QUOTING SUSAN BRYANT: "WHAT THEY (MOE) DO IS SOMETIMES PITIFUL, EVEN TO THEM."

I must agree with Susan's quote from February 5, 1999 in the Elmira Independent. What they permit in regards to investigations and reports from Uniroyal Chemical, their consultants, and all Uniroyal's corporate successors is indeed pitiful. Then of course is the MOECC's own investigations and reports. The most recent one dated June 13, 2018 is a fine example. It is titled ""Audit of the Lanxess Canagagigue Creek Floodplain Soil Investigation,Elmira 2017".

First some perspective on this "Audit". The overall efforts expended by GHD,consultants to Lanxess,were substantial. They sampled and tested creek sediments, creek bank soils, and floodplain soils in the Canagagigue Creek between the Lanxess property and the mouth of the Canagagigue Creek at the Grand River,just south of West Montrose, Ontario. They sampled extensively on the Lanxess property but unfortunately, generally focused on either identical or nearby locations downstream from there. There has been an obvious locational sampling bias by both the company and the Ontario MOECC since at least 2012 and thereafter. Hence there has emerged from repeated sampling of the same locations so called "hot spots" in the Creek that most likely are ridiculous. When you don't sample in other locations then you don't find the other "hot spots"and never will.

The total number of samples taken and tested by GHD in the "2017 Canagagigue Creek Sediment and Floodplain Soil Investigation", unlike their recent Off-Site Investigation (Feb. 14, 2018-the narrow Stroh strip of land along their border), was as stated, impressive. The weakest and least impressive investigating of the Creek however was in regards to the mere five floodplain soil locations which they (GHD) tested. The MOECC reviewed the rest of GHD's above mentioned report in an eight page report also dated June 13, 2018. I would categorize it as much better done and much more professionally done than their longer (nineteen Pages) Audit Report. That shorter review by the MOECC points out a number of errors and discrepancies in GHD's report which I have also undiplomatically likely referred to as "amateur hour" mistakes. It also on page two makes it clear that Lanxess and GHD must examine other potential contaminant sources to the Creek, specifically including the Stroh Drain which they prefer to awkwardly call "agricultural drainage ditch from 6770 Line 86, Township of Woolwich".This is a huge item and my bets are on the MOE eventually winning a formal competition as they do their world famous MOE gymnastics dismount from their current position on seriously and honestly investigating the Stroh Drain.

So what is wrong with the MOECC's "Audit Report"? Table 1 (page 5) is a disgrace. The first row representing o,p + p,p DDT values has six out of eight numbers representing data from the 1997 Jaagumagi & Bedard (MOE) report transcribed incorrectly. The only reason the other two are O.K. is because they are N/A or not available. I also believe that the last row (ie. 4th row) has also inaccurately transcribed the Dioxin TEQ values from the Jaagumagi & Bedard report inaccurately.

Table 1 also rather bizarrely appears to be comparing the MOECC test results with Jaagumagi & Bedard as well as with GHD's test results. The problem is that while the listed parameters are identical between the MOECC and Jaagumagi & Bedard, they are different from the listed GHD parameters.Based upon errors in the text and data in GHD's initial investigation as well as in errors in the MOECC's longer "Audit Review"; quite frankly I'm getting tired of going back to the original reports either Jaagumagi & Bedard's or GHD's 2017 Canagagigue Creek Sediment and Floodplain Soil Investigation confirming all their errors. Therefore these different parameters (eg. o,p + p,p DDD versus only p,p DDD) may be typographical in Table 1 or they could be that GHD specifically didn't test for the same parameters as Jaagumagi & Bedard did twenty years ago. A third option is that they did test the same parameters and the MOECC simply couldn't manage to find them and include them in Table 1. Regardless the inclusion of GHD's different parameters in this table is both confusing and a skeptic might even think intentionally deceptive. As I said "amateur hour".

As mentioned earlier (paragraph 3) there were only five Floodplain Soil sample locations in GHD's 2017 Investigation. Of these Jaagumagi & Bedard only sampled four of them namely FP5, FP8, FP9 and FP10 with each location at varying depths. Well actually Jaagumagi & Bedard sampled a total of ten locations altogether namely FP1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10. Therefore right off the bat there is little or no accurate, scientific comparison between Lanxess/GHD's efforts and Jaagumagi & Bedard's. Same thing with the MOECC's test results and Jaagumagi & Bedard's.

Here is where it gets even worse. The samples were taken at different depths at a number of the "common" locations or in fact simply weren't taken at all by Jaagumagi & Bedard. One example may be the FP Pond location that GHD sampled. Did you notice how I put the word "common" in quotation marks two sentences ago? This is because there actually weren't any "common" locations. The best GHD could do apparently is while using the exact same location names; they could only get within about 100 metres of the original floodplain sampling locations. Therefore GHD's 2017 Canagagigue ...Investigation results should not be compared with anything other than the current provincial or federal criteria for each and every chemical found. It should not be compared with concentrations of DDT and Dioxin/Furans in different locations, different depths, different soil types, different parameters and lastly twenty years apart with different sampling techniques, equipment and personnel. That is sheer junk science and the masters of it have honed their craft here in Elmira over the last thirty years.

Lastly I mentioned in the preceding paragraph that investigation results should not be compared with anything other than the current provincial or federal criteria for "...each and every chemical found." Well they certainly didn't test for each and every Uniroyal signature chemical or otherwise. Nevertheless as per the MOECC's Appendix II they have found the following additional chemicals in floodplain soils namely chlordane, PCB 114, PCB 171, dieldrin, endosulphan II, lindane, PCB 60, PCB 74, and trans-nonaclor. Therefore above and beyond the fact that DDT and Dioxins/Furans are mostly above the legal criteria, how do you feel about all the other toxic chemicals in the Canagagigue Creek? Maybe the threatened SSRA (Site Specific Risk Assessment) along with a pinch of fairy dust will determine that all these other toxins will magically nuetralize DDT and Dioxin/Furans. Maybe we will learn that animal patties in and around the creek are also magic antidotes for man made toxic chemicals. Have faith in both junk science and the just mentioned horse manure. They will prevail as they always have in Woolwich Township.

COULD THE MOE BE MORE INCOMPETENT THAN CORRUPT?

Personally I'm doubtful however with their latest effort dated June 13, 2018 you'd never know it. This is the second of two reviews dated that day and this is the longer one focusing solely on Floodplain Soils.It is ironic that the other 8 page one pointed out a number of errors in GHD's efforts in their report about the 2017 investigation of the Canagagigue Creek sediments and soils. This review by the MOE(CC) is a classic case of comparing apples to oranges, pineapples, or even to watermelons.

Firstly you cannot honestly or scientifically pretend that measuring the same chemicals twenty years apart at different locations is relevant to anything. GHD picked the new sampling locations. They got them supposedly within 100 metres of the MOE ones from twenty years ago. Good Lord groundwater may be somewhat homogenous but soils are not. Literally two soil samples fifteen feet apart can have drastically different concentrations of either DDT or Dioxins in them. Therefore 100 metres apart simply is not comparing apples to apples. It is not relevant to anything at all. Secondly the MOE's Table 1. is simply inaccurate. They have not correctly listed the data from twenty years ago regarding MOE concentrations of DDT. Thirdly the calculations on page 7 allegedly determining the percentage decrease of DDT over the last twenty years do not match the numbers stated in their Table 1. This is more typical CRA stuff. It is inaccurate, embarrassing and shameful. We the taxpayers are paying for sloppy work. Enough long ago.

