EIGHTEEN YEARS OF PUMPING & TREATING - THIRTEEN YEARS OF FAILURE

OR: Why I'm Confident That Chemtura, GHD & The M.O.E. Haven't a Hope Of Meeting The 2028 Deadline



Unlike various uninformed yet still opinionated friends of polluters, on and off Council, I base my opinions on facts. The facts are clear for those of us who have kept a careful compilation of monthly pumping rates for the past eighteen years. Basically that would be me. I not only have every monthly Progress Report but I keep a running summary of the volume of water pumped per well off-site (and on-site) as compared to the Target Pumping Rates. As indicated yesterday these pumping rates are up and down like a toilet seat.

Here is the big picture! Over the last 211 months starting in January 1999, four months after the July/August 1998 startup of off-site pumping; exactly 61 months achieved their Target Pumping Rates and 150 months did not. That said three of the last four years have been significantly above the eighteen year monthly pumping average. That eighteen year average is 46.8 litres per second. The lowest individual year was 2008 at 31.46 l/s and the highest year was 2010 at 61.3 l/s. The current monthly Target Pumping Rate is 55.1 l/s for the entire off-site pumping regieme which consists of W3, W4, W5A, W5B and E7.

Target Pumping Rates have varied between 49.3 l/s and 64.5 l/s. The 64.5 l/s rate which was in place from 2003 until 2009 was never achieved on an annual basis. The lower rates since have been achieved four of the last seven years. The latest proposed Target Pumping Rates which include two new wells namely W6 and W9 is 106.5 l/sec allegedly starting up sometime this fall. Keep in mind that the geniuses in charge of this cleanup since the 1989 shutdown of our drinking wells have always categorically stated that their Target Pumping Rates will be sufficient to achieve the 2028 cleanup deadline. Which Target Pumping Rates pray tell would that be? Do I have any more faith in this most recent number of 106.5 l/s than I had in the original 49.3 l/s Target Rate? I think not.

All of these numbers are fantasys anyways. The Uniroyal/Chemtura cleanup history is all about talk, puffery, bragging and failure. They are as likely to achieve a real cleanup of the Elmira Aquifers by 2028 as I am to win the Olympic gold medal in the 100 metre dash. Look out Andre de Grasse, this nearly sixty-seven year old is starting training. My mentors are Chemtura and the M.O.E..