BURIED DRUMS, $10M, DIOXINS and LOT91

Well Woolwich residents have a virtual smorgasboard of reading pleasure this long weekend in their two local papers. Gail Martin of the Elmira Independent as usual attended last week's public CPAC meeting. She has no less than three stories between the front page and page two. The front page story is titled "Opposition to excavation plan continues". Page two has "Groundwater cleanup tops $10 million" as well as "Buried drums excavated". The Woolwich Observer have a front page story titled "MOE carries out testing of contaminants on Elmira's Lot 91" and then a small article on page five titled "Environmental groups condemn Chemtura plan".

The Independent's front page article focused on CPAC's continued opposition to Chemtura's so called cleanup plans for GP1 & 2 which contain amongst a litany of other toxins, DDT and Dioxin. CPAC were also upset at Chemtura's Press Release which was worded to appear as if they had some community support for their plan, which they don't. The second article refers to the tax dollars that have gone towards the Uniroyal/Chemtura cleanup since 1989. It currently stands at $10 million and is rising. The third article deals with 125 buried drums and accompanying contaminated soil that was removed by Chemtura last summer. This excavation went down 3 metres or nearly ten feet versus their proposed one foot excavation in GP1 & 2 scheduled for this October. CPAC and yours truly still have not received lab results which would indicate concentrations as well as specific chemicals discovered.

The Woolwich Observer have a small picture of the M.O.E.'s truck and trailer parked just outside the Lot 91 property. The Observer interviewed Amy Shaw of the M.O.E. who essentially parroted the M.O.E.'s position at CPAC regarding "natural attenuation". I described this so called process yesterday here in the Advocate. The Observer made one error in stating "Routine checks on chemical levels in the groundwater have been conducted ever since, with each of the resuts indicating lower levels of contaminants.". I'm not sure where that comes from as the article earlier indicates that the only result the public has received was taken in 2011, fifteen years after the 1996 results. The Observer's second small article indicates opposition to Chemtura's Dioxin/DDT cleanup plan from CPAC (Chemtura Public Advisory Committee), APTE (Assurring Protection for Tomorrow's Environment) and EHT (Elmira Environmental Hazards Team. As a co-founder with Rich Clausi, I vote for EHT as having the coolest sounding name.