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.         

SIGNIFICANCE OF YESTERDAY'S STROH PROPERTY REVELATIONS

 

The specific CSM (Conceptual Site Model) handed out by consulting/engineering company Onterris to TRAC (Technical Remediation Advisory Committee) had a 2024 date on it. Assuming (as dangerous as that is) that TRAC had previously received this CSM I am reasonably confident that their failure to loudly and clearly proclaim the major differences to the east was not solely due to corruption or ill intent. Far more likely they simply have no one on that committee with the clearly not requisite combination of hydrogeological knowledge AND unbiased honesty. Certainly Eric Hodgins and Tiffany Svensson have the hydroG knowledge but just as certainly they are committed or bound to the Woolwich Township narrative which is in full alignment with that of Lanxess and the MECP. Susan Bryant, in my opinion, has neither of the requisite combinations.

I have long been aware of the errors and weaknesses in these pictorial CSMs. While generally helpful they are also riddled with errors. This is especially concerning when we look at the 2017 CSM that is part of Dr. Neil Thompson's primarily written CSM. For clarification he had included on page 17 of his written CSM a copy of the June 19, 2017 pictorial CSM which Dr. Dick Jackson had referred to as a "cartoon". Personally while I like them visually I was disapponited that they were not as accurate as they both could have and should have been. One of the obvious problems dealt with the known "window" at OW-58 on Uniroyal's west side property boundary which made a direct hydraulic path between the Municipal Upper and Municipal Lower Aquifers. Nevertheless it has never made it onto the pictorial CSMs over the decades. 

Other issues might include the very belated groundwater flow direction arrows showing Bedrock groundwater being pumped by both W5A and E7/E9. Other problems include the failure to include the eastward groundwater flow component from the Surficial Aquifer (SA) at the north end of the east side of the site until the most recent 2024 CSM. The lack of any Municipal Lower Aquifer (ML) being shown either on or eastwards off the Uniroyal site is a particularly garish failure. The use and abuse of serrated lines allegedly representing unknown areas in the sub-surface is far too self-serving. Drilled wells are the major source of data for where various sub-surface stratigraphic units start and finish yet their use is inconsistent. Another example of inconsistency is the completely horizontal surface of the Bedrock from the south end of Elmira (E7/E9) all the way north to the Uniroyal/Lanxess site where the Bedrock elevation allegedly rises dramatically based upon nothing. Similarly we are to believe that the serrated lines for the Municipal Upper Aquifer (MU) on the extreme east (right) side of all the CSMs indicate that there are no data and hence no observation wells on the east side of the Uniroyal site. That is not true and if it was all the more shame to the company(s) over the decades for intentionally hiding  the extremely relevant stratigraphy from the public. The aborted Upper Aquifer (UA) on the east side of the Creek on all the pictorial CSMs is also misleading considering that there have been shallow wells along Uniroyal's east side property line since at least the 1980s.

The final (2024) pictorial CSM presented by Onterris has three additional problems. Firstly his Insert listing the mass contaminant removal rate (mg./day & g/yr)  for pumping well PW5 (now PW6) is actually covering the location of the Municipal Upper Aquifer (MU) on the east side of the site. Secondly this Figure/map doesn't tell us for which of the two "chosen" contaminant representatives (NDMA or chlorobenzene) the mass contaminant removal rates apply. I would suggest that it is for NDMA based upon the masses involved. Thirdly and perhaps of supreme importance is the possibility (probability?) that the three lowest aquifers on the Stroh property are hydraulically connected namely the MU, the ML and the Bedrock (BR). That Uniroyal/Lanxess have allegedly not got data to clarify this is an abomination and absolutely self-serving keep the public and citizens in the dark and covered in @#%* (i.e. the mushroom treatment).  

 

NEW ASTONISHING REVELATIONS : AQUIFERS (MU, ML & BR) ARE A FAR GREATER SIZE ON EAST SIDE OF LANXESS THAN PUBLIC PREVIOUSLY KNEW

 By the east side I mean literally everything east of the Canagagigue Creek as well as east of the Lanxess/Stroh property line. By greater than the public knew I mean that Uniroyal Chemical and corporate successors have intentionally misrepresented the state of groundwater aquifers both on and off their property. The purpose is obvious. Not only have they fought to ignore and minimize my revelations in 2014 concerning the natural surface flow of their liquid contamination from their east side pits over onto the Stroh property but by falsely pretending that the bulk of the Stroh property sits upon low permeability aquitards (UAT, MAT, LAT) they have pretended that once again there is no means, conduit or flow path from the east either back into the Municipal Aquifers (MU, ML) under Elmira or into the Bedrock Aquifer (BR) beneath Elmira. Their misrepresentation has also grossly reduced over the last thirty-six or thirty-seven years the probability that their is a direct hydraulic connection between those three aquifers under the Stroh property permitting ready vertical contamination of the Bedrock Aquifers under Elmira with DNAPLS, Dioxins, DDT, PAHs and much more. This exacerbates the already known worst case scenario of the Uniroyal Chemical site and may very well be the final straw that broke the camel's back (i.e. remediation to drinking water standards).

