THE SMELL OF DESPERATION IS OVERPOWERING

Lying, desperate people with their backs to the wall will say or do anything. The question is who put them into that position? The answer is everybody! Uniroyal/Chemtura were enabled by three levels of government to pull the wool over citizens' eyes. Woolwich Township have stepped off that merry go round and the Region of Waterloo also appear to be having second thoughts about their support for a losing cause.

We were told last Thursday night that CRA/Chemtura would be tripling the volume of off-site pumping and treating of groundwater. I've now read the over twenty-five pages of CRA's handout and so far I've not seen that triple figure anywhere. What I've seen are a bunch of drivel about "dynamic" relocation of this well and "dynamic" relocation of that one. I've also seen suggestions that some of the groundwater extracted by the off-site wells won't require treatment prior to discharge to the Canagagigue Creek. Really? Then why are you pumping it in the first place? Finally there are suggestions that Hydrofracturing could be used in order to increase the exposure of contaminants to chemical oxidation (ISCO). Hydrofracturing is a very controversial practice used in the oil industry to increase extraction of petroleum.

Then we come to In-Situ Chemical Oxidation or ISCO. Again according to these CRA handouts it is but one of two suggested Scenarios. Maybe they will and maybe they won't. Furthermore despite CRA's claims that everything is under control and they know what they are doing; in fact nothing could be further from the truth. With their client's credibility falling faster than their new Public Relations firm (Sussex) can possibly slow; CRA are throwing out various "plans" and enhancements that are no more than words to them. They do not have Work Plans ready and in fact are going to allegedly introduce them on November 30/12, the day AFTER the next public CPAC meeting as well as December 15/12. How much scrutiny of them will be possible? Just about as much as Chemtura want which is nil.

Chemtura's groundwater models and computer driven modelling are nothing more than high tech smoke screens. Take any model you want, determine the outcome you want, and then plug in various numbers, assumptions and scenarios until you get exactly what you want. Their assumptions have always been inaccurate including that they have full hydraulic containment, in all aquifers on site. Their deceptive and misleading Optimization Plan allowed on-site contamination to leave the north-west area of the site, supposedly only in the Municipal Upper Aquifer. Well it's leaving in both the Municipal Upper and Municipal Lower and now supposedly they are going to address it on the Yara site on their south-west corner. Another false assumption they are still hiding behind is that there are no significant off-site source areas. Well their semi proposed ISCO west of their site is to address a decades old NDMA source area near OW60, possibly from the old Shirt Factory on Park Ave.. Yara/Nutrite is an off-site source area as is either Varnicolor or Borg Textiles, possibly even both of them. Finally we have an off-site source area by Sanyo Canada (well CH38), also NDMA.

My guess is that all parties are so far down the road of deception that they feel there is no face saving turnaround. Why come clean now? Keep up the facade, pretend to be responding to the public, bullshit and bafflegab, promise anything and run out the clock. Bill Bardswick of the M.O.E. advised CPAC that there are no consequences for Chemtura failing to restore the Elmira Aquifers to drinking water by 2028. One of my concerns now is that they are so desperate and so stupid that they will try anything. For them it's not about reality or sucess; it's about the appearance of sucess or the appearance of failure. Maybe the endgame is no more than a declaration that the Aquifers are fine but golly gee the Region of Waterloo aren't prepared to use them for public consumption. Rest assurred, people who think they are smarter than the rest of us, always have another story ready.