AND THERE IT FINALLY IS... THE MONSTER FROM THE GREEN LAGOON

 

Of course I'm referring to the long proposed Pipeline from the Green Lagoon otherwise known as Lake Erie. Is there anybody who doesn't know about the prevalence of toxic blue-green algae on the surface of our smallest and shallowest Great Lake? Today's K-W Record has an article by Bill Jackson titled "Waterloo Region's pipeline possibility". For me having lived for almost a decade in West Montrose it's almost emblematic of the long threatened West Montrose Dam. At one time that was the bogeyman that hung over local residents wondering how badly their beautiful valley, covered bridge and lush farm fields would be destroyed.

Darn but you know the old saying that for a carpenter all problems can be solved with a hammer and for an engineer if it's not broken then you simply haven't built it yet. Build it and when it breaks fix it sort of attitude. Today's Record interviews both a former public works director as well as Kevin Thomason, vise-chair of the Grand River Environmental Network (GREN). Both are smart individuals but with totally different approaches to Waterloo Region's Water Crisis. Mr. Anderson with a  public works background is very big on class environmental assessments. It almost seems to me that he views the Class EA process as somewhat magical and without bias. Being from Elmira I've lived through a few Environmental Assessments now and I can tell you that depending on many factors they can and are manipulated beyond belief. He who is paying the shot calls the tune and that's exactly what has happened here with two very local Environmental Assessments.

Mr. Thomason of GREN however does not believe that blasting right of ways and cutting through forests and farm fields is the best way to solve our alleged water problems. He lists numerous less invasive and less expensive options in this article that can be done right here in Waterloo Region versus taking water from Lake Erie.

Alleged water problems is an interesting turn of phrase. We the public are still waiting for documentation that either proves or disproves the alleged low water levels in our major aquifers such as the Waterloo Moraine. Also it is rather convenient how often dishonest politicians such as our Woolwich Township mayor invent a crisis in order to implement a totally asinine solution as was done in 2015 . Chemtura and the Ministry of Environment (MOE/MECP) were crying about the new vigorous and informed Chemtura Public Advisory Committee (CPAC) holding them to account and failing to treat them with the deference and reverence that they were used to. 

Is it possible that this water crisis has been invented to push the multi billion dollar engineering solution of a Lake Erie Pipeline? Or is the crisis real? Maybe it could be part of each? Maybe we are currently in trouble but the fixes are right here within the Region's boundaries as suggested by Mr. Thomason. 

TIME DOES NOT ERASE LYING & DECEPTION

 

It is far too easy in an uneven power relationship for the weaker party to tend to forget past wrongs especially if the present is tolerable. To a great extent I wonder if that is one of the reasons that we have had three sales of Uniroyal Chemical in Elmira since around 2000.  It is very difficult to saddle the new company/new owners with the sins of the past including the almost never ending blatant delays, deceptions and lying.  This is especially so when the allegedly neutral citizens are also repeatedly turning over on the various advisory committees whether UPAC, CPAC, RAC, TAG, or TRAC.   Some of these new "citizens" are also no longer from Elmira which again makes it less likely that they would have personal memories of past promises and commitments. Finally too many have connections with the environmental community as consultants for private companies who tend to deal with the Ministry of Environment as well as municipal and regional governments. This includes engineering companies who have done engineering work for both Woolwich Township and the Region of Waterloo.

I have recently been reviewing old newspaper clippings both of the Esther Thur collection at the Wilfred Laurier University Archives as well as others. It is truly shocking as well as outrageous how many times Uniroyal or successor companies begged for time claiming that they were already addressing a problem or just getting ready to start to do so.  We at UPAC or CPAC would give them that time simply never to see the item ever on the Agenda again or in some watered down version. This of course was aided by local politicians arbitrarily removing members and appointing their own uninformed buddies, sycophants and deferential "experts" with skin in the game who did not want to rock the boat.

Elmira has become the poster child for public consultation abuse. It is also the poster child for corporate abuse of citizens aided and abetted by local politicians whether municipal, regional or provincial. It's also funny how polluting industries seem to have support from both Liberals and Conservatives. Gee I wonder which two parties are the biggest benefactors of corporate donations ? 

THE HUMAN CONDITION: DOES STATUS & AUTHORITY ENGENDER STUPIDITY ?

 

Oh boy but that title above is a strong statement. Can I back it up? Well first American politics. How about George W. Bush and the non-existent "weapons of mass destruction" in Iraq if I've named the correct President Bush for that idiocy. Or how about President Trump in all his glory? Nine months ago he bragged that Iran's nuclear ambitions were obliterated after bombing the country. Now he's trying to obliterate the rest of the country with claims that their nuclear program is alive and well and they are a threat to the U.S. and Israel. 

