THIS EVENINGS TAG MEETING IN WOOLICH COUNCIL CHAMBERS

The main course of business this evening will be the Off-Site Investigation. This consists of looking at six surficial soil samples, seven new groundwater monitoring wells and eight test pits near the new monitoring wells. Unfortunately while this work was worthwhile nevertheless it ignores the likely most heavily contaminated areas. As mentioned yesterday this would be the Stroh property in and around the part of the Stroh Drain nearest to the Chemtura (Lanxess) property.

There is however one other spot still on the Chemtura property that has been conveniently ignored. That would be the true location of GP1 on the east side of the diagonal strip of high ground in Chemtura`s south-east corner. This strip of high ground lies in a north-west to south-east orientation and is clearly visible on various maps including the topographical map referenced in yesterday`s post.

The true location of GP1 is courtesy of two earlier maps including the 1985 ``History of Uniroyal Wastes`` by Jackman et al as well as the map by CH2MHILL consultants produced in February 1991 on behalf of the Region of Waterloo. The title of that report was ``Elmira-St. Jacobs Water Supply Project Volume II- Elmira Aquifer System: Contaminant Plume Mapping And Source Investigation``.

It is possible that if the excavation of gravel was deep enough that a considerable amount of Dioxins and DDT could have been trapped in this area on the east side of the diagonal strip of high ground. On the other hand if they only excavated the higher ground down to the level of the low lying swampland to the north and east then overflowing waste waters coming from the pits to the north would have flowed south-east onto the Stroh property as previously mentioned. Either way both this area and the Stroh Drain need to be properly sampled. Do not hold your breathe waiting for either Lanxess or the Ontario M.O.E. to do this work. They are looking for less contamination and hence less expense and public health and the environment be damned.