FEBRUARY 23, 1998 PUBLIC MEETING IN ELMIRA

"Those who ignore history are doomed to repeat it." This quote is simply to remind those self satisfied folks who have had their way in abusing both the environment and local citizens that their words and actions have been recorded and will be held against them.

A public meeting was held on February 23, 1998 in the Elmira Community Centre to discuss the upcoming Draft Certificate of Approval (C. of A.) in regards to the off-site pumping and treating of the Elmira Aquifers. Initially I suggested that the overall concentration reduction of NDMA going into the creek was the right direction to be going. David Ash of Uniroyal had suggested that it would be difficult for the manufacturer of the remediation equipment to guarantee a higher treatment level without adding more capacity to the system. My public response to David was "If all you have to do is add treatment capacity I'm all for it. Go ahead and add treatment capacity."

Both the Grand River Conservation Authority (GRCA) and the Region of Waterloo expressed concerns with the discharge criteria to the creek and publicly expressed them. Despite this UPAC voted in favour of the Draft C. Of A. as it was without any improvements. Susan Bryant, myself and others walked out of the meeting in disgust. Susan stated "I don't know who is waiving what but they (M.O.E.) run in terror from the company. It is appalling.".

Susan was also quoted in the Observer as saying "You've given us a lower number with one hand and then taken it away with the monitoring on the other.". Sylvia Berg (APT) in a Letter To The Editor stated "Uniroyal has won yet again and the community has lost.". Further she indicated "The C. of A. issued by the MOE this week allows Uniroyal to average it's discharge to the creek over 12 months. It's a license to pollute for the next 30 years.".

According to Sylvia a now retired M.O.E. officer had advised APT that Uniroyal threatened to appeal the C. of A. hence the Ministry of Environment caved in to their demands.

This has been the standard operating procedure of the Elmira cleanup since the beginning. The citizens push for a better cleanup, Uniroyal publicly talks about it and then privately threatens the Ontario M.O.E. with more court action. The M.O.E. then fold like the paper tigers they are.