SHAM ELMIRA CLEANUP CONTINUES - BADLY

Elmira, Woolwich and Ontario citizens have been sold a bill of goods. This bill of goods is that Elmira's groundwater will be restored to drinking standards by 2028. This is virtually impossible whether one does or doesn't follow the basic assumptions put forth by Chemtura's consultants. This basic assumption is that yes there is grossly contaminated soil and residual DNAPL on the Chemtura property but it has been contained on site. Off-site there are areas of heavy groundwater contamination which can and will be remediated by pump and treat technology over a thirty year time span (1998-2028). These off-site assumptions are plain wrong and all the recent and ongoing cleanups throughout Elmira testify to this. Whether Voisin Motors, Strauss Fuels, Beckers, the old Gord's Garage, Varnicolor Chemical (ongoing), Nutrite (Yara) there are numerous sites throughout Elmira which have contributed to our groundwater contamination for decades. Many others are possible but uninvestigated yet.

For the moment let's ignore reality. Let's assume that all the sources are at Chemtura and the rest of Elmira only has dissolved contaminants versus source areas. CRA on behalf of Uniroyal (Chemtura) have a hydraulic containment system within Elmira. It consists of wells W5A, W5B, W4, W3 and E7 down at the south end of Elmira, right beside the new Voisin Motors. With a computer generated model they have determined exactly how many litres per second of groundwater must be pumped off the Chemtura site and throughout Elmira. This magic number of litres per second, over a thirty year time span is supposed to clean up the dissolved contaminants in Elmira's groundwater. The magic number, determined by CRA was 64.5 litres per second for the five wells listed. From the start of the Off - Site Containment and Treatment System in the summer of 1998 the yearly average of total monthly pumping rates has NEVER achieved this. OOPS! In June of 2009 under pressure from myself at CPAC to explain their failure, CRA and Chemtura lowered their computer generated target pumping rate to 53.1 litres per second . For the record as of the start of 2009 they still hadn't been able to meet this significantly reduced target rate EVER.

It is now January 2012 and the last Monthly Chemtura Progress Report distributed is for November 2011. Chemtura achieved their REDUCED off-site pumping rate on an annual basis for 2009 and 2010. The success after eleven years of failure in a row seems to have gone to their heads. 2011 off-site pumping has been pitiful. They have been unable to achieve again even their reduced pumping target rates. The bottom line is this. They are going through a Review and Update of their hydraulic containment system. This may be part of their so called Five Year Review. Regardless of what they call it, it is a sham. The goal of this Review/Update/Work Plan is to "...evaluate the progress of groundwater remediation of the off-site Municipal Aquifer (MA) beneath Elmira, Ontario." The "progress" has been abysmal. They have set the targets necessary to achieve cleanup and they have continually failed to come even close over the past fourteen years. How many different ways is it necessary to measure failure? I believe that this whole "cleanup" is nothing but smoke and mirrors and a delaying tactic until Chemtura decide to leave town and leave us their mess.