MY NOTES FROM THURSDAYS CPAC MEETING

As promised here are further notes on the Thursday April 24/14 public CPAC meeting. I will be skipping over both my Delegation as well as some of my comments and criticisms around the 2013 Annual Monitoring Report as I've posted about them already.

Under 6.1 on the CPAC Agenda Vivienne Delaney referred to Steve Martindale's (M.O.E.) comments from last month about nearby municipalities drawing drinking water from contaminated aquifers. Steve responded by saying yes that he's aware of at least one well in Kitchener and one in Guelph which is drawing water from contaminated aquifers. Steve emphasized however that the wells are located upgradient of the contamination and hence presumably O.K.. In my opinion that is both wishful thinking and only an excuse.

Under 6.1.3 Sebastian Seibel-Achenbach read a detailed e-mail from Rich Clausi (SWAT & EH-Team) regarding the ongoing discussions between the School Board, Chemtura, Sulco and the *Responsible Care program. These are to introduce an environmental designation/certification for students into Elmira & District Secondary School.

Vivienne requested of Chemtura more information regarding the next Verification for Chemtura under *Responsible Care. She wanted to know criteria etc. as to who the local representative as well as the verifier will be. Josef Olejarz of Chemtura stated that they have no answer yet. I asked when the Verification was occurring and was told it would be next year. Hmm!

George Karlos of the M.O.E. stated that his new goal is to get the Work Plan for downstream monitoring to CPAC prior to the May meeting. He confirmed that the testing in Canagagigue Creek will occur this summer. The goal is to test for DDT and Dioxin at about the same time of year (June) and at about the same locations.

Steve Martindale discussed examples of In Situ Chemical Oxidation (ISCO) that have been done locally including Safety-Kleen in Breslau, Northstar and General Electric (Allen-Bradley) in Cambridge. Safety-Kleen's ISCO known as Fenton's Reagant has been ongoing for quite a while according to Steve. This of course puts the lie to longtime fellow travellors including the Region of Waterloo who have long denied any environmental impact on the downstream and closed Forwell & Pompeii Wellfields. Steve advised us that the ISCO in Cambridge in the Bishop St. community (ie. Northstar) had "mixed results" only. To me this indicates the absolute necessity of the longterm useage of the backyard sheds pumping and treating air from around basements in the community. What a disgrace by all allegedly responsible parties.

Also of interest is the fact that there is no history of NDMA being destroyed by ISCO. Well, well, well. As I've long suspected it will be needed for breakdown of chlorobenzene both dissolved and according to hydrogeologist Jaimie Connolly and colleague (April 24,2006); also residual and free phase. The disolved chlorobenzene will be directly broken down chemically wheras the DNAPL will be indirectly so by the increase in its' dissolving into the groundwater. Therefore either the whole notion of ISCO's use for NDMA is bogus or CRA are making history by using it in Elmira.

Alan Deal provided us with CRA's annual dog and pony show aka the 2013 Annual Monitoring Report regarding alleged major gains in the cleanup of Elmira aquifers. He claimed as usual that there were "incremental improvements" from 2013 over 2012. Of course I pointed out CRA's own chlorobenzene plume maps (Fig. 4.8, 4.9) for the Municipal Upper and Lower Aquifers clearly showing the plumes had expanded between 2012 and 2013. Strange how CRA and Chemtura can't stand my guts, isn't it? Never lacking an excuse they suggested irrelevantly that well the higher concentrations within the plume had at least been somewhat reduced. They also trumpeted the usual crap about more decreases in concentration than increases while pointedly ignoring the majority of off-site wells that simply have no trend up or down.

Oh be still my skepticism! Is it an election year? Is the Pope Catholic? Councillor Mark Bauman did two things on Thursday evening. He asked excellent questions around the efficacy of hydraulic containment and he seemed to be supporting my claims regarding deception around chlorobenzene in the Bedrock Aquifer. He pressed CRA about their complete lack of monitoring wells in the Bedrock below the highly contaminated Municipal Lower Aquifer. Perhaps anything is possible and Mark has had an ephinany. Time will tell. Mark also suggested the use of tracer dye to test if groundwater is leaving Chemtura's site. Interesting.

Pat McLean and Susan Bryant have been taking turns alternatively attending public CPAC meetings of late. Clearly there was some embarassment involved during the last *Responsible Care verification sessions when Pat was asked and weakly suggested that while she wasn't attending CPAC meetings she had/would send her representative Susan. Susan has been co-opted ever since she and Sylvia Berg of APTE sided with the Region of Waterloo and the other parties to the Environmental Appeal Board hearing in October 1991 and didn't request the EAB to continue on with their hearing. The information about Uniroyal's Indemnity for known contamination (DNAPLS etc.) was neither taken to the APTE membership (including myself) nor the APTE co-ordinaters including Richard Clausi and Esther Thur. Decades later that Indemnity and acceptance therof by Susan and Sylvia explains everything about APTE's failures to take a hard line on DNAPLS.

There are two more interesting points that came from Chemtura on Thursday. Firstly they have sold their Crop Protection business. They claim that it will not affect their current operations, commitment to *Responsible Care and cleanup of Elmira's groundwater. This is their usual puffery and horse manure. *Responsible Care for them is no more than cheap public relations. I view this sale as the beginning of the end. They've been delaying and stalling for twenty-five years with the M.O.E. enabling them. They are going to cut and run, probably sooner than later.

Secondly they have advised that there are three areas in their south-east corner (GP1 & 2) that after last summers' "cleanup" still have concentrations of Dioxins and Furans above the Ecological Risk Criterion. They will be going back in and removing more material in late summer this year. Typically when individuals or groups (M.O.E.) have sold the farm they tend to hang a little tougher on the remaining areas up for discussion. Thus the M.O.E. even, can't justify the pathetic one foot scraping of soil of the DDT and Dioxin contaminated GP1 & 2.

Under New Business I added information to Steve Martindale's enlightening conversation and quasi attempted reneging about municipalities drawing drinking water from contaminated aquifers. I advised that the 2013 Annual (Drinking Water) Reports produced by the Region of Waterloo show Trichloroethylene (TCE) in Waterloo's drinking water between 1 and 2 parts per billion courtesy of the William St. Wellfield. Similarily there is TCE in Cambridge drinking water between 1 and 3 parts per billion courtesy of the Middleton wellfield. Clearly nearby municipalities are drawing water from contaminated aquifers and the wells are NOT all upgradient of these contaminated areas.