LETS MAKE A DEAL - HOW THE ONT. MIN. OF ENVIRONMENT NURTURES DIRTY POLLUTERS

 

First of all contrary to every credentialed sod and suit who have lost their credibility and integrity and agree with Lanxess Canada and the Ontario Min. of Environment that there is not any chlorobenzene in the Bedrock aquifer; I say this. Intellectual prostitution is no more glamorous than the real thing. In some aspects it is worse.

The reason that this lie suggesting that sure there is NDMA in the Bedrock Aquifer but not chlorobenzene is because NDMA is more easily dissolved and more easily pumped. It can be removed much easier from both aquifers and aquitards than chlorobenzene, a DNAPL chemical. Hence just as the leadership of APTE (Susan B. & Sylvia) were coopted in the early 1990s into becoming DNAPL deniers so both Uniroyal Chemical and the Ont. Min. of Environment (MOE/MECP) colluded in their October 1991 Agreement and November 4, 1991 Control Order to pretend that there were no free phase DNAPLS (Dense Non Aqueous Phase Liquids) either on the Uniroyal site or off their site having migrated into all the aquifers below the town of  Elmira. 

It is obvious to honest people with even a little bit of hydrogeological knowledge. Looking at the "Schematic Of Hydrogeologic Units Lanxess Canada Co." which are produced by Uniroyal/Crompton/Chemtura and now Lanxess over the last thirty-six years makes it very clear. These one page subsurface "maps"  are also known as Conceptual Site Models. From the top right corner showing the Creek ("Gig") and the UA (Upper Aquifer) one can follow the blue coloured aquifers downwards into the MU (Municipal Upper) then follow the blue MU leftwards (west & south) until it reaches more blue (marked LGR -low gamma resistivity) and descends further downwards into the ML (Municipal Lower) . From there moving to the right (i.e. north and a little east) one comes to the following FOUR wells all pumping NDMA, chlorobenzene and so much more namely W6A, W5A, W9 and W8. By the way there is also likely a window just to the right of W8 which corresponds to OW58 as stated in yesterday's Blog posting. It goes through the MAT (Municipal Aquitard) and connects the MU with the ML. 

Meanwhile and here's the kicker. THE BEDROCK AQUIFER IS DIRECTLY CONNECTED TO THE MUNICIPAL LOWER AQUIFER exactly where three of the four pumping wells (W5A, W6A, W9) well screens sit directly on top of the Bedrock. They are pumping both ML water and BR water albeit the free phase chlorobenzene (& more) DNAPL that gravity flowed into this location are from either or both the north-east window (near OW58) or from the south-west window (near W4, OW57-32R, Howard St. water tower); is likely long gone into the fissures and cracks of the fractured Bedrock Aquifer. There could be some free phase DNAPL still left in the ML or not but certainly that which is into the Bedrock Aquifer is there forever. 

This is but part of the coverup, collusion and corruption between Uniroyal Chemical and the Ontario Ministry of Environment (MECP). Surviving APTE members may some day be able to figure out how early on their leadership betrayed them. Or not. Time will tell.     

LANXESS & MECP FINDING IT HARDER TO COVERUP THE TRUTH AS PLUMES SHRINK BACKWARDS TO THEIR SOURCE

 

You know most children by the age of six or seven have learned that lying usually only makes things worse. Statements like the dog did it or the baby did it rarely fly with parents. Unfortunately as a society we have learned to condone dishonesty in many forms. 

Yesterday's July 23, 2026 report by GHD sent to the Min. of Environment (MECP) and titled "Municipal Aquifer Steady State Conditions Trial" is an example of what my Blog title is all about. I understand that exceptions to the fibbing rule exist which include two dishonest parties sending knowingly false information back and forth in order to reinforce their agreed upon self-serving "truths". No one is offended because both parties have long ago agreed to the deception. Examples abound such as President Bush lying about Iraq's Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD). England and the U.S. needed some justification for attacking Iraq so they jointly made sh*#  up. Countries do it, individuals do it and polluting corporations do it. 