May 2018 LANXESS PROGRESS REPORT otherwise known as DILUTION IS THE SOLUTION TO POLLUTION

The title above says it all. In a nutshell the Ontario MOE's "strategy" for remediating contaminated sites is "natural attenuation" aided and abetted by the appearance of professional oversight developing the best environmental solutions. In reality the "best environmental solutions" are far more likely to be "the cheapest and least effective solution". That is a direct quote by Dave Belanger, consultant for CH2MHILL back in the early 1990s on behalf of the Region of Waterloo in describing Conestoga Rover's Upper Aquifer Containment & Treatment System.

For the benefit of the naive and or others with a bias in favour of our alleged professional regulators let me say this. You can make excuses until the cows come home. You can cry about reduced budgets, layoffs and more. That may be so but those excuses do not remediate contaminated sites nor do they mitigate either ecological or human health issues. Provincial politicians may very well be to blame but until the Ontario Ministry of Environment develop some backbone at the top and stand up and call it like it is and call out the province for ignoring the health of our environment then it will not stop. Yes there will be firings and maybe, just maybe, there need to be resignations at the top to highlight the scam that passes for environmental regulation in this province. In other words senior MOE personnel, don't support provincial puffery and bullshit. Speak out and tell the people of this province the truth. That truth is that large corporate polluters have free rein. The system that has been developed here in Ontario allows large polluters to hire their own client driven consultants and run their own clean ups. It does not work. It is nothing but a scam giving the appearance of the best available technology being applied to environmental problems that could have and should have been stopped decades earlier. When the lower rung staff begin to understand that the whole thing is for show it robs them of the incentive to do a good job. When they learn that a problem avoided leads to promotion and raises then why on earth would they be proactive with polluters whom they are supposed to be supervising? The problems are at the senior level and trickle down and permeate throughout the organization. There should have been a Public Inquiry in the early 1990s here in Elmira. It might have caused heads to roll both politically and in the MOE but we citizens would have been the winners. It did not happen.

The May Progress Report is very discouraging. Page 5 under the title of "Remediatiation of Former Operating Pond Area" has the same old comment for the last decade or two. It states "There are no new activities to report for this item in May 2018." That is shameful and is designed to simply allow the MOE not to make a decision. There was an absolutely minimal "cleanup" of part of RPW-5 and TPW-2 back in the fall of 1993. Allegedly this "clean-up occurred in December 1993 after the on-site Envirodome was already full to its effective capacity. The rest of the operating ponds (RPW-6, 7, 8) were not excavated as they should have been. We have been asking them since then as to whether or not they were satisfied with Uniroyal's answer. Their response has been in the monthly Progress Reports ever since in one form of wording or another.

Table C.2 is awful again this month. The following Uniroyal chemicals have higher concentrations downstream than upstream as the Canagagigue Creek flows through their property. These chemicals are MBT, BT, NDMA, NMOR, chlorobenzene, toluene and m&p xylenes. This is disgraceful and likely won't even be raised at the potential TAG meeting set for one week from today at 6:30 pm. in Council Chambers.

WOOLWICH TOWNSHIP STAFF & COUNCILLORS (?) ARE GOING TO COURT

You would think that they have better things to do with our time and our tax dollars. Apparently they don't think so. Many years ago Woolwich Township presumably with the blessing of Council built a water pipeline through private property. Now we all probably have water pipelines on our residential properties. How else do you think you get your municipal water from the underground pipes beneath the streets into your house? The difference of course is that the underground pipe is bringing water to your property for your use. The water pipeline that goes through the #86 Auto Recycling property doesn't go anywhere near the buildings facing Arthur St. in Elmira. It services the former Martin's Pet Food plant on Martin Lane just north of the former Paleshi Motors (now #86 Auto Recycling).That's right, the Township without benefit of an easement or any other legal right simply ran the pipeline straight through the back of the property now known as #86 Auto recycling.

When the owner Mr. Rattasid bought the property he of course did his due diligence.He had his lawyer look for any liens, chattels or easements. None were found at the back of his property which consists of several acres. The front can be readily accessed from Arthur St. The back has an access to High St. available he thought. Turns out that while High St. dead ends at his property there is a small problem. It's called a buried pipeline on his property running perpendicular to the end of the road. The pipeline is sitting in a area of sunken ground something like a ditch. Mr. Rattasid has been advised that he can not fill in or cover over the deepest part of the ditch which would give him egress and exit from his property onto High St.

So in a nutshell he has asked the Township for relief from a problem that they caused. Either move the water pipeline and put it on municipal property as is the normal, usual and legal practice or make some other accommodation to assist him. The Township as sometimes is their habit have chosen not to assist him in any way. This is clearly a property rights issue which the courts are now going to have to resolve. No one expects to leave the Elmira Pet Products plant in the lurch for water. It can hardly be their fault. However the Township have to do better than simply saying no we won't fix the problem we created through an illegal pipeline across private property.

THREE DECEPTIONS PRODUCED BY WOOLWICH COUNCILLORS & THE MOE

The three lies oops "factual fictions" are in regards to ammonia in our drinking water, industrial dumping in our in town landfills and third and fourth sources of industrial contamination in the south wellfield prior to its shutdown in November 1989.

What I am offering today is simply additional evidence to all the other different evidence offered here over the last eight years.

South of Uniroyal and in and around the former Varnicolor site on Union St. we had commercial pig farms. Yup, pigs. And besides putting on weight, guess what pigs do,en masse. You got it. Hence this site and the whole area has had high urea amd ammonia levels for decades. To this day the new wells required to remediate the Elmira aquifers are being routed through the fairly new Ammonia Treatment System located at Lanxess (Uniroyal Chemical). Deep pumping wells near Uniroyal and Nutrite require ammonia treatment such as W5A/B as well as the on-site deep pumping wells PW4 & 5. One new nearby well (W8)just barely off the former Nutrite site is also routed through the Ammonia Treatment System. Surprisingly so are new wells W6A/B and they are way south on Oriole Parkway. It would seem to me that this is from the anmmonia mentioned from the Union St. area and the former pig farms. Keep in mind neither the Region of Waterloo nor Woolwich councillors want to offend our agricultural brethren.

Woolwich councillors have frankly behaved like spoiled, arrogant pieces of crap in regards to my discovery of methane gas en masse in the former Bolender Park Landfill. As there are a whole whack of technical reports by Conestoga Rovers (CRA) confirming this and expressing concerns on occasion; Council's head in the sand bullshit really seemed excessive even for them. Maybe there's a reason. Firstly CRA not only have produced numerous reports and investigations of the Bolender Park Landfill but they have done the same thing for the First St. Landfill beside the former Transfer Station on Howard Avenue. You can bet your bottom dollar that our municipal usurpers of power and authority have no intention of those reports ever getting into my hands or any other honest citizen's.Yes of course these reports were paid for by you and I but the truth is the last thing our local councillors (in general only) intend to ever share with us even when we've paid for it. Oh and I've just come across a formal Thesis submitted to the University of Waterloo back in the early 1990s which advises that Varnicolor were prohibited from dumping in the (Elmira) town dump because believe it or not their highly flammable solvent wastes caught fire in 1970. Gotta love it! In 1970 could be either the Bolender Landfill or the First St. Landfill. So please Woolwich council stop lying by telling citizens that heavy duty industrial wastes from numerous local industries didn't go into our in town landfills. They went in and they currently are slowly going out.

