OVER TWENTY POLLUTERS PAST & PRESENT IN ELMIRA

Last Friday I took an old friend on an environmental tour of Elmira. Strictly Elmira, not of Woolwich Township. To my surprise after writing out a list I had over twenty locations of either contaminated sites or of sites which had spilled liquids or released fumes into the air contrary to the Environmental Protection Act. Many of these locations have either been sold or relocated or actually cleaned up to a certain extent.

The obvious ones are Uniroyal (Lanxess), Varnicolor Chemical (including Lot 91) and Nutrite (Hydro-Agri). Less obvious ones include the Strauss/Esso fuel depot on the north side of the current Woolwich Observer location and the four former municipal/industrial landfills located here within Elmira (Park St./M1/M2/Bolender). Also less known would be a cleanup done in front of the former Martin's Pet Food on Arthur St..

At least three gas stations have or had contaminated soil and groundwater namely Gord's at Snyder & Church, Voisin's where Shopper's Drug Mart is now located and the old Becker's on the corner of Arthur & Wyatt St.. beside the former Steddick Hotel.

Even less well known would be a spill from the former Flametech/Sunfire location on Bonnie Crescent that went into Landfill Creek. The foundry beside them also used to send out black clouds of smoke in late evening or early morning while visibility was poor. Borg Textiles was also conveniently overlooked along with many other polluters in the early 90s. They had a record of discharges to the Elmira Sewage Treatment Plant that damaged the biological/bacterial abilities of the plant. They were also conveniently located next to the Howard St. storm drains in the early 1980s when chlorobenzene was being discharged into them. Varnicolor took most of the heat for that although their groundwater tests came up negative for chlorobenzene.

Then there are a number of industries which totally escaped environmental scrutiny even to this day. Hard to believe for example that a dairy (Silverwoods) located right on the Canagagigue Creek at the north end of town never utilized it for disposal. There is another large factory just south of there again right beside the creek that has been around for a very long time. It has been bought and sold over the decades. Also in the area is a non-manufacturing site which grossly polluted the soil and most likely the groundwater. They were remediated a long time ago although it never became public. Also Elmira had a number of other textile factories including the Elmira Shirt & Overall Co. located on Park St. near Uniroyal. Aptly named Shirt Factory Creek runs behind their building. Air polluters would include the former Scavenger Recycling and Rothsay Concentrates.

This list doesn't cover everybody but you get the picture. Is it any wonder that Uniroyal in 1989 had so much support from the Chamber of Commerce, BIA and other industry and business leaders in town? Is it any wonder that our municipal councillors over the years generally knew where their bread was buttered with a few notable exceptions? Do not worry folks, Elmira is not the exception. An environmental history of Kitchener, Waterloo and Cambridge is even worse.