DOES IT GET WORSE THAN DIOXINS, DDT, NDMA, DNAPLS, PCBS, MERCURY IN OUR AQUIFERS, CREEKS, SOILS, AIR & HOMES?

 Ask TRAC (Technical Remediation Advisory Committee) when they last discussed any of the highly toxic compounds in the Title above. They can honestly suggest that they've discussed NDMA a lot and DNAPLS very little. It's likely been many, many months since discussion of dioxins and DDT in the downstream Canagagigue Creek. Absolutely zero discussion of dioxins or DDT in Elmira's drinking water aquifers. That would be considered rude, inflammatory and grounds for Elmira's largest polluter to walk away FOR THE THIRD TIME from what pathetically passes for public consultation here in Woolwich Township. PCBs and Mercury in the downstream Creek are simply never discussed. That too would be viewed as rude because the MECP somewhat oddly has accused them of contributing everything else but those.  As far as the claim that these chemicals are also in our homes just keep in mind that they all can be transported by air as well as all the other mechanisms.

MECP technically does not stand for Ministry of Expanded Corporate Pollution as it should. That provincial ministry prefers Ministry of Environment, Conservation & Parks which is nonsense. Similar to municipal committees many provincial ministries are simply to stand in as buffers and insulators between outraged citizens and their corrupt and incompetent governments. Uniroyal Chemical and other local, dirty polluters did not poison our lives, bodies and homes overnight. They did it one decision at a time as they found such little government oversight and supervision for each and every self-serving decision not to properly dispose of highly toxic materials but to do so in an inexpensive, careless and negligent fashion.

In answer to my question above, it does get worse. We drink water, we breathe air and we eat food from our gardens. Some of us have also eaten fish from the "Gig" decades ago, some more recently. Warning signs not to do so have only been erected perhaps eight years ago along the Creek and it was done by Woolwich in response to the MECP's refusal to do so..  There is a man made swimming pond perhaps 75-100 metres south-east of Uniroyal/Lanxess on the Martin property. It's water source is both groundwater and surface water. Originally the surface water was from a naturally flowing very small creek originating on the Stroh property in a low lying, wet area just north of the Martin farm. That "water" source was enhanced in the summer/fall of 1983 by the construction of the Stroh Drain which runs parallel to the former Uniroyal property for 125 metres and is about five to ten metres away. This self-serving, manmade Drain was to literally drain the chemical swamp (courtesy of Uniroyal Chemical) on the Stroh property and it was joined into the natural very small creek which discharges both directly and indirectly into the Martin (swimming) Pond as well as directly into the downstream Canagagigue Creek. The Stroh Drain not only drained the chemical swamp on the Stroh and Uniroyal Chemical property but drained some of the contaminated groundwater as well through the children's swimming pond. I view that not just as worse but as likely criminal behaviour.       

Besides seeing these features with my own eyes I have been accompanied by Sebastian Seibel-Achenbach as well as Mr. Flip Flop, former councillor Mark Bauman. 

   

THE PERKS OF POWER: CHANGING THE RULES & TAKING SHORTCUTS ON THE PATH TO ENVIRONMENTAL DEGRADATION

 

It is everywhere but no where is the path more smooth, greased, lubricated and blessed than in Doug Ford's Ontario. Landfills, toxic waste dumps (legal or illegal), industrial air emissions, environmental coverups and total failures to clean up industrial sites for decades has become the norm. Be it old problems such as mercury poisoning in the English-Wabigoon river system,  Agent Orange, dioxin and DDT at Uniroyal Chemical in Elmira or new emerging problems such as taking 770 acres of prime farmland out of production in Wilmot Township in order to balance nitrate contamination from fertilizers in the formerly pristine Waterloo Moraine with the more common industrial contaminants from the three cities such as TCE, benzene, toluene, xylenes further mixed with glyphosate (Round Up) and road salt; these major environmental issues are being denied, minimized and ignored all to keep the growth mantra in full swing.

I guess if you are a widget manufacturer, cereal producer, clothing retailer or corner gas bar you always want more customers and a bigger market for your products. Hence you support either Progressive Conservative liars or Liberal liars who promise you more people (immigration- Libs), lower business taxes (Cons) and less red tape (environmental protections, labour protections-both parties). 

