HYPOCRISY & STUPIDITY CONTINUE TO RULE IN WOOLWICH

Last evening the Technical Advisory Group met in Woolwich Council Chambers. Most members and Chair present did a good job with what they had to work with. Joe Kelly was particularly impressive as he went through GHD's (formerly Conestoga Rovers) Revised Creek Sediment& Soil Investigation Work Plan. Susan Bryant, Linda Dickson, Bill Barr and Sebastian Seibel-Achenbach all contributed with questions and comments.

It's the folks who weren't present who turn my stomach with the noticeable exception of David Hofbauer. Mr. Hofbauer realizing he couldn't attend read the two reports under discussion (Revised Creek S & S Investig. and the Conceptual Site Model (CSM)) and then sent in his comments to Chair Tiffany Svensson. She introduced them to the TAG members during the discussion.

Absent yet again was Pat Mclean. She lobbied and brown nosed her way with Sandy Shantz into being appointed to TAG and then she apparently can't be bothered to attend the meetings regularly. Between that and her conflict of interest position with the chemical industry perks she receives, she should have been bounced more than a year ago.

Further absent and thus making the relevance of TAG somewhat suspect was both the Ontario Ministry of Environment and Chemtura/Lanxess. TAG members and Chair are trying. They also apparently through the Chair are sending their comments and recommendations along to RAC (Remediation Advisory Committee) via e-mails. Of course the public do not see the e-mails or what response if any the TAG Chair receives. Also the public can neither ask questions of TAG nor advise or inform them based upon our generally much greater experience in these matters. Of greater concern yet is that neither TAG nor the public can communicate directly with Chemtura/Lanxess or the M.O.E. in a public forum.

This is the extreme stupidity and or hypocrisy of them as well as of Mark Bauman and Sandy Shantz on Woolwich Council. They all conspired privately to disparage the last CPAC in order to replace them with overall good people with little prior knowledge of the situation. They blamed CPAC for the M.O.E. and Chemtura suddenly, after the last municipal election, deciding to not attend public CPAC meetings. Chemtura (Uniroyal) alone pulled the same stunt back in the spring of 1999 when they were being publicly criticized for their inadequate efforts at curtailing their production air emissions.

Allegedly CPAC's aggressive stance put off the polluter (and their corrupt regulator) with their ongoing misrepresentations and attempts to constantly minimize and or hide environmental problems. The off-site east side revelations by CPAC of contamination both unintended and likely intended to divert liquid wastes eastwards and into the Stroh Drain were too much raw exposure for both those parties. They conspired with Mark and Sandy to take the public pressure off. The new Woolwich Council acquiesced. Now despite past dictums from the Canadian Chemical Producers Association, demanding Uniroyal/Chemtura have monthly meetings with the public, Chemtura/Lanxess are only required to attend four meetings a year with RAC. Nice job Sandy and Mark. I hope you get a payoff after you get booted off Council.