INDEED HAWKRIDGE HOMES DEVELOPMENT IN ELMIRA IS STARTING

 

The timing for building affordable housing is impeccable. Just in today's K-W Record (front page) we are advised that housing starts continue to sputter. Imagine that, prices are between ridiculous and asinine and it is actually slowing down sales.  Today's Woolwich Observer has the following front page story titled "Orchard razed at site of future Union Street development ".  

The Observer article does point out that Woolwich Township past councils did have concerns over a residential, family building being situated so close to both Lanxess Canada and the CCC (Sulco) as well they should. I would suggest that CCC overall has an excellent reputation for both safety and community engagement whereas Lanxess has an excellent reputation for bull*&%# and pretend community engagement.  There is also the potential odour issue of the nearby Elmira Sewage Treatment Plant. 

The Observer article has two main directions as it interviewed local residents regarding the removal of the apple orchard on the site. Many locals decried the loss of trees which is a legitimate concern and others reminisced about past decades either playing in the orchard or helping to pick the apples. Personally I still feel that that location is beyond the pale for families with young children to be living beside chemical companies, especially Lanxess.  

MAYBE A TAD TOO MUCH EXCITEMENT FOR A 75 YEAR OLD!

 Very late today. Sorry folks. The really good news is that it appears as if the war in Gaza may be finally over. Allegedly peace talks are within a whisker of all sides being somewhat satisfied. My God the lives lost of men., women and children.  Other news is much less dramatic. 

I should be back to normal tomorrow. The bad guys continue on in their nefarious ways and the good guys are outnumbered, outfinanced and out dirty dealed. In other words everything is normal locally. Money continues to rule the roost while always pretending that each and every life is equally as important.  Pulease! 

WRDSB CONTINUES TO MAKE THE NEWS FOR ALL THE WRONG REASONS

 

It's taken a long time with a lot of patience from me to see the destruction of the Waterloo Region District School Board's reputation and holier than thou attitude. Kiss my butkus Jimmy W., Howie S., Cecy O. , Sharan R. plus a bunch of other lying, deceitful former bigshots at the WRDSB. Yes there were a few good trustees at the time albeit most then like now were deferential lickspittles sucking up to the Board's money, power and authority. And yes generally speaking the welfare and education of the children attending their schools was barely in the top ten of their priorities. First and foremost was undisputed and unchallenged power and authority. In this they were backed by some senior as#holes at the Waterloo Region Police Service to their everlasting shame. I wonder if the criminal conviction (for preying on children) of a senior WRDSB teacher (Ron Archer) and the revelations around the Board's policy of "passing the trash" may have smoked out a few of the Board's most ardent supporters in the WRPS.

The latest two articles in today's Waterloo Region Record are about the proposed conflicting (?) Motions at the Board calling for more transparency possibly via a public meeting as well as yet another WRDSB employee (a Principal) being sentenced to four years in jail for attempting to lure underage girls for sexual purposes. Although I'm not a fan of entrapment procedures by the police it is hard to argue in this particular case that the ends don't justify the means. 

Then of course there is still the now years long disgrace of how the Trustees following Board procedures treated 20 year teacher Caroline Burjowski who was a registered Delegate to a Board meeting.  Unbelievable that the Board would immediately remove her from her duties for simply speaking her honest and polite opinion to the Board on matters of which she is a stakeholder and participant yet the Board apparently were in no hurry to do so with pedophiles in their midst and for decades simply "passed the trash" on to another school.

WRDSB your ethics and morality have been publicly exposed and they are disgusting.

 

AFFORDABLE HOUSING FOR HUMANITARIAN REASONS OR IN ORDER TO DEVELOP PROBLEM PROPERTIES?

 

Today's Blog post somewhat includes yesterday's titled "The Disgrace of  Contaminated Sites Cleanup in Ontario" as well as last Friday's titled  "The Cleanup is a Sham...Put a Banner On The Roof..." Basically I've been noticing for some time now that the "generosity" of developers seems to be related to market conditions for their residential properties they are selling. 

I will give you three examples namely Hawkridge Homes located across from Elmira's mini Chemical Valley,  the Shanley St. apartment building mentioned yesterday on top of the former highly contaminated Electrohome property and finally the former Sunar property in Waterloo which ended up as a seniors residence. Now at the time I felt that perhaps that might be O.K. as likely most residents there were for the short term not the long term.

All in all I wonder how much scrutiny those various "cleanups" would withstand if done by an experienced, unbiased person plus I would like to know how many more residential buildings for all ages are former contaminated sites playing the "Let's make a deal" game between developers and municipal authorities. Allegedly these deals are a "win-win" but frankly knowing some of the players involved such as the Ontario MECP as well as municipal politicians, I am skeptical.  I wonder how many of their children or grandchildren are being raised in those former (and current?) contaminated sites. 

If I am correct then do not despair  as even further externalization of costs from entrepreneurs (developers) to the public purse will occur as the health costs escalate for those exposed who are more susceptible (children).  What a "money talks" society we live in including throwing future generations into less than ideal living conditions.  Oh and one more example would be the IMICO site over in Guelph as it is being poorly remediated and turned into housing as well albeit with certain conditions and constraints involved on the incoming tenants.  