There are a host of made up falsehoods regarding the Elmira Water Crisis.  Only a very few to date have been debunked or admitted to such as Allan Deal (GHD) admitting to TRAC that Varnicolor Chemical contributed chlorinated solvents to the Elmira drinking water aquifers (MA) as per the Minutes of their September 12, 2024 meeting in Council Chambers. This was on page 7 and on page 6 of these Minutes is also finally the admission of DNAPL existing near pumping well W4 by the Howard St. Water Tower and beside monitoring well OW57-32R. 

The page 6 admission regarding off-site DNAPL presence is important in the context of yesterday's  report as it clarifies why Figures 5 & 7 clearly show both the remaining Municipal Upper and Municipal Lower Aquifer locations of chlorobenzene in Elmira's subsurface. They are located  to the immediate east of former pumping well W4 as well as of monitoring wells OW57-32R and OW57-38 . The remaining plumes in both aquifers (MU, ML) are directly beneath the former Varnicolor Chemical site with Howard Ave. on their south side and First Ave on their north side. Both plumes cross under Union St. as they are slowly pulled towards pumping wells W5A/B in each aquifer. Also of interest in yesterday's report is the statement on page 15 in the Conclusions that  "GHD notes that extraction wells were drilled in the core of the existing plumes at the time of installation.". This explains the location of pumping well W4 beside the free phase DNAPL clearly discovered prior to the startup of the off-site pumping in August 1998 but denied originally at a CPAC meeting around 2004-5 when I presented a writeup about it found in a monthly Progress Report. It was then denied repeatedly for years until the admission of its' presence at the September 12, 2024 TRAC meeting. 

DNAPLS (chlorobenzene & more) left the Uniroyal Chemical site decades ago in at least two locations ending up by the Howard St. Water Tower and by monitoring well OW58-24 on the property line with Nutrite/Yara via a "window" through the Municipal Aquitard.  Both Uniroyal and the Ontario M.O.E. colluded to hide and deny this fact from the public in order to preserve their sweetheart deal which covered up the Ministry's negligence and incompetence and which reduced Uniroyal's cleanup costs by millions of dollars. 

Sorry for the upset and disruption to thin skinned individuals at Woolwich Township who insist on playing nice with those who don't play nice, much less legally. 

EXACTLY HOW MANY YEARS HAS THE GREENBROOK WELLFIELD BEEN SHUT DOWN SINCE 2000 ?

 

This is but one of the retreaded wellfields that Waterloo Region are reopening in their desperation to keep builders and developers happy. Don't worry they do the risk calculations and theoretically at least while your risk of getting cancer will certainly rise with all these contaminated aquifers being put back in service; the numbers may be tiny such as an increase from 2 or 3 "excess" cancers in a million to a marginally greater 4 "excess" cancers in a million. No worries there especially as hardly any of us have friends, colleagues or relatives suffering cancers, past cancers or fatal cancers. Right?

 The Greenbrook Wellfield wells, K1, K2, K4B, K5A and K8 located near Homer Watson Blvd. and Stirling Ave. in Kitchener were all on standby status from at least 2003 until 2007. Newspaper accounts also advise us that that situation has continued during the 2020s whether from a chlorine/ammonia screwup and explosion or from the 1,4 dioxane contamination that came from the Ottawa St. Landfill. Now there have also been well redrills and replacements in this wellfield as the current wells are now known as K1A, K2A, K4C, K5A and K8.  These machinations if you will are common practice for the Region when they have "problematic" wells and examples in Cambridge for example include drilling past and through a contaminated zone of a well in order to pump water from a deeper less contaminated or uncontaminated zone.   

It is my opinion that this Grand River Source Protection Area Assessment Report Chapter 8, July 29, 2025 is unnecessarily thick and inflated with data that is at best filler or meant to make reading difficult and tedious. That said with enough patience and tenacity and overall knowledge a serious person can find much to be concerned with regarding this wellfield. Firstly the chances of 1,4 dioxane being the only toxic contaminant to reach the Greenbrook Wellfield from the Ottawa St. Landfill is somewhere between zero and nil. Look for benzene, chlorinated solvents and all the usual array of industrial solvents that were dumped there including by Elmira industries such as Varnicolor Chemical and if I might hazard a guess probably Uniroyal Chemical as well back in the day. Paper restrictions were strong whereas physical restrictions were not.

