WHY AM I SO CONFIDENT ABOUT THE GROUNDWATER CONTAMINATION IN THE POMPEII & WOOLNER WELLFIELDS ?

 

Well there are a few reasons. Firstly I know how difficult it is to remove contamination from both soils and groundwater once it is there. I have been following very closely the unsuccessful efforts here in Elmira for the last 36 years. If talk and bull were cleanup they'd have been done many years ago. The so called cleanup efforts to the best of my knowledge in and around the Safety-Kleen site in Breslau have not been even 5% of the efforts, cleanup and pumping done both on the Uniroyal site as well as those done directly below ground in Elmira. 

I have seen and read past groundwater monitoring reports done on the east side of the Grand River, between Safety-Kleen's operations and the Grand River. A large part of this area was and maybe still is owned by Forwell Gravell. These monitoring wells are not solely shallow groundwater but also deeper groundwater in which the nearby pumping wells are screened. Lots of various solvents are present presumably from earlier efforts to bring in dirty oil for recycling that unfortunately contained these solvents whether unintentionally or intentionally in order to get rid of them.

With my own eyes I have seen colour photographs of various excavations done on and near the Safety-Kleen site. I have seen sub-surface soil excavations of contaminated sites before whether the two Varnicolor sites in Elmira or the Uniroyal site also in Elmira. They are not a pretty picture and just like at Uniroyal, I expect that without massive on-site source removal, the site and surrounding groundwater will never be clean much less achieve even our modest drinking water standards.

Two wells for sure are on the east side of the Grand River and the rest recently mentioned in the K-W Record are on the west side of the river. However their well screens are well beneath the river bottom and pumping will easily draw water from the contaminated side, under the river and into the wells.   

All of this combined with the likely Mickey Mouse upcoming Environmental Assessment will make for very bad quality drinking water. Bon appetit !

EIGHTY YEAR OLD TODDLERS ON THE WORLD STAGE

 

Why is anybody surprised anymore by Donald Trump's behaviour? He has an extremely recently signed Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Iran which firstly I'm sure he has a copy of in English and secondly so does the rest of the world and it says that hostilities must end in Lebanon.  Now maybe Trump's first stupidity was agreeing to something he maybe can't deliver namely Israel stepping back from it's hostile activities in Lebanon. Regardless the twit signed it.

Then as Israel continues pounding Lebanon, Iran as promised sends some missiles over to Israel to remind them about the MOU which granted they have not signed. Then Trump who at least used to have access to the best and brightest brains in America not only threatens the country of Iran with further attacks but he goes so far as to suggest  that the Iranian leaders and emissaries present at the negotiations in Switzerland should behave or they might not make it back home to Iran. Holy crap what an assh#ole Trump is. He only recently invaded a sovereign country (Venezuela) and kidnapped their President and under his command the U.S. has actually bombed Iran in the past DURING peace negotiations. He has also threatened the sovereignty of Cuba, Greenland (Denmark) and Canada.

Assuming that at one time he was sane and rational, it appears that  those days are long gone. There are mechanisms for America to remove a President who has become incapacitated whether by age, physical health, mental health or even by criminal behavior. That time is now due before he singlehandedly starts World War Three.    

FRANK STRONACH "NATIONAL TREASURE" MY AS* - CONVICTED FELON IS MORE LIKE IT

 

His dickhead lawyer actually called him a national treasure AFTER he was convicted. Perhaps convicted felon is better than the truth which is that he is also a convicted felon with allegations of being a serial rapist. These most recent charges and newer victims are coming up in 2027 and just the delay alone suggests to me that he is being given every opportunity to do the honourable thing and pass on before further tarnishing his formerly grandiose reputation. I have to wonder how long he's felt the need for private security. Maybe only since he was first charged but possibly ever since his first rape...oops I mean his first consensual sex with a female who later brought charges against him.   

Neither his lawyer nor himself were immediately yelling that they would appeal the decision. Strange. Any chance that it was a negotiated deal between Stronach and the prosecutors? Something along the lines of plead guilty (and no appeal) to the most minor charges and we'll give you a pass on the many rape charges. Maybe the idea was that Stronach literally would die before the next trial was started much less completed. Perhaps his sentencing on these two convictions will shed light on the matter. 

