ENVIRONMENTAL HYPOCRISY CONTINUES TO THRIVE IN WOOLWICH TOWNSHIP - SAFETY-KLEEN

Last Friday's Waterloo Region Record carried a small article titled "Safety-Kleen honoured for cleaning up waste barrels dumped om farm". Apparently Woolwich Township in their divinely perverse appreciation of all the positives of harbouring world class polluters in their midst have decided that the carrot is a better approach than the stick. This certainly exemplfies their approaches to Uniroyal Chemical, Varnicolor Chemical, Nutrite and even Sulco. Of the lot Sulco have indeed stepped up over the last decade plus and could legitimately be considered to have embraced *Responsibler Care.

Make no mistake, Safety-Kleen did a very good thing by stepping up and removing 24 barrels of toxic waste that had been dumped on a rural property outside Conestogo. That said 24 barrels are literally a drop in the bucket compared to the volumes that predecessors on the Safety-Kleen site dumped into the natural environment and then made their way into the Grand River by Breslau. These predecessors would include Breslube and Forsythe Oil.

There has been some shallow aquifer pump and treat behind the Safety-Kleen site as well as attempts to remove free phase oil with P.C.B.s floating on the water table. The deeper aquifers flow towards and under the Grand River. The Region of Waterloo had drinking water wells along both sides of the Grand River namely the Forwell, Pompeii and Woolner Wellfields. The closest one to Safety-Kleen (Forwell) has been shut down for probably twenty years and the Woolner Wellfield intermittently for the past decade. It has sufferred from odour and taste problems probably due to algae which are exacerbated by low levels of phenols in the water. The Forwell system as well as intermediate monitoring wells between the river and Safety-Kleen had numerous chemical contaminants in them courtesy of both the free phase oil and the former "Black Lagoon" behind Breslube.

The Region of Waterloo probably along with the Province of Ontario (M.O.E.) gave Safety-Kleen an Indemnity from liability for their predecessors polluting activities. The Region also have never credited Breslube/Safety-Kleen with the destruction of the Forwell Wellfield (wells K70 & K71). It seems that bacteria from river infiltration wells is always a convenient excuse for government bodies intent on honouring polluting, irresponsible industries rather than holding them accountable. It is this unholy government/politicians, scratch my back alliance, which is dooming environmental cleanups here in Waterloo Region and elsewhere in Ontario.