MORE ON TUESDAY'S RAC MEETING

Lou Almeida (GHD Consultants) on behalf of Chemtura Canada updated RAC on a couple of ongoing issues. The first was the East Side Work Plan. This is in regards to soil and groundwater testing of the Stroh farm. The testing done last year and in 2015 on Chemtura's property line clearly indicated that Chemtura contaminants have spread eastwards onto the Stroh farm. Ramin Ansari, Chemtura's hydrogeologist, is coming up from the U.S. next week and hoping to meet with Mr. Stroh in order to work out an access agreement. The Ontario M.O.E. we were told are considering forcing things along if they don't proceed expeditiously. From Mr. Stroh's viewpoint you can hardly blame him for wanting to protect his interests in this matter. Any chances of him selling his property (other than to Chemtura) have just hit zero. Unless of course he can sell it for the proposed Elmira by-pass and bury everybody's problems under twenty-five feet of gravel covered with asphalt.

The off-site Remedial Plan Expansion continues at its' snail's pace. All the additional wells are installed, the expanded on-site treatment system is nearly completed and the new date for start up is now April. Some of the four new wells (W6, W7, W8 & W9) will start pumping contaminated Elmira groundwater in April and the others will be phased in over the next little while. The current W3R will increase pumping dramatically and the new W9 is to pump around 250 gallons per minute while W8 will only pump a couple of gallons a minute. W6A/B are to pump about 100 gallons per minute. Overall our current rate of 55-60 litres per second is supposed to double. Based upon Chemtura's past promises I'm not holding my breathe.

Dr. Neil Thompson of the University of Waterloo has been working with Chemtura to produce an accurate and updated Conceptual Site Model (CSM). This is needed for use in computer modelling and to assist in understanding groundwater and contaminant flow including into and out of aquitards or low permeability zones. There will be a meeting next month in which technical experts will be invited and honest Woolwich citizens specifically excluded to discuss this matter further.

Chemtura and GHD want site specific standards set for the Canagagigue Creek. This is utter corporate and government horse manure yet again. We saw how this game was played back in 2002. A Risk Assessment was done for the Chemtura site; both a Human Health Risk Assessment and an Ecological Risk Assessment. Both were long winded, mathematical, philosophical exercises in manipulation, assumptions, extrapolations, interpolations and wishful thinking. We have just completed a Biological Assessment which shows exceedances in each and every criteria down the length of the creek. Sediments, Benthic biota (midges, chironomids etc.) and fish are all in exceedance of sediment criteria and Tissue Residue Guidleines. The benthic community are uptaking Persistent Organic Pollutants from the sediments and suffering adverse effects. Since when is the environment the sole purview of human beings? Wildlife are suffering and that is fact. Human beings do not live in the creek or spend as much time beside it as wildlife. This Human Health Risk Assessment is worse than bogus. It is elitism, credentialism and corporatism run amok. An honest broker, which the Ontario Ministry of Environment are not, would stop this cold, now.