REMEDIATION ADVISORY COMMITTEE (RAC) IN THREE WEEKS OR OUTSIDE LOOKING IN AGAIN

I wonder when the conflict of interest queens will get it. They have sold out Woolwich volunteers and friends and for what? To be preeminent? To be the top dog as far as representing Woolwich residents at Chemtura public meetings? Wow! Guess what? You're right back at zero. You are sitting on a committee with no power and little influence. You no longer have access to Chemtura and the Ontario Ministry of Environment. You did sit as TAG representatives to RAC for a grand total of what, six meetings? Oooh! I mean that is if you both attended all six which is unlikely given your attendance records over the last six years. The new TAG reps are Sebastian and Dave Hofbauer. They will do a good job and more importantly they'll do it honestly and transparently. No backroom secret meetings and no backroom scheming for their own aggrandizement. Will Susan and Pat beg Chemtura to again sit with them privately as they did during the CPAC of 2011 to 2015? They called their private meetings with Chemtura the ACC or APTE-Chemtura Committee.

The RAC group consisting of the Region of Waterloo, Grand River Conservation Authority, Woolwich Township, Ministry of Environment and Chemtura, meet on Tuesday March 14/17 at 5 pm. in Woolwich Council Chambers. Mark and Sandy are the co-chairs. When Dr. Richard Jackson was TAG Chair and one of the three TAG reps, things were always exciting. He took delight in telling the blunt and straightforward truth. Chemtura and the M.O.E. squirmed. Nobody on RAC contradicted him effectively albeit Chemtura and the M.O.E. tried. The problem was that Dr. Jackson had both truth, credentials and vast experience on his side.

Overall I have been thrilled with RAC and TAG compared to my expectations of both in the summer of 2015. Dr. Dick (Richard) Jackson was amazing. He took a bunch of newbies and showed them the truth. He showed them what deceivers and manipulators Chemtura and the Ontario M.O.E. were. It took him apparently all of five minutes to grasp the big picture and to hone in on the reality of the decades long pretend public consultation and alleged cleanup of the creek and aquifers.

I have to wonder as to whether TAG will continue their strong and aggressive stance. While all of Dr. Jackson's positions and recommendations to RAC were technically sound and sensible; he resigned due to public policy issues blocking progress, not due to technical issues. The public policy issues translates into M.O.E. intransigence, incompetence and my words not Dr. Jackson's :corruption.

I have also been pleasantly surprised that the conflict of interest queens have to date made zero public attempts to undermine Dr. Jackson or heaven help them disagree with him technically. Susan did criticize publicly on one occasion his harsh words for Terri Buhlman (M.O.E.). Despite my first paragraph I also have noticed some serious attempts at TAG and past RAC meetings by them to get improvements in Chemtura's and the M.O.E.'s downstream creek testing as well as their east side off-site (Stroh farm) sampling. Apparently when certain topics aren't on Chemtura's Do Not Talk list (eg. DNAPLS, Interceptor Trenches, phony GP1 excavation) then Pat and Susan can do good work.

RAC on their own without TAG are hopeless. The GRCA and Woolwich have little or no understanding of the contamination issues. The Region of Waterloo do although they have made their share of private deals as well; not always in the publics' best interests. TAG under Dick Jackson was making huge inroads into RAC. RAC could have some small influence on the M.O.E. and the province of Ontario if they step up and speak as one voice. The public desperately need TAG to resume their strong and aggressive stance. Anything less and they will be steamrolled by bureaucratic inertia, lethargy and corruption.