SOME INTERESTING NOTES AT YESTERDAY'S RAC MEETING

Well the usual suspects attended including one from the M.O.E. (Jason Rice), two from Chemtura , one from GHD (Louis Almeida), The Region of Waterloo (Eric Hodgins) and one from the G.R.C.A. (Nancy Davy). Also Mark and Sandy attended from Woolwich with three from TAG namely Dr. Jackson, Susan and Pat.

I presented as a Delegation and received excellent support from the Township's support staff Lisa Schaefer. My comments on behalf of CPAC were focused on the "GAP", the Stroh Drain and the "SINK". The "GAP" is the 170 metre long area intentionally not tested by GHD/Chemtura in their surficial soil testing report from last December. Louis Almeida afterwards indicated that they would be looking at that area in their next testing. The Stroh Drain is the manmade Drain which runs north to south along Chemtura's eastern property line with the Stroh farm. The "SINK" is a lowlying area next to the "GAP" which encompasses the lowest area on both properties and is the likely capture zone for decades of Uniroyal overland flowing waste water coming from the upgradient east side pits. Regarding the "SINK" Mark Bauman strongly advised GHD and Chemtura that that area needed to be well tested for their report to have any credibility at all.

The other big issue yesterday was in regards to the M.O.E. and Chemtura's plans to do an HHRA or Human Health Risk Assessment on the downstream Canagagigue Creek. Both Dr. Jackson and Susan Bryant strongly criticized that plan and clearly indicated their preference for hard and fast guidelines or criteria regarding things like chemical contaminants in sediments. Jason Rice solemnly informed RAC that those criteria simply don't exist which was unadulterated bullshit. From the gallery I pointed that out while waving a copy of the Canadian Sediment Quality Guidelines for Dioxins/Furans. Dr. Jackson also indicated that Hatfield Consultants had set a sediment level for Dioxin cleanup in Vietnam.

Both Pat Mclean and Dr. Jackson said it out loud at least a couple of times that TAG and local citizens had zero confidence in the entire Risk Assessment process. This is based upon the history of the last one in 2003 which was basically an exercise in nonsense and futility. No cleanup followed as the risk assessment did its' job by pretending that risks were minimal thus justifying no cleanup of DDTs and Dioxins on the Chemtura site. Meanwhile they are still leaving the site and being flushed down the creek. Dr. Jackson referred again to the 2004 Wallenstein flood in which 25,000 litres per second of water was leaving the upstream Woolwich Dam and 50,000 litres per second was discharging into the Grand River. The increase of course was due to additional tributaries along the way such as Larches Creek, Shirt Factory Creek and landfill Creek to just name three. These volumes of water would have scoured the creek beds and sediments and mobilized even the deeper ones. This is why they can not just be left in place.