THERE IS AN OPPORTUNITY FOR WOOLWICH TOWNSHIP TO IMPROVE ENVIRONMENTALLY

 

At least three things have to occur. First we need to get rid of our current Mayor. YES  that is occurring! Second whoever becomes our new mayor (Schwindt or Burgess) has to have an open mind and look carefully at the failures of the last thirty-seven years. Thirdly preferably either get rid of the CAO or at the very least stop taking his advice as always in the best interests of Woolwich Township residents and taxpayers.

O.K. there are four or five items that need attention. Our new Mayor needs to look carefully at what we the residents of Elmira and Woolwich Township were promised at the start of the recognized Elmira Water Crisis. Our drinking water aquifers would be fully restored by 2028 AND the sewer known as the Canagagigue Creek would also be cleaned up. The reality is that our groundwater is still toxic as is the Canagagigue Creek despite improvements in its' odour and appearance. Five miles (7.5 km) of Creek whose sediments and creekbank soils are filled with Dioxins, DDT, PCBs, mercury and PAHs is an offence to nature as well as the farmers and residents living along the downstream Creek.

Number five is even easier. CAO Brenneman, Shantz and Council have surrounded themselves with one side of the pollution crisis. That is the side of all the guilty parties. That is Lanxess Canada, their client driven consultants (GHD), the Ont. Min. of Environment (MECP), and an alleged "citizens" committee (TRAC) made up of deferential, out of their depth but totally acceptable to Lanxess and the MECP, folks who merely maintain the status quo. The status quo does not and has not worked! Woolwich's current trajectory will guarantee both non cleanup of our aquifers and Creek as well as Woolwich Township ending up in history as the biggest, backwards, rural hick Township in Ontario willingly run in circles for decades by Uniroyal Chemical and successors. 

Number five above requires an immense change. Why do you think that there was so very little input from the groundwater experts at the University of Waterloo over the last 37 years? Uniroyal and fellow travellors did not want them involved! A number of those very well known hydrogeologists (eg. Cherry & Parker) have moved to the University of Guelph where they continue their groundbreaking research. Dr. Richard Jackson, if we are lucky, still lives nearby in Heidelberg. He was an amazing breath of fresh air as the first TAG Chair who resigned suddenly likely due to what he referred to as public policy failures. Wrap your minds around that if you will. Finally there is the one loud and noisy local citizen and resident who has been yelling into the silence since Sandy's coup in 2015 (i.e. moi). There are still some CPAC (Citizens Public Advisory Committee) members who may be available but only if they see real change versus cosmetic change. Woolwich this is likely your last opportunity to reverse course and MAYBE actually improve the environment. What are needed are honest, unbiased environmental experts combined with hardnosed citizens backing them versus self-serving, client driven toadies, sycophants, fellow travellors and cooptees. 

DAVID SUZUKI SAYS THAT CANADA'S GOVERNMENT IS DRIVING US "INTO A DITCH"

WOOLWICH TWN., WATERLOO REGION & ONTARIO GOVERNMENT HAVE SABOTAGED THE BRAKES AND STEERING, ENSURING THE CRASH

Our federal government is currently Liberal and our provincial government is currently Conservative. Neither one is doing a thing to seriously address Climate Change other than giving lip service to it. Lip service is but one half a step better than the right wing idiot south of the border who calls Climate Change a hoax despite world wide scientific positions otherwise. David Suzuki was interviewed with The Canadian Press and the published article is on the front page of today's Waterloo Region Record as well as on page A2. The title of the article is "Climate policy driving Canada" into a ditch", says David Suzuki". 

 Mr. Suzuki states that when looking at our political, legal and economic systems we can see that the planet we live on has been left out and ignored. The main system driving us and the world to destruction is the economic system. Politicians pretend that they are doing us all a favour by always putting the economy first when in fact what they are always doing is ensuring that the already well off and entitled remain that way generally at the expense of the rest of us. The well off and entitled are putting money into the political system at all levels and they expect favourable treatment as a result. Do you really think that developers, builders, industrialists really give a hoot about the homeless, the unemployed and those living in poverty? All they care for is a compliant, non union, low wage work force willing to do what they are told. Mass immigration in this country has never been about humanitarianism and helping the already overpopulated areas of the world. It's been about labour supply and demand and employers wanting a large pool of unemployed labour to assist in keeping unionism rates low and wages down.

