SPIN DOCTORS AND TRUTH MASSAGERS

Further in regards to Thursday night's public CPAC meeting, should include the CPAC members on a number of occasions reminding the M.O.E. and Chemtura that there are other sources of contamination to the Municipal Aquifers in Elmira. Steve Martindale suggested that "we don't need to differentiate". I clarified that, by advising that yes all these other sites do need to be differentiated because otherwise would be treating them all as if they had only and specifically contributed readily dissolved contaminants to the aquifers. Whether gas stations or industrial concerns any DNAPLS, LNAPLS or subsurface wastes, sludges and tars have to be removed or remediated in order for the off-site pump and treat system and wells to have half a chance to do their job.

Ron Campbell has been doing a great job in calmly bursting balloons sent forth by the M.O.E. and Chemtura/CRA. Again Steve M. of the M.O.E. made the bold statement that all M.O.E. agreements with industries have Indemnities included. He was trying to downplay the significance of the reprehensible and long secret October 7, 1991 Settlement Agreement aka "sweetheart deal" between Uniroyal (Chemtura) and the Ontario M.O.E.. Ron pointed out in his decades long experience dealing with polluted sites and M.O.E. Control Orders that Indemnities with polluters absolutely were not the norm. To this Steve responded true but the Indemnities were associated with M.O.E. agreements (private) not with the public Control Orders issued to polluting companies. Steve then further relented and said yes there are very few private agreements and hence very few Indemnities.

Lastly I had to clarify self serving hydrogeological interpretations sent forth by both Alan Deal of Conestoga Rovers (CRA) and then echoed by Jeff Merriman on behalf of Chemtura. They claim that the large reduction in concentration of Chlorobenzene from the OW57-32R observation well from 1998 to recently proves that there is not nor was DNAPL (dense non aqueous phase liquid) present in the subsurface. This is storytelling and untruthful. In and of itself it proves that by locating a pumping well (W4) literally a few feet away and in the same aquifer, that you can indeed pump out the DNAPL faster than it can dissolve, hence significantly reducing concentrations of dissolved contaminants. Slow dissolving is but one of the characteristics of DNAPLS. Low solubility is another. This well (W4) will need to be pumping at current rates for decades to centuries more depending on the volume of free phase DNAPL in the subsurface, continuously, slowly dissolving. Although low solubility is a characteristic of DNAPL the solubility of chlorobenzene is still thousands of times greater than the Ontario Drinking Water Standards. It is probably technically possible if you pump long enough and hard enough to eventually get the DISSOLVED concentrations of Chlorobenzene below 80 ppb.; the drinking standard. Then what? Do you want to be drinking this water knowing that all it takes is a power failure or a pump malfunction for the concentrations to start rising again? I don't. This is the scam being perpetrated on the public. Those sources need to be honestly investigated, for the first time and removed/remediated. Anything else is just playing games.