Wilf Rulansd, hydrogeologist, is not my favourite person. He's got a big mouth when backing a party or two within a public consultation body on matters that are none of his business. His business as a consultant is to ALL the members of the group he is representing, not only to his buddies more closely tied to Council. Furthermore he is not as firm as he should be when being bafflegabbed and deceived by the likes of the MOE and Chemtura's (Uniroyal) consultants. A little more backbone then and a lot less inappropriate nerve and input regarding his clients' internal disagreements.

Regardless of all that, Wilf did write an interesting report to APT back in the day. In the December 18, 1989 "Apt Remarks" he advised that "It is unlikely that Uniroyal is the only source of groundwater contamination, but there is almost nothing known about the extent of contamination off the Uniroyal property." He further added regarding the presence of NDMA and cyclohexylamine in the south wells that "It seems unlikely that Uniroyal is the source because the Uniroyal monitoring wells seem clear of these chemicals. Furthermore, it is unlikely that these chemicals would appear alone in the well water if the source were Uniroyal."

Shortly afterwards NDMA was (conveniently) found in monitoring wells near Uniroyal. Nevertheless Wilf's observations and conclusions speak volumes.It never made sense that serious soil and groundwater testing did not occur at multiple sites throughout Elmira including industrial sites and former landfills. This was because MOE/Uniroyal deals were in the making to save Uniroyal money and the MOE "face". They were already being roundly condemned. Imagine if it was shown in 1989 or 1990 that due to MOE negligence and incompetence that there wasn't one source of drinking well contamination but half a dozen or so. The opposition from the MOE concerning investigating Varnicolor only adds to this scenario. The MOE had to be publicly humiliated through 1990 to get a shallow groundwater study. They promised including in a Control Order to do a deep study. It has never happened. Plus they have studiously avoided sampling for NDMA on the Varnicolr site for the last thirty years while still pumping & treating and remediating the site to this day.

SECOND (& THIRD & FOURTH) SOURCES OF ELMIRA'S CONTAMINATION

This is likely the most significant reason that local politicians, M.O.E., Region and others prefer some local environmentalists over others. The ones they prefer are into the "Let's make a deal mode" whereas I never have been. Deals that exclude the public interest and or intentionally deceive the public I will not tolerate. Hence while not all our local councillors will have been let in on the big scam involving the shutdown of all our municipal wells nearly thirty years ago, a few of the more "reliable" ones will be. They will know that the Region and the Township went along with the October 7, 1991 sweetheart deal between Uniroyal Chemical and the Ontario Ministry of the Environment. Above and beyond the Indemnity given to Uniroyal, both parties agreed to the fiction that Uniroyal solely was responsible for the contamination to the municipal aquifers here in Elmira. Solely responsible as in solely responsible not just for NDMA but for chlorobenzene and all the rest which easily would be another twenty chemicals and or solvents at measurable concentrations. The first crack in Uniroyal and the M.O.E.'s armor occurred in 2000 when Uniroyal started yelling for financial assistance from Nutrite (Yara) due to ammonia contamination in the municipal aquifers.

The Elmira Independent published the following story on October 21, 2009 titled "Second source of contamination: Marshall". Gail Martin of the Independent reported on my Delegation to UPAC on October 5, 2009 at which meeting I indicated groundwater evidence in the south end of Elmira that was inconsistent with the version of Uniroyal as the sole source. I named both NDMA and chlorobenzene as having concentrations at various wells far in excess of upgradient concentrations ie. closer to Uniroyal. These wells included CH38 near Sanyo Canada on the corner of Industrial Drive and Oriole Parkway. While the Independent did not quote my naming of Borg Textiles and Varnicolor I believe that I did. Borg I gave likely credit for the chlorobenzene and Varnicolor for the NDMA. Interestingly two years ago, Neil Thompson of the University of Waterloo, on contract to Chemtura (Uniroyal) publicly advised that there was an excess of 1,300 kilograms of chlorobenzene in the Elmira Aquifers that could not be explained. In this case I was only seven years ahead of the experts. This will eventually all come out although most of the guilty parties will either be dead or certainly retired. They should have all been charged and convicted for their coverups and collusion especially between the M.O.E. and Uniroyal Chemical.

COMING BACK TO THE M.O.E. REVIEW LETTER OF JUNE 13,2018

I posted here about this letter this past Wednesday. There are some additional comments required. The main thrust of the 2017 Canagagigue Creek Investigation was to provide data and support for an upcoming bastardization of the Risk Assessment process which was also done in 2004. That human health and ecological SSRA (Site Specific Risk Assessment) however was solely in regards to the Uniroyal/Chemtura property. As a highly informed albeit non professional I can advise that speaking in the vernacular, the SSRA was a glorified piece of horse crap. Now we did have a professional PhD in Biology who examined, researched, and questioned the process from start to finish. Dr. Henry Regier even went so far as to travel to Hamilton to talk to the "expert" bureaucrats involved. He wrote a number of reviews and comments about the SSRA as practiced here in Elmira and no he did not say that it was a glorified piece of horse crap. I still have his reviews and comments and I can assure you that his professionalism and focus on facts and proper process and procedures are second to none. He much more smoothly and nicely, albeit very strongly, came to similar conclusions as I did regarding the first SSRA done here by Uniroyal/Chemtura and their fellow travellors. Now we're getting a second one by the same folks who brought us their original odourous psuedo science. Aren't we lucky?

The M.O.E. would like Lanxess to do additional biological investigations this summer in the Canagagigue Creek. Presumably this will mean fish although it could certainly mean a whole lot more than fish as well.

The M.O.E. in their letter have pointed out that the report issued a few months back was simply raw data with no evaluations of it included. Many specific questions need to be answered in the evaluations included in the final report.

Page 3 of the M.O.E. review has an example Table provided by the M.O.E. The data however is quite eye opening. It shows Dioxin/Furan Soil & Sediment results at various locations in the creek by depth. Five out of the six locations have their highest concentrations of Dioxin/Furans at the deepest depth tested and the sixth one has its highest concentration found at the second deepest sampling point.

There are a number of errors in the report by GHD on behalf of Lanxess. I used to complain about the reports done by CRA being riddled with errors of one type or another. The good news is that GHD are carrying on in the same fine tradition and it is encouraging to see that they also appear unable to consistently match text to figures and to make other typographical and amateur (unedited?) errors.

THE EARTH IS CONNECTED HENCE CONTAMINANTS SPREAD

I believe it was Dr. Gail Krantzberg of McMaster University who got this simple message through to me. CPAC had hired her early in their role as citizens holding Chemtura Canada environmentally accountable in Elmira. Dr. Krantzberg examined things such as whether or not Chemtura's pump and treat system was adequate to remediate the Elmira aquifers by 2028. She also commented on source removal of Uniroyal Chemical's sub-surface wastes and contaminated soils. She stated that eventually every drop of Uniroyal's wastes that wasn't evaporated and transported by air would eventually move off the site if not removed first. Hence the title above is an indictment of the Ontario Ministry of Environment's ridiculous legislative authority (from idiot politicians) stating that on-site pollution is O.K. as long as it doesn't move off-site. The point is that the earth is connected. Contaminants can travel literally as vapours through soil particles, they can dissolve into moving groundwater and from their into surface water and they can travel by wind and air either as dust or after having evaporated. Lastly they can travel by the food chain as we are about to see.

