ELMIRA'S WATER WAS SICK LONG BEFORE 1989

Stories abound among local oldtimers regarding the bad taste of Elmira water back in the late 70s and early 80s. Concerns regarding Canagagigue Creek deterioration began as early as the 1950s whereas the first concerns regarding the local tap water didn't start until the 1960s. Uniroyal Chemical knew full well that their unlined on-site lagoons and ponds were leaking into the Municipal Aquifer beneath them hence they temporarily emptied them and then lined them with clay in 1969-70 to reduce the volume of toxic liquids entering the natural environment. International water Supply were looking for alternate and or additional sources of water for Elmira from 1965-1968 and found that the Elmira Aquifers were much thicker at the south end of town. Hence the South Wellfield was first drilled in 1970.

In 1981 both the Ministry of Environment and Uniroyal knew that something drastic had to be done. Thus on-site Municipal Aquifer (MU) pumping wells were installed at the north end (PW1) as well as the south-east corner (PW3). Uniroyal later complained that CEAC (Citizens Environmental Advisory Committee) had prevented them from pumping those wells in time to prevent off-site discharges. Nonsense. As early as 1957 pumping from the North Wellfield in the MU caused the grossly contaminated Canagagigue Creek to recharge the Municipal Aquifer beneath it. This was readily accomplished as the Upper Aquitard (UAT) thins to literally nothing in a few areas on the Uniroyal/Chemtura site including beneath the creek. Besides the leaking lagoons this creek water that recharged the MU was being drawn into the North wellfield wells.

The same year (1984) that the M.O.E. laid their first Control Order on Uniroyal well E5A was drilled in the North Wellfield albeit the farthest well from Uniroyal. Uniroyal by 1985 was desperately closing and emptying their on-site lagoons on the west side as they knew that even with clay lining they were leaking downwards into the aquifers. By 1988 although they still had horrendous contamination buried in RPE 4 & 5 on the east side they had done an awful lot to slam the gate after the contamination had bolted. They also still had free phase LNAPLS and DNAPLS on site although they were they hoped out of sight, out of mind.

The Township, the Region and the Province via the M.O.E. knew all of this. What they needed was a face saving excuse to shut down the wells, blame Uniroyal and pretend that they didn't know how long Elmira residents were drinking tap water with industrial chemicals including NDMA in it. The M.O.E.'s "solution" was to test for NDMA allegedly for the first time. Everybody including Uniroyal jumped on board pretending they'd never heard of it before. That turned out to be false as NDMA had beeen found in the air around Uniroyal a decade earlier and concerns were expressed then.

This coverup was only possible with the cooperation of all the guilty parties from corporate to political. The public were and still are being lied to in order to protect those who agreed to sacrifice public health as long as possible in order to protect private profit as well as political influence.