Other issues include high chlorides and high sodiums maybe from road salt but also common from industrially contaminated aquifers. Also I should applaud at least a couple of the Figures in this report as they do identify the Total Number of Significant Threat Activities as well as the Total Number of Properties with Significant Threats. Those numbers are huge (630, 379). They also indicate both High Unadjusted Intrinsic Vulnerability levels for this wellfield as well as High Adjusted Intrinsic Vulnerability threats to water quality. 

Waterloo Region are desperate to keep the water flowing and in my opinion they are risking your and my health for their own benefit. What else is new when it comes to water protection. 

WAS AND IS THE MANNHEIM EAST WELLFIELD IN WATERLOO REGION A BUST ?

This wellfield is located on Kitchener's west side near Trussler Rd. and the boundary with Wilmot Township. It consists of multiple Supply Wells (i.e. pumping wells K21A, K25, K29) along with Recovery Wells (RCW1-2) originally and now RCW 2-4.  Aquifer Storage & Recovery Wells (ASR1-5) are to accept treated Grand River water for storage to be pumped later into the distribution system by the Recovery Wells RCW 2-4 .   There are also a set of wells known as Peaking wells and they are designated K91-94). 

I would very much like to see audited up to date pumping rates for all these wells because the data I do have does not jive with the reality of a system constantly needing to expand along with our population. I have long suspected that the entire Mannheim  Aquifer Storage and Recovery System has not lived up to expectations whether through misadventure, bad luck or poor planning. Regardless again the data for all these wells that I have shows pumping rates well below the permitted volumes. This alone without ever greater population growth would cause pressure on other nearby well systems to take up the slack. This would include the Mannheim West Wellfield in Wilmot Township as well as the just down the road further west Wilmot Centre Wellfield which has been causing well interference complaints from local residents.

Under all the circumstances well interference is hardly surprising but what is, is the Region's hardas# attitude towards these residents and their water shortages possibly caused by again misadventure, bad luck or poor planning. 

WATERLOO REGION'S CREDIBILITY CONTINUES TAKING HITS

 

Wow! Today's K-W Record advises us that our vaunted LRT (Light Rail Transit) is having more than teething pains. The lawsuit by  GrandLinq is for $110 million. That's a chunk of change . Regardless of who's right, who's wrong and whether or not we taxpayers yet again end up on the hook; it tends to make us at the very least ask the question: "Are we getting value for money in our political governance?" Or do we have a lot of dead wood on regional council who are simply literally bums in chairs pretending to be administrators and managers of the public interest? Is it possible that half or more of them simply show up in order to receive their pay cheques with absolutely no  concern for the issues or the public interest? It has been said that the greatest and most important skill of a politician is their acting abilities. Pretending to care and pretending to want to resolve problems and disputes would seem beneficial in giving hope and confidence to citizens and residents.

If and when the entire truth is exposed around the destruction of our fabulous water resources; I predict there will be a wholesale abandoning of the ship of state. Politicians may quickly decide that early retirement sure beats being shamed and harassed into resigning mid term. I predict that as early as tomorrow or as late as the August 21 deadline for registering to run in this fall's municipal election; many rats will give varying excuses for stepping down. 

The Region have most recently mistreated Wilmot residents both with the still surreptitious huge land grab as well as the refusal to acknowledge well interference even after breaking the 1980 agreement with Wilmot over the Wilmot Centre Wellfield pumping. They have also broken faith with Woolwich (Elmira) residents for the last 36 years regarding our contaminated local aquifers caused by both private, industrial greed and negligence as well as by provincial oversight gross failures.  The Region's day of reckoning is overdue.

ARE TRAC CAPABLE OF LOOKING STUPID PUBLICLY WHILE LOBBYING BEHIND THE SCENES ?

 

I don't know that to be true but I guess I'm hoping it is so because there are at least two people on that committee (Technical Remediation Advisory Committee) that I believe to be inherently honest. Indeed it is likely to be a couple more but I just don't know them well enough to confirm that. Generally speaking I do know the deadbeats etc. well enough and know who they are.

