CHEMTURA (RE)VERIFICATION BY C.I.A.C.

The CIAC or Chemistry Institute Association of Canada has been holding a Verification study/analysis at Chemtura for the last several weeks. The C.C.P.A. or Chemical Producers Association of Canada were the forerunners to the C.I.A.C.. Aside from a hundred other past reasons to deny this Responsible Care* verification to Chemtura, there are three recent ones. Firstly and most recently, Dwight Este of Chemtura lied by omission. O.K. O.K. semantics here. Is the word "lie" appropriate especially when it's by omission? Also other Chemtura folks (Jeff & Josef) were present when he did this and certainly did not correct him. Dwight advised CPAC and Chair (Mayor) Cowan that they only needed one citizen representative after yours truly had advised both CPAC and Woolwich Council that two were required! Chemtura already had National Advisory Panel member and local resident Pat McLean on board. This they failed to share with CPAC. STRIKE ONE.

STRIKE TWO deals with last fall's release of BLE-25 a mixture of Acetone and Diphenylamine (DPA). The release was due to outdated rupture disc technology. To date Chemtura have given no reasons other than the obvious one (money) as to why a large emergency pressure vessel is not on site connected to their batch process pressure vessels. Rupture discs are designed to fail when the pressure in a vessel exceeds design limits. Then they are designed to release the contents of the vessel to Chemtura's neighbours as they did again last fall. This is Responsible Care*?

STRIKE THREE has to do with Chemtura's (and the M.O.E.'s) failure to advise and announce to the community and Township that they had had a release, in a timely fashion, last fall. The Community Alert Network should have been activated as well as their siren and an immediate phone call to Woolwich Township was in order. None of the above occurred. This is Responsible Care* ?

I freely admit my bias in regards to industry led public relations organizations. I will admit to being impressed when the C.C.P.A. repeatedly refused Uniroyal/Crompton/Chemtura the Responsible Care* designation through the early 2000's. I was equally unimpressed when they received it in 2008. To my knowledge that fact was not reported in our local papers. It should have been or was it a secret? I have felt that the old CPAC aided and abetted Chemtura's success via their penchant for private negotiations. What did they receive in turn? Meanwhile the ball is back in the C.I.A.C.'s court. If they verify/approve Chemtura this time then they are indeed nothing but a mouthpiece for irresponsible chemical polluters. If on the other hand they withhold their approval, then once again I must reconsider my position regarding their whole program. P.S. STRIKE FOUR could certainly be Chemtura's self serving attempt at undermining a new, revitalized and aggressive CPAC via their acceptance and promotion of a private alternative group. Shame on them!