Last Wednesday's Waterloo Region Record carried this article titled "Widely used pesticides found in Ontario wild turkeys: study." Scientists at both the University of Guelph as well as at Environment Canada have examined the livers of 40 wild turkeys in Ontario and found that nine had detectable levels of neonicotonoid pesticides in them. Keep in mind that Non-detectable (ND) levels do not mean zero. It simply means that the concentrations were below the method detection limit (MDL) of the lab doing the analyses.

The two types of neonicotonoid pesticides found were clothianiden and thiamethoxam. These insecticides are water soluble and as mentioned above, once released into the natural environment can travel by several methods.There have been major studies linking them to honey bee mortality and other damage but there have been few studies regarding their effects upon wildlife. This study shows yet again how man made chemicals introduced for one purpose such as crop protection end up spreading including eventually into human beings who hunt and eat wild turkey. We are all part of this earth and we are slowly killing it with our pride, ego, avarice and short term thinking.

TALKING TURKEY OR PROFESSIONAL LIARS: LAWYERS (SOME), POLICE (SOME), POLITICIANS (MOST)

The headline may be confusing. I was planning on posting about neonicotonoid pesticides being found in wild turkeys. Likely tomorrow for that. Today I will comment on the article in today's Waterloo Region Record titled "Retired superintendent joins police lawsuit". Oh boy I've been wondering where Supt. Rita Westbrook was at. Now we know. She has stepped forward and out of retirement to speak up about the treatment she received courtesy of the Waterloo Regional Police. She has joined the class action lawsuit against the Waterloo Regional Police Service and the Police Board. That's right the civilian "oversight" Police Board. What a joke they are and thank you Waterloo Region Council and councillors for that. Also a special thanks needs to go to the female regional councilors who have ever sat on the civilian Police Board and looked the other way. If memory serves there was one female regional councillor however who was alleged to have been rude to a police officer present at a Police Board meeting. I believe that his allegations went nowhere. I always wondered what she could possibly have said to him. Maybe a crack about policemen and Tim Horton's doughnuts? Maybe an honest and incisive criticism about police behaviour that he wasn't willing to accept from a female? Hard to say.

Supt. Westbrook in today's story has listed several juvenile, nasty and rude behaviours that she had to put up with during her career. She will be a huge addition to the class action lawsuit especially because she did rise through the ranks. One has to understand that likely the in your face comments from peers and subordinates decreased as her rank rose but apparently not from her so called "superiors". Sometimes "superiors" may be interpreted as superior assholes. What has become painfully obvious to all except the willingly blind and deaf is that gender discrimination was not just tolerated but encouraged through the ranks and from the top. That is to the everlasting shame of those males at the top who participated either actively or tacitly. The title in reference to Police especially applies to the Chief and all the senior management team. In regards to lawyers I can hardly not gloat about psuedo mayor Sandy Shantz's lawyer, James Bennett, garnering some more negative press. I believe he lied about me as has his client Sandy Shantz. He lied about the class action suit according to Supt. Westbrook. I understand that this is a civil suit and will be settled likely out of court. That is a shame because these liars, hypocrites, bullies and overall lousy people need to be publicly exposed. After all if they settle privately there will be a confidentiality clause allowing the guilty to continue to do what they do best. LIE. Then we the public will continue to be inflicted by incompetent and ignorant senior police, police Boards and regional politicians.

UPCOMING CPAC MEETING?/M.O.E. REVIEW LETTER

The latest update I've received is that the tentative TAG meeting scheduled for Thursday,July 5 at 6:30 pm. is on. If it happens it will be as usual located in the Township building Council Chambers. My concern is the usual, last minute excuses that a) members aren't available b) there's nothing immediate or urgent requiring attention. If that happens let me say that neither excuse is acceptable and likely neither excuse is honest.

Jason Rice, new boy on the block after the housecleaning 3 1/2 years ago, sent an eight page letter, dated June 13/18 to Ramin Ansari another new boy on the block (Lanxess). The housecleaning included CPAC, CRA, Chemtura and the M.O.E. personnel. Oh and of course Woolwich Council. No harm was done with CRA, Chemtura and the M.O.E. housecleaning.

Page 2 of Jason's letter is interesting. He states in regards to Evaluation of contaminant sources: "This should be done for both the east and west banks along the Lanxess property as well as further downstream into Reach 3 to include the previous discharge locations to the creek from the eastern portion of the site (e.g., former gravel pits) and off-site locations (e.g., agricultural drainage ditch from 6770 Line 86, Township of Woolwich)."

This is a totally appropriate admission that at one time contaminants were flowing off the Uniroyal/Chemtura site in their extreme south-east corner from between the ends of GP1 and GP2 (ie. gravel pits). The other location that Jason calls the agricultural drain is none other than the Stroh Drain. Hallelujah! Of course Chemtura/Lanxess to date have refused to test the soils or sediments in and around the Stroh Drain. I mean we all know that you never find what you don't sample for and that truism has saved Uniroyal/Lanxess hundreds of millions of dollars to date. Let's all watch the M.O.E. contort themselves yet again and belly up on this HUGE issue as they always do. It's called corruption folks and it's been going on in Elmira for over thirty years.

THE LANXESS SITE CONTINUES TO LEAK LIKE A SIEVE

Newsflash folks. "The cleanup is a sham." I first publicly stated that on a banner on the roof of my car around 1995. The "cleanup" while helping was never intended to actually contain all of Uniroyal Chemical's toxic contaminants on site. Part of their strategy is to let dilution, mother nature, time, and minimal pumping and treating allowing off-site leakage to do its work. Contrary to the November 4, 1991 Control Order instead of complete hydraulic containment in all aquifers what we have is complete leakage off-site in all aquifers. Same thing goes for the off-site hydraulic containment. Sure they are collecting NDMA, chlorobenzene, toluene, benzene, phenols, MBT, BT, and so much more at their off-site pumping wells but they are also leaking those same contaminants outside of Elmira via all their aquifers. This is an intended saving of money as these lower concentrations will eventually be diluted and there will also be some natural attenuation of these lower strength toxic wastes as they continue to migrate southwards.

The same thing goes for the Canagagigue Creek. The Uniroyal/Lanxess site continues to discharge small quantities of chemicals via the MISA (Municipal Industrial Strategy for Abatement) pipes which allegedly discharge surface water but in fact have never stopped discharging contaminated groundwater which infiltrates the sub-surface pipes. The shallow groundwater from the 3/4 of the site that is uncontained by the UACTS (Upper Aquifer Containment & Treatment System) continues to discharge untreated into the creek.

The most recent May Progress Report indicates a litany of Uniroyal chemicals which have higher concentrations downstream in the creek (sample location SS+925) versus upstream (sample location SS-110). They are Toluene, front and centre followed by m,p xylenes, MBT, aniline, BT, NDMA, and NMOR. All the timelines ever suggested by Uniroyal and approved by the Ontario Ministry of Environment have been nothing but hot air. Words are wind for both our large polluters and for their alleged regulator.