This new information comes from a "Schematic Of Hydrogeologic Units " dated January 2024, Figure 1.2  It is also marked Onterris Proprietary & Confidential and was handed out to TRAC at their last public meeting on September 17, 2026. It may also have been handed out to them sooner by GHD but I am confident that there has not been any public announcement of the major significance of the subsurface changes of what was known for decades as the Conceptual Site Model (CSM). Of course it is confidential because afterall we citizens and residents have no rights other than simply being the guinea pigs eventually going to be drinking again from these still amazingly contaminated aquifers.    

Since 2014 I have been fairly confident that Woolwich Township were doing Uniroyal/Lanxess a solid by moving the Elmira By-Pass to the east side of town and hence burying under roads and commercial development much of Uniroyal Chemical's off-site eastward contaminant flow. This is similar to the desperation moves of Varnicolor Chemical in the early 1990s by suddenly putting concrete over a large part of their grossly contaminated 62 Union St. site. Isn't it sad that dirty polluters and their political friends couldn't spend their money actually cleaning up rather than covering up? 

APPARENTLY NEITHER DEMOCRACY NOR CITIZENS' BRAINS ARE TOTALLY DEAD YET

 

Canada, Iran, immigration, ICE murders, Netanyahu/Gaza, rape allegations, charges, civil liability, threats against Canada (51st state), Greenland, Venezuela, Cuba, bragging about his sexual assaults against women, Epstein files, sex trafficking, tariffs... holy crap but Americans certainly don't get fed up easily do they? Twice they elected a rude, crude, bullying, senile, litigious, lying, dishonest, cheating son of a snitch to the highest position in the land. And now they've "rebuked" him. For the love of God remove 1,000 undeserving prisoners from U.S. jails and incarcerate Donald Trump, where he belongs. 

Mr. Trump once bragged that he could commit murder in Times Square in broad daylight in front of a thousand witnesses and never get convicted. The pathetic part of that brag wasn't that he made it but that it was probably true. Hopefully it no longer is. 

I truly had given up on Democracy. Citizens are simply too busy, too apathetic, too uninformed, too overworked between jobs (or looking for them), families, homes (if they are lucky) and more complicated than ever lives to be able and willing to invest time and brain power looking and listening to speeches, news, propaganda and politics. And yet... here in Waterloo Region citizens voted against all incumbent mayors but one who has his own playbook for staying in power. That may have been good but they fell far short in re-electing all regional councillors who were not mayors. That was disappointing. There are a pack of old ones that need to go as they were part and parcel of both the Wilmot Land Grab (770 acres), the well interference travesty and the Waterloo Region Water Shortage. If you don't think the last two are related then you aren't thinking very seriously.

All shame in the U.S. also needs to go to the Republican Party for riding to the end the perverted pony known as Donald Trump. The Party should have removed him long ago but as long as he was delivering votes that was good enough for them. Destroying people's lives at home and abroad is his trademark and the Republicans supported him throughout. Watch the rats leaving the sinking ship from here on in.    

A FEW NAMES OF (DIS)HONOURABLE MENTION REGARDING THE ELMIRA WATER CRISIS

 Jeff Merriman,  Dwighte Este, Steve Martindale, Wilf Ruland, Steve Quigley,  Allan Deal, plus a whole bunch of General Managers of Uniroyal Chemical such as David Ash and successor companies. Now here's the rub; the fact is that I really would be hard pressed to confront any of them and initiate the verbal beatdown that most of them deserve. That said O.K. if they started up with their old bullcrap and lies for whatever reason yes I would respond strongly and harshly. Otherwise no and that may be simply a function of age. I'm now 77 years old and frankly just because I have a better understanding and knowledge of the corporate mindset behind blatant lying and deception perhaps I also have a better understanding of the people involved. They are not all unredeemable pieces of excrement. Probably some of them might actually be good family men. Others I am told have done serious and significant volunteer work. For them their personal lives are entirely separate from their business/corporate lives. Most especially if they are employees whose every public word had better be pro company or else; they have little choice if they wish to keep putting a roof over their family's heads and or pay for their university educations.