Hopefully he will quickly lose his Order of Canada status and medal . How many of our authorities knew that he had an indecent penchant  for younger women BEFORE he was recommended and then appointed to the Order of Canada? How many other Order of Canada recipients have behaved as Frank Stronach has? I wonder if even one right wing Conservative with a strong business reputation is now looking over his shoulder and wondering if his past criminalities may yet catch up to him. 

The $64,000 question is did his wealth, status, power and influence postpone justice coming and knocking at his door until so late in life? Would an ordinary Canadian have been able to behave so poorly for so long and then be allowed to age gracefully into our 90s before running afoul of the law? Specifically who and how many in our justice system make these decisions to let celebrities break the laws of the land ? Finally how do we purge our Justice System of the scum who allow this corruption? How many other judges are out there simply enforcing the status quo and protecting the entitled from the rules and laws that we are expected to follow?

CONSERVATIVE THINKING REGIONAL COUNCILLORS ARE RUINING THIS REGION ENVIRONMENTALLY & BY HOUSING, POLICING & OF COURSE WATER ISSUES

As Luisa D'Amato also stated in today's K-W Record (front page) people's rage against regional councillors is starting to show.  Fortunately for the councillors the vast majority of them do not seriously believe that homeless people, unemployed people or handicapped people in any way really are people.  Of course they are politically astute enough not to say so in words other than by their votes which even then some just love to gussy up and gild the lily when they vote to kick the already downtrodden in the teeth or worse.

Conservatives are always careful to shield industry and business from their own excesses whether they be toxic dumping, unsafe labour practices, nickel and diming employees and or shorting hours at every opportunity, hiring discrimination, at work gender harassment, promotions based more on popularity and less on job performance etc. etc.

Housing policies including development taxes, land costs and disincentives to lower cost housing have all managed to fuel our housing crisis whereby decent housing now is only available to those with jobs paying in the upper 25% of wages. By decent housing I'm including apartments and other rental housing in good shape. Of course these same regional councillors would rather spend taxpayers dollars on more legal fighting than actually donate a small piece of regional land for a tent encampment as suggested by Justice Michael Gibson. Again kicking the less fortunate in the teeth makes them feel like they are special. 

Our regional councillors grossly failed female police officers a few years back when these officers were attempting to end the ongoing and clearly tolerated sexual harassment within the ranks. Even the female regional councillors shut their mouths and kept their heads down not wanting to be seen as aligning with lowly employees in their dispute with illegal police employment behaviours. Now the complete group of #*$#holes from senior management to sitting regional councillors apparently can't understand why our local police force are having troubles attracting qualified female candidates. Idiots!

Regarding our water troubles I see a couple of problems. Firstly LRT has seriously hindered our finances throughout the Region from fewer regional services such as transfer stations, fewer police in local townships (Woolwich), reduced garbage collection and most certainly greatly reduced water infrastructure maintenance. The second problem is what I call the Israeli-Trump syndrome. In our case it is the Developer- Regional government syndrome. They are both identical in that when the Israeli right wing divot Netanyahu yells "Jump"  U.S. President Trump yells "How high?". 

There are a few decent ones on that regional council. Perhaps five or six out of 16 in total. Start paying close attention as for example Luisa D'Amato (K-W Record) sometimes lists how specific councillors have voted on specific matters. There is an election this October and we need to desperately get rid of most of the old guard who view their job as exactly that: guarding the privilege of the already entitled in Waterloo Region . 

POLYSESOUVIENT FUDGE THE STATS & WHY I HOLD BOTH SAFETY-KLEEN & WATERLOO REGION IN CONTEMPT

 

Recently (yesterday?) I mentioned Woolwich's Double Whammy against citizens of Waterloo Region. While Waterloo and Cambridge are no slouches in the industrial pollution department I believe that little Woolwich Township is the double prize winner as in # 1  for worst polluted site i.e. Uniroyal/Lanxess in Elmira and they are also # 2  i.e. Safety-Kleen in Breslau. Now do keep in mind that while Safety-Kleen are and have been legally liable for the environmental state of their site, incoming PCBs and all, nevertheless it is my expectation that the bulk of the environmental discharges, emissions and general pigginess can be attributed to the owners of the site before them as mentioned in yesterday's post here.

