FURTHER DISCUSSIONS AT THURSDAYS TAG MEETING & A WIN FOR CITIZEN VOLUNTEERS (CPAC)

Firstly a little reminder. This was only the second TAG meeting in the last eight months. Since the July 2017 meeting TAG has only met in December 2017 and then March 15th of this week. RAC (Remediation Advisory Committee) hasn't met since last September. Therefore next week's meeting (Thursday March 22 4 pm.) is the first one in six months. Both are highly unacceptable. News flash geniuses. The off-site pumping rates suck. The 30 year cleanup mandated for 2018 is in the toilet. The East Side Investigation ignored many of both TAG and CPAC's (Citizens Public Advisory Committee) recommendations and finally the Canagagigue Creek further sediment and soil monitoring data is about to be presented with public discussions in April. This lack of public meetings has only made it easier for GHD and Lanxess to either "forget" or ignore the public's input. Nice job, once again Sandy.

Pat Mclean appropriately pointed out that we "are three years in" in regards to how long it's taken GHD/Lanxess to finally determine that yes there is significant contamination on the Stroh property from Uniroyal Chemical. This is indeed a victory for both professional and non-professional citizen activists on CPAC (Citizens Public Advisory Committee) who without any support from either Conestoga Rovers (CRA), Chemtura or the MOECC (Ministry of Errors and Corporate Collusion) researched and determined that contamination had flowed east onto the Stroh farm in complete contradiction to CRA/Chemtura's self-serving junk science.

Both Pat and Susan seem to want a timely removal of the contaminated shallow soil along Lanxess's eastern border. I would agree if we knew positively that the contamination only went six inches deep. What evidence there is from other soil samples on the Chemtura/Lanxess site says that that is typical CRA psuedo science. DDT, Dioxins and PCBs have been found between 1 and 2 metres deep in other test pits and excavations. Therefore Pat and Susan's wishes may be due to ignorance, indifference or even wishing to assist the new owners of the site and the MOECC get an inexpensive "fix". Oh hell maybe they've had a 100% change in direction and suddenly want to admit that myself and CPAC have been on the right track all along. This would indeed be a turnaround from their lying at the April 9, 2015, private yet documented, "stakeholders" meeting. That said it will be a hollow victory if the Stroh and Martin properties/farms continue discharging these toxic persistent organic pollutants (POPs) into the Canagagigue Creek for another fifty years or more.

TAG stuck to their guns in regards to their criticisms of the last two Clam and Leech Bio-Monitoring Reports by Aqua Tox. Both in 2015 and 2017 there were multiple cages of these lifeforms washed away during high water flows. TAG wish to both make positive recommendations as well as to clearly disagree with the refusal of Lanxess to do these studies and reports over despite their limited use due to minimal surviving sample results. TAG also made clear that they want to see sampling done further downstream of the Chemtura/Lanxess site to see exactly what is going on in the creek.

TAG also discussed multiple monthly Lanxess Progress Reports due to the multiple months between their meeting times. The ongoing problems with the W9 treatment system were discussed as well as other temporary shutdowns of various pumping wells. TAG appropriately made it clear that there are ongoing problems with the off-site pumping wells and rates.