RULE # 6- PLAUSIBLE DENIABILITY

Rule # 6 is sometimes referred to as the "you'll never find what you don't look for" rule". Classic local examples would include deeper contamination at the old Varnicolor site on Union St.. The M.O.E. promised a deep investigation and then reneged on doing it. It's also my suspicion that if the M.O.E. wanted to find a lot more than just Ammonia at the old Nutrite (Yara) they could, but that again would muddy the Uniroyal/Chemtura myth of them being the sole destroyer of the Elmira drinking water aquifers.

Similarily NDMA was not tested for on Varnicolor's Lot 91 at the extreme eastern end of Oriole Parkway twenty years ago. Recently it was tested for and found at low concentrations. I wonder what those concentrations would have been twenty plus years ago? Chlorobenzene was not found on the Union St. site. That makes absolutely no sense or logic whatsoever for a company which handled paints and solvents.

Similarily we've been advising Chemtura that merely testing surface samples for Dioxins at GP1 & GP2 makes no sense. These Dioxins were released in a mixture of solvents which percolated down into the sand and gravel at this south-east corner of their site. Chemtura understand that a one foot deep hole is a lot cheaper than a ten foot deep hole to dig and then dispose of.

Back in 1998 Conestoga Rovers and Uniroyal inadvertently discovered what CRA described as possible DNAPL behind the Union St. Varnicolor site. With M.O.E. acquiesence they did nothing, including mentioning it at the Uniroyal Public Advisory Committee meeting. Three years ago I found the information in an old monthly Progress Report and I've been publicly pushing for comments or explanation ever since. Last month, fourteen years after the event, we got an "explanation" from CRA. They now tell us that it is possible that someone spilled an oil product into the drilling fluid container and hence their comments about DNAPLS being 100 feet below surface were incorrect.
This month the M.O.E. have promised to look into this matter and report to CPAC. I expect that their version may include aliens, UFOs and or fairy dust. Jeff Merriman's reasoning for Chemtura's taking three years to respond to a legitimate public question about their consultant's findings was that the member of the public asking the question wasn't a CPAC member and hence CPAC wasn't asking the question. Well excuse me all to hell Mr. Merriman. That is exactly why Chemtura do not and never have deserved to be verified under *Responsible Care. You have a duty of honesty and transparency to the public not just to the citizens nominated by the Municipal Council to CPAC.

This is why honest citizens usually end up walking away from government involved agencies and committees. The level of sophisticated deception, manipulation and prevarication is literally too much for people other than professional liars to stomach over the long haul.