Here in Elmira/Woolwich Township it is absolutely breathtaking how even anti social, dirty, stinking and polluting local industries are treated as saviours. Whether it is the former Breslube (Safety-Kleen) infamous for their stench and responsible for the shutting of the downstream drinking wells along the Grand River in Breslau (particularly K70, K71) or Varnicolor Chemical and Uniroyal Chemical in Elmira responsible for foul, toxic air and ruined drinking water aquifers; they are all treated by our municipal and regional politicians as the bastions of our society. This behaviour especially by our regional government has kept criticism of our rapidly diminishing groundwater quality by literally dozens of manufacturers over the last 100 years to a bare minimum. They never want to publicly criticize even the very worst polluters of which there are many in Cambridge, Kitchener and Waterloo.    

ZERO GOVERNMENT TRANSPARENCY/ACCOUNTABILITY TO THE EXTREME

 

While I have discussed a variety of environmental and political issues here since last December; three issues have been predominate for which no apology is required based upon their significance. FIRSTLY as has been obvious literally since May 2010 when I started this Blog I have spoken to the Elmira Water Crisis from day one. SECONDLY since last December I have also focused upon the Region of Waterloo Water Crisis which I commend the K-W Record for following in detail for weeks and months after December 2025. Unfortunately despite their own research and hard work it was absolutely amazing to me as to how they dropped the issue like a hot potato literally five minutes after the Region of Waterloo self declared their victory over the water shortage. This despite my sending them (and many others) detailed and specific information as to which wells, which wellfields, dates and locations thereof as well as naming specific contaminants in those wells including the industrial sources they came from. THIRDLY  I have discussed the incredible chutzpah, arrogance and blatant contempt of citizens, residents and taxpayers by the Region of Waterloo and Wilmot Council regarding the mostly secret land acquisition of 770 acres allegedly for some out of this world, beneficial to all, industrial megagiant who is too shy to reveal their name. Please feel free to lie to us, steal our money, farmland, drinking water but peeing in our faces is too much. I am about to advise you the readers and public as to whom out of approximately 60 recipients of my close to daily Blog /e-mails have responded, commented, denied or agreed with my Blog postings.  The following groups are the near daily recipients with the number in brackets indicating how many individual recipients for each group. These have gone to the Ont. Min. of Environment (4),  a very few to Mike Harris M.P.P., Woolwich Council (6), Waterloo Region Council (16), TRAC (8), Lanxess Canada (2), GHD (1),  GREN (4),  Green Party (1), Susan Koswan, K-W Record (5), Woolwich Observer (3), CTV (1) and CPAC (9). The last one, the Citizens Public Advisory Committee (CPAC) has been the only one to comment/respond since last December. 

Please note the various government bodies municipal, regional and provincial who have NEVER so much as asked for clarification, discussion or even a meeting. I include TRAC as a government body because they are not in charge of their own Agenda, membership etc. as they are a committee of Woolwich Council totally controlled by them. While disgusted by the three tiers of government blindness and deafness I also am appalled by our local media's seeming willingness to be good little boys and girls and not rock either the government or corporate boat.  

P.S. It took decades of lying, disrespect and contempt by the polluter, regulator (MECP) and other government bodies to hone me into the chiseled, acerbic and disrespectful to authority individual I am today.    

WHO WILL DO BEST FOR WOOLWICH TOWNSHIP?

 

Frankly I'm in a quandry. I am optimistic simply because Sandy Shantz is done. She has been a disaster environmentally as she continues swallowing the crap coming from both the MECP and Lanxess Canada. Look where twelve years of that has gotten us as in exactly nowhere. Back in 2012 the new CPAC (Dan Holt, Sebastian S. A., Viv Delaney, Ron Campbell, Graham Chevreau along with Rich Clausi, Henry Regier and myself as sub-committee members advised Council and the public that the 2028 cleanup wasn't going to happen. Chemtura/Jeff Merriman/Conestoga Rovers lied like dogs six months later claiming that they would TRIPLE  the amount of pumping of groundwater in order to achieve full cleanup. They never even got close to Doubling much less Tripling. Sandy took over in 2014 and eliminated CPAC via dirty tricks including throwing out our formal renewal applications and then demanding new ones. That is precisely how lying pieces of crap operate and she did it on the demands of Chemtura and the Min. of Environment.