Regarding Polysesouvient, the very active anti private firearms ownership lobby, I have to point out that there is a very solid rebuttal in today's K-W Record under Letters To The Editor by a Mr. Dennis Watson of Waterloo titled "Report not what it looks like".  He points out that the relevant RCMP 2024 report ignored 60% of the Canadian statistics as neither Ontario nor Quebec numbers were included. This is because unlike many of the other provinces these two provinces have their own municipal police forces in almost all communities/cities and  I believe that the O.P.P. covers the rest. Also for the provinces and locations where the RCMP are the only police force present, Mr. Watson states that "...a third of the guns recovered could not be traced,". Personally I must also add that here in Ontario both our biggest and most crime troubled city (Toronto)  has had their municipal police force go on the public record as saying that removing firearms from registered and licensed owners will not lessen crime. The Ontario Provincial Police (O.P.P.) have also publicly said the same thing as well as suggesting that indeed the large majority of illegal firearms involved in crime in Ontario are smuggled here from the United States.

Getting back to dirty polluters let me advise readers of the following. In my younger days I travelled on foot extensively and sometimes took self guided tours of various regional contaminated sites.  Somehow I do not recall if I had written or verbal permission all the time although I do recall to Mr. Ron Stroh's credit he personally did give me permission on one occasion to tour his property on the immediate east side of Uniroyal/Lanxess .  It is truly amazing what an observant person can learn by walking a contaminated site. Also way back when Rich Clausi coined the phrase the "Full Aerial Response Team" (FART) when the Ministry of Environment demanded to know how we obtained photographs or possibly environmental samples of this and that.

I have seen first hand gross pollution on the Safety-Kleen site. I and everybody else has certainly smelled it over the decades. I have also obtained hydrogeological reports from decades ago describing the gross sub-surface pollution obviously caused by either spillage or dumping or both. I have a few months back sent data and pictures to relevant environmental researchers. I know how serious the ground and groundwater contamination has been and likely still is between the operating area and the Grand River. Much of this property was and maybe still is part of I believe the Forwell (gravel) Pit. I also have work connections decades ago to employees at Forwells. There was limited attempts at hydraulic containment of a very small part of the site decades ago in an attempt to keep the PCBs floating on top of the shallow aquifer (also known as LNAPLS) from migrating downgradient en masse to the Grand River.  

I expect yet another phony sham of an Environmental Assessment to "prove" exactly what the Region and Safety-Kleen want which is something giving the guilty parties the good housekeeping seal of approval. 

  

HAVING JUST LEARNED OF HIS PASSING I HAVE CHOSEN NOT TO DISS ON HIS GRAVE: WATERLOO REGION ARE DESPERATE ENOUGH TO RECOMMISSION CONTAMINATED WELLS

 

No I am not referring to any politicians in the first part of the title above.  That would be rude and disrespectful. Having said that how many people currently feel that there is anything wrong with being rude to Hitler, Mussolini, Stalin and other dead @*+#heads? Not very many. Having said that how many people feel that there is anything wrong with being rude to the following living people namely Putin, Netanyahu, Trump etc.? Probably a lot more than you think.

Exactly how desperate are they for more water in Waterloo Region? The fools are so desperate that as was hinted at months ago they are considering reactivating contaminated wells that were shut down decades ago along the Grand River  at the south end of Kitchener and just north of Cambridge. To be specific we are talking about wells that are known as GUDI which stands for Groundwater Under Direct Influence of surface water. The surface water is conveniently located downgradient from the former Forsythe Oil and Breslube and is currently known as Safety-Kleen in Breslau.  Yes Breslau is right across the Grand River from Kitchener and is a fine example of how we do our remediation of contaminated soils and waters here in Woolwich Township. Yes this can be attributed to a very strong Conservative work ethic and ideology that diminishes and suborns  the importance of clean air, water and soils to the far more important padding of private parties bank accounts often at the cost of the public interest. 

Interestingly the article in today's K-W Record on page A3 by Bill Jackson refers to wells only on the west side of the Grand River. Now of course the wells' names and numbers are listed although at least a couple are missing. In fact who but me and long term Breslau locals plus consultants and well paid suits have any idea of how many wells are missing and which side of the Grand River they are on? Coincidentally (not) I am sure that the missing wells named K70 and K71 are on the east side of the Grand River.

