LAST NIGHTS CPAC MEETING

It was calm and quiet. CPAC were missing their regular Chair Dr. Dan who has been attending his first grandchild, south of the border. Also Sebastian had advised that he could not make it and Councillor Bauman had to leave early for another engagement. Therefore the load fell upon Vivienne to hold the fort as temporary Chair in the absence of Dan, Sebastian and later Mark. She did an admirable job and with help from Ron Campbell (CPAC) and Graham Chevreau and myself (SWAT) we held Chemtura/CRA/M.O.E.'s feet to the fire. That being said none of us had our hearts into really, appropriately laying the lumber upon the three previously mentioned guilty parties. Call it pity or even mercy if you will.

First off the M.O.E. earned the ire of Chair Viv by once again asking to defer an Agenda item. This was the Groundwater Flow and Contaminant Transport Model Update that was handed out six months ago by Conestoga Rovers on behalf of Chemtura. The M.O.E. were supposed to give their comments on this groundbreaking turnaround by Chemtura which includes off-site source removal by chemical oxidation as well as tripling of the off-site pumping rates. Then the M.O.E. presented their recent Downstream Monitoring report. This allegedly is a comparison and update to studies done in 1996 and 1997 which found large quantities of DDT and Dioxins in the downstream Canagagigue Creek courtesy of Uniroyal/Chemtura. This report is riddled with errors and poor science and quite frankly is embarassingly, amateurishly written. Jeff of Chemtura took a couple of shots at the M.O.E. presenter as did I but again it would have been like shooting fish in a barrel to really go after him. Also as Chair Viv pointed out there will be additional new information upcoming and hence this report will be rescheduled hopefully on the Thursday May 30/13 Agenda.

Alan Deal of CRA (Conestoga Rovers) once again presented the Annual Monitoring Report. They say you can get used to anything but I was pleased after the meeting to hear even new SWAT and recent CPAC members express exasperation with the presentation. The polite comment was that it was a cheerleading type presentation and the rude comment was it was nothing but a dog and pony show. Yours truly questioned CRA and Chemtura about their removal of a total of 1300 tonnes of contaminated soil during 2011 and 2012. This removal was ostensibly to provide underground servicing for utilities of some sort. The interesting part was that the location was exactly where Uniroyal refused to excavate free phase DNAPL in December 1993 namely along the border of TPW2 and M2 the former municipal landfill. Last night Jeff of Chemtura adamantly declared that he couldn't remember the details of 1993 regarding free phase DNAPL versus relatively immobile tars which are DNAPLS by the way. I did remember but did some checking this morning anyways. In the August 2007 DNAPL Investigation Report we are advised that as recently as then, free phase LNAPL and free phase DNAPL was occasionally showing up in well OW80-5 in tar pit west (TPW2). My impression is that either Chemtura finally removed this free phase DNAPL twenty years after the fact; although they don't want to admit it, or the DNAPL over the last twenty years has continued to move either vertically or laterally and they couldn't find it. Nice!

Literally months after the fact, Dwight of Chemtura handed out the CIAC *Responsible Care verification report. This report includes Dr. Dan Holt's dissenting opinion and is accurate and specific pointing out particular codes and sections that Chemtura have not been in compliance with. Fellow verification team member and former councillor and CPAC Chair Pat McLean, not to be outdone or upstaged by the current CPAC Chair, added her written reasons for accepting Chemtura's sucessful verification. Her reasons were not specific or credible and merely made excuses for Chemtura's "past history".

All in all it was a fairly tame affair last night. I expect a few more fireworks at the May 30 meeting dealing with the Downstream Monitoring report as well as one specific overhead table that CRA presented during their Annual Monitoring Report .