CONSULTANTS, POLLUTERS & M.O.E. ARROGANCE IS ON THE WANE

I didn't think I'd live long enough to actually type those words in the title. The entitlement, holier than thou, trust us we're god-like attitudes seem to be taking a beating of late. Granted without local media coverage (ie. Woolwich Observer) there is no way for the public to read about it and that's precisely the way Chemtura/Lanxess, CRA (now GHD) like it. The M.O.E. even seem somewhat rejuvenated albeit with their sordid history it doesn't take much.

The last three years have been difficult for Chemtura (now Lanxess) and their consultants Conestoga Rovers (now GHD). This is courtesy of the CPAC that ran from 2011 until September 2015. This is despite this current Woolwich Council manufacturing a crisis in 2015 and blaming it on the previous Council`s appointees to CPAC when Chemtura and the M.O.E. heroically boycotted public CPAC meetings with the tacit approval of Sandy Shantz and Mark Bauman on Council.

The new TAG had Dr. Richard Jackson as Chairman and he took no prisoners in his quest to resolve the cleanup of the Elmira Aquifers in a timely fashion. He hammered Chemtura, Conestoga Rovers (CRA) and the M.O.E. equally for their failures over the previous twenty-five years. While Dr. Jackson has departed over public policy failures (ie. politics) to get the show on the road, two others have come on board namely Tiffany Svensson as TAG Chair and Dr. Neil Thompson from the University of Waterloo. Both appear to be taking a no nonsense approach as well to the long delayed cleanup of the Aquifers.

Things they are a changing. Suddenly Chemtura (Lanxess) and their consultants CRA (GHD) are on the defensive. Their pufffery and arrogance and superior attitudes no longer work. They have been proven and have admitted that they miscalculated, badly. The Elmira Aquifers won`t be cleaned up by 2028 as promised and demanded. Firstly they admitted that their will be pockets of NDMA within the Elmira Aquifers above the drinking water standards. Earlier this year they admitted that there is an excess 1300 kg. of chlorobenzene dissolved in the aquifers that they could not account for. The concern for me is that despite Chemtura and CRA`s denial of free phase DNAPL (dense non-aqueous phase liquids) on the Chemtura (Lanxess) site; the fact is that the dissolved chlorobenzene from it should be hydraulically contained. However if there is another source of chlorobenzene off the Chemtura site then the free phase and residual DNAPL from it will not be contained. Hence pumping and treating the groundwater will take much longer, perhaps five or more decades depending upôn the quantity of DNAPL involved.

This has to be incredibly humbling for these arrogant and supercilious asses. Their combined puffery and bullshit carried them for decades. It also destroyed any hope of restoring Elmira`s groundwater in any kind of a reasonable time frame because of their intransigence and refusal to seriously listen to all stakeholders. They blustered, bullied and lied their way to the exact clean up that they wanted. They didn`t know what they were doing and the proof is here now. They knew as long ago as 1998 that there was off-site DNAPL whether behind (west) Varnicolor Chemical near the water tower or even beside their plant on the Nutrite (Yara) property. They knew and denied and lied for the last 28 years. The Ontario Ministry of Environment (M.O.E.) was their biggest ally leaving Elmira and Woolwich residents on their own.