WHY I ATTEND SANDY'S PHONY STAKEHOLDERS' MEETINGS

RAC (Remediation Advisory Group) are a croc of hypocrites and phonies. Pat & Susan accompanying the TAG Chair even temporarily are a joke. Pat knows less than nothing and both of them are comprimised sellouts who have both taken money and goods from the guilty parties including Conestoga Rovers (Susan's public admission), Region of Waterloo, the GRCA and Chemtura via the Chemical Industry Assocn. of Canada. Then look at the attendance at last Thursday's meeting outlined here yesterday in the Advocate. Four lousy meetings a year and all the no shows plus early departures is contemptible especially when you understand that Sandy replaced at least partial public consultation (CPAC) with that pack of ineffective, uncaring self-serving groups that make up RAC.

The only reason I attend is because I know that a) some truths and new facts will slip out and b) even their lies can be revealing. Following are some of them.

Dr. Jackson asked Alan Deal about chlorobenzene rebounding concentrations both off-site near Borg and Varnicolor (CH43 and CH70) and on the east side of Chemtura (OW42-4 and OW41-6). The on-site east side Alan Deal admitted could be slugs or pulses from DNAPL in below ground surface fractures slowly being released whereas despite a history of high Chlorobenzene readings around Varnicolor, Borg and well OW57-32(R) beside pumping well W4; he would not confirm DNAPL (Chlorobenzene) presence. Here he came up with changing well pumping patterns has moved the Chlorobenzene plume. All proven discoveries of free phase DNAPL were downplayed by Alan Deal as being "small puddles" or "could not delineate it" or finally "no receptors are impacted".

Dr. Jackson's self-described F bomb word is "fractures". Subsurface borehole cores reveal fractures in the silty, clay zones with DNAPL in them. Not only did Alan Deal admit to DNAPL in fractures 5-10 metres below ground surface but he even admitted that he fully expects that fractures are in the Municipal Aquitard (MAT) which can be twenty to twenty-five metres below ground surface. These are a major form of contaminant and groundwater flow through aquitards that historically have been construed as a barrier to contaminant migration. Dr. Jackson also suggested that in fact they could be responsible for a lack of on-site hydraulic containment as contaminants flow out the bottom of aquitards via fractures (or "windows") into the Bedrock Aquifer. Keep in mind that the Bedrock Aquifer is a water bearing and transmitting zone due to fractures within the bedrock.

Here is one of the biggies from last Thursday. Alan Deal of CRA/GHD admitted that in regards to back diffusion issues of contaminants into aquitards and cleanup by hydraulic containment (pump & treat); that Conestoga Rovers were in "unchartered territory". It had never been done and nobody knew if it would work. He further added that CRA were hired "...to give it a try". Finally he admitted that over the years since the 1998 startup there were times that he thought they were "never going to make it". Those filthy liars told UPAC and CPAC the exact opposite for decades. They told the media and the public that they had everything under control and hydraulic containment was the only route to go.

Mark Bauman, he of the forked tongue who flip flops on every issue depending on which way the wind is blowing, is at it again (remember Breslau parkland). Now he wants sediment testing done in the Stroh Drain (as does Dr. Jackson) because a beaver has been dam building again in the Drain. Mark feels there will be sediments built up as a result. I expect the sediments are there in the bottom of the drain regardless of any beaver present. Further south near the border between the Stroh and Martin farms there is a narrowed and congested area of the Stroh Drain that has slowed the flow and will have allowed sediments to collect.

Regarding the M.O.E.'s continuing excuses that deeper sediments are immobilized by being covered by less contaminated sediments, Dr. Jackson disagrees. He states that the M.O.E. must demonstrate their hypothesis presumably with technical literature and research on the subject. For what it's worth tomorrow or the next day, Mark currently agrees.

Another biggy was presented to us Thursday night. Do you recall in 1989 and 1990 the public being informed that NDMA moved at the speed of groundwater and it's mobility was not retarded as other chemical contaminants were? Allegedly therefore the M.O.E. had caught the contamination in the Elmira drinking water aquifers early before any health damage could occur. Not so much it seems now. Alan Deal suggested that the various Uniroyal chemical contaminant plumes were moving off-site in the 1950s, 60s and 70s. Dr. Dick Jackson suggested that in the 1940s and 50s "high strength plumes were leaving the Uniroyal site". As late as the mid 1980s the Ontario Ministry of the Environment were publicly claiming (even in the Ontario legislature) that they were carefully monitoring and nothing had left the Uniroyal site. Such a pack of incompetent, unrepentant liars.

And lastly but not leastly Dr. Jackson informed the public and the very few interested souls on RAC that the Peritus Environmental Risk Assessment for the former Varnicolor Chemical site was within two weeks of completion. It will then among other locations (Elmira Library) be sent on to RAC for their consideration. Perhaps hydrogeologist Eric Hodgins (RMOW) will read it and understand how carefully NDMA testing has been avoided at depth for so very long. Also he will understand the significance of half a dozen other chemical contaminants (solvents) above the Ontario Drinking Water Standards (ODWS) having penetrated the soil, gravel and silt beneath Varnicolor before entering the drinking water aquifer (Municipal Upper). These contaminants include DCE, DCA, Trichlorothylene (TCE), Vinyl Chloride and more.

It is these gems of information that make attending Sandy's grossly bastardized public consultation process worthwhile. The refusal by Woolwich Township to let honest, informed citizens, both professionals and non professionals in the environmental field, to fully participate will eventually condemn the Township and their politicians to a very bad place in history.