LANXESS (GERMANY) SHAREHOLDERS BEWARE

In my opinion, possibly the biggest red flag indicating a diversion of the grossly contaminated east-side groundwater was the 1994 Upper Aquifer Containment & Treatment System (UACTS) plan followed by the 1996 implementation of the same. Conestoga Rovers claimed that 97.5% of the groundwater contamination discharging into the on-site Canagagigue Creek could be hydraulically contained by eleven pumping wells all located in one quarter of the site, namely the south-west corner.

While undoubtedly the western retention ponds RPW 3-8 were horrific polluters of the natural environment; so were the east side pits and ponds namely RPE 1-5, BAE-1, RB-1 and RB-2. If we only knew to what extent and ability that Uniroyal and the Ontario Ministry of Environment were willing to lie and coverup for their own self-interest in the early 1990s. The only possible way that 1/4 of the site hydraulic containment could come even close to achieving 97.5% stoppage of discharge to the on-site Canagagigue Creek is if the rest of the site was being surepticiously contained, diverted or remediated.

To date we the public as well as CPAC have only had our questions regarding an Interceptor Trench on the east side, answered in the most superficial way by Chemtura. Their answers have included a cattle fence, a wildlife fence and or a fence to keep trucks and pedestrians away from RPE 4 & 5 when they were being excavated in late 1993 and put into the Envirodome (Mausoleum). I have made a couple of different suggestions as to what this is which appears on both Google Earth and on Waterloo GIS. An above ground fence it is not. That a wire fence is now currently present at least partially is not disputed. A wire fence would not however show up as clearly as scars in the earth indicating a buried trench, Permeable Reactive Barrier or something else much wider than a quarter inch strand of wire.

Perhaps this warning should be to senior M.O.E. personnel (not Lanxess shareholders) who approved or looked the other way regarding this apparent diversion of contaminated groundwater around the Uniroyal/Chemtura site both onto the Stroh and Martin farms and then back into the Canagagigue Creek. That part of the Stroh Drain was then also diverted directly into the Martin swimming pond is beyond horrific. Likely the Martins had no knowledge of what was going on upstream of them and believed that this was all simply natural groundwater originating on the Stroh farm discharging at the surface as a spring. Indeed perhaps the pipe into their pond was there before the Stroh Drain was excavated along the Chemtura/Stroh property line and led into the already existing natural spring further south.

That there has been no formal epidemiological study of the health of downstream Canagagigue residents is beyond shameful. That the Region of Waterloo health department, paid for by taxpayers, has not investigated succeeding generations of both the Martin family and other downstream residents is disgraceful. I do not know how it could be possible that generations of children swimming in the Martin pond as well as children playing in the creek downstream have not had permanent health problems. All of this could have been avoided if our appropriate authorities both regional, provincial and federal had done their duty. They have not. The costs both financial and reputation wise will be shared with Chemtura Canada eventually.