The failed cleanup has been official for several years now as Lanxess have made a few admissions that their lying, self-serving predecessors' never did  This last council did not appear willing or able to demand public transparency or accountability on the Uniroyal/Lanxess file. Maybe they will depending on whom is the new mayor. I have to admit that I do not know either candidate well although there are things that I like about both of them. Being an old phart myself, if I have a bias it's probably towards the older more senior of the two namely Eric Schwindt.  Again however I can't point to anything negative with Evan Burgess. One positive in his favour is how he smoothly handled public criticism from his fellow councillor Nathan Cadeau.  Nathan and I got off on the wrong foot early as he from a position of zero knowledge attempted to lecture me by e-mail on groundwater and cleanup issues. Basically as questions and answers went back and forth it became clear that he had a proxy answering for him which most likely was CAO Dave Brenneman. God there's one that really needs to go along with Nathan. 

TRAC has been abysmal only partly due to high turnover over the years. Far too many good ones with potential have walked while along with some dead wood still there are newer members with brains but zero long term background on the Elmira issues. Sycophants  like Tiffany and Eric are no help and Sebastian admits how overmatched TRAC is by Lanxess, MECP and GHD (consultants) and how deferential TRAC are as a result. Master manipulater Pat Mclean thank goodness is long gone. Too bad she didn't take her wingman Susan with her. TRAC are simply a cheerleading team for Lanxess and the Ministry (MECP) and they are protecting their interests not Woolwich residents.     

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POLITICIANS AND REGIONAL WATER SHORTAGES DUE TO INDUSTRIAL POLLUTION, MASSIVE GROWTH, INCOMPETENCE & GREED

 

There are two items in today's K-W Record that all citizens/voters should read but likely will not. The first is by Luisa D'Amato titled "The municipal elections are really all about money. Your money". The second is a Letter to the Editor by Pam O'Rourke titled "Stand up for clean water and prime farmland". Both are exhorting citizens to make informed decisions in the upcoming municipal/regional elections and vote for candidates who will support clean water, secure farmland safe from developers, and good fiscal management versus constant staff increases and higher taxes exceeding cost of living increases.

Ms. D'Amato has given us specific reasons and voting records regarding municipal and regional candidates. This I must admit is superior to my recent blanket condemnation of all our regional councillors when I suggested getting rid of the lot of them. My method would be helpful albeit there likely are at least two or three worthy of staying out of sixteen in total. Ms. D'Amato also suggests that the proposed 770 acre megasite in Wilmot could contaminate part of the Waterloo Moraine. She is correct however she and other media have been informed by me, without advising her readers, as to which wells and wellfields in Waterloo Region are already industrially contaminated and have been for decades. 

Ms. O'Rourke appropriately hammers Premier Doug Ford for his environmental stupidity and political interference here in Waterloo Region. His fingers are in the Wilmot Land Grab as well as his appointing our next Regional Chair. Gosh would it be considered undemocratic if Waterloo Region citizens politely advised Ford's appointee that we are currently collecting a wooden rail, pails of tar and a bucket of feathers to welcome him/her to our lovely Region? Never let it be said that unelected provincial appointees aren't given a rousing "welcome".  Maybe at the very least we could have a new fashion "sit out" versus a "sit in".  Regional councillors could refuse to sit at the table whenever the Doug Ford appointee shows up and in fact councillors could go and sit on the picket lines along with their own striking workers. Now that would truly be labour solidarity combined with a political middle finger extended to our good friend Doug Ford. Let the revolt start here!  