LANXESS CANADA CO. - JUST MORE OF THE SAME SHIT

O.K. I don't like to jump to conclusions but it's time to say what needs to be said. First off the title. I had hoped that either or both the changes in company ownership, formerly Chemtura now Lanxess and formerly CRA now GHD would be improvements. Neither appears to be any such thing.

Off-site pumping sucks. Over the last six months off-site pumping (ie. pumping & treating the Elmira aquifers) has been significantly reduced. Thank you very much Lanxess and thank you very much TAG and Chair for not insisting on public, monthly meetings to demand to know what the hell is going on. Lanxess, GHD and other assorted miscreants continue to lie to and deceive the public. Our off-site pumping was supposed to triple and then it was "reduced" to only doubling from the 2012 levels. It's never even come close to the doubling promised. Now it's going backwards. Lanxess, M.O.E., GHD and Woolwich politicians you are shameless and the politicians are willfully and knowingly ignorant. They don't want to know. They also aren't insisting on regular meetings to even attempt to shame Lanxess into doing what they've promised.

Of course in order to save a nickel, as off-site pumping has decreased so has on-site. Afterall the excuse has always been that they don't want to overpower the off-site wells by pumping too hard on-site.

July 2017*****71.9 l/sec off-site

Aug. " *****71.8 "****** "

Sept. " *****65.8 "****** "

Oct. " *****60.5 "****** "

Nov. " *****63.7 "****** "

Dec. " *****60.4 "****** "

Jan. 2018***57.7 "****** "

Feb. *****59.7 "****** "

March *****59.2 "****** "

April *****51.9 "****** "

May *****56.3 "****** "


This folks is what we the citizen activists have been dealing with here in Elmira for the last thirty years namely professional liars, coddled and protected by other professional liars, otherwise known as politicians.

Tiffany & TAG: For the love of at least looking to be for real, call a meeting to demand improvements by Lanxess. As long as they can get away with it, they will.

NOT EXACTLY ANCIENT HISTORY

Back in December 1993, Bob Hillier M.O.E. hydrogeologist sent Dave Ireland of the West Central Region of the M.O.E. a letter. This letter claimed that the Envirodome was full and that DNAPL had to be left behind in the ground during the excavation of Tar Pit West-2 (TPW-2). Steve Quigley of Conestoga Rovers may have fudged those facts when he advised at UPAC in January 1994 that the Envirodome wasn't really full, it was only as full as practical. He further advised that the toxic waste contents would settle over the winter allowing space for more wastes if they should arise. Meanwhile to this day the rest of the free phase DNAPLS at TPW-2 have not been removed.

The rest of the news in 1994 didn't get any better. There was a chlorine cloud fugitive emission in March followed by Uniroyal's admission that they had discovered a pool of Light Non Aqueous Phase Liquids (LNAPL) on their site consisting of bewtween 10,000 and 40,000gallons of mostly toluene. Lovely. They had sat on telling UPAC and the public for approximately eight months on the advice of their lawyers allegedly.

In June we learned that Uniroyal despite a M.O.E. Control Order demanding full hydraulic containment of the entire site were only planning on containing 25% of the upper aquifer. That would be on Uniroyal's south-west corner only presumably allowing the rest of their contaminated groundwater to flow freely into the Canagagigue Creek as it always had. APT Environment resigned from UPAC in protest over this betrayal. Possibly it also had something to do with APTE's betrayal of the public trust regarding DNAPL issues the previous January and therefore their expectation that Uniroyal would play ball on the shallow aquifer containment. Uniroyal did not.

David Bethune a former hydrogeologist for the Region of Waterloo in July 1994 blasted their lack of preparation and planning prior to the discovery of the November 1989 water crisis.Ouch I bet that stung.

KNOCK KNOCK - STILL HERE

Uniroyal Chemical Ltd., now Lanxess Canada Inc. in conjunction with the Ontario Ministry of Environment (M.O.E.) have long espoused public consultation. It's good politics and let's face it, as long as the citizens are not professionals in the field of endeavour being studied, then they can be bafflegabbed, bullshitted, intimidated and generally lead by the noses. All the time of course the guilty parties can and do tell them what a wonderful job that they are doing. So what happened between 2011 and 2015?

Well there were a number of professionals involved as well as one semi-retired at the time, environmental activist with 25 years direct experience in the Uniroyal/Elmira Water Crisis. That would be me. The professionals involved were experts in biology (Dr. Henry Regier), health & safety plus environmental remediation (Ron Campbell), a certified chemist and expert as well in health & safety matters (Graham Chevreau), David Marks (hydrogeologist), plus a longtime health care practitioner who worked in intensive care units in Toronto hospitals namely Vivienne Delaney. The other members were intelligent, well educated and honest (Dr.s Dan & Sebastian) including CPAC's sub-committee SWAT which had a former head of mathematics (Rich Clausi). We won't mention Mr. flip flop, a Woolwich councillor.

The most important matter regarding the professionals is that firstly they were not being paid for their time. They were real volunteers working on behalf of the community. They were not the Steve Quigleys, Alan Deals or other hired guns of the polluter selling their version of the truth to the citizens. The professionals on CPAC were not economical with the truth as were their paid counterparts and most importantly they had the courage of their convictions. This is in contrast to a professional hired by APTE/Woolwich in the past who was always looking over his shoulder afraid to say "shit" for fear that it would cost him his next gig with the M.O.E. or that he could be blacklisted by the likes of Uniroyal/Chemtura's consulting company. In other words there were no undeclared conflicts of interest as there were in the past. This includes two members who had been personally benefiting through their association with CPAC for years without advising the old CPAC members including myself.

Hence the new Woolwich Township Council in late 2014, kissing cousins to the provincial Liberal government and all its corruption, conspired with both the Ontario M.O.E. and Chemtura to eliminate the honest but embarrassing to the status quo CPAC of the day. They did this via lying, manipulation and all the time proven methods that filth (politicians) are revered for around the world. In regards to our new Conservative provincial government ask the real Michael Harris what he thinks of made up, back door campaigns to remove the people's choice in Kitchener-Conestoga. Same ethics, same cowardice, same filth just a different level of government.

M.O.E. & THE OLD CPAC HYPOCRISY

The M.O.E. hypocrisy is in regards to monitoring wells around Elmira not being properly maintained and or sealed. Sealed as in the caps on top being locked to prevent unauthorized entry to them and the underlying aquifers. The old CPAC hypocrisy is in regards to two items. The first is their decision in 2009 to jump on the bandwagon opposing the proposed Hawk Ridge development on Ken Seiling's mother-in-law's former apple orchard at Union and First St. in Elmira, just across the road from Uniroyal and Sulco. The second is in their having to replace one reliable, informed and honest CPAC member (me) with three inexperienced unknowns. Apparently the fools who allegedly voted me off of CPAC (I wasn't present and was only informed by a pair of liars) didn't bother to think ahead and thus suffered a number of public meetings without quorums. Poor babies.

The monitoring wells issue was brought to the media's attention by myself, Al Marshall back in July 2009. I had observed and then examined numerous monitoring wells on the Yara (Nutrite) property without their well caps being locked. After I brought this to the Ministry of Environment's attention as well as to the media's attention the problem was rectified. Now years later don't you think it's time for similar monitoring wells on the old Lot 91 to also be properly sealed and secured? They haven't been for a long time.

