AN OLD ACQUAINTANCE IS LOOKING FOR A UNIROYAL (Chemtura) UPDATE

A voice from the past is dropping by with an interest in what's new on the Uniroyal/Chemtura front these days. My response is multiple sources of contamination in Elmira. Yara (Nutrite) didn't come to the forefront until more than a decade after Uniroyal took all the blame. The Varnicolor Chemical contamination was a coverup from the beginning courtesy of the Ontario Ministry of the Environment. Multiple gas stations in Elmira also have since been remediated, some with extensive petroleum hydrocarbon contamination.

As of 2000, years before even any half hearted conclusion came from UPAC/CPAC, the Ontario M.O.E. permitted Uniroyal to allow some of their on-site contamination to leave their site particularily in the north-west. The M.O.E. wrote it into an Amending Control Order first and then discussed it for several years with CPAC.

We learned that Uniroyal received a Settlement Agreement in October 7, 1991 from the M.O.E. one month before the November 4, 1991 Control Order was issued. The Settlement Agreement gave Uniroyal an Indemnity from liability for known on-site contamination and takes precedence over the Control Order. Most of Elmira learned of this back door betrayal in 2011.

It will probably be 2050 at the earliest before the Region of Waterloo again uses the Elmira Aquifers for drinking water. eric Hodgins of the Region so advised CPAC over a year ago and it's due to things like an Environmental Assessment being required as well as several years of monitoring in case of contamination "rebound" after the pump and treat stops.

This winter Woolwich Council voted to remove a by-law prohibiting underground fuel tanks nearby the former south wellfield. This is merely the straw that broke the camel's back as Council clearly don't believe we will get our drinking water back.

CPAC passed a Resolution which Council did however endorse two years ago stating that the current M.O.E./Chemtura cleanup plan wasn't adequate. Source removal on and off site is required to have any hope for eventual restoration of the Elmira Aquifers.

Eight months later Chemtura announced that completely on their own they've updated their cleanup plans to include tripling the volume of off-site pumping and treating as well as using In-Situ Chemical Oxidation off-site in particularily recalcitrant areas. This turnaround despite their claims to the contrary is due to public and CPAC pressure.

Lots more including Uniroyal/Chemtura being blamed for free phase DNAPLS leaving their site and contaminating Yara and even possibly behind the old Varnicolor Chemical near the Howard Ave. water tower. All of this makes the M.O.E. look incompetent and corrupt which we already knew.