Recently our Waterloo Region councillors (& staff) have put their amazing intelligence and common sense up for debate by somehow forgetting to include infill development into their calculations of water demand. They have also been secretly  pumping water from Wilmot Township to the three big cities despite an agreement not to do so without discussion and agreement by Wilmot Township.

Now even closer to home we have the idjits on the Waterloo Region District School Board  (WRDSB) who attacked teacher Carolyn Burjowski for her comments and opinions on age inappropriate books for very young students. These comments were made as a properly registered Delegate to the WRDSB and as the courts have made clear since were done so in accordance with all rules and procedures. 

Today's K-W Record carries an Opinion piece by Luisa D'Amato referring to a "witch hunt" by Waterloo Catholic trustees. Thank God our Catholic Board has stepped up to share the limelight and glory with our public board. This dispute went right to the Ontario Superior Court who determined that the Catholic Board's decision was "unreasonable and must be set aside." I mean maybe this is a sign that our courts  prefer to make decisions based upon law and reasonableness themselves. Who knows about that for sure but the facts as exposed by Luisa D'Amato certainly indicate that the trustee Kathy Doherty-Masters absolutely did not violate the trustee's Code of Conduct as alleged. 

What then have we learned? Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely? Nah we already knew that. Maybe it's that mostly dishonest and or self-serving people are attracted to getting elected to positions of authority? Possibly. Or maybe it's that voting citizens are far too easily swayed by appearances (looks), names and other trivial characteristics. That's a big one and doesn't make Democracy look so hot sometimes. 

WRDSB TRUSTEES GET THEIR ASS*S KICKED BY THE K-W RECORD

 Well to be specific by Luisa D'Amato. This takes me back decades when she was on the Education beat and used to lay them out like bowling pins, on a regular basis. I gained an immense amount of confidence and respect for her in those days.

In Ms. D'Amato's February 25,, 2026 Opinion piece she makes it very clear that leaving all control of education in the province's hands is not a good thing. She however clearly understands and believes that the current system of trustees is badly broken. She is correct and while she does suggest that there were/are? a surprising proportion of trustees with ties to the Waterloo Region & District School Board (WRDSB) as either former teachers or spouses or relatives, she does not specify exactly what the problem there was. Perhaps just that the trustees should better represent a more diverse group of citizens and parents .

I do have one strong disagreement with Ms. D'Amato's opinion however. In fact I'm wondering if she was speaking with tongue firmly in cheek when she suggested that the Region of Waterloo could step up and become the local board of education similar to their duties as the local board of health. Firstly we are daily and publicly, thanks to Ms. D'Amato, Terry Pender, Bill Jackson etc., learning exactly how inept and incompetent the Region of Waterloo staff and councillors are due to the region wide water crisis.  Secondly those of us living in Elmira never received the support necessary from the board of health for our own Elmira Water Crisis .So much more could have and should have been done by them to counteract the polluter and his tame regulator's (MOE/MECP)  false reassurances and minimization of health problems.

LUISA D'AMATO TAKES OFFENCE AT THE REST OF US BEING CALLED "GOLDEN RETRIEVERS"

Jeff McIntyre of the Grand Valley Construction Association really is a horse's patootie. What was he thinking when he referenced his like for Non Disclosure Agreements because he's on the inside while the rest of us are golden retrievers waiting by the door for news. No politician worth his salt would make such a stupid comment but then maybe Mr. McIntyre is a much better human being than most politicians (granted a low standard) . Maybe he's at exactly where he should be but really he should be a tad more careful in his public choice of words.

Ms. D'Amato makes a very strong case for the public being in the loop and immediately apprised of new facts or plans whether good or bad. She also bluntly puts the committee members/working group of councillors, developers and builders in their place when she advises that "We, the public, are the owners, not the companion animals. We will decide what happens to the water, and who gets elected in the fall."

I've been warning Woolwich councillors for some time now that their futures, their reputations and legacies are at risk regarding the Elmira water crisis. Perhaps we will have a regional housecleaning first over the regional water crisis and the Woolwich one four years later after the mandated 2026 failure and fallout occurs. Who knows though. It could be a doubleheader this fall during the 2026 elections.     

CHURCH'S HOUSING DEVELOPMENT VERSUS GRAVEL PITS: WHO SHOULD GET THE WATER?

 

One article in today's K-W Record (front page) written by Bill Jackson discusses the refusal to give the former Trinity United Church in Elmira a building permit and the other on page 3. by Bill Doucet is an article in which local M.P.P. Aislinn Clancy is asking the Ontario Minister of Environment to stop issuing industrial and commercial water taking permits. In particular she is not happy with local gravel pits putting in applications for large water taking permits. 

For me this is an easy choice. We've got more gravel pits than we need and more pits are simply to reduce distance and costs to transport aggregate to building sites, cement and asphalt facilities. In other words to boost aggregate producers profits which isn't necessarily on it's face a bad thing. I however vote in favour of  water permits going to the new housing being developed on the former Church property on Arthur St. in Elmira.

