SOIL EROSION IN THE GRAND RIVER WATERSHED

This week's Woolwich Observer carrys an article on page 14 titled "Preserving what would otherwise be washed away". As the title above implies it is about soil particles en masse being flushed down the creeks and tributaries leading into the Grand River. The article focuses on the double whammy of loss of good, productive soil for farmers as well as the negative environmental effects of excess organic material ending up in the Grand River and Lake Erie where it spurs the production of oxygen consuming algae, to the detriment of living creatures in the ecosystem. Agricultural soils are far more prone to erosion particularily if fields are left ploughed over the winter without cover crops. The Grand River Conservation Authority estimates that between three and twenty tonnes of soil per acre erode into surface water bodies in the watershed each year.

As serious, damaging and wasteful as that is there is yet another issue. Right here in Elmira, Ontario we the citizens are constantly being bombarded with environmental propaganda from our favourite polluter, Chemtura Canada. One item they simply refuse to admit is that Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) can flow in groundwater. Similarily by focusing on the chemical nature of DDT and Dioxins (POPs) which are hydrophobic they pretend that they also can't flow in surface water. They constantly tell us that Dioxins and DDT bind to soil particles preferentially. They don't like to dissolve in ground or surface water.

Based upon this article in the Observer it makes the transport method of these POPs very obvious. Remember three to twenty tonnes of soil per acre per year erodes into our local creeks (Canagagigue) and rivers (Grand). Also recall the recent MTE Report presented publicly at the Chemtura Public Advisory Committee (CPAC) last October. Chemtura's/Uniroyal's toxins have a high probability of having flowed onto their eastern neighbour's farmfields. These fields drain via both ground and surface water into the Stroh Drain and from there into the Canagagigue Creek.

Our Ministry of the Environment in an attempt "to reassure" the public tested downstream in 2012 and 2013 only to find higher levels of POPs than in the late 90's. I'm sure the sudden release/departure of George Karlos of the M.O.E. had nothing to do with his decision to do this testing.