M.O.E.C.C. UNHAPPY ABOUT PUBLIC SPANKING

The irony is just too precious. Chemtura and the Ministry of Environment (M.O.E.C.C.) went running for their Mommy over a year ago. She answered via private back room discussions to throw CPAC under the bus. The idea was for Chemtura/M.O.E. to face a kinder, gentler version of CPAC. One that wouldn't make them cry. One that wouldn't hurt their tiny little feelings. Afterall even multinational chemical corporations have some aspect of humanity to them, allegedly.

Teri Bulman is one of the handful of new (to Elmira) M.O.E. personnel we have been blessed with. Literally all the old M.O.E. guard are gone or retired. Steve Martindale I'm sorry to see retired. George Karlos and Bill Bardswick are no loss whatsoever, especially Bill. Teri took great umbrage late in the meeting with Dick Jackson's comment about the M.O.E. being bought off so easily with a particular Chemtura/CRA report. She protested loudly but Dick was having none of it. He calmly explained the facts of life as in the Ministry have clearly abdicated their leadership and responsibility on this file and here madam is in the proof.

Mr. Jackson again demanded warning signs be erected along the Canagagigue Creek from Chemtura down to the Grand River. Teri Bulman kept refusing right up until she finally acknowledged it has been done elsewhere perhaps by Ontario Power Generation along another contaminated river. Then she agreed to talk to their fisheries section and see if some warning signs were already made up that could be used. Progress perhaps. Teri Bulman started to cloud the issue with comments about not only Dioxin fish advisories but also mercury and P.C.B warnings in Canagagigue Creek. Wow that really is good reason not to post the creek if the fish are more contaminated than we already knew.

O.K. O.K. if I'm going to write this up accurately I'd better add that both conflict of interest queens, Pat and Susan, added positively to the discussion. They made it clear to Teri Bulman that the Ministry's decades long involvement with contamination downstream in the creek has been inadequate. Susan's comments were "It's time to bring it to fruition" and "there never has been consultation". News flash there still isn't honest, real, public consultation. Not when the process is highly politicized and controlled by generally hopeless, uninformed, biased politicians.

Dick Jackson went through all of TAG's Recommendations to RAC, to Chemtura and to the M.O.E.C.C.. They included things like initiating suspended sediment sampling, obtaining outside experts and consultation in areas such as ISCO, and having a full team of outside, independent experts review Chemtura's work and their plans ahead of time. In my opinion Dick has condemned a couple of decades of effort done by Conestoga Rovers on behalf of Chemtura although Dick has been very careful not to name CRA directly.

Another item which has really upset Dick is the apparently just recently discovered layer of coarse, highly permeable gravel at the bottom of the Municipal Upper Aquifer. Add to this his suggestion, which has been specifically rejected by CRA/Chemtura over the years, to reinject treated water into the aquifers and we have even more controversy. Finally Dick wants a study done to examine the effects of discharging much greater quantities of warmer, treated effluent to the Canagagigue Creek. This was also suggested by CPAC a couple of years back and yet one more item clearly ignored by Chemtura. Public Consultation my arse!

When will our local politicans admit that Chemtura are a rogue company who do not voluntarily "consult" honestly with the public? All three tiers of government need to get their acts together and rather than protect Chemtura, begin to protect the public, including via real public consultation. Yes Ken this means you at the Region, the Ontario government either through the M.O.E. or another less comprimised Ministry and finally at the Township level. Allowing Chemtura to run and hide from CPAC and the public a year ago was a disgrace and error of gross magnitude.