DECADES OF CHEMTURA/CRA INCOMPETENCE - June 29/16 "Experts" Meeting

It appears that we have two experts looking at Chemtura's pathetic and self-serving "cleanup" attempts since shutting down the Elmira wellfields in 1989. That would be Dr. Richard (Dick) Jackson and Neil Thompson (U. of Waterloo). Minimal previous attempts to call upon the unbiased experts at U. of Waterloo including the January 2007 DNAPL meeting were aborted courtesy of vested interests protecting the status quo. This includes Pat and Susan's refusal to bring the experts (Drs. Cherry & Parker) opinions that DNAPL (residual & free phase) needed to be removed from the Chemtura property back to CPAC for their suport. I did so as I attended the meeting and then got bumped from CPAC as a result; albeit the two manipulaters with Council support made up a red herring to justify it.

Citizens at UPAC & CPAC lobbied for changes and improvements for years and were consistently shut down via the self-serving junk science of CRA. I personally advocated VAS or vertical aquifer sampling which just recently has been accepted by Chemtura as a good way to delineate the vertical stratification of contaminants in the aquifer. In other words higher concentrations are found at the bottom of the aquifers than at the top. I also advocated for ISCO or In Situ Chemical Oxidation years ago. I advised that it was used sucessfully in Cambridge to greatly reduce Trichloroethylene concentrations in the groundwater. Other citizens advocated for aquifer reinjection to speed up the process and they were shut down as well with little or no technical explanations provided. Finally all of us from 1990-1991 were requesting that PW4 be activated and then later on that it be pumped harder as it is in the centre of the plume in the south-west. We were again ignored and bullshitted for years by Uniroyal and Conestoga Rovers. Only in recent years have PW4 pumping rates been consistently higher.

The June 29/16 "Technical Experts" meeting hilariously included Pat Mclean who as I've indicated doesn't know the difference between a DNAPL and horse apple. Another interesting point from this meeting is the admission that Uniroyal contaminants started leaving their property as early as the 1950s. Also of interest is that they were worried about off-site contamination in the 1960s and hence temporarily emptied the west side ponds in 1969 in order to clay line them. Again in the 1980s they now admit that there were concerns that Uniroyal contaminants were off-site and in the Municipal Aquifer. Funny the lies that we were all told in 1989 about how it was such a surprise due to "impenetrable" clay aquitards below Uniroyal plus other hydrogeological wishful thinking.

An awful lot of this Experts meeting was excuses from Chemtura and their consultants. CRA were flying by the seat of their pants and never could scientifically back up their remediation plans. No Woolwich Councillors stepped up to demand better, and in fact other than the 2010 Council, actively ran interference for Chemtura and the Ontario M.O.E.C.C..

Dr. Jackson gave a good account of this meeting at the TAG meeting in July. Nevertheless it should have been open to the public and was not. This is one more shameful behaviour by Woolwich Township as well as by regional and provincial attendees. This is the public's water we are talking about and yet the incompetent tails continue to wag the dog. Do I need to go back to the Ombudsman on these private, in camera meetings as well?