All that said there are a few that I have nothing but contempt for based upon their unrepentant and damaging lies to the public interest and to the people of Elmira, not to mention the environment. The vast majority of lying has been to further the interests and the assets of corporate polluters whether or not direct health harm resulted to nearby residents. There are also some for whom I might actually have some liking and respect for. That would include Steve Martindale of the Ontario Min. of Environment (M.O.E.). Yes it is possible that that is based more upon his personality and general friendliness versus anything he may have done in the public interest. Wilf Ruland is one whom I have trouble fathoming. He inserted himself into an internal CPAC squabble initiated by Susan B. and Pat McLean towards me that I did not even see coming back in 2007. He spoke to CPAC while I was still a formal member, behind my back, and gave CPAC an ultimatum namely him or me. Now I thought that I had zero argument or disagreement with Wilf at that time but clearly Susan and Pat had put him up to that ultimatum that I didn't even know about. That readers is how much damage a couple of sneaky, manipulative back stabbers can do to any group of people. Dwighte Este (Uniroyal) always behaved in a professional manner but clearly he was never prepared to speak either out of turn or honestly if it hindered his employer's interests. My biggest surprise was when he showed up at Susan Bryant's house to help fix her lawnmower. Yes you heard that right. She had phoned him first and then me when he couldn't make it right away, maybe around 2003 (??). Take that any way you want but it shocked me.

Steve Quigley and Allan Deal both of Conestoga Rovers (CRA) were unrepentant client driven #*+%heads in my opinion. I know that sounds harsh but you never sat across the table from them for a period of decades. Steve was the brains of the two hence he was in charge of CRA's pro corporate, anti environment efforts for the first many years with Allan Deal disappearing for years, licking his wounds perhaps. Allan Deal is back and misdirecting and misleading TRAC on a number of fronts including Varnicolor Chemical's alleged lack of chlorobenzene contribution to the Elmira Aquifers. While categorically denying Varnicolor's chlorobenzene contributions several years after Dr. Neil Thompson (U. of Waterloo) stated unequivocally that approximately 1,900 kg. of chlorobenzene was deposited into Elmira's Aquifers in excess of Uniroyal's contributions; Mr. Deal offered zero comment on who has done so.  Then less than a year later Jesse Wright of Arcadis on behalf of Lanxess Canada showed up and casually announced the news and showed a map of four or five unnamed business locations along First St. who had handled chlorobenzene, extraordinarily close to Varnicolor's former Union & First St. toxic waste site. 

Once again can you really blame me for being blunt and rude at times in describing the behaviour of these corporate butts? 

SEVERIN ARGENTON: LAUDED IN DEATH BY FORMER WOOLWICH CAO BILL KOWALCHUK

 

If it's a mark of character based upon one's enemies, opponents or just general ill wishers then I guess I must be a character. I can name a few well known twits who stupidly have thrown stones my way, disparaged me and or lied about me. That would include Bill Strauss, Todd Cowan, Sandy Shantz, Severin Argenton, Mark Bauman, several M.O.E. officers and other assorted figures of ill repute. Ill repute not based upon electoral results - hey Donald Trump has been elected twice- three times if you believe him- but based upon my measuring stick. 

When Severin died and before Bill followed suit he (Mr. Kowalchuk) had a letter published most likely in either the Woolwich Observer or the Elmira Independent extolling the virtues of Mr. Argenton. While I am hard pressed to suggest that Bill lied I was at the time somewhat surprised by his courage in doing what he did considering Mr. Argenton's rather immense fall from grace. In hindsight and based upon the facts and decisions of various individuals and authorities I feel completely safe in suggesting that Mr. Argenton, former owner of Varnicolor Chemical, was one of the truly great liars of Woolwich Township. Now the fact is that after Bill Kowalchuk's own fall from grace as Woolwich CAO, he was hired by Severin both to increase his company's market but also to serve if you will as the company's liaison with government agencies attempting to dispose of toxic goods. Perhaps astute readers might read between the lines and see just a tiny glimpse of where my attitudes towards corruption in  government come from.

Severin was a keen promoter of himself and his company as being environmental stewards of the first order. He also was not averse to throwing shade (hmm) upon anyone who criticized him or suggested that his operations were anything short of legal, pristine and environmentally sound. A local contractor he had hired for a small digging job ("Digger" Dave Holmes ) ran afoul of Mr. Argenton when Mr. Holmes stood up in a public meeting and suggested that the Varnicolor Chemical site on Union St. was badly contaminated with solvents. Mr. Holmes was on site when a hole he was digging began filling up not with groundwater but with odorous and discoloured solvents floating on the water table. He was told to refill the hole and take off. He did so but I believe also advised the Ontario Ministry of Environment (M.O.E.) of what he had seen and smelled. I was working at Varnicolor Chemical at the time and was also advised as to the discovery. Mr. Argenton's public response to Mr. Holmes words at the public meeting was that Mr. Holmes "...was full of shi*".  

