and the prosecuter is NOT an acceptable reason to avoid ordering a Compliance Audit. Also it is MY "reasonable concerns" that are the threshold for a Compliance Audit, not MECAC's. Finally mayor Shantz and MECAC did NOT respond at all to my specific concerns regarding mayor Shantz's twelve You Tube Videos produced by Councillor and cousin Larry Shantz.

Both MECAC and mayor Shantz behaved ignorantly, unprofessionally and hypocritically at this hearing on October 26/15. The mayor went on a personal rant about myself rather than address her election contraventions honestly. MECAC did receive a very strong, written, critical Application from myself on September 15/15. Clearly they were all acting like entitled children spoiling for a fight. I took the high road throughout the hearing and was polite and respectful throughout. Anyone who says otherwise is a damned liar. Woolwich Townships' full and complete tape recordings will prove my honesty and Woolwich's dishonesty and or incompetence. Obviously the cowards at Woolwich Township will never publicly play them.

NOT THE BIG ONE THIS TIME, AT CHEMTURA

It's coming. It's only a matter of time and I've been predicting it for the last couple of years. Last Monday's spill was the same mixture of diphenylamine and acetone as the one in September 2010 which boosted most of the old Woolwich Council out of office and the new one in. Unfortunately this time Chemtura did not accomodate timewise but there is ample time before the next election for them to screw up again.

While small credit should go to the Woolwich Observer for covering this spill at all, nevertheless it is sad that they are willing to promote the company's bullshit the way that they do. The title of the article is "Chemtura quickly contains small chemical spill". The second paragraph states that "...a small amount made its way into the Canagagigue, but it was collected before leaving the site.". Really Steve? And how do you know that? Oh right, Chemtura told you.

Meanwhile later on we are told that the material from the spill had formed "..a sheen on the surface of the water.". Normally visible floating chemicals, are slowly dissolving into the water out of sight. This is normal LNAPL (light non aqueous phase liquid) behaviour. Once dissolved it then flows off-site in the water. So much for nothing left the site.

The fire department also spread the mantra by advising that booms were put into the creek and "Nothing got off the property.". Also "This time most of it was in a liquid form that was captured, with a small amount of aerosol that made it into the Canagagigue Creek...". News flash folks. If it got to the creek it spread and moved downstream. Nice try though.

There were two improvements over the mess in 2010. Firstly the company had operators present when the process went off the tracks this time and they notified Woolwich Township immediately rather than four hours later as they did in 2010. In hindsight with the local support this company has always had is it any wonder that they have stayed here in Elmira all these decades?

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL

MOECC: MINISTER'S ANNUAL REPORT ON DRINKING WATER 2015

"I am pleased to note that 99.8 per cent of more than 533,000 test results from municipal residential drinking water systems met Ontario's strict drinking water quality standards in 2014-2015." That quote is from page two and it is puffery. First off Ontario's drinking water quality standards are not strict. They are outdated. Secondly there are a hundred ways to fudge statistics and professional liars know them all. Or quoting Winston Churchill there are "lies, damned lies and statistics".

The MOECC brags about their work with the Great Lakes, climate change, the Great Lakes Protection Act, the Canada-Ontario agreement on Great Lakes water quality..., ending coal-fired electricity generation and more. They brag about water treatment improvements in aboriginal communities as well as allegedly innovative new technologies. Then they move on to Source Water protection. It took them (and others) sixteen years after the Walkerton tragedy and scandal to get the last three source protection plans in Ontario finished. You guessed it, the Grand River plan came in dead last. That's about par for the course.

Emerging issues such as blue-green algae and microplastics and microbeads are involved in this issue. Blue-gree algae is not an emerging issue. It was part of the death of Lake Erie in the 60s and it simply has come back with a vengeance. Mix warmer water tempuratures with nitrogen and phosphorus and you have this toxic algae present. Microbeads are found in personal products such as skin cleansers and washes. Allegedly they are in the process of being banned. Really, here in Ontario where the unholy dollar rules? They will be banned AFTER those making money have found an alternative that makes them more money, not before.

Last spring I presented a report to Woolwich Council regarding significant issues in Woolwich Township's drinking water. They included horrendous raw water problems (Coliforms & E.Coli) in West Montrose amongst others. Council actually embraced them and claimed that they would pass them along to both the Region and the Ontario Ministry of the Environment (MOECC). Problems included a failure to test for and report publicly on many ubiquitous chemicals in our drinking water including NDMA and gasoline compounds courtesy of old, leaking gas stations. Industrial chemicals often have detection limits that are far too high. Glyphosate (Roundup) is one of the worst with a Detection Limit of 25 parts per billion. The list of issues goes on and on. Shame on the M.O.E. for yet again spreading their bullshit far and wide.

CHEMTURA CANADA NOVEMBER 2015 PROGRESS REPORT

Well off-site pumping rates are always interesting. Despite three of the current off-site wells not meeting their targeted pumping rates this month, the overall total pumping rates of W5A/B, W3, W4 and E7 actually did. W4, W5A & W5B were the culprits however they missed their already very low target rates by only a small margin. W3 and E7 are currently the big pumping wells off-site and they made up the shortfall of the others. Table A.4 actually lists the Bypasses and Shutdowns for the pumping wells and that Table is disappointing. It explains why the three wells fell short and explanations include power outages and routine maintenance. Other excuses included "communications fault" and shut downs for a "well recovery test". At a time when allegedly the off-site pumping is going to be doubled (originally tripled) we are still routinely having wells shut down for long periods of time either for routine maintenance or "surprises" like power outages and more; that goal seems sketchy.

Attachment C concerns surface water quality in the Canagagigue as it passes through the Chemtura property. As has been the norm for some time it appears that BEHP (a pthalate) is actually entering the property at a higher concentration from upstream than what it is after moving downstream of the property. Toluene on the other hand still is slightly higher downstream than upstream on the Chemtura property. Basically the volume of water in the "Gig" sucessfully masks a myriad of sins however the numbers certainly indicate improvements from twenty years ago.

I haven't heard anything recently regarding the alleged shutdown of pumping well E7. The influent concentration of NDMA during November was 200 parts per trillion with a drinking water standard of 9 ppt.

As has been the case for years the Remediation of the Former Operating Ponds (RPW 1-5)have had no new activities to report. This continues to be outrageous and unacceptable.

Finally we are advised that the "Preparation of the East Side Surficial Soil and Groundwater Investigation report is underway". As has already been reported here that report is a typical Chemtura/CRA/M.O.E. sham. They are experts at avoiding the obvious and at embracing the trivial and irrelevant. Even so they appear to be dragging this out and stalling for time. Going somewhere Chemtura? If so please take your buddies on Woolwich Council along with you.