JULY 2017 CHEMTURA (LANXESS) PROGRESS REPORT

Several changes have occurred over the summer in regards to the treatment of off-site groundwater. We now have two discharge points as a relatively small amount of treated water is being discharged into Shirt Factory Creek rather than only at the extreme south end of Chemtura from the west side into the Canagagigue Creek (ie. SS +890 ). Also pumping wells W6A/B and W9 have been added to the mix. W6A/B are only adding a tiny amount of pumping to the mix although W9 actually increased the total off-site pumping to just above 70 litres per second for the first time ever. Of course that lasted all of two months, namely July and August and now they are having problems with the new treatment system designed to treat this groundwater located beside the former Shirt Factory on Park St. in Elmira.

This treatment system is referred to as the "Trojan UV Treatment System". I will avoid making jokes about the public or anyone else getting scr.... by this system which has already broken down and caused exceedances in the discharge effluent to the creek of Toluene and Benzothiazole.

What has always been of interest to me is the location of both the original off-site pumping wells as well as the newer ones such as W9, W8, W7 and W6. W4 by the Elmira Water Tower on Howard Ave. has been pumping dissolved DNAPL (chlorobenzene) either from Uniroyal Chemical or from Borg Textile for a very long time. W3 south of Sanyo on Industrial Dr. was pumping contaminants either from Varnicolor's Lot 91, Borg or Sanyo also for a very long time. Wells W5A/B are located along the First St. extension across from Sulco (CCC) and beside the former First St. Landfill. They are also ideally located to intercept Ammonia from Nutrite/Yara. Of course we were not told about either that or the First St.Landfill back in 1998-99. The new well W9 may be pumping from the original Shirt factory on the site and W8 over by Nutrite/Yara just off Union St. could be pumping from that former company or even from the old Park Avenue Landfill (M1). Hard to say. Further south we have W6 along Oriole Parkway which could be intercepting contaminants either from Varnicolor's Lot 91 at the extreme east end of Oriole Parkway or again from the former Borg Textiles on Union St.. W7 is just south and west of Arthur St. or at least that's where it was intended to go. That is an interesting location.

Looking at the overall off-site pumping the good news is that this summer has seen the highest pumping ever. Shame that they didn't think about doing that twenty years ago. The bad news is that the pumping rates of 65 to 72 litres per second are only about 5-6 litres per second over what we've had from early 2015 until now. 2012, 2013 and 2014 were yet a few litres less than 2015 on average. What exactly happened to the claim/brag in November 2012 that they were going to triple the off-site pumping rates? Oh yes they downgraded that to doubling the rates. Still not there. Still not close. Come on guys if you're going to do the cheapest and slowest cleanup humanly possible at least get even that on the road. Five years since your big announcement in November 2012 and we're still waiting.