Regarding the old CPAC's (prior to 2011) hypocrisy regarding Hawk Ridge Homes let me say this. I agree that there absolutely should not be a new residential subdivision built in the Kill Zone of Uniroyal/Lanxess's Worst Case Scenario which is a release of Anhydrous Ammonia. Susan and Pat are simply doing what they do best which is a back door support of Uniroyal/Lanxess. This is just one more tit for tat reciprocal private deal at which they excel. If all these private deals were in the public interest I wouldn't mind but they aren't. While Susan is the brains of the pair nevertheless the two combined frankly don't have a clue on so many technical environmental issues that have come up over the decades. When they didn't like the advice of Dr. Henry Regier and myself they would import and parachute in Wilf Ruland to support their uninformed and or biased views. A high school grad(?) and an English grammar specialist (albeit at the university level); neither Pat nor Susan are remotely the experts they pretend to be. The main point is that it has been Pat who has strongly over the years insisted that CPAC only deal with direct Uniroyal issues unless she or Susan want to include something else. The second hypocrisy deals with back dooring me in the fall of 2007 and spring of 2008 and then suddenly realizing that oops they keep having CPAC meetings without a quorum.

The Elmira Independent carried the monitoring wells issue in their edition of July 17, 2009. They and the Woolwich Observer also carried ads and a story for new CPAC members in October 3, 2009 and September 26, 2009 respectively.

MORE INVASIVE SPECIES?

Today's Waterloo Region Record has another local story about a pet being attacked by a coyote. The attack took place in Cambridge's Churchill Park although this time the dog, a Jack Russell terrier, survived although it needed stitches to close up its wounds. The title of the story is "Coyote attacks dog in Cambridge's Churchill Park."

Whether it's accurate to describe coyotes as an invasive species is probably doubtful. They are native to both Canada and the United States however their range has certainly been expanding in both countries. This may be due to a number of factors such as the loss of a competing species in most urbanized environments namely wolves. While coyotes and wolves can share habitat in more northern and remote areas, wolves can and will kill coyotes. Hence it is much safer for them further south. As urban prey such as groundhogs, squirrels, rabbits, mice and rats multiply so do their predators the coyotes.

Coyotes have been common in the Townships for a very long time and as their numbers have multiplied they have moved into the neighbouring cities of Kitchener, Waterloo and Cambridge. As much as possible they keep a low profile whether urban or rural. Unlike invasive plants with few redeeming qualities I think that fewer mice and rats especially will not upset we human inhabitants. That said leaving small pets or very small children unattended even in a "fenced" backyard is not a good idea. What is particularly a bad idea is leaving them out of reach at this time of year in a local park or near wooded areas.

BEARING WITNESS

Corruption I've often said is more than brown paper bags full of cash as per our former Prime Minister, Brian Mulroney. Corruption is using your position of authority not for the benefit of the public and not in the interests of the public but either for your own interest (short term) or your own interest (long term) by way of benefiting private persons or companies who will at a later date express their appreciation. Canadian politics as well as most others is rife with examples of this behaviour. To a certain extent our political parties both here and in the U.S. reflect powerful interest groups backing either the right or left wing viewed parties. Corporate interests can be represented by either the Democrats or Republican party. The same thing goes with the Liberals and the Conservatives here. Labour interests and unions are generally although not exclusively the purview of the NDP here and the Democrats south of the border. There are of course crossovers either formally or simply individual members of one group voting for a disparate party.

For thirty years and more we have seen corruption of this type here in Elmira, Ontario. Make no mistake Sandy, corruption is endemic amongst all Canadian jurisdictions and at all levels. It is fundamentally human nature in that politicians like pedophiles will gravitate to the venue that will most satisfy them. Pedophiles like schools, Boy Scouts, sports and coaching of young athletes whereas politicians start usually with School Board Trustees positions and work their way through municipal governments, provincial governments etc.. Politicians go where they can manipulate others in order to get ahead. Ahead for them means being in positions of authority so that they can feel important and be the boss. That is their adrenaline, that is their fix. It's also proving they are smarter than everybody else by lying and manipulating and fooling people. It's a psychologists field day when you look at the numbers of short, poorly educated men who have achieved success politically. For them it's all about proving themselves and if they are good liars then they are at least 2/3 of the way there. Often our politicians frankly are dumb. They may have street smarts and indeed likely they are very good observers of human behaviour. They know how to suck up to more powerful people when it's in their best interests and they need a mentor. This is a generalization and there are always a few who are in public service for exactly that: public service. They are unfortunately few and far between and certainly considered unreliable to be no questions asked party stalwarts. Some are at the municipal level as well as on the backbenches in our legislature and parliament.

I've been asked why I've spent thirty years (as of next year) fighting the corruption here in Elmira and Woolwich Township. Especially as it seems that corruption, power and money wins the vast majority of the battles. The answer is simple. It is to bear witness and then to report upon it. I've been doing that for the last eight years through this Blog. I knew back in 1991 that something was horribly wrong with our so called authorities and their handling of Varnicolor Chemical and Uniroyal Chemical. I made the conscious decision to observe, study and participate. I decided to assist in presenting the public's views and opinions to municipal, regional, provincial and even federal governments so as to ensure that ultimately they could not say: "Oh we did not know." They know exactly what has gone on here as do many. I will continue to observe, study and participate and most importantly share with the public via whatever means are at my disposal.

MUNICIPAL LACK OF ACCOUNTABILITY

When push comes to shove, an elected municipal council, if they choose, can be totally unaccountable to any or all local citizens. At least that is the behaviour of our Woolwich Council and as well according to Jessie from the Provincial Ombudsman's office. Of course Jessie and or the folks at the Ontario Ombudsman's office don't seem to have the gonads to put that in writing. Perhaps they are at least a little bit accountable and a little bit gutless by only phoning this complainant and giving him the news verbally. Wow and we the taxpayers pay for these guys to look out for our interests supposedly. The old Ombudsman might not have been perfect but boy did he shake up various levels of government and various dead wood within them. Andre Marin you may recall did not have his last term extended by the Wynne government. Apparently he was too unpredictable in their opinion as he often had the temerity to resolve complaints based upon the real facts of the case versus the political facts. This is highly disturbing to those in power who feel that that gives them a mandate to fudge, amend or alter investigations more to their liking. After all this is a government that got caught red handed deleting e-mails and computer files in regards to the gas plant scandal.

In regards to Woolwich they have gutlessly chosen to refuse to answer 40 typed and carefully researched questions I sent them regarding methane gas problems in the former Bolender Landfill. The mere fact that I have more knowledge about the methane issues then the entire council and staff combined did not deter Council from burying their heads in the sand and hiding behind both their incompetent consultants as well as their staff. They were too ill informed to even be able to pose questions to me when I appeared as a Delegate before them last year. It seems that they have been told that this matter could be a hot potato and boy do they know how to avoid hot potatoes especially during an election year. Despite the knowledge I have by doing what Council are too lazy to do, namely reading the entire collection of consultants' reports going back to 1983; there are still a lot of unanswered questions. Often unanswered questions are the mark of those in charge having things to hide and that certainly seems apparent in this case. Nepotism, corruption, incompetence, negligence; any or all may be factors in Woolwich's fear of the truth. They have been hiding from and lying to the public for decades on other matters so I guess they figure why change what works now.

