IS IT POSSIBLE?

The timing is intriguing. The location more so. The players behaviour both past and present is tantalizing. These players include George Karlos (M.O.E.), Jeff Merriman (Chemtura), Mark Bauman (Woolwich Councillor) and one other oddball. Mark and his protege both adamantly state that the drain on the Stroh property twenty feet east of the Chemtura property line was built in order to drain the corn/soybean field north of it. The problem is that it does no such thing. The corn/soybean field is draining quite nicely on it's own via both gravity, surface flow and groundwater flow due south into a wetland which is part of both Chemtura's property and the Stroh farm. It is even quite possible that this field has tiles beneath it to assist in its' southern downhill flow. This wetland has existed for a very long time and is the collection point for everything from rainfall to leakage and overflow from Chemtura's/Uniroyal's former east pits particularily RPE4 & 5. As low as this wetland is topographically it is nonetheless still a little higher than the Canagagigue Creek a few hundred yards further south where both ground and surface liquids eventually discharge.

So why was the manmade drain built in 1985 as recently indicated? There is gravel available off the south property line of Chemtura either on the Martin or Stroh property or possibly on both. Perhaps in the springtime the rising water table and marsh made accessing it from the gravel road coming from the east and former Stroh home area more difficult. Hence a manmade draining of the wetland literally immediately north of the access road to the gravel would be to the Stroh's advantage.

There is also an advantage to the Uniroyal/Chemtura corporation. There is evidence, despite strong denials from Chemtura and the Ontario Ministry of the Environment, that Uniroyal Chemical's east pits flowed both overland and via groundwater across the property line onto the Stroh property. There is also decades old word of mouth evidence indicating Uniroyal Chemical was paying their two neighbours for both livestock and crop damage caused by this off-site spread of their toxic contamination. Indeed the death of a dozen cattle in 1965 owned by Leander Martin is local lore as well as having been documented in various technical reports decades ago.

Now to the timing. I have long been intrigued by the M.O.E.'s alleged surprise "discovery" of NDMA in the south wellfield in 1989. Yes there was NDMA and so much more that they had known about for a very long time. Perhaps they couldn't prove that various innocuous and manmade solvents were from Uniroyal but they sure as hell were worried years prior. They were worried enough to have laid a Control Order on Uniroyal in 1984 demanding a dramatic increase in monitoring wells both on and off site. In the mid 80's Uniroyal began closing their western ponds and shipping sludges from them off-site. They also began more consolidating of buried drums and wastes into the two remaining eastern pits, RPE4 & 5. Three pits existed on the east side of RPE5 and were basically squeezed between RPE5 and the Stroh property line. All of those eastern pits were outrageously located but the RB1 and RB2 (reburied barrels) sitting literally on the Stroh's doorstep must have been particularily egregious to them. BAE-1 was excavated the first time in 1970 with some toxic drums going off-site and others, in poor condition and leaking, unceremoniously dumped into RPE5. Other drums from BAE-1 were reburied in RB1 & 2. The idea of excavating buried drums in various stages of corrosion and sending some off-site while reburying others is horrifying. Why excavate them in the first place if you weren't seriously trying to avoid a disaster? The ones put into RPE 4 & 5 at least had the feeble excuse that there was a mylar liner (leaking) under them. Leaving some behind in BAE-1 and putting some into RB1 & 2 was bizarre and in my opinion speaks volumes about the real attitude behind this work.

Then in 1987 we are informed in the 1991 Environmental Audit ordered by the M.O.E. that RB1 & 2 were excavated as was BAE-1 again. The Audit report states that the liquid contents were drained and temporarily stored on site prior to off-site disposal. These three pits are 90 metres uphill from the manmade drain dug a year and a half earlier. This drain goes directly into the Canagagigue Creek. Uniroyal through the charade of dumping both liquids and solids into pits and ponds located on the floodplain of Canagagigue Creek had pretended for decades that they weren't directly dumping into the creek. The creek through the 50's and 60's was devoid of life courtesy of Uniroyal Chemical. A hose or hoses pumping downhill into the manmade drain would have saved Uniroyal Chemical literally millions of dollars in disposal costs for the toxic liquids from approximately 2,000 drums or more.

I seriously wonder if Chemtura have photographs, receipts and invoices which back up their disposal story for these 2,000 + drums? Would investigation today off-site south and east tell the tale? Is the ongoing DDT and Dioxins downstream in the sediments and floodplain of the Canagagigue Creek already telling the tale? Does our M.O.E. have any evidence or proof that these drums' liquid contents didn't get illegally dumped?