THE LONG CON

My view over time has been transformed into believing that the Ontario Ministry of Environment are a taxpayer funded consulting and public relations firm working on behalf of private interests. In other words their clients are polluters. At least the larger and more powerful polluters they treat as clients whereas any relatively little guy like Varnicolor Chemical who won't play ball they will eventually hammer. Decades later I will admit that Severin Argenton was right. After his environmental convictions he advised the media that Marshall (moi) made the M.O.E. look like monkeys so they came after him (Argenton) with a vengeance. They had to or else I'd have been proven right.

Five years the M.O.E. have been working on this long con. George Karlos was the one who started the ball rolling. He did it he said so as to reassure Woolwich residents that the creek was healing and improving. Oh boy was that an optimistic (naive?) outlook. In my understanding and opinion the facts are awful regarding all aspects tested so far in the creek. It's now all about the spin that the M.O.E. can put on those facts. They are assisted of course due to the psuedo scientific versus scientific methodology they've used. An awful lot of the testing appears to have been done in order to intentionally make legitimate comparisons over time impossible. It has been done to prevent comparisons over time with individual chemicals, locations, fish, benthic communities etc.. Even the highest concentrations of contaminants in sediments, fish and biota have been studiously avoided with the choices made during these studies.

The M.O.E. have suggested that DDT and Dioxon/Furan concentrations are much lower now than they were in 1995 on Chemtura's property. Agreed. Hence it makes sense to do more removal of contamination further down the creek but not just at one or two locations. These sediments have been transported the length of the Canagagigue Creek for many decades. The M.O.E.'s biased sampling would have us believe that there are only a couple of hot spots over the six mile plus length of the creek. Utter rubbish.

The M.O.E. have cherry picked their sampling locations based upon where sediments are least likely to be deposited. Even then they have not tested many sites over the last five years to see patterns and probabilities in sediment and related contaminant deposition. In 2015 they suddenly tested sediments at FP-4,5,6,7,8 & 9. This was the first and only time they tested these areas for sediments. Previously (95-96) they had sampled these areas of the floodplain for soils testing not sediments.

The M.O.E. are ignoring all the exceedances of the criteria in multiple locations for sediments and fish tissues. They are ignoring the proven uptake and bioaccumulation of DDT, Dioxins/Furans, Mercury and PCBs in Cangagigue Creek with their cherry picking of sampling sites and their irrelevant comparisons. They are ignoring the law and they are ignoring proven adverse effects on wildlife and human beings. They, on behalf of Chemtura Canada, are trying to talk both of them out of their duty and responsibility. If you the M.O.E. have given Chemtura Canada even more Indemnities than we already know about; then you the M.O.E. do the cleanup of the creek!