STILL NOT OVER FOR THE BISHOP ST. COMMUNITY IN CAMBRIDGE

I received by e-mail yesterday a copy of the Bishop St. Community Information Centre, Issue #6, COMMUNITY UPDATE dated June 2018. While acknowledging there has been major time, effort and money pored into cleaning up this lethal, industrial contamination of both the groundwater and the indoor air for hundreds of homes in the community, it has not been enough. Nearly as importantly it has been handled in such a way by our authorities and media as to avoid the condemnation the guilty parties deserve. It's funny how a thief of so much as a couple of loaves of bread can be arrested, charged, detained in jail and convicted whereas these bastards and their lawyers have the nerve to bleat that as they are cooperating with the Ministry of Environment now; and because the cleanup of their past negligence is going to be so expensive, that we should either feel sorry for them or alternately give them an award for their world class remediation plans. They make me sick.

We are advised that the majority of homes now have indoor air concentrations of TCE (Trichloroethylene) below 5 ug/m3. After approximately fourteen years I'm really not impressed. Why aren't ALL homes not only below 5 ug/m3 but why the hell are residents still breathing any TCE? Good God, multi generational families living together have died in this community from cancers and you're bragging that they are still breathing TCE at any measureable concentrations? The goal we are advised is to by 2020 have ALL homes below .5 ug/m3. That is a far better goal than 5 ug/m3 but tell me this. Are the residents of those homes expected to hold their breathes for the next two years? Or perhaps you are going to issue them all indoor portable air packs that they can walk around inside their homes with? I repeat we throw petty offenders in jail in this country but we still allow corporate, for profit murderers, free rein to kill Canadian citizens as long as their intent was to make money and the deaths were merely collateral damage.

Following are two sentences that speak for themselves in this "Community Update".

"All relevant information pertaining to the BSC can still be obtained by contacting the CIC at AET's Cambridge office..." and

"HRV should be on the SUMMER setting If your home is on a SVE system, call the CIC before you dig deeper than 2 feet in your front or back yard."

Many of you will know what every acronym stands for and many of you will not. English please!


Lastly the Community Information Centre (hint, hint) would like to know if any homeowners are planning on installing a sump, changing the basement plumbing, adding a bathroom or deepening the basement. My assessment is that they know that monsters still lurk below ground. The Bishop St. contamination is a stark reminder of the reality of industrial negligence, all to save money for the shareholders at the cost of other human lives and health. The Bishop St. contamination should have resulted in criminal charges and did not. It is a corrupt political system running interference for environmental criminals. And they got away with it which means it will happen again and again until society demands justice. This is the reality of our "Just Us" system.

LOCAL INVASIVE SPECIES

This week's Woolwich Observer published an article titled "Already a problem for local trees, emerald ash borer expected to be more of an issue". The article while focusing on the ash borer also touched upon wild parsnips, wild turnip and giant hogweed. To my surprise it did not mention another invasive plant namely goutweed which locally is and has been a problem for the last few years.

It is understandable that goutweed has been under the radar because it does not produce dangerous sap such as giant hogweed and wild turnip does. Also it to date has not caused the devastation to trees (ash) that the ash borer has. In terms of financial damages that municipalities have had to deal with due to cutting down and removing dead ash trees the ash borer has taken the priority of attention.
The article suggests that ash trees will not be totally eradicated in Waterloo Region but that they will never regain the numbers and prominence they once held. Any loss of diversity in our ecosystems is not a good thing.

Whether a few years down the road our authorities will be spending time and money to control goutweed is hard to say. It too reduces diversity whether in gardens or in woodlots and therefore also is not a good thing. It is invasive and spreads rapidly out of control while severely damaging other established plants and flowers .

THE "BEWILDERED HERD " VOTE TODAY

This week's copy of the Woolwich Observer is now on-line so I can include a link to two of their Opinion pieces in my posting. The two pieces are "Our View/Editorial "Cynical about the process, we don't bother to vote"" followed by "His View/Steve Kannon "Politics is all about preventing the bewildered herd from actually having a say"". Both of these opinions by the senior staff/management of the Woolwich Observer are incredibly jaded, incredibly negative and incredibly disturbing.

Firstly I'm going to give evidence (hopefully proof by this evening's vote tally) that the "bewildered herd " does have a say. I believe, as do all the polls and the current premier, that the public will throw out a stale, corrupt and way past their best before date, Liberal Party today here in Ontario. That's the good news.

Here's the bad news. I believe that the Merlihan Empire (W. Observer) plus Steve Kannon are essentially correct in both their Opinion pieces. All three parties and in fact the party system itself is inherently corrupt. O.K. so they didn't say that directly, I did. What they are telling us is that our current system of democracy is a sham. Essentially we can vote out the bums today only to vote in different bums. All three front running parties have vested interests backing them. Steve clarifies that the corporate interests presumably backing both the Liberals and Conservatives are worse than the "meddling" unions backing the NDP. I tend to agree while holding my nose in regards to the self-interest long on display by the Teachers' unions. That said the public service unions also do very well by governments/parties primarily to secure their votes come election time. The self righteousness of these union members in justifying their wages and benefits wouldn't sting so much if the rest of us with lesser wages and benefits didn't have to pay for their superior working conditions. And please spare me the sanctimonious crap about only the best and brightest work in government.

All that said, employees wherever are not the bad guys. The first Editorial states that graft, corruption and incompetence abound. That refers to the backers and lobbyists of the three parties and the incompetence includes both municipal bureaucracies and boardrooms of multinationals. The graft and corruption refers to the monied elites who are the backers primarily of the Conservatives and Liberals. The politicians whom they support are "...happy with a self-serving system that allows unfettered access to the cookie jar for themselves and their financial backers."

Both these Editorials/Opinion pieces are a wake-up call. They are worthy of serious study. That is unlikely however as most of us would rather read the sports scores or watch the Blue Jays or the NBA finals on television versus really sitting down and thinking about serious things. Things that will affect your children's and grandchildren's lives.

UNIROYAL & SUCCESSORS HAVE DAMAGED THE GRAND RIVER

Everybody know that Uniroyal and their successors (Crompton, Chemtura and Lanxess) bear responsibility for incredible damage to the Canagagigue Creek (the "Gig") which runs from well north of the Woolwich Dam down to the Grand River just below West Montrose. What many informed people may suspect is that they have also damaged the Grand River below the mouth of the Canagagigue and possibly further downstream. The question is whether this is based upon common sense, extrapolation of monitoring within the creek just prior to it joining the Grand or possibly actual readings/monitoring within the Grand River that can be attributed back to the Canagagigue.

The first two certainly are part of it but there has been rigorous and scientific evidence proving damage to the Grand River in the stretch immediately below the incoming Canagagigue Creek. This was done in a report titled "Biological Survey of the Grand River and its Tributaries 1966". A second report done in 1982 and titled "Grand River Basin Management Study" also documented injury and damage to the Grand River courtesy of Woolwich Township industries. This included both from the Canagagigue Creek as well as from Breslube (now safety-Kleen) in Breslau. The first report was written by the Ontario Water Resources Commission (OWRC) and the second by the Ontario Ministry of Environment (M.O.E.) in conjunction with the Grand River Conservation Authority (GRCA).

