WAS PART OF THE STROH FARM USED AS AN INTENTIONAL CONDUIT FOR UNIROYAL'S TOXIC LIQUID WASTES?

The question in the title above is in my opinion not a difficult one. What is more difficult is the extent of the bypass as well as what the full intent of all parties was. Is it possible that the elder Strohs at the time were simply offerred a free Drain for example to get rid of the swampy, marshy area that was quite close to their house at the time? That this Drain has accomplished that goal as well as draining Chemtura's former swampy area north and east of GP1 is obvious and this drainage has been admitted to by Jeff Merriman of Chemtura at a CPAC meeting.

Here are the facts. The Stroh Drain was built in approximately 1985 at a time of significant on-site cleanup and source removal by Uniroyal Chemical. This included taking the west side ponds out of use as well as other upgrades. A skeptic might think that they were desperately putting their house in order prior to admitting that they had poisoned the community's drinking water (1989).

There are again what we've been advised are "furrows" but which appear from Waterloo GIS and Google Earth as huge swales on the property running north to south from the most northern east side pit (RPE-1) down past the most southern pits (RPE-5 & TPE-2).

Again both Google Earth and Waterloo GIS show obviously manmade lines across the Chemtura property which run north to south while also turning eastwards and leaving the Chemtura site below RPE-5 and ending at the Stroh property. I was accused of "cross-examing" poor Jeff Merriman about these visual scars at a public CPAC meeting back in October 2014. Apparently the Mayor elect as well as Councillor Bauman felt that my questions were too difficult for Jeff to handle. This is despite his agreeing that my questions were all submitted politely to him.

I believe that these lines are likely some form of Interceptor Trench used to collect shallow groundwater and divert it. The other possibility would be a Barrier wall as was developed at the University of Waterloo known as the Waterloo Barrier.

There is some visual evidence that the field to the immediaste east of Chemtura's property has been tiled. At first I questioned why as the land is very elevated and slopes and drains naturally southwards towards the low lying land and the Stroh Drain. Then I recalled the 173,000 gallons per day of toxic wastewater pumped into these east side pits. They not only leaked through the bottom but also overflowed over the top onto the Stroh field. Could this field have been tiled as much for toxic liquid wastes as for rainwater?

The final fact is the refusal of both Uniroyal and the Ontario M.O.E. to order any kind of Containment & Treatment System for the east side discharge of groundwater into the Cangagigue Creek on site. This made zero sense in 1997 when the south-west side UACTS (Upper Aquifer Containment & Treatment System) was commissioned. This in fact was the reason that APT Environment walked out of the dysfunctional and corrupt UPAC in June 1994. Uniroyal and the M.O.E. had publicly indicated previously that they would not hydraulically contain any more than the south-west corner of Uniroyal's shallow aquifer.

Once again I let you the readers determine whether the facts support my theory that the Stroh property was used as an intentional bypass of the Chemtura property in order to divert contaminated groundwater as well as direct overflow from the east side pits eventually into the Canagagigue Creek. The purpose could have been to avoid detection by on-site (Uniroyal & Chemtura) monitoring as well as to save having to pump and treat the diverted on-site groundwater which may be captured by the alleged Interceptor Trench and diverted over to the Stroh Drain. The on-site swales take both the admitted intentional discharges of liquids from the pits southwards as well as any overflows caused by heavy rains. These swales discharge into the former swampy area north and east of GP1 where they then gravity flow eastwards directly into the Stroh Drain where it is closest to the Chemtura property (20 metres).