CHEMICAL VALLEY LIVING CONDITIONS HAVE LONG BEEN COMPRIMISED

Here in Elmira we know the Sarnia/Corunna area as home to Uniroyal Chemical's toxic wastes removed from their Envirodome/Mausoleum/Toxidome back in 1999-2000. There has been a story recently published in the Toronto Star titled "Outrage, calls for health study after Chemical Valley spills". The story was researched by the Star, Global News and two journalism schools. Once again it is a reminder that despite financial hardships and corporate ownership, our newspapers' investigative reporting is not dead.

There have been ongoing fugitive air releases including serious levels of benzene, a carcinogenic compound which is a cause of leukemia or blood cancer. Environmental Commissioner Diane Saxe has stated that "The number 1 issue is large industry living in close proximity to homes. That is the result of historic zoning decisions,". "There are systemic problems with the way the government is regulating pollutants from not only this industry but from across Ontario and we will be writing about that.".

There have been decades of pleas from local residents and politicians asking for a health study of the area. They have all been ignored by all levels of government. Meanwhile all the guilty parties in the Ontario legislature are assailing the ruling Liberals for their failures both in monitoring and in denying a health study. It is an exercise in hypocrisy especially for the Progressive Conservatives who are essentially the last ones likely to do anything meaningful for the environment at the expense of large corporate interests and their lobbying for less not more environmental controls, standards and criteria.