LAST EVENING'S CPAC WAS A BARNBURNER

O.K. it's taken five months and four public CPAC (Chemtura Public Advisory Committee) meetings for me to say this but here goes: Mayor Todd Cowan is both doing a good job as Chair and is fulfilling his campaign promises regarding environmental cleanup in Elmira and at Chemtura. I am not suggesting perfection as evidenced by a minor fooferaw between him and another CPAC member. This difference of opinion regarding either the Chair's behaviour (interrupting) or his authority over citizen volunteers was resolved with all parties probably having learned from it. What I found most interesting was Mayor Cowan's attempt as a nuetral Chair to moderate the criticism if not harshness of some citizen's (moi) and some CPAC members comments towards Chemtura/M.O.E. . At one time I might have viewed his conciliatory comments towards Chemtura as either counter productive or a betrayal but in fact, as the Chair, they are probably totally appropriate.

As is Standard Operating Procedure Chemtura will not be bringing the soil & water results from GP1 & 2 to CPAC until late November, weeks if not months (2) after they've had them. These results will hopefully give us a better picture in regards to Dioxins in the south-west corner of Chemtura. This delay will "justify" no removal/remediation this year and buy the company another year's delay.

David Marks (hydrogeologist) while unable to attend last night's public meeting has been working with the CPAC members and sharing his expertise and insights with them. Ron Campbell referred to him on a couple of occasions including David Marks opinion that the magic cleanup date of 2028 will NOT occur. Ron Campbell as an expert in the environmental field was fabulous last evening. His comments that DNAPL was both difficult to remove partly because it is so stable underground as well as the fact that current remediation (hydraulic containment) won't remedy it was music to my ears. His comments about "other sources" in Elmira including Varnicolor's Lot 91 being an "environmental crime" also resonated with me. His further comment regarding "other sources" was that "there are a bunch of them".

Vivienne, Dan and Sebastian all asked penetrating questions of Chemtura and the Ministry (M.O.E.). They very much put them on the spot regarding the failure of LNAPL (Light Non Aqueous Phase Liquid) cleanup via pumping wells. All three asked questions around governance as in were Chemtura/M.O.E. obliged to follow CPAC's lead on priority cleanup issues or not. M.O.E. personnel Garth Napier and Steve Martindale's vigorous defence of Chemtura's efforts to date was very revealing to me and hopefully others. It seems clear to me that they are not opponents but in fact allies. Further to LNAPL, the CPAC members questions provoked Jeff Merriman's (Chemtura) response that "That technology (pumping) was not effective for LNAPL's".

Richard Clausi of the Elmira Environmental Hazards Team was again present and raising issues. He very much buttonholed the M.O.E. and put them on the spot with his comments that there was only one legitimate forum and group for public discussion and consultation and that this was it. Here at public CPAC meetings all parties and citizens and the media were welcome to attend, listen , question and comment. Richard had taken offense to veiled suggestions from the Ministry that there might be other parties they were privately listening to. Richard is very much about openness and transparency.

Yours truly raised DNAPL issues again and suggested that past private "technical" DNAPL meetings among others were private for the improper purpose of shielding those discussions from the light of public comment and questioning.

CPAC and Woolwich Township have expressed serious interest in a proposal put forward by Dr. Gail Krantzberg of McMaster University. Her consulting company has proposals for study of CPAC issues including Governance, Priority Issues and even how to put pressure on Chemtura to follow through on CPAC priorities. All in all this CPAC meeting was a breath of fresh air and head and shoulders above CPAC meetings over the past decade.