A WHO'S WHO OF HYPOCRITES

Last Friday I posted here that I would be taking Councillor Mark Bauman to task at a meeting this Monday morning in regards as to whether he voted in favour of or against underground gas tanks on Earl Martin Drive next to the former south wellfield. Well the discussion proved to be very interesting. While Woolwich Council had received advice against permitting an exemption to their by-law prohibiting underground gas tanks around the south wellfield from both CPAC and Susan Bryant; they had a who's who list of folks speaking in favour. CRA were mentioned. Their hypocrisy is relatively minimal as they are front and centre bought and paid for consultants to Chemtura Canada. The Region of Waterloo, MTE and the Province of Ontario are a little different. I'm going to go out on a limb and suggest that MTE might be speaking on behalf of their client who wishes to have underground fuel tanks. Fair enough. The M.O.E. are involved via legislation after the Walkerton Inquiry to be promoting Source Protection Plans for municipalities. This has included paying municipalities to assist them with costs involved in protecting groundwater. The Region of Waterloo are beyond the pale. Their hydrogeologist apparently has advised Woolwich to go ahead and bury gas and diesel tanks next to the former south wellfield. Keep in mind the official position from the Province and Chemtura is that Elmira's groundwater will be potable by 2028. Therefore burying fuel tanks less than 100 metres away is insanity.

After listening to Councillor Bauman's explanation of all the advice that Council received; while the decision is still a bad one, at least one can better understand the reasoning behind it. CPAC to their credit all advised, challenged and hopefully persuaded Councillor Bauman to rethink his position. Woolwich Council years ago took the proactive step of prohibiting underground fuel tanks near the south wellfield after they lost their local water supplies to manmade contamination. Making exceptions/exemptions to that prohibition is very bad environmentally and contrary to all that we've learned since the Elmira and Walkerton disasters.