MAKING A VIRTUE OUT OF A VICE AND A VICE OUT OF A VIRTUE

If my memory serves me correctly it was a good friend and colleague who suggested to me a few years back that Pat McLean liked to make a virtue out of her complete lack of technical knowledge and understanding of groundwater, contaminant transport, chemistry and a number of other disciplines helpful to understanding the big picture in Elmira. While most citizens are in the same boat I can advise that there hasn't been a single citizen involved with the Chemtura Public Advisory Committee (CPAC) who hasn't vastly increased their knowledge and technical understanding of the issues with less than half the time involved as Pat. I can also advise that these same citizens while expressing an opinion when requested are not nearly so opinionated, adamant and dogmatic as Pat. I confess that in a moment of pique I once suggested, only half in jest, that Pat didn't know the difference between a DNAPL and a horse apple.

The preceding paragraph might not be relevant or necessary if those self same hypocrites weren't so aggressive in criticizing the current CPAC for 1) not having 100 years experience like the old CPAC as Bill Bardswick in writing recently and incorrectly stated and 2) weren't so aggressive in condemning the current CPAC for including me and my 25 years experience studying and researching contaminated sites throughout Waterloo Region while maintaining my position as the single most technically knowledgeable citizen specifically related to the Elmira water crisis.

1) in the preceding paragraph. The old CPAC did not remotely have 100 years of CPAC experience. Pat McLean at best had one years experience ten times. Susan Bryant had the most and lets give her 21 years (1989-2010 when she was dropped from CPAC). Ron Ormson and Gerry Heideburt both had considerable CPAC experience as well as private experience but nowhere near enough to add up to one hundred with or without including me. Funny how dropping me from CPAC in 2008 wasn't considered by Pat, Susan & Bill B. to count as a loss of experience.

2) Wilf Ruland in a moment of candour has suggested that he's never met an individual such as I with such an immediate and intuitive grasp of hydrogeological principles combined with an almost photographic memory. I appreciate that Wilf as well as I appreciate your May 15, 2008 DNAPL letter expressing your ongoing concerns that DNAPLS are not being removed at source, on the Chemtura site. Chemtura and the Ontario Ministry of the Environment have been lobbying partially sucessfully for years to exclude me from CPAC expressly because a) I am intelligent and extraordinarily well informed and b) they can not intimidate me either intellectually with their experts or financially or legally. This has been attempted indirectly through third parties sympathetic to themselves.


The greatest flashing neon sign that this CPAC has done more, accomplished more and made the largest inroads against Chemtura/Uniroyal and M.O.E. obfuscation, delay and gamesmanship is the fear and loathing expressed by both groups publicly and privately against this CPAC. This loathing is despite, as documented here over the last 3 1/2 years, the professionalism and never failing courtesy and respect exhibited by CPAC members and Chair Dr. Dan Holt.