HISTORY IS A BITCH

I have recently sent an e-mail to Woolwich Council with the same title as above. That e-mail was in regards to a ten year old report (November 19, 2007) written by my friend and colleague, Dr. Henry Regier. Today's posting and headline are in regards to a different report written by Henry, back on September 14, 2004. It too will be a bitch for those semi-dishonest or worse individuals and groups who love to pretend that they are objectively and scientifically running the environmental remediation here in Elmira, Ontario. Henry's 2004 report is titled "SSRA As Applied To A Contaminated Site In Elmira, ON.". SSRA of course refers to Site Specific Risk Assessment.

This 2004 report has been sent on to CPAC (Citizens Public Advisory Committee) members by myself. So far I and CPAC have received back two comments namely from Rich Clausi and Graham Chevreau congratulating Henry on his insights and accurate discription of SSRAs. In Graham's words SSRAs are and have been used as part of the "greenwashing" efforts by both industry and their regulators both in the U.S. and particularly here in Canada. These Risk Assessments can be used for the purpose of greatly reducing serious cleanups at grossly contaminated sites and in this case will likely be used to allegedly scientifically prove that less is more in regards to the downstream Canagagigue Creek.

One of the many ways to avoid cleanup is to admit to the extent of gross contamination in the creek but then to claim that it's O.K. because allegedly exposure to human or wildlife receptors is minimal or negligible. The determination of negligible exposure relys on shoddy or no empirical data otherwise. This means that a long term lack of professional and unbiased scientific study, including health studies on humans, can be exploited and extrapolated to pompously state that there is no evidence past or present implicating the Canagagigue Creek in causing adverse human health effects. Similarly a lack of detailed biological investigations further up the food chain (predators) over the last fifty years, in and around the creek, can also be exploited and extrapolated to pompously declare that zero evidence exists that any predator whatsoever has been harmed by eating fish, reptiles, clams, muskrats, raccoons in and around the creek downstream from Uniroyal/Lanxess. As I have long stated in regards to Elmira and area contamination; you will never find what you refuse to look for. This is precisely why full blown health studies have never been done here.

Henry's report will be circulated further afield. His study was comprehensive and detailed and included sessions with Risk Assessment "experts" at the Ontario Ministry of Environment (MOECC). His report and his conclusions are clear and strong and will not be easily dismissed by self-serving, highly company paid consultants who have for far too long been in charge of the multi faceted local remediation while ostensibly being regulated and supervised by our Ministry of Excuses and Corporate Collusion (MOECC).