CHEMTURA & M.O.E. MELTDOWN AT CPAC MEETING

The meeting was longer than usual, tempers flared and facades evaporated. Out of fairness to Steve Martindale of the Ministry of the Environment it must be said that he had sufferred a sprained ankle recently, was walking with a cane and did advise us that he was on pain meds. The pain meds may have contributed to his astounding attack of candour but I don't believe that they in any way altered the accuracy and honesty of his message. But first back to Chemtura. They knew that Peter Gray of MTE Consultants was presenting his Report to CPAC and they were psyched and ready. Steve Quigley of Conestoga Rovers was there as well as stalwarts Jeff and Dwight. While they moaned and groaned incessantly about not having Peter's Report ahead of time they still had no problem trying to criticize it. Of course that got quite humourous especially when Steve Quigley insisted that there was no Upper Aquifer on the east side of the creek. While first of all there certainly is although in the north-east corner they prefer to call it the SA or Surficial Aquifer. I kind of deflated his balloon by referring to Peter's Figure 2.52b which was from a 2010 Conestoga Rovers Report. The Figure showed the extent of the Upper Aquifer at Chemtura covering the entire Chemtura site including the entire eastern half.

Jeff's meltdown occurred during my presentation of the SWAT report. Sebastian preceded me and discussed the alleged recent further work done at GP1 & 2. Allegedly Chemtura did further excavations on them in early October. I find that odd as one there were no photos, data or documentation of any kind to back them up and two I've been keeping an eye on GP1 & 2 from off-site and I've seen no work done there at all. Did they do this work in the dead of night? After Sebastian finished I proceeded with comments and questions about the Stroh Drain. Lisa, CPAC Secretary, had an overhead of the Google earth satellite map of the area. The Stroh Drain was very clear. Both Jeff Merriman and Steve Martindale (M.O.E.) claimed that they had no knowledge of this Drain prior to this past summer. Hmmm! If that is true it certainly does not speak well to the so called field investigation conducted by the M.O.E. in the summer of 2013. George Karlos (M.O.E.) had claimed that the M.O.E. walked the property from Chemtura's south-east corner over to the Martin swimming pond looking for any kind of contaminant pathway. News flash George. Running water is considered a pathway! Anyways this pathway oops Drain has sucessfully dewatered both Chemtura's and Stroh's wetland area for the past few decades. It was nice of Steve Quigley to confirm that for me especially as Conestoga Rovers have so thoughtfully provided maps marking the former wetland areas next to their eastern border and the Drain. Then after thoroughly assessing the proximity of this Drain to Chemtura as well as it's enormous significance to understanding the flow of contaminants off-site I switched gears.

There was almost an audible inhalation of breath when I had Lisa shift the overhead satellite view of Chemtura further north. There clearly marked from north to south on the surface of their site is a line, a scar or a trench. This line, scar or trench runs mostly south until it jogs eastward right over to the Stroh property line immediately underneath (south) of the eastern pits namely RPE-5, BAE-1 and RB-1 & 2. I got Jeff and company to suggest that they had not seen that strange line before on their property via the aerial view. Steve Quigley suggested it was a fence. The defensiveness of Jeff Merriman was absolutely stunning and immediate. I made it clear that I did not know what it was and that I hoped to get some insights via a series of questions I had. Jeff shut down, got very hostile and refused to answer further questions relating to what was so visible on the overhead screen. Ron Campbell intervened and made it clear that he and CPAC wanted some answers and why couldn't Jeff at least try. Jeff was adamant and quite ignorant. I conceded that it could be a fence except I didn't understand how 1/8" wire from a post and wire fence as was stated could show up so clearly from a satellite view. I also suggested that the so called fence might very well simply be a delineation for some kind of barrier wall, collector trench or other constructed method to either block groundwater flow or even collect it. I also asked if Jeff agreed that the location of these lines appeared to encapsulate all the eastern pits by running immediately south-east beneath them. Jeff shut down completely. What a performance from representatives of a world class polluter who still aren't even close to restoring Elmira's drinking water.

Back to Steve Martindale. Poor guy I feel sorry for his ankle issue as I've fairly recently also come off of crutches and a cane after hip surgery. Steve blurted out twice the incredible information that CPAC was being disciplined by senior M.O.E. staff because they didn't like the environmental blog of yours truly which you are currently reading. CPAC were stunned. Steve claimed that because of my unflattering viewpoint regarding the Ministry of Excuses that unless CPAC got rid of me from SWAT that they the M.O.E. would not cooperate in a variety of ways. OMG! Chair Dr. Dan Holt jumped all over Steve for that one as did vice-chair Sebastian Siebel-Achenbach. Mention was made of Bill Bardswick's (M.O.E.) trashy comments in Bob Burtt's recent book as well as of the disgusting behaviour of George Karlos (M.O.E.). Dr. Dan demanded to know why a citizen was required to give up his freedom of speech in order to be on a volunteer committee. Once again as I recently posted we have irrefutable proof that the Ontario M.O.E. meddle and lobby in order to influence the makeup of citizens on public consultation committees. What a joke and what a damning indictment of the state of public consultation in this province. More to follow on last evening's meeting.