WASTED OPPORTUNITY IN CHEMTURA'S M2 (south-west) AREA

Via e-mail yesterday I advised CPAC and SWAT of the long history of ignoring this large area (M2) by the Ontario Ministry of the Environment and by Chemtura. This of course would be at least partly as a result of the October 7, 1991 Settlement Agreement aka "sweetheart deal". That private deal between Uniroyal/Chemtura and the M.O.E. released the company from liability for all known contamination on their site including M2.

However now we have a company who are pretending to be bound by the principles and ethics of *Responsible Care. Among those ethics are a committment to cradle to grave responsibility for and management of toxic wastes produced by the company. We know where these buried wastes are and it's long past time to remove them.

A decade ago the former CPAC with my major collaboration produced a document referred to as the "July 2003 CPAC Request for Action". It spoke to numerous areas on-site with buried wastes including the M2 area. It stated that free phase DNAPL and free phase LNAPL were within M2. The LNAPL came from Building # 15 and the DNAPL was found both at OW88 as well as on the border of TPW2 and M2. Further Uniroyal used this former town dump to dispose of 2,4-D and 2,4,5-T wastes. These chemicals together make Agent Orange which was contaminated with 2,3,7,8-TCDD, the most toxic of all the Dioxins. Furthermore most of the highest readings of Dioxins in the creekbanks of the Canagagigue were found adjacent to M2 indicating that they were mobilized by solvents and moved to and into the creek.

CPAC members have shown themselves to be open minded and willing to learn. That is why Chemtura/CRA/M.O.E. are so unhappy with them. While this committee still suffers from being a committee of council at least in theory, the reality so far is that this current Council has overall been very supportive. Of interest is the last line under M2 in this 2003 document namely "May contain unexcavated drums of waste chemicals". Chemtura only removed those that were in their way for a trenching operation across M2. Imagine what they'd find if they were actually looking.