Now here's a twist.  Elmira supposedly is legally mandated to have our Uniroyal Chemical contaminated ground water rehabilitated and restored by 2028.  If that were to occur (it won't) then I dare say that Woolwich could have pretty much gone ahead with OUR water and given the new housing development the building permit they require for construction this summer. Maybe a little more support and citizen involvement over the years/decades would have lit a fire under all the guilty/recalcitrant local buggers including politicians who have gone along deferentially with the go through the motions status quo for so long.

TRAC MEETING OF FEBRUARY !9, 2026

 

First of all I'm late posting this because of human error at the Township. A staff person simply forgot to put the link to their You Tube video on the Township's website (look for "Council Calendar") after uploading the meeting to You Tube . That said I'm going to grudgingly, unhappily and with an overall lack of grace thank a Woolwich councillor whom I have many times in the past sharply criticized environmentally.  Nathan Cadeau when informed by me promptly fixed the matter. Thank you Nathan.

Hmm O.K. that wasn't as painful as I thought it would be. Maybe that's because I view my environmental criticism as factual but not personal. We were advised by Lanxess (Hadley) about the results of some bench scale remediation testing. Now I believe she was talking about aerobic (with oxygen) and anaerobic (without oxygen) use of either bacteria or possibly amendments to soils that hopefully stimulate the bacteria to degrade NDMA and or chlorobenzene. The aerobic degradation was much better than the anaerobic degradation for chlorobenzene. For NDMA however the degradation both ways was much less than that for chlorobenzene. This testing will continue halfway through 2026.

Public consultation was discussed for the upcoming 2028 instrument whatever it's name such as Control Order or Certificate of Approval etc.  This of course is the new instrument post the mandated (but failed) groundwater cleanup deadline of 2028. A rose by any other name smells as sweet and another pile of horse manure from the MECP (Min. of Environment) will be equally as useless as all the rest. 

Mayor Shantz suggested that the current Waterloo Region water quantity crisis may be conflated with Elmira's water quality crisis involving NDMA, chlorobenzene, dioxins and so much more. Personally I believe that the two crises are interconnected. If she and the other guilty parties had done their jobs one or two decades ago our aquifers could have been in much better shape by now. She also would like to know if there is a better place to discharge the treated groundwater under Elmira to other than the Canagagigue Creek. Look out folks still contaminated water is looking for a home near you.

Hadley Stamm (Lanxess) made a reasonably dumb statement when she suggested that the treated groundwater being discharged to the Creek was at drinking water standards. Well Lou Almeida (GHD) swooped in and rescued her from that . Clearly Lanxess are more about PR and appearances as Hadley is the point person constantly interrupting and talking over Lou. Lou is a middle aged male of average appearance who has a ton of local Elmira experience versus Hadley's five minutes or so. One of these days Lou just might snap and non affectionately tell Hadley to "Shut the *#ck up !" Hope springs eternal.

Karl Belan of the Region of Waterloo made it clear that the Region were not interested in further treating discharged ground water to bring it up to drinking water standards. There was also discussion about the stigma of drinking former Uniroyal chemically contaminated water. 

I was pleased to see that TRAC are flexible enough to shift gears somewhat in mid stream and discuss the current Waterloo Region alleged quantity crisis. I say alleged because although not yet fully proven it sure looks like we are in water supply (quantity) trouble plus quantity IS related to quality. When you have a number of wellfields shut down due to contamination as we do then certainly water quality is affecting quantity. Well E10 at the south end of Elmira is being looked at although I find it odd that the well shed or housing has been removed. Yes the pipe is sticking out of the ground there but why expose it unnecessarily? Also I have heard recently that the Region are looking elsewhere near Elmira for more water.  Well that should be interesting as we see them attempt to pump uncontaminated water from the same aquifer(s). In fact buddy (?) Nathan Cadeau actually suggested that the Region could drill somewhere else in the aquifer and have clean water. Well, well, well.

Hadley got into an interesting conversation with Karl (Region) when she appeared to say simultaneously that the Region Do/Don't intentionally pump drinking water from contaminated aquifers elsewhere than Elmira.  Maybe Lanxess would care to clean up the treated groundwater further for use as drinking water??? Eric Hodgins (former Region hydroG) maybe pointedly commented that the Ontario Safe Drinking Water Act does have provisions for fines and jail for violators. Hmm.

There was much discussion about a survey from Lanxess to determine local interest in these issues. Frankly I think that all Lanxess want to do is quietly get the heck out of the aquifer remediation business as soon as possible and that means keeping everything on the downlow. 

I am seeing which way the wind is blowing and it's all about winding this thing up gracefully and looking good spending the least amount of money possible. Thank you Region of Waterloo for putting water back in the spotlight.