Finally both parties are always on the lookout for red herrings to keep citizens both divided and diverted from the main issues. Right now Canadians are injured and dying due to both automobiles and accompanying lack of enforcement of basic driving rules as well as from lack of timely health care based upon too many people chasing understaffed and too few hospitals. Some of that need for health care is directly linked to contamination of the air we breathe, the water we drink and the food we eat. Instead of focusing on the big numbers of dead and dying Canadians our federal Liberal government is focused on legal, law abiding, licensed firearms owners with literally tiny in comparison injury and death numbers. Even those incidents are mostly caused by violent or unstable individuals using illegal firearms smuggled across the U.S. border. Yes the media finds horrific but rare mass shootings sell newspapers and grab headlines better than literally daily car crashes and premature cancer deaths.           

We as uninformed citizens are partly complicit. We with assistance from incompetent and inexperienced wanna be politicians are easy targets for the truth challenged. We want to believe that the smiling, good looking people running for office and telling us what we want to hear, are the real deal. In fact 90% are not. They are lazy, self-serving buggars looking for an easier ride than having supervisers and bosses telling us what to do on a daily basis as we try to navigate the rat race. Citizens pay attention and inform yourselves. Listen and think about what you read and hear. Put serious effort into learning about the real problems facing yourselves and your neighbours. Confront politicians who make bad decisions that serve only them and their parties, not the public. 

EXPERT COMMENTATORS CRITICIZE OUR "GOVERNANCE" FOR WATER FAILURES

 

"Governance" is basically a diplomatic way of saying that our politicians are of low quality.  In other words our so called professional politicians are anything but. They are all about themselves and making themselves look good so that they can get re-elected. Three examples come to mind and the first is in today's K-W Record via Susan Koswan's Opinion article titled "Energy and water need better management". She identifies recently released policy briefs from the Morwick G360 Groundwater Research Institute. I think she is referring to the world class group of researchers out of the University of Guelph which would include Dr. Beth Parker, formerly of the University of Waterloo Groundwater Institute.  Years ago I had the privilege of reading a number of groundwater reports written by her and Dr. John Cherry dealing with DNAPLS. Recently I exchanged a couple of e-mails with Dr. Parker regarding the opportunities missed by those in charge of the Elmira cleanup failing to ask for assistance from the world's best, so close to home. Susan Koswan quoted from the Morwick G360 group as follows:  " Ontario's principal challenge is not a lack of groundwater science, but fragmented and reactive governance" for both municipal and agricultural groundwater." That report hit the nail on the head.

Then we have a quote from Dr. Richard Jackson when he was the Chair of the Technical Advisory Group (TAG) in Elmira, Ontario. He advised that TAG were stymied in cleaning up Elmira's groundwater not by technical problems but by "public policy failures" and he resigned shortly afterwards. 

Thirdly all we have to do is look at Wilmot Township today facing the 770 acre farmland expropriation by the Region of Waterloo allegedly on behalf of the province of Ontario. Our regional politicians had a goodly turnover of mayors (all but one) in the recent elections but more veteran regional councillors desperately needed to receive their walking papers and did not. Those buggars won't even share data, scientific reports regarding groundwater or anything else citing Non Disclosure Agreements that they signed with the province. Losing our Regional Chair (Karen Redman) to Doug Ford's appointee was much less painful than expected as she did nothing to assist Wilmot on this file. That area of Wilmot sits on top of the Waterloo Moraine and any new industrial development on recharge groundwater areas needs serious study FIRST not after the properties have been amassed for the development.

Despite recent Waterloo Region claims we are still in a water crisis, not just in Woolwich Twn. (Uniroyal Chemical) but throughout the Region due to decades of reactive governance, public policy failures, non disclosure agreements and gutless wonder politicians covering their own backsides.  

CALLS FOR A PROVINCIAL INQUIRY INTO WATERLOO REGION'S WATER CRISIS

 

Well that's quite the timing. Yesterday Bob Burtt, author and former K-W Record reporter, called for a provincial inquiry in his Letter to the Editor and today the front page of the Record has a story about our brand new, just appointed Regional Chair Scott Davey. Obviously Mr. Davey, a current city of Kitchener councillor, is already going to be very busy in the months ahead and will need to get himself up to speed on many regional issues including our water supply. 

Hmm this calls for a deft, diplomatic touch here in order for me to promote Mr. Burtt's call for an inquiry and to suggest that an experienced local politician as our new regional chair isn't such a bad idea. The problem for me is that certain twits and idiots with vested interests have called me many things, mostly behind my back, but never using the words "deft" or "diplomatic". Oh heck here goes anyways.

