Following is a link to a satellite photo of the east side of the Uniroyal/Lanxess property.

Click on the small arrow at the top right corner of the white rectangle to reduce the rectangle and increase the map of the Uniroyal/Lanxess site.

Then note the three primarily north to south lines (ie. vertical or top to bottom) on the east (right) side of the Canagagigue Creek. The far right one may be a fence built in 1993 just prior to the excavations of RPE 4 & 5 whereas the other two lines, most likely, are Interceptor Trenches, otherwise known as horizontal groundwater collectors. They run south, then east over to the Stroh Farm.

GARBAGE & METHANE IN BOLENDER PARK

So what exactly are you looking at in the picture? This steel pole is located very near to the Canagagigue Creek on the west side of Bolender Park. In fact but for the tree in the way you could see the new splashpad as well as the kids jungle gym in the background. There are two more of these poles on the west side of the creek near the pedestrian walkway and the covered picnic tables (pavillion) behind the washrooms facing Church St. The one near the picnic tables at one time had a light on it after dark possibly to discourage vandalism. Certainly the one in the picture above would be useless as a light both where it's located and due to the tree blocking it.

Several people have closely examined these hollow steel poles recently and the concensus is that they are probably methane vents partly because there doesn't seem to be any glass at the top of them for a light to shine through. That said the manufacturer is Lacal Industries of Newmarket, Ontario and they were bought out by Polefab many decades ago. Both companies manufacture steel poles for holding lights, solar panels and traffic signs etc. Their customers are the Ontario Ministry of Transport and municipalities. They also manufacture custom poles, to order, for municipalities.

I suspect that the Town of Elmira back in the early 1970s ordered both poles for lights in the park as well as for methane vents. The ones on the west side of the creek near the pavillion probably were for lighting both the pedestrian bridge and the pavillion. This one in the picture seems most likely to have been for venting methane. Local witnesses on the west side of the park (Riverside Dr.) state that garbage was not put immediately behind their homes whereas witnesses on the east side (George St.) say that garbage was placed in the park immediately at the back of their property.

WOOLWICH & ELMIRA ARE FAR THE WORSE FOR THE CLOSING OF THE ELMIRA INDEPENDENT

Of course the sins of omission of the Woolwich Observer are hardly theirs alone. Corporate owned and corporate controlled media are not the same media they used to be. Corporate control means everything from pulling advertising revenues to threatening libel suits. Most media have bent to those pressures in an effort to stay afloat.

As indicated here yesterday I was a Delegate to Woolwich Council. The Observer, present at the meeting, were given the same package as the Township and as council received. The appearance is of an intentional, illegal diversion of grossly toxic groundwater with solvents, NDMA, DDT and Dioxins. Not a peep in today's Woolwich Observer. Holy crap! Sorry to have wasted your time and sorry to have wasted my paper and ink.

Residents of Woolwich need to know how much worse things are than they believe. When even Mark Bauman publicly says in council that the non sampling of the Stroh Drain by either the MOE or GHD on behalf of Lanxess is going to fan the flames of suspicion, you know something is very wrong. This issue needs to be investigated properly and independently. That means not by the Ontario Ministry of Environment, Lanxess or GHD (CRA). We, the citizens of Elmira and Woolwich have had thirty years of client driven, junk science investigations that often haven't even come close to looking half way decent. These include DNAPL investigations and intentional avoidance of sampling the "Gap" area along the Lanxess/Stroh property line.

It's all been about maintaining the status quo and keeping people calm. That has occurred by minimizing the reality and perception of detrimental environmental effects, whether air, soil, groundwater or surface water. The Canagagigue Creek is still a mess despite the presence of chubs, shiners, suckers and carp. Uniroyal/Lanxess toxins still continue to leave their site and move downstream to the Grand River. This new pathway has been intentionally ignored and again minimized by the polluter and the MOE appear to be supporting them. Twenty-nine years since the Elmira wells were shut down and the MOE can't seem to fix that on time (2028) either. By the way those drinking wells should have been shut down at least fourty years ago or more.

