DRAFT CPAC MINUTES

Despite my posting here often the two days following a public CPAC meeting nevertheless I enjoy reading the formal Minutes taken by the CPAC Secretary, Lisa Schaefer. Lisa has stepped in and taken over after the old CPAC Secretary resigned earlier in the summer. The old CPAC Secretary was appointed by Pat McLean and replaced Brenda Kempel from the Region of Waterloo. Brenda was excellent and well informed and no appropriate explanation was ever given for her being replaced by Pat.

These Minutes are much more detailed and complete than anything we've had in many years. Lisa captures both the specifics as well as the flavour of the meeting. Twenty-two pages of text give a much more comprehensive look at a three hour meeting than a mere handful would. I particularily enjoy the back and forth when Chemtura reps are stickhandling around inconvenient facts and then a CPAC or SWAT member steps up and shoots them down. This of course would not be necessary if Chemtura and fellow travellors weren't continually massaging the truth past the point of contorsionism.

Speaking of "oops my bad" moments it would appear as if the strength of CPAC & SWAT is the diverse talents and skill sets of their combined membership. Two CPAC members namely Councillor Mark Bowman and Susanna Meteer incorrectly promulgated the theory, that after walking the Chemtura eastern site border, it was unlikely for surface drainage to flow from the Chemtura site onto the Stroh property. Their observations of course occurred two decades after major excavations of massive quantities of toxic waste were removed from the ground and regrading had been finished.

Since that time both written text and diagrams from technical reports of the day (MOE, Terreaqua, Morrison & Beatty etc.) all indicate the opposite. These reports have been studied by SWAT & CPAC members and then finally by a professional hydrogeologist who has presented his DRAFT report to CPAC & SWAT. This Draft has been perused for typos etc. and the Final Report is imminent. This Tuesday evening CPAC Chair Dr. Dan Holt will be a Delegate to Woolwich Council. He will present a CPAC Resolution to Council requesting their endorsement and support. This Resolution will be an even bigger bombshell than the last major Resolution in 2012 advising that 2028 Elmira groundwater cleanup would not occur without major improvements including source removal of Chemtura toxins.