PUBLIC CPAC MEETING THIS EVENING

The Chemtura Public Advisory Committee will be meeting this evening at 6 pm. in the Woolwich Council Chambers on Church St. in Elmira. While CPAC is a committee of council; due to its' very late start four years ago the current council chose to extend its' mandate by six months. Therefore this CPAC, as is, should be with us until April 2015. That is a very good thing because the obvious weakness of CPAC is the fact that it is council appointed. Overall this council did a better job than prior councils in choosing this committee but nevertheless it should not be politically appointed as it currently is.

Tonight's meeting should be interesting as both the M.O.E. and Chetura have specific items that they are to be reporting on. Of course delay is the name of the game so it's likely that they will make more excuses for not being ready to report on these items. We have yet to see any report by a biologist or toxicologist as to the effect of tripling off-site groundwater pumping and then discharging it, albeit with treatment, into the Canagagigue Creek. Similarily while testing has occurred regarding In Situ Chemical Oxidation to date there have been more failures than sucesses. Finally both SWAT and CPAC will have information to share with Chemtura and the M.O.E. that should also interest the public.

The last couple of CPAC meetings have been well attended by members of the public and this is a very positive change and one we hope will continue. Delegation of 100% of the responsibilty to a few council appointed representatives is neither good nor prudent democracy. It has led to problems in the past and this is why it is very helpful for accountability reasons; both CPAC's accountability to the public and most importantly the Ministry of the Environment's accountability to the public.