ELMIRA SWEETHEART DEAL AND COVERUP

I did not understand in 1990-91 why Nutrite had lawyers and party status at the Environmental Appeal Board hearings in Elmira. It was another decade before their involvement in the destruction of the Municipal drinking water Aquifer came out. WHY?

In the 1980's there were environmental incidents and investigations around Borg Textiles. The GRCA reported that Borg had had incidents in which their effluent to the Elmira Sewage Treatment Plant was knocking out the bacteria. The Howard Street drain was being reported by citizens as having coloured water in it. Testing and observation was done by the Township. I do not know if the CAO of the Township, Bill Kowalchuk, was involved with that investigation. I do know that Varnicolor Chemical were a suspect although owner, Severin Argenton, claimed they had no connection to the Howard St. storm drain. Chlorobenzene was found in the drain in the 80's; in the 90's shallow groundwater testing at Varnicolor did not reveal the presence of Chlorobenzene. I do know that after Bill Kowalchuk's tenure with the Township he was hired by Varnicolor Chemical and did yeoman duty with them including personally receiving envionmental convictions. I am also aware that Borg had their own dyeing operation on site and that they used what are known as AZO Dyes. One of their suppliers was Hoescht originally from Germany. Internet searches reveal that both Chlorobenzene and NDMA can be expected from Textile Industries in general and most especially with those using dyes. I also know that Liberal Environment Minister, then and now, Jim Bradley, sent a five man team to investigate "other" sources of contamination to the Elmira Municipal Aquifer. I worked at Varnicolor at the time and their investigation certainly lasted a full five minutes. Rumour has it , it was twice as thorough at Borg Textiles. One of the members of Bradley's team was Gord Robinson. I have written about his keen powers of observation (not) here in the Advocate before. Another exemplary member was Glen McDonald. That would be the same Mr. McDonald who was interviewed by the Globe & Mail (Jock Ferguson) in the mid 80's about barrels of Trichloroethylene found sitting exposed on Varnicolor's Lot 91. Mr. McDonald felt the need to defend Varnicolor as a clean operation. That would be the same Mr. McDonald who was fired and charged criminally for tipping Severin Argenton off about an upcoming M.O.E. raid. Bradley's team found no other sources of contamination including Nutrite, Varnicolor and Borg. WHY ??

The Region of Waterloo sued Uniroyal, Nutrite and Varnicolor for the destruction of Elmira's drinking water. The Region hired Ch2MHILL away from Varnicolor to be the Region's consultants during the Elmira crisis. CH2MHILL had full knowledge of the groundwater issues at Varnicolor as well as the lack of deeper wells and results. Later after the Region had made their deal with Uniroyal and the M.O.E. they dropped their lawsuit against everybody.

Uniroyal Chemical knew about both Varnicolor and Nutrite from day one and sooner. Whether they had any knowledge of Borg I do not know. The M.O.E. were setting up Uniroyal to take the whole fall. Uniroyal pushed back hard. A deal was done and everybody got away with environmental murder. Except of course for the public who are still paying and still being lied to by the authorities.