I like Bob Burtt and recognize his sincerity and deep interest in our water supply. I do not like how Susan Bryant has wound him around her little finger. Some of us have renamed his 2014 book about the Elmira Water Crisis as "The Ode to Susan". That said how can I seriously be upset with him regarding Susan as she has made a career out of befriending people who can advance her status and knowledge. This included Sylvia Berg, Pat Mclean, Ken Seiling, Bob B. and shudder...myself. I and two others resigned from APTE in January 1994 and I split from her as a friend and colleague in 2008. She and APTE lost another incredibly highly qualified member, and respected nationally and internationally scientist, a few years earlier. O.K. I was an idiot in my own right not to have added things up then and departed sooner. 

As far as Scott Davey goes he hasn't even been on my radar. I am very curious as to whether or not he is a card carrying Conservative or not. Former Regional Chair Karen Redman was a Liberal. Former mayor Sandy Shantz was a Conservative and thank God she wasn't appointed as Regional Chair. Water should be a non partisan issue but of course it's not. Critics of the Region may want an inquiry and supporters and those served well by the Region will not. This much I can say and have said: Our water supply is in great jeopardy both as in Quantity and Quality and lying about it serves only the incompetent and the guilty. That means a ton of politicians do NOT want to hear about it. Keep an eye on the Record and other local papers and lets see if AFTER an election there is any appetite for the truth. I am doubtful but have been wrong before.  

HOW FAR HAVE UNIROYAL DNAPLS TRAVELLED FROM SOURCE?

 

Other questions include which aquifer did they travel along the bottom of on their way off-site (westwards) whether to Nutrite/Yara or past Varnicolor to beside the Howard St. Water Tower. Certainly DNAPLS have travelled off-site in both the Municipal Upper (MU) and the Municipal Lower (ML) Aquifer. Another question is whether the ML DNAPL got there via the "window" at OW-58 along Uniroyal Chemical's western property line, which pierces the Municipal Aquitard (MAT), or whether it came all the way from the Stroh property. Either way it had to have come via gravity flow from above. A third possibility is that high concentrations of chlorobenzene at ML pumping wells such as W8 could have come from DNAPL at OW57-32R near the water tower partially gravity flowing even deeper than 32 metres down into the nearby unconfined ML. While possible I think the other two are more likely.

Of course Lanxess and GHD know the answers and are not sharing. Keeping the public in the dark is absolutely mandatory for the coverup to succeed and this includes promoting co-optee citizens and dumping and defaming citizens who will not be co-opted and bent. You can figure out who is who despite the old joke that you need a roster to know who is playing on which team. 

Again there is still the possibility that the chlorobenzene DNAPL at OW57-32 (Howard St. Water Tower) came from a closer source such as either the former Borg Textiles (Howard Ave.) or from Varnicolor Chemical (Union St.). Again I am sure that Lanxess, GHD and probably the Ontario MECP know the truth but why share it if it will only denigrate the MECP's credibility and professionalism in missing yet another Elmira dirty polluter. It would also bring discredit upon the sweetheart deal of November 1991 between Uniroyal and the Ontario M.O.E. of the time.

Frank Rovers of Conestoga Rovers & Assoc., according to Susan Bryant, told the Uniroyal Public Advisory Committee (UPAC)  that the Uniroyal site was filled with sub-surface DNAPLS whether free phase or residual. Now it is possible that Susan slipped up and made an honest mistake when she told me that and in fact Frank Rovers had told her that privately. Who knows for sure although either way it certainly is interesting and damning .

LAMXESS, MECP, WOOLWICH & RMOW SUPPRESSION OF ELMIRA WATER CRISIS TRUTH - EAST SIDE STROH PROPERTY

For 37 years we the public have been blatantly lied to by municipal, regional and provincial politicians on any and all matters pertaining to the 1989 Elmira Water Crisis that could impact negatively either reputations or pocket books of the above four groups. Lanxess Canada of course includes Uniroyal, Crompton and Chemtura. The depth, breadth and scope of these lies are extraordinary and breathtaking. From hydrogeological nonsense and lies to even which companies contributed to the disaster; truth has been intentionally crushed since 1989. 

