DDT AND DIOXINS STILL IN CANAGAGIGUE CREEK DOWNSTREAM OF CHEMTURA

As promised the Ontario Ministry of the Environment have shared a recent report with CPAC & SWAT concerning testing late last fall in the Canagagigue Creek downstream of Chemtura. I had asked the M.O.E. if they would share their Work Plan for this testing with CPAC & SWAT prior to their going ahead. The answer was no and thus we have just about what I expected we'd receive. It is a report showing a major increase in DDT at one station with some declines in Dioxins at others along with one site holding steady. The soil standards have been reduced for Dioxins since 1996 which does tend to put greater pressure upon the M.O.E. for some cleanup. The real problem, among others, is that this 2012 report while having some interesting data really can not objectively be compared with the 96/97 report. Out of ten floodplain locations in 1996, only three were tested this past fall. Out of three stations in the creek for sediment testing; only one was tested and it even wasn't in the same exact location. Therefore apple to apple comparisons are essentially not possible.

It will be interesting to hear how the M.O.E. go about justifying this peculiar report as well as actually interpreting the data. My expectation is that this is just another red herring for the purpose of deflecting CPAC away from their focus on source removal both on and off the Chemtura site. Also I might add the report isn't particularily user friendly as the M.O.E. haven't been consistent with their units of measure between 96/97 and last fall (2012). It makes it more difficult to compare when you have parts per trillion and parts per billion in the original report and now the M.O.E. are using ug per gram and pq per gram etc.. I expect that the M.O.E. will be recommending more testing and more study and yes again they will not share ahead of time their work plans.