RED HERRINGS & MINUTIA & SLEIGHT OF HAND

In Cambridge it's all been about mathematics. Risk Assessments and meaningless acronyms. ILCR, VITL, SVE, TRV, LOAEL, NOAEL, PCO. Who knows or cares what these initials stand for? They are verbal drivel whose primary purpose is to distract citizens from the bottom line. The Bishop St. community were poisoned by two, for profit companies whe were supposed to be monitored for environmental compliance by our government and were not. Instead of our governments then stepping up to the plate and taking responsibility to get all the poisoned people IMMEDIATELY out of their poisoned homes and into safe accomodation, they have spent the last SIX years slowly remediating the air in these homes, while the citizens continued to live in less poisoned air. Oh and also our governments have been aiding the industrial criminals who did this by producing studies at taxpayer expense, ostensibly showing how minor the risks are and have been. This I'm sure is very comforting to the dead and dying.

In Elmira the game has been both similar and different. Here our governments have been redirecting citizen outrage and anger away from poisoned drinking water towards Mickey Mouse solutions that are endorsed by the poisoners, their bought and paid for consultants and local citizen sellouts. Lost decades ago was the realization that Elmira water stank and tasted like crap for years before the Ontario M.O.E. finally admitted in late 1989 that they had "discovered" a carcinogenic chemical in the drinking water. Furthermore to help redirect the focus away from the still and most likely always contaminated aquifers, we have ongoing air releases fumigating our community. Out of sight and out of mind is how the authorities have dealt with the water. Once a pipeline was built from Waterloo to Elmira, a real cleanup of the Elmira aquifer was doomed. Afterall, industry essentially pays insurance premiums to all levels of government and then they expect protection from the consequences of their anti social and or criminal behaviour. The Ontario M.O.E. are the major vehicle for industry protection from an outraged public. The M.O.E. endorse and go along with idiotic and time consuming "Optimization" studies, Site Specific Risk assessments, DNAPL Investigations that go on forever and Comprehensive Long Range Plans. Lets not forget Five Year Reassessments and detailed Ammonia Treatment Systems and On & Off Site Containment Systems as well as BioMonitoring of the local Creek. Monthly Progress Reports, Annual Monitoring Reports as well as Annual Environmental Reports add to the distraction. ANYTHING BUT COMMON SENSE! Chemtura and the M.O.E. please shut up and start digging! Take the poison out of the ground. Now!