On one hand we could grudgingly look at some of the revelations of the last few years and suggest that maybe, maybe Lanxess are less comfortable with dishonesty than their predecessors. The pictorial Conceptual Site Model (CSM) dated January 2024 has been expanded eastwards to include at least part of the Stroh property in the handouts from last September 17 th TRAC meeting. There are a number of changes from past CSMs including the Feb.15, 2019 one and all it's predecessors that suggest a stunning misdirection and deception since the start of the crisis in November 1989. 

Put simply and in a nutshell what the latest pictorial CSM suggests is the PROBABILITY that three deeper aquifers have windows or fractures connecting each other. This means that as all three aquifers Municipal Upper, Municipal Lower and Bedrock (MU, ML & BR)  flow in a generally south-west direction they are carrying contamination originating from Uniroyal Chemical both back to Uniroyal's already grossly contaminated site as well as likely south of it into the town of Elmira bypassing pumping wells allegedly protecting Elmira's Aquifers. If you think any of this new to the public information is positive regarding eventual cleanup of the Elmira Aquifers, you are mistaken. What it does is clarify all the signals that we will never be safely drinking water from those aquifers again.  

Artificial Intelligence or AI (Google for example) can sometimes be tapped for clarification although it's sources and references if followed up are not always what they initially appear. On the other hand I have seen  AI make statements and claims that they quite readily will correct if given additional data to work with. A friend and colleague sent me an AI generated version of it's hydrogeological interpretation of the multiple aquifers beneath the Stroh property (immediately east of Uniroyal/Lanxess property) . Despite a couple of errors it really was quite enlightening and helpful. 

I would encourage Lanxess to begin telling the truth more often because the day of reckoning is coming  and you really do not want to be found as guilty as your predecessors.   

MS. D'AMATO IS RIGHT: TRUST IN OUR GOVERNMENT HAS DRIED UP - LYING, DECEPTION & DISHONESTY ARE THE REASON

 Luisa D'Amato in her Opinion piece in yesterday's K-W Record, titled "A report on Waterloo Region's water crisis will be ready next month  What happens next?", makes it very clear. One, public trust in Regional government has been broken and two, we are not out of the woods yet. Ms. D'Amato states "But we're doomed to return to the moment of crisis, if we forget that we ever had a crisis.".  She suggests that even if we get by the 2026 Region of Waterloo Water Crisis  we have no way of knowing if we have enough water to provide for the growth of the Region to one million people by 2051 as our provincial and federal governments are demanding. 

Myself I see no problem in Waterloo Region attaining a population of that size and a plethora of serious problems if we do. Our city streets and highways are too busy now part of the time. Lets pack in more people, more cars, more buses, more trucks and see how they are then. Our waterways are getting dirtier from agricultural, industrial and human discharges so lets make them worse. Our groundwater based drinking water is badly compromised from both past industrial pollution as well as current road salt levels, nitrate exceedances, glyphosate (Roundup), chlorinated solvents and worse. We can solve that apparently by a multi billion dollar pipeline to the dirtiest of the Great Lakes namely Lake Erie. We deserve that because much of our water pollution ends up in the Grand River which empties into Lake Erie. Our air stinks part of the time although that isn't solely our fault. Farmland and crop production continues to erode as we turn farms into either industrial wastelands, data centres, warehouses or rural subdivisions requiring personal cars for work, shopping and play. Lastly don't we all enjoy sitting for hours in hospital emergency rooms waiting to be seen? Surely larger populations will reduce waiting times won't they?

Meanwhile locally our politicians have been complicit in the destruction of a magnificent aquifer complex that was capable of providing for the needs of Elmira, Woolwich and even south to K-W to assist in their needs. That is done! Now K-W are providing for our water needs but do not fool yourselves. They are providing us with heavily and expensively treated groundwater and river water that some of those same politicians cheerfully allowed to become contaminated without proper remediation at the source in the first place. They would rather all taxpayers pay for disinfection and contaminant removal at regional water treatment sites than their political party and individual donors, who made extra millions by improper waste disposal, pay out of their own pockets. 

Yesterdays Blog posting here indicates how far and wide contamination has spread in Elmira and how it continues to re-contaminate aquifers that are only partially being pumped and treated. It also shows how far the MECP, Lanxess, Woolwich and Regional politicians are willing to go to distort, lie and deceive residents and citizens on these matters. All of their lies and deceptions serve their purposes which are to make money and to accrue power and influence at our expense.