The following information comes from the 1966 report. It states that at Station Ca13 in the "Gig" just upstream of the Grand River that while there was some improvement in fish species found due to an incoming small tributary nevertheless it was not a normal fish community and furthermore "...seven species of fish disappeared from the Grand River at Station G11, below the point of entry of Canagagigue Creek into the Grand." Added to this monitoring was the information that "The influence of impaired water from Canagagigue Creek was detected chemically at Station G11 on the Grand River. At that location the level of BOD, nutrients and solids increased." These three parameters are commonly used to pinpoint source areas of contamination whether chemical or agricultural such as fertilizers or manure.

The most recent and extensive testing last year by the M.O.E. was all about the Canagagigue Creek particularly Dioxin/Furans and DDT. It did not extend unfortunately into the Grand River nor did it look at the myriad numbers of other toxic chemical parameters in the creek.

THE TRUTH HAS ALWAYS PROVOKED THEM

The Elmira Independent published my Letter To The Editor back on December 3, 2008. The title was "Ministry should lay charges". This was in reference to my posting here last Wednesday about Chemtura's failure to maintain on-site hydraulic containment of the Municipal Aquifer during their construction of the new and enhanced Ammonia Treatment System. My Letter to The Editor rather bluntly advised that the M.O.E. had ample evidence including their own report on the matter in order to lay charges against Chemtura. Their Investigation and Enforcement Branch decided not to.

On March 13, 2009 the K-W Record carried an article titled "Chemtura struggling to avoid default". This large article detailed Chemtura's financial problems in servicing their debts and was somewhat blamed upon the recent and ongoing economic recession at the time. Both the Elmira Independent and the K-W Record had additional articles on the matter later in March (March 20/09 for the Record) which differentiated between the troubles of Chemtura U.S. versus how the Canadian affiliate was doing. The Elmira plant had steady production and they were stating that their U.S.'s parent company's troubles would not affect their ongoing clean up here in Elmira, Ontario.

At the CPAC meeting of June 29, 2009, CPAC were advised that Chemtura were planning on eliminating 36 current wells from their monitoring program despite M.O.E. disagreement with five of the proposed wells and the fact that CPAC had not received advice from Wilf Ruland yet on the matter. The Elmira Independent article of July 8, 2009 also mentioned that yours truly as a long term involved citizen and environmentalist had not even received a list of the proposed wells to date. The Independent also decided to mention the rather embarrassing fact that CPAC members attendance was so bad that they didn't even have a quorum. This of course should have been doubly embarrassing to them as yours truly, politically removed from CPAC the previous year, was right there as always in the gallery attending CPAC meetings.

A number of my comments and questions whether at the CPAC meetings or in Letters To The Editor have long provoked Chemtura and the M.O.E.. They have this funny idea that just because they hide behind credentialed experts (CRA) that we the citizens are supposed to blindly believe whatever Chemtura serving nonsense they spew forth.

IT'S ALL BUT OVER - CURRENTLY DEAFENING SILENCE

So there were two meetings last March namely One TAG meeting followed by one RAC meeting. Those discussions were about the DDT and Dioxin/Furans on the Stroh farm. A month later we the paying public were treated again to two meetings namely one TAG (Technical Advisory Group) meeting followed by one RAC (Remediation Advisory Committee) meeting. Those two meetings were about the latest and largest Canagagigue Creek investigation unfortunately done by GHD (formerly Conestoga Rovers). I wonder at what point in time will the public ask why convicted murderers are in charge of the additional murder investigation of which they the investigators are charged with? This of course is a metaphor using the word "murder", albeit just barely. Perhaps "murder" of the environment along with premature human sickness and death will someday be considered murder.

RAC are a bunch of woefully uninformed representatives of multiple levels of government as well as government agencies. They include Woolwich Township, Region of Waterloo, province of Ontario (M.O.E.), GRCA, Lanxess (Chemtura) plus a couple of TAG reps. TAG are mostly a bunch of well meaning and honest citizens with a couple of wolves in sheep's clothing thrown in to the mix as a payoff by Sandy for helping on her last election campaign. They were far more effective with their original Chair Dr. Richard Jackson who resigned after only twelve months at the helm. Possibly he did not wish to have his name and reputation sullied by what he clearly saw as a flawed process (and available personnel) that could not achieve the goals necessary. He did express confidence in the talents and efforts of Neil Thompson of the University of Waterloo in regards to his work on a Conceptual Site Model. He also expressed confidence in his replacement as TAG Chair, Ms. Tiffany Svensson.

The next RAC meeting is scheduled for September 2018. As long as they are content to sit back and let Lanxess and GHD run the show to their advantage and interests then it matters not whether they meet or not. This is especially so as the better informed public are denied the ability to ask them questions or point out fallacies and inaccuracies in their plans. TAG are scheduled to meet next OCTOBER unless they are able to get folks out for a tentative July meeting. These prolonged gaps between meetings simply work to the advantage of all the guilty parties as they condition the new TAG members to many months between meetings and the subsequent loss of continuity etc.. Even we old hands lose focus and find it more difficult to stay up to date when we are having to review all issues over and over again just to get back up to speed for the next meeting three to six months later.

Then let's talk about Minutes. Has anybody seen them from the March and April meetings? I'll recheck my files but I don't think they're out yet. If so the only Minutes to date are in reality my postings here the morning after these meetings. Exactly how well do you think members of RAC and TAG remember meetings if they don't see and read the Minutes for either weeks or God help us months afterwards? It's not by accident folks. It's intentional.

GOUTWEED -STILL HERE & SPREADING FAST

At least one local resident continues to work tirelessly in her bid to rid her property of goutweed. To date her attempts to bring Woolwich Township on board as partners to solve the problem has been less than successful. Yes they are responding to her which one might think is the bare minimum to do but believe me this Township have no difficulties in not responding when they so choose. The Bolender Park methane issues are one example of that.

It is my understanding that to date at least one Woolwich staffer has looked at her property. Also advice in how to contain the spread of the goutweed has also been offered, some good and some less so. Further advice has included giving the resident the name of a local landscape company for both advice and to get work done. All at her cost of course.

If I understand it correctly, the goutweed came from the Township's property (Bolender Park) and spread onto her nearby property.

For further information on the behaviour and characteristics of goutweed either Google it or check out my May 21/18 posting here. Goutweed tends to choke out other preferred lawn and garden plants by entwining their roots in and around the roots of other species.

HEALTH CANADA SLOWLY COMING AROUND TO BANNING NEONICOTONOIDS

Today's Waterloo Region Record carries the following story titled "Pesticides do harm to bees and should be phased out, Health Canada says". Health Canada has done a number of different studies on nicotine based pesticides and made a recommendation in 2016 that one of them, imidacloprid, was building up in surface and ground water as well as killing aquatic insects and thus should be banned. This followed an earlier study suggesting that this group of pesticides only negatively affected bees under certain specific conditions. They therefore concluded that if neonicotonoids were banned on the main crops attractive to bees then the risk of using them elsewhere was "acceptable".

Health Canada have generally been much less aggressive in regards to them than either the European Union countries or other scientists in general. Nonetheless any direction by Health Canada to reduce the use of this class of pesticides is welcomed.

Environmental groups as well as the Ontario Beekeepers' Association have strongly demanded a ban on neonicotonoids for several years now and overall scientists have strongly endorsed their opinions and views.

Health Canada did recommend limiting the use of two other neonicotonoids, clothianidin and thiamethoxam, suggesting they eventually be phased out for direct application on certain crops and municipal and residential lawns.