MONDAY NITES CPAC MOTIONS & CRITICISM OF M.O.E. & CHEMTURA

While the absence of Chemtura and the M.O.E. was noted at Monday nights' public CPAC meeting let me say that the glass was half full. Firstly the meeting was just under three hours. Secondly there were no outbursts of mock outrage or pill induced emotional outbursts from Chemtura and the Ministry of the Environment. Thirdly I believe that a twenty-three year record was set for honesty and truthfulness, and that's always a good thing. Therefore I thank Chemtura and the M.O.E. for their contributions to the glass half full.

The first Motion passed by CPAC dealt with *Responsible Care. Rich Clausi, Mark Bauman, Sebastian Seibel-Achenbach and Ron Campbell all spoke to the need for a letter to go to the Chemical Industry Association of Canada (CIAC) advising them that Chemtura appear unwilling to engage with the community whether formally appointed representatives or citizen stakeholders.

When Mark Bauman was leaving the meeting I misspoke by telling him that he had been doing good work of late. I hope that he heard my followup which was that he had been doing especially good work of late. While I have indicated concerns with where Mark's heart and mind have been in the past; there is no doubt that he has recently been unequivocal in his support for both CPAC and the truth and I am thrilled to see that.

Mayor-elect Sandy Shantz provided information regarding timelines for Freedom of Information (FOI) requests. This was in response to a discussion as to whether CPAC needs to go through the FOI process to get financial cleanup information from the Ministry that they are currently refusing to provide. This Motion was also passed.

CPAC have decided to send a letter in response to Steve Martindale's (M.O.E.) October 29/14 letter written to CPAC Chair Dr. Dan Holt. Steve's letter dealing with technical questions from CPAC to former Assistant Director George Karlos, was horribly responded to by Steve. The questions pertained to numerous issues on the east side including buried pits, DDT and also two north-western pits RPW1 & 2. Steve's answers were inaccurate and unfactual.

A second letter has recently been written/sent to Milli New the replacement for Director (west central region) Bill Bardswick. I had thought that the M.O.E. couldn't scrape the barrel much lower with Bill Bardswick however my opinion may be premature. Councillor Mark Bauman and CAO Dave Brenneman collaborated in writing the letter and Mark read it to CPAC etc. at this meeting. It was excellent. Essentially the M.O.E. letter written on behalf of Milli New was as inaccurate and unfactual as Steve's. Quite amateurish and disgraceful actually.

Graham Chevreau advised CPAC that the Region of Waterloo have funding available for environmental projects. The third Motion passed was in support of CPAC applying to the Region for support via this fund.

Ron Campbell discussed his interpretation of the lack of data on Chemtura's east side as well as the MTE Report. Ron stated that in his decades in the business he had not seen any locations with gross contamination found literally on a property line and then no followup investigation of the neighbouring property. This request for all soil and groundwater information in that location has not been satisfactorily responded to by either Chemtura or the M.O.E.. Ron actually used the word "coverup" on three separate occasions. It is this kind of forthrightness that is required to combat the deviousness and stickhandling of Chemtura and the M.O.E..

I expressed my opinion that the failure of Chemtura and the M.O.E. to respond at all to a very small technical report by Peter Gray (MTE) was significant. I believe that Peter's report is essentially bulletproof and the lack of criticism and objections to date are proof of that. Both parties will require extensive wordsmithing in any critiques or responses which they formulate. My expectation is that any such upcoming documents will be primarily hot air, deflection and distraction. These are truly their areas of expertise.