Saturday, March 23, 2013
MODERN TOXIC WASTE DISPOSAL AT CHEMTURA
Yes I'm still on Chemtura's 2012 Annual Monitoring Report that came out this week. Page 82 advises us that between 2011 and 2012 Chemtura, while in the process of digging a trench in their south-west yard (M2), came across and removed 290 buried drums. Most of these would have been buried with their toxic contents back in the fifties and sixties. Contrary to mythology the human race had full knowledge at that time that this behaviour was extremely damaging to the environment as well as to human and animal life. The purpose of burying these drums was out of sight and out of mind. They have sat there rusting away and draining their contents into the ground and groundwater for over fifty years. Our wellfields were shut down almost twenty-five years ago, yet these readily accessible and shallow drums were permitted to drain their contents even while the Ontario Ministry of the Environment stood idly by. It's been a decade since local citizens requested in writing that they be removed. Shame on Chemtura and the M.O.E..
On another note on the very next page (83) we learn that surprise, surprise Chemtura have just found xylenes and toluene in wells that they haven't been found in before. That these wells are downgradient from the highly contaminated, including non aqueous phase liquids, Main Tank Farm (MTF) is not a surprise. Years ago we learned of this subsurface contamination and Chemtura and the M.O.E. did what they do best which is talk about it and "monitor" it. By the way xylenes and toluene are both petroleum hydrocarbons and courtesy of Chemtura and multiple neighbours they have shared them with Elmira's groundwater for decades.
Chemtura have claimed that they remove buried wastes as they come across them. Back in 2004 their general manager publicly claimed that they didn't still have buried wastes. In that sense at least the conversation is slightly improving.
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If you could post citations and references, I might actually believe you. Until then, this seems like a lot of heresay to me. Did you know the government regulations of the time? Funny story.
ReplyDeleteWhat they came across was a surprise. They dealt with it. Good on them. They're continuing to deal with it; even better they're removing and decontaminating the soil on their own volition.
So thank you, Alan Marshall, but I would honestly love to see references to your statements. There's a lot of rumors going around that are hurtful and panic-inciting. How awful is that! I don't mean to badger you, but if this is true? It would be amazing to know it surely.
I have distributed to CPAC and the public information that workers at Hoescht dyeworks in Germany were sufferring from bladder cancer in the 1890's. Similarily Hoescht had buried their solvent wastes in the ground at that time and poisoned all the nearby wells. At that point they began to discharge into the nearest surface water bodies. As far as Uniroyal/Chemtura they have for years advised CPAC and the public that they believed they still had buried drums of toxic wastes in their south-west corner (M2). When it was convenient to them they finally removed them "voluntarily" because the M.O.E. have long been co-opted. Clearly you too are drinking Chemtura/M.O.E. koolaid. Feel free to educate yourself by reading the Advocate.
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