WHERE DO THE LIES STOP AND THE TRUTH BEGINS ?

Some of the statements, allegedly of fact, made at last evenings' CPAC meeting by Chemtura and Ministry of the Environment reps, can best be described as bizarre. Today's posting will only be a small sample of the fourteen pages of handwritten notes I took last evening. Therefore right here I will congratulate the incredible, incisive and aggressive questions and comments by the following Elmira citizens. This would be Dr. Dan Holt, Vivienne Delaney, Sebastian Seibel-Achenbach and Ron Campbell, all CPAC members. Add to this list would be Susan Bryant from the gallery. Her comments about how little Chemtura and the M.O.E. did to help the downstream Mennonite farmers impacted by Chemtura's Dioxins and DDT was enlightening. Also her comments about erosion damage and mobilization of contamination was in stark contrast to the reassuring claims of Chemtura.

Jeff Merriman of Chemtura assurred me last night that recent sampling which found 1,100 parts per billion (ppb) of petroleum hydrocarbons on the west side of Varnicolor Chemical wasn't really petroleum hydrocarbons. He claims that this finding in the Municipal Aquifer was actually Chlorobenzene. This is despite the fact that the same lab report shows a separate reading for Chlorobenzene in this well (CH70D) at 1,900 ppb. Jeff this is BIZARRE BULLSHIT !

The M.O.E. assurred the public that the most recent groundwater testing showing five industrial chemicals above drinking water standards on the old Lot 91 (east end of Oriole parkway) is not cause for concern. That is because of NATURAL ATTENUATION ! They also claimed wrongly that these exceedances were only in the middle of the site not at the western or north edge where landfill Creek flows by. When we looked at the map well OW2 is near the edge and exceeds at least one standard. Keep in mind all of this is more than twenty years AFTER the last dumping on this site. The contaminated groundwater on this site has been discharging into Landfill creek for twenty years plus and that is exactly what the M.O.E.'s map showed last evening. This so called "NATURAL ATTENUATION" is bureaucratic BS for letting these contaminants naturally disperse downstream.

Ron Campbell (CPAC) threw out a lure and reeled in a big fish. Ron tried to be nice about it but Steve Quigley of CRA was adamant that the Bio-monitoring in Canagagigue creek proved that the Dioxins in GP1 & 2 were not leaving that area and entering the creek. When the smoke cleared Steve had to admit that the Bio-Monitoring including leech and clam testing only proved that the excavation of creekbanks and island in the "Gig" had removed Dioxins and DDT in that location. He further admitted as Ron so gently pointed out that GP1 & 2 were downstream of this Bio-monitoring not upstream. Hence reductions in organisms upstream of GP1 & 2 were irrelevant to whether or not Dioxins and DDT are flowing into the creek currently from GP1 & 2.

Jeff Merriman, as pointed out by yours truly, has been quoted twice now as claiming that the excavations and remediation in their south-east corner (GP1 & 2) are the "last" on-site remediation they will do. Well CPAC Chair Dan Holt jumped on this and confronted Jeff. Well well ! Now the story has changed (again). What Jeff really meant was "latest" not "last". Gp1 & 2 are the "latest" remediation not necessarily the "last". Well done Dan although as per the above title I just don't know how much confidence we can have in contradictory and inconsistent information.

Lastly for now, Josef of Chemtura got jumped on repeatedly by myself, CPAC and Susan Bryant. Again Dan Holt led the charge with his examination of Chemtura's Press Release around the fall "cleanup" of Dioxins and DDT. All of us in no uncertain terms made it clear that assertions by Chemtura suggesting that they had consulted with the public and had some form of acceptance for their proposal; was complete and utter bullshit. Their only "support" is from their paid consultants, public relations people and tepid support as stated by Bill Bardswick of the M.O.E.. By the way the public meeting was dominated, numbers wise only, by Chemtura, M.O.E. and their paid hangers on. I pointed out at the start of the meeting in my Delegation to CPAC that it appeared as if the company were in big trouble and needed reinforcements. Two thirds (so far) of CPAC's SWAT Team (ie. Henry Regier & I) were present as well as two other citizens. Simply put Chemtura are bulling ahead with a grossly unacceptable to the informed citizens, Dioxin/DDT cleanup.