SEDIMENT SITE TESTING BIAS AS WELL AS FISH LOCATION BIAS

No shame should be the motto of the Ontario Ministry of Environment. They have outdone themselves and dare I say it, even outdone Chemtura Canada's former consultants. That is no mean feat. The biases built into their fish testing in the Canagagigue Creek are blatant and ridiculous. The report that has just been released despite the testing all being completed in 2014 and 2015 is the Biological Assessment of Canagagigue Creek in Elmira, Ontario dated February 2017. Oddly the Ont. M.O.E. seem to want it both ways. The sub-title of their report references sediments, toxicity and fish tested in 2014-2015. Despite that their report does reference testing done in 2012 and 2013 which is appropriate. Afterall this whole program was initiated after the 2012 testing showed outrageously high DDT concentratons in sediments in the creek.

Carp and Suckers have their tissues tested for toxic contaminants in two locations namely Upstream and downstream, sort of. A check in the text is required to determine that Upstream means between Reid Woods Dr. and the Woolwich Dam. Downstream does not mean all the way downstream to the Grand River. It means downstream of Chemtura Canada only as far as the New Jerusalem Rd. bridge. That's it. No attempt to see if either Carp or Suckers are grossly contaminated with Dioxins/Furans, DDT, PCBs and Mercury all the way to the Grand River and into it.

Common Shiners are the one fish species out of five tested that have honest test locations at multiple sites both up and downstream in the Canagagigue. The results are stunning. We are advised in the text that forage fish such as Shiners travel less than Carp and Suckers. Hence their tissues more accurately reveal the contaminants in the vicinity in which they are found and caught. While as expected the New Jerusalem Rd. site has high concentrations of the four contaminants tested so do the other two downstream sites at Northfield Dr. and Jigs Hollow Rd., many miles further downstream.

The other two forage fish tested as mentioned here yesterday are a sham. Exactly zero downstream sites were tested. Each fish was caught at all of one upstream site and tested. The results were very low although Dioxin and PCB TEQs were elevated in Bluntnose Minnows above the Woolwich Dam.

I have seen and understood the M.O.E.'s game plan for some time now. I publicly criticized their biased sediment site testing years ago. This is more of the same. It is damage control on behalf of the polluter. Turns out that the Indemnity against known contamination on Uniroyal Chemical's site extends even miles downstream in the creek. They don't want to admit it but why else lie to and deceive the public by pretending that the creek is only contaminated in a couple of upstream hotspots?