DISTRACT & DECEIVE: MECP & LANXESS IGNORE DDT, DIOXINS, PAHs, PCBs, LINDANE, MERCURY AND ALL THE OTHERS IN THE CREEK AND AQUIFERS

 

The last TRAC meeting discussed an alleged new advanced bioremediation strategy for chlorobenzene. The gentleman involved (Cullen Flanders) admitted that bioremediation didn't seem at all capable to remediate NDMA. What I find interesting is that the long heralded, long claimed to be the end all and be all remediation to achieve drinking water standards for EVERY contaminant in the Elmira Aquifers, namely hydraulic containment (i.e. pump & treat), can't even handle the TWO that they've focused on namely NDMA and chlorobenzene.

Keep in mind that those two are also grossly different types of contaminants. NDMA is totally miscible in water which means that it immediately, fully dissolves in groundwater and travels with it at the same speed as the groundwater does. Chlorobenzene on the other hand is completely different in that it has a low solubility in water and as far as travelling with groundwater, the term is that it is "retarded". By this it means that the chlorobenzene tends to be easily slowed down (i.e. retarded)  by the soils that it and the groundwater are passing through. Chlorobenzene is also a DNAPL chemical as so many on the Uniroyal site are. This includes not only chlorinated solvents but also chemicals such as Benzothiazole, Carboxin, Aniline and Mercaptobenzothiazole all Uniroyal signature chemicals. Of course all these other DNAPL chemicals both in Lanxess's groundwater as well as Elmira's are not routinely monitored as they should be. 

Keep in mind that  an honest discussion of what can be done to lessen the impacts of these chemicals in the title above has not occurred. Instead we get corporate B/S to the effect that some of them are hydrophobic and prefer to attach to soil particles rather than dissolve into the groundwater. This does not account for the low solubility of many of these compounds and their then accumulative toxicities in our groundwater. Nor does it account for the synergistic toxic effects between these compounds as well as NDMA, chlorobenzene and so many others in the Elmira Aquifers. Science is not omnipotent hence no one really knows exactly how toxic our groundwater is and when if ever it will be restored. We can however count upon both the Min. of Environment (MECP) and Lanxess Canada to continue giving us wildly optimistic time estimates in order to diminish their past failures as well as current ones. Mayor Sandy Shantz's removal of CPAC members in 2015 to please Chemtura and the M.O.E. did nothing but solidify the status quo of puffery, hot air, bragging and  truth denial. 

 

A TWIST ON THE UNIROYAL / M.O.E. SWEETHEART DEAL ?

 

The old interpretation was that Uniroyal accepted all blame for NDMA and chlorobenzene contamination despite initially denying it in exchange for a free pass on expensive DNAPL removal and remediation. They knew what a pigsty Varnicolor Chemical was and they certainly knew that their partially funded Elmira Sewage Treatment Plant (1965) had taken five years to be able to handle Borg Textile high strength wastes. They also likely knew that all the ammonia in the aquifers wasn't theirs but the next door neighbour Nutrite.

Now based upon known products and by-products of both the paint industry and the textile industry that there were at least two other major sources of NDMA and chlorobenzene just down the street from them. Finally PCBs had only been banned since the early to mid 1970s and until then those paints would have found their way most likely into McKee Harvestor and Varnicolor Chemical in the 1960s and 70s. All in all our Ontario Ministry of Environment (M.O.E.) certainly were not remotely on top of things in little Elmira, Ontario.

I expect that after the  Ministry (M.O.E.) presented their damaging evidence on Uniroyal Chemical at the Environmental Appeal Board and the hearing was then postponed over the summer that Uniroyal had a little chat with the M.O.E. It might have gone something like this. "You a...holes are going to be publicly destroyed this fall when the hearings resume. We aren't holding anything back. The Creek and the groundwater has been a toxic mess for decades and you've done exactly nothing to stop it. McKee and others have contributed PCBs, Nutrite ammonia, Varnicolor and Borg have contributed NDMA, chlorobenzene and more chlorinated solvents, local gas stations have added benzenes and toluene. Basically we, Uniroyal, have simply added our share on top of an already unregulated, unmonitored environmental mess. Good luck surviving what's coming this fall (1991) unless you play ball with us now."   

At which point a government Ministry maybe with approval from the top decided that neither they nor perhaps even the government would survive the Elmira truth being revealed. So much for the 90s being the turnaround decade.