Yes the east side putting them even closer to Safety-Kleen and ground and groundwater contamination from the former pigpens located there. That contamination includes the former "Black Lagoon" which does not refer to black gold (oil) as it is sometimes referred to in Texas.  Well actually maybe it does because also nearby was/is ? a former sub-surface pool of oil floating on the water table enriched with industry's finest Polychlorinated Biphenyls (PCBs). Now keep in mind the Grand River itself may somewhat block further westward flow of contaminated shallow aquifer water but it does not deter contaminant flow in deeper aquifers westward underneath the river. I expect that these other wells are screened into those deeper aquifers. 

Do not fuss citizens of Waterloo Region. Good Conservative ideology believes that not just a few but the many can have their thirst quenched by toxic groundwater diluted by both dozens and more other wells as well as by the river water and its' accompanying algae and odours. By the way instead of being honest about the gross contamination left by Forsythe and Breslube; the Region who shut all these wells down  35 to 45 years ago blamed the shutdown on algae and accompanying odour issues.

ARE JUSTICE CRAIG PARRY & JUSTICE ROBERT REILLY BROTHERS? NEPOTISM IN OUR LOCAL JUSTICE SYSTEM??

 

I mean their names are different but that could be either shame at each other's last name or could they be brothers from a different father? It's very difficult to understand when one is dealing with similar types of ignorant behaviours much less different ones. For example without reference to any evidence whether documentation, examination or cross-examination Justice Reilly in his 86 page decision found all seven of my witnesses to be unreliable and inaccurate on the stand. Justice Craig Parry on the other hand dismissed over fourty witnesses for the prosecution (all women) in the Jeffery Sloka case advising that their testimony was unreliable and sometimes worse. 

Well you have to give the award for brass and nerve and stupidity to Justice Craig Parry I guess. Also in my case Justice Robert Reilly dismissed both men and women whereas Justice Parry was more consistent in his gender dismissals. Oh but maybe that's because he doesn't like examining male genitals as much as he does female ones hence there weren't any male complainants or witnesses to his behaviour. Regardless I accuse Justice Reilly of being a piker and only second best in the stupidity and corruption games played in our courts here in Waterloo Region. Both of them are a#@*holes and who nominates and appoints these @#*holes to judgeships in the first place? It's politicians if you can believe it. No surprise there.

Today's K-W Record article by Luisa D'Amato (Pg. A3) refers to the rally organizer as stating that our justice system is one of the "...broken systems that deny our humanity." Truer words were never spoken. I have long stated that our justice system is tainted, biased and grossly user unfriendly for normal citizens. It is however a playground for the wealthy and entitled to reinforce their positions of wealth and power. It is generally beloved by school boards (WRDSB) and municipalities including Woolwich Township. Those bodies have no qualms about spending money on legal fees to your and my (taxpayers) last nickel.

Let us not also forget how our local courts embraced two of our local politicians after they both were caught in a series of errors, mistakes, on purposes? and behaviour contrary to the provincial legislation known as the Municipal Elections Act (MEA) back in 2015-2017.  In Mark Bauman's case the Motion restoring him to his council seat was given by a local judge "ex parte". Do you know what that means? The MEA ordered his removal from office for failing to file any Financial Reports after the 2014 municipal election much less about three elections prior to that. "Ex parte" means without any other party which means yours truly the complainant was not even advised by the courts or anyone that Mark was attending court to get his council seat back. As Rich Clausi later suggested, in sports, that would be akin to throwing the game by having the opposing team not allowed to attend the proceedings. Mayor Shantz also got off after among other tricks misstating to the Judge the timing of giving her "updated" Financial Report to me and some others.  I too was the complainant on that case. Her lawyer even threatened me prior to court that if I attended he would bring up the earlier Justice Robert Reilly decision against me. I attended on my own time and had to ask for permission to speak against Ms. Shantz's position which was grudgingly at best permitted albeit to no avail. Apparently, surprise surprise, sitting politicians (similar to police officers) are given huge leeway and the benefit of the doubt as a matter of course. Oh and her lawyer besides had actually tried to bluff and intimidate me to not attend court and give testimony. While I find that grossly unethical behaviour I don't know if it's illegal.