CHEMTURA PROGRESS REPORT - JULY 2016

Technically Chemtura had two off-site pumping wells in July which failed to achieve their monthly Target Average. That said both wells, namely W4 and W5A, have very low pumping rates to start with and each one only missed by about 1 litre/second. The total off-site pumping rate for the month was 61.1 l/s which is now above the current monthly Target pumping rate. Of course Chemtura have after almost four years still have not begun either their doubling or tripling of off-site pumping as promised in November 2012. Despite this our Woolwich Council and the Ontario M.O.E. foolishly continue to trust their word.

Pumping well E7 at the south end of Elmira still has NDMA in its' raw water albeit at "only" .090 parts per billion. While not high it's still ten times higher than the drinking water standard.

On-site pumping well PW4 still has Chlorobenzene influent at 3,300 parts per billion (ppb). This concentration relative to the lab solubilty of chlorobenzene as well as relative to all the other dissolved solvents in the groundwater is a very strong indicater of free phase DNAPL (dense non-aqueous phase liquid) being present in the Municipal Aquifer on-site. The drinking water standard for chlorobenzene is 80 ppb.

NDMA is around 5 ppb on-site near the two pumping wells (PW4, PW5) which is approximately 500 times higher than the drinking water standard. Toluene, carboxin, ammonia, benzothiazole and many other chemicals are also still on site at varying concentrations in the groundwater. Very high concentrations of MBT, Aniline and Carboxin are routinely found particularily in the shallow groundwater pumping wells.

Low levels of phenolics, NDMA, xylenes, toluene and morpholine are still found in various MISA outlets on the Chemtura site to the Canagagigue Creek. MISA stands for Municipal Industrial Strategy for Abatement. The acronym is of far greater benefit to the M.O.E. than the actual results are to the natural environment.

Surface water in the creek on site has the two usual suspects namely BEHP and Toluene. Toluene still has a slightly higher statistical concentration at the downstream end of the creek on site than the upstream end. BEHP surprisingly is the other way around. Either there is another industrial source upstream or maybe even it's coming from the former Bolender Landfill beside the park on the north side of Church St. (Hwy #86).

All in all twenty-seven years after shutting down our drinking wells Chemtura continues to rely sadly upon pump & treat technology. They still aren't pumping yet at rates that could even remotely begin to make 2028 even close. Dr. Dick Jackson plus a Neil Thompson (U. of Waterloo) are pointing the way but I expect that when push comes to shove Chemtura and their bed partner the Ontario M.O.E. will do exactly as they've always done which is lie, deceive and manipulate. Our local Council will support them right up until the day they cut and run and then express pretend shock that they would be so irresponsible.