THE DISGRACE OF CONTAMINATED SITES CLEANUP IN ONTARIO

 

Today's K-W Record gives us a little further insight. On the front page is a story by Brent Davis titled "New building rises at old industrial site in Kitchener".  An eight story apartment building is being built at the former Electrohome site on the corner of Duke and Shanley streets in Kitchener. The developer allegedly finished cleaning up the contamination on the site in 2023.  The original 1898 building was torn down in 2020 and the site was contaminated with trichloroethylene for many decades. 

Firstly cleaning the site itself literally decades after the contaminated groundwater has left the site is unconscionable.  What if anything has been done regarding the now off-site dissolved groundwater contamination? Secondly has there even been the tiniest attempt to look for free phase (i.e. undissolved) trichloroethylene (TCE) which is a well known and prominent DNAPL chemical off site? Free phase DNAPL can flow underground significant distances based upon numerous factors including subsurface stratigraphy, initial volumes of TCE released etc. 

Dissolved TCE can enter homes via vapour intrusion through basements causing immense human health issues. Free phase TCE (DNAPL) can also slowly dissolve over decades producing toxic plumes of contamination for decades and longer.

Besides the City of Kitchener, the developer and our Mickey Mouse Ministry of Environment, who else has seen the remediation results including groundwater and soil samples? Exactly how much of a "cleanup" did they actually do? Has this whole process of our authorities allowing this contamination to migrate for decades simply been to reduce the on-site concentrations making the site more attractive for developers and to hell with the health of nearby residents? 

Utterly disgusting.

PUBLIC MEETINGS VERSUS DOG & PONY SHOWS

 

Right now there are loud calls for a public meeting regarding the Wilmot land scandal. Yes that is the 770 acres that the Region are trying to assemble (surrepticiously?) on behalf of the province and likely on behalf of some corporate giant. There are also loud calls for a public meeting regarding the Waterloo Region District School Board who are even more deaf and stupid than the Region and or our municipal councillors..  That is in regard to the sudden dismissal of the Education Director (chanika) and his controversial ideas that have negatively affected the Board's focus on student achievement. Finally a public meeting has been advised down the road regarding the Township's (Woolwich) and the province's plans (MECP) surrounding the gross failure to restore the public drinking water aquifers in Elmira by 2028.

TRAC meetings are NOT public meetings. They are Dog & Pony shows run by Lanxess, the MECP with Woolwich Township pretending to be in charge. The public are not allowed to ask questions. The public are not allowed to make statements. Delegations to TRAC have a rigid schedule and again little to zero feedback is given with little to zero questions asked of the Delegate. It is a sham.

Real public meetings have multiple microphones placed around the room and citizens do not need to request to be a f...ing Delegate a week ahead of the meeting. That is typical, dishonest, bureaucratic bullcrap. Honest politicians, if they exist, know what public meetings as well as what real public consultation is. Step aside and let the people paying the freight have their say. Some of us, maybe more than you think, know what we are talking about.  

"THE CLEANUP IS A SHAM" ... PUT ON A BANNER ON THE ROOF OF MY CAR PARKED IN FRONT OF THE OLD ELMIRA ARENA BACK IN THE 1990s

 

Lanxess, the MECP and Woolwich Township are idiots. All it's going to take is one bit of human or mechanical breakdown and the you know what will hit the fan big time. One serious, toxic air emission, one fire and explosion, one release of health data for either Elmira citizens or downstream, Mennonite farm families; any of that will trigger the simmering public outrage .  Even the upcoming "mandated" 2028 cleanup date may pull the trigger. 

I was advised this week that the long delayed and debated Hawkridge Homes may be breaking ground. Apparently equipment is being mobilized and taken to the site on Union St. across from Lanxess Canada, CCC (Sulco) and the Elmira Sewage Treatment Plant (STP). Geez what a metaphor for how our politicians view those with modest incomes and assets. Here let us build affordable housing in the least possible attractive locations. Tractor trailer traffic no problem. Middle of the night trains shunting back and forth no problem. Chemical odours and emissions no problem. Fires and explosions, been there and done that therefore no problem. Septic type odours from the STP when the wind direction changes, no problem. Of course it's no problem to the planners, politicians or developers...none of them are going to live there.

Back to my banner decades ago. I was protesting a couple of particular issues such as DNAPLS which were being swept under the carpet. Deceit and dishonesty by Uniroyal Chemical and their consultants and friends was upsetting me. I couldn't believe the brass, the nerve and the blatant lying going on with only a very few citizens attending and speaking up against it. This included Dr. Henry Regier, Esther Thur , Rich Clausi, Susan Bryant etc. At that point I had not extrapolated the deceit and lying going on over some issues as being indicative of the entire plan being focused on appearances not facts.  I stated that the cleanup was a sham but not in my wildest imagination did I believe that indeed that was the big picture. The big plan was simply talk, delay, talk, delay, delay. delay until citizen activists were dead or senile. New, more amenable, more deferential, more "professional" citizens could be coercred into joining the alleged public consultation. Perhaps I should rename TRAC from Totally Rotten and Corrupt to Technical,  Remediation And Cheerleading. It fits well.