THIS IS YOUR MINISTRY OF THE ENVIRONMENT

ONE piece of the evidence regarding soil excavation and remediation at neighbouring properties to the former Varnicolor Chemical is as follows. Golder & Assoc. produced a hydrogeological report on Varnicolor Chemical in late 1991. Hindsight combined with nearly 2 1/2 decades of knowledge and experience since that time have moved me from a "newbie" in reading these reports to a lay person with complete confidence and ability to challenge professionals in the field when they either cut corners or knowingly fudge their interpretations. Hence when I reread the report, that which I had suspected decades ago, became a certainty.

The Golder Report has two shallow groundater contamination contour maps plus a third contour map showing soil gas or soil vapour concentrations. All three of these maps show one thing in common and that is that Golder essentially stopped the contamination contours at Varnicolor's property line. In other words due to a lack of shallow monitoring wells off of the site, Golder's and the M.O.E. pretended that Varnicolor's on-site contamination slammed on the brakes and did not cross the property line. A close examination of the soil gas contamination map shows this occurring on the west property boundary directly opposite where Motivair did their backyard soil excavation and installed a groundwater drainage system. Similarily the BTEX (benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, xylenes) contamination map contours indicates probable off-site contamination in this shallow aquifer on the north, west and east sides of the varnicolor site. Finally the chlorinated solvents ( TCE, TCA, DCA, DCM) contamination contours also show off-site contamination to the east.

The other very deceptive practice is Golder's failure to look at anything other than the shallow or surficial aquifer. Despite a Control Order demanding a deeper hydrogeological examination this did not happen. This report could only have been accepted by the M.O.E. if they had given prior consent to Phillip Environmental who paid for the Golder study. This surficial aquifer allegedly flows due east. Again in hindsight we know there is a groundwater divide in the Upper Aquifer around Union St.. therefore this slightly deeper aquifer flows both east towards Canagagigue Creek as well as west and south towards the south wellfield (E7/E9).

This hydrogeological "trick" of pretending that contamination stops at a company's property line has been exploited unmercifully at Uniroyal/Chemtura as well. It as well depended upon false groundwater flow direction to achieve its' purpose of deceiving the public advisory committee and the general public. At Chemtura this occurred on the east side of their property permitting undetected and unrestrained discharge of highly contaminated surface and groundwater onto the neighbouring Stroh property.