Jen Lyndall of Integral possibly may decide never to work for Lanxess and her old buddy Hadley ever again. Or otherwise if she has no problem sleeping at night by counting sheep jumping over dead animals, livestock and or human beings.   

I'm going to repeat last Saturday's health criteria here for those with a serious bent for eye blurring numbers. These are the health standards for dioxins/furans and for Total DDT both in creekbank soils and in the sediments on the bottom of the Creek (Canagagigue). None of the criteria change based on depth i.e. surface versus subsurface soils and surface and subsurface sediments.

Soils:               DDT      .078 ppm (parts per million)

Sediments:      DDT      .00119 ppm.

. 

Soils:              dioxins/furans      7  ppt. (parts per trillion)

Sediments:     dioxins/furans       .85 ppt

DDT   in   fish     tissues                 14 ppb. (parts per billion)

dioxins/furans in fish tissues             .71 ppt (parts per trillion)

These are the numbers/concentrations that Jen Lyndall of Integral has utterly failed to put on her Tables and Figures.  Likely/possibly they are buried somewhere in her report. Or not. Starting from Figure 4-24 and going to Figure 4-63 the data tells TRAC, the public and most certainly the politicians absolutely nothing worthwhile without the health criteria being clearly marked on each and every Figure.  Is this failure Jen Lyndall's or did Lanxess (Hadley ?) ensure that this vitally important information was not to be found where it should be?

THIS IS THE FOLLOWUP THAT TRAC NEVER DO REGARDING LANXESS FUNDED SHABBY, IRRELEVANT & RIDICULOUS PRESENTATIONS

 

Regarding Tables 3-3 to 3-6 which describe Total DDT and Dioxins/Furans TEQ (toxic equivalency) generally in Creek Reaches 1-4 except for the last Table which oddly only describes Reach 4 (the Lanxess site). These Tables also represent both surface and subsurface Soils and Sediment readings. Sediments of course are in the bottom of the Creek beneath the water and soils refer to creekbank soils above the waterline. 

Previously mentioned by myself is the fact that in four pages of Tables;  Dioxins/Furans over the four Creek Reaches plus Background (below Reach 1/Grand River) and with 889 samples over many years have an average of 99.87% detection rate. This is beyond incredible, is not remotely normal or ubiquitous and speaks to massive past and ongoing releases of Dioxins and Furans downstream from the Uniroyal/Lanxess property. THIS IS BEYOND SHAMEFUL and no wonder TRAC is so tightly controlled by agenda, membership, meeting times, minutes and limited public access and less.

Total DDT detections are also high although not at the same level of Dioxins/Furans.  The lowest detection rate through five locations is 10% and the highest 100% (twice). The average detection rate in the four Reaches plus Background (Grand River) is 57% . Keep in mind this is for DDT only albeit in both Sediments and Soils both surface and subsurface. This also is not "normal" nor ubiquitous.

Regarding concentrations above health criteria the results are startling. Sediment detections are very high for both surface and subsurface DDT and in fact ALL detections from the highest to the lowest EXCEED the health criteria of .00119 ppm. (parts per million) again for Reaches 1-4 and Background (Grand River). Soil detections for DDT on the other hand while ALL maximum concentrations per area (Reach etc.) EXCEED the health criteria of .078 ppm.; minimum concentrations are all below the health criteria.

Dioxins/Furans maximum concentrations in surface Sediments ALL exceed the health criteria of .85 ppt (Parts per trillion) while only two of five areas (4 Reaches & Background Grand River) of the minimum concentrations exceed the health criteria. Subsurface Sediments maximum concentrations for Dioxins/Furans ALL EXCEED the health criteria whereas only one of five of the minimum concentrations for the five areas exceeds the health criteria. 

Dioxin'Furan Soil maximum concentrations ALL exceed the heath criteria of 7 ppt. whereas 0 of the five minimum concentrations exceed the health criteria. This is the same for both surface Soils and subsurface Soils.  

The title above states that TRAC never do necessary followups to ridiculous presentations. Let me add the following. Maybe they do privately but this is a public process and needs to be clarified to the public each and every time a deceptive, dishonest or blatantly foolish and non factual presentation is made.