FORMER CPAC MEMBER WITHELD VITAL INFORMATION FROM PUBLIC

This vital information was in regards to the Settlement Agreement or "sweetheart deal". It is my belief that the new CPAC, who with open minds have examined the Settlement Agreement; understand that it is the overiding and controlling document. It releases Uniroyal/Chemtura from liability for known contamination in 1991. The wording in the document is contamination that the M.O.E. and Uniroyal are "presently aware of". There is no mistake, despite the protests from the M.O.E., Chemtura and Susan Bryant; it is a sweetheart deal. The M.O.E. got the focus of the public off their incompetence and gross negligence and Uniroyal/Chemtura were excused from hundreds of millions of dollars of cleanup on the west side of their site. To sweeten the deal, Uniroyal accepted 100% of the blame for the shutdown of the Elmira wellfields thus relieving the M.O.E. of more blame for their oversight failures with even more local companies. It was a win-win scenario for the M.O.E. and Uniroyal. The public of course got screwed.

Not only was the "sweetheart deal" witheld from the public by all six signatories and parties to the Environmental Appeal Board hearings; it was also witheld from the majority of APTE members and coordinators. The six parties were Uniroyal and the Ministry of the Environment (M.O.E.) of course but also the Township (Woolwich), the Region (Waterloo), Nutrite and APT Environment. I have spoken with some former APTE members and coordinators. There was zero knowledge of any Release or Indemnity being given to Uniroyal by the M.O.E.. That a couple of other APTE members were in the know is entirely possible. I was a member at that time and I also certainly was not advised then or later. APTE's own lawyer at the hearings had no knowledge of an Indemnity being given to Uniroyal.

When the conspiracy thickens is in the years after the sweetheart deal. At CPAC we discussed in depth all the "hot spots" on both sides of the creek running through Uniroyal/Chemtura. In July 2003 CPAC passed a Motion requesting source removal of among other contaminants, DNAPLS (dense non-aqueous phase liquids) which were on the west side of the creek; underneath the former operating ponds (RPW 5,6,7,8). Then CPAC sat and waited. A DNAPL technical sub committee was formed. In 2007 four of us went and spoke with preminent world experts on DNAPL at the University of Waterloo. Still nothing happened at CPAC including the other three persons ever speaking about the gamechanging information we received at the U. of Waterloo. Keep in mind that Esthur Thur, Richard Clausi and I all left APTE in January 1994 precisely because of their refusal to object to the M.O.E.'s acceptance of a grossly flawed DNAPL report produced by Uniroyal. I was the only person on the DNAPL technical sub committee in 2007 objecting to the psuedo science and plain nonsense being spouted by Chemtura and the M.O.E.. For this reason it was deemed necessary by my former colleagues to remove me from CPAC. My appeal of a Certificate of Approval was the red herring they had been waiting for. I of course had no idea then as to what their motivation was.

My former friend and colleague had sat through years of DNAPL discussion and sub committees ostensibly to clean them up, with full knowledge that Chemtura were indemnified from all liability for them. The Ontario M.O.E. and Uniroyal/Chemtura did the same thing. Which is more repulsive; that our government would lie and deceive us or our own neighbour here in Elmira? Honest work has been done on the old CPAC in regards to air issues, that I acknowledge. Former CPAC members worked diligently to better environmental conditions in Elmira by trying to remove Dioxins on the east side of the creek, which were discovered in 2002. That still does not excuse being part and parcel to a sweetheart deal in 1991 which was done to help a disgusting polluter and their supposed regulater; at the expense of the public's right to a full cleanup.