LARGEST CLEANUP FOR REDEVELOPMENT IN KITCHENER'S HISTORY

This is a another feel good, pro business, redevelopment story from the Waterloo Region (K-W) Record. As usual it does a service to the business community while ignoring far more fundamental health issues of the local residents. The title in yesterday's Record was "Site cleanup seen as big step in Kitchener's urban landscape". The site was home to Breithaupt Leather and Pannill Veneer afterwards. The writer Terry Pender informs us "...the company had to remove 70,000 tonnes of lightly contaminated soil from the site..." Who said it was "lightly contaminated"? The developer perhaps? Nobody removes any "lightly " contaminated soil much less 70,000 tonnes. Bullshit & PooPoo del toro ! Riley Leather Co. was one of the contributers to the TCE (trichloroethylene) contamination in Woburn Mass., USA made famous by John Travolta in A Civil Action. Leather companies use acids and solvents in their processes. A veneer company most likely used glues to combine the wood together. That would also involve the use of solvents. Has this writer even gone and looked at the site? It and the excavations are absolutely massive. Does anybody seriously think that this much contaminated soil was not contaminating the groundwater beneath? Where are the environmental reports? Where are the groundwater and nearby drinking well studies? Do the nearby residents have even a clue as to the danger to their health? Why are our authorities municipal, regional and provincial not looking out for the health of these citizens? The answer is because they are much more concerned with the financial health of the local economy and businesses than the health of modest income nearby homeowners. Shame on you and shame on the Record for your complicity.