I could go on and on including his initial public bragging that the only charges laid by the M.O.E. against him were paper charges and not pollution charges. This was incredibly stupid of him and refocused my and others opposition to both him and the M.O.E.'s mishandling of the case. Lo and behold after the M.O.E.'s initial coverup on his behalf and later reluctance to lay serious charges they finally did. Severin was convicted and went to jail for a few months but still got a huge break. He was never convicted or sentenced for actually contributing to the destruction of the Elmira Aquifers  as we now know that he did along with Uniroyal Chemical, Nutrite and still other miscreants.      

BEATTY, GMs OF UNIROYAL, CROMPTON, CHEMTURA, LANXESS(?), ARGENTON, GORGEOUS GEORGE KARLOS, HIGHLIGHT THE PARADE OF LIARS WE'VE BEEN SUBJECTED TO

 

This list was quickly off the top of my head. I suspect that with some quiet time and fullsome thought I could increase it dramatically. Hmm now an idea has just come to me. Maybe a once a week special here whereby I do a "Spotlight on Liars" column. You know I could expand it to include more than just polluters, bureaucrats, consultants and Ministry of Environment (M.O.E./MECP) senior staff and employees. Some dandy names from the past come to mind already just by suggesting the M.O.E. such as Ireland, Robinson, Papenhuzen, Trebilcock, Wong. Oops I've slipped off topic. I was going to suggest political figures as well. Oh man this is just way too easy. How about Strauss, Shantz, Cadeau, Seiling, Cowan, Bauman there are just so many! Hmm in one case I almost feel sorry for Mr. Cowan. True he could be the butt of the old joke "How do you know if so and so is lying?" The answer: "His lips are moving.". Why do I feel sorry for him? Because most of the liars I am calling out are for environmental lies related to the Elmira Water Crisis. Mr. Cowan mostly lied about everything with the focus on his innate and inherent superiority. To the best of my knowledge he did not lie to save Uniroyal/Chemtura money or to protect reputations of people lying to minimize the local contamination and reduce Uniroyal and successors financial liability.   

Today's focus is on Gorgeous George Karlos of the M.O.E.. In all the modesty I can muster I must admit that I added the "Gorgeous" to the front of his name. In one sense I have to admire his boldness and brashness. Most of the liars above lied about things such as the far off 2028 remediation deadline or about who is responsible for which contamination whether ammonia, benzene, toluene, PCBs, xylenes, styrene, chlorinated solvents etc. all pollutants with multiple sources. Not Gorgeous George. No Siree! He looked CPAC in the eye back in early 2014 and loudly proclaimed that in response to a question from the floor he had walked Uniroyal/Chemtura's south-east property line and nearby areas looking for a peculiar surface feature that showed up on a recent Conestoga Rovers (CRA) map. Many of us had seen that feature and wondered about it but the first person who asked was a citizen sitting in the gallery, not a CPAC member. 

Now keep in mind this was the CPAC with Dr. Dan Holt as Chair, Vivienne, Sebastian, Ron, Graham as CPAC members and Richard, Henry and I as a sub-committee of CPAC, known as SWAT (Soil, Water, Air, Team). Geez did that name (SWAT) ever piss off Chemtura! It was the first that I realized that often the biggest liars are the most thin skinned of individuals. Later public consultation after Sandy Shantz became Mayor refused to allow questions from the audience even going through the Chair. Our CPAC did and this was but one case where it paid off. The surface feature looked like a smooth curve starting on the Uniroyal property to the west and running over to the next door (east) Stroh property where it bent 90 degrees to the south . 

George Karlos of the M.O.E. categorically stated he had walked this entire area and that there absolutely was no pathway or anything else that could possibly indicate any kind of path or travel route or conduit for contaminants to leave the Uniroyal site, cross over to the Stroh property and disperse or migrate from there. Gorgeous George lied like a dog!  In May 2014 I had been requested to scout out filming locations for a Documentary by I believe the C.B.C. .  I phoned Ron Stroh the current owner of the Stroh property and farm and asked for permission both for me and the C.B.C. to access his property and do some filming. He gave me that permission with a couple of conditions.  

My visit to the site was absolutely shocking. Keep in mind by this point I had been studying reports, text and maps of the entire area for about twenty-four years (1989-2014)! What I found was a large, frikken running waterway within five to ten metres of the Uniroyal/Chemtura property line running parallel with it for at least 125 metres due south on the Stroh property where it then bent to the east briefly before turning due south again and running southwards towards the Canagagigue Creek. Holy crap but later examination showed that it jogged around the Martin family's private in ground swimming pond and indeed did discharge into the Canagagigue Creek. 

Gorgeous George to the best of my knowledge has never set foot or shown his lying face in Elmira since. Good riddance to bad, lying rubbish.