FURTHER EVIDENCE OF AN ILLEGAL DIVERSION OF TOXIC GROUNDWATER OVER TO THE NEIGHBOUR'S FARM?

If there is anything I've learned is that our authorities sure know how to cover up embarrassing if not illegal acts. Four years ago our new Council jumped to attention when Chemtura and the Ontario Ministry of Environment screamed for help. They were getting handed their asses by a bunch of citizen volunteers albeit with some professionals sprinkled into the mix.

The off-site east side migration of contamination was known by the Region, the Township, The province (MOE), Uniroyal, CRA etc. way back in the 1980s. They managed to stifle that until I and CPAC raised the issue in 2014. We also had MTE Consultants do a study and conclude that there likely was both ground and surface water that had migrated from Uniroyal's (Lanxess) property over to the Stroh Farm. Typical mickey-mouse "investigations" since have confirmed a part of this migration.

Then there was the issue of the Interceptor Trench found also by myself via satellite photos of the Uniroyal site and publicly presented at the October 2014 CPAC meeting. Once again Chemtura and the MOE went into full denial mode. Additional evidence was presented last evening in Woolwich Council Chambers. While Council as usual asked me no questions they did actually have a decent and productive discussion afterwards. An optimist would suggest good things of Council. A skeptic might suggest the fact that they were all being filmed by Roger's TV had them all on their best behaviour. Regardless Mark, Sandy and Patrick expressed concerns and made some suggestions such as getting the Region of Waterloo involved. As Sandy is a regional councillor that should be fairly easy to do.

The new evidence was presented in a package given to Township staff as well as to each councillor. A suggestion from Mark Bauman was that I also send the package along to Tiffany Svensson, the TAG Chair, which I will be doing almost immediately. The Woolwich Observer received the same package last evening in Council Chambers.

My Delegation consisted of a satellite photo on the overhead screen showing three basically north to south lines on Uniroyal's (Lanxess) east side which clearly are manmade. Likely at least two of them are the horizontal groundwater collector (interceptor trench) described in two notarized Affidavits submitted to the Environmental Appeal Board in October 1990. Both these Affidavits promised under oath to construct the interceptor trench by the spring of 1991 in order to stop the flow of contaminated groundwater directly to the Canagagigue Creek. The one Affidavit came from Ron Frehner of Conestoga Rovers and the other from Brian Beatty of Morrison-Beatty. Both were working on behalf of Uniroyal Chemical. Besides these two Affidavits there were also two MOE letters, dated May 29,1980 and September 29,1983 regarding the need for shallow hydraulic containment of the east side buried pits.

Mark Bauman said some interesting things after my Delegation. He agreed with me that the MOE are a serious problem. He also clearly stated that the Stroh Drain which collects both surface and groundwater from Uniroyal and the Stroh farm continues to elude any sampling whatsoever. This Mark correctly states will only continue suspicions of improper investigations by the Ministry of Environment and by GHD, consultants to Lanxess Canada.

BAYER-MONSANTO-LANXESS PEAS IN A POD?

Today's Waterloo Region Record carries a rather snappy headline to one of its stories namely : "Bayer needs aspirin after Monsanto ruling". Monsanto is a recent acquisition of Bayer and it has just cost them a $289 Million court ruling. Worse yet may be all the other court actions currently against Monsanto products including Roundup. The active ingredient in Roundup is a chemical called Glyphosate. Glyphosate has been linked to cancer by both the Lancet, a prestigious medical journal, as well as by IARC, the International Agency for Research on Cancer. Other studies have said otherwise.

The court ruling was in favour of an employee of a landscaping firm who worked with Roundup for many years and has developed cancer. Agricultural workers have long been exposed to various weed killers and other pesticides with some developing various cancers. Here in Elmira, Ontario our authorities have assiduously avoided ordering any kind of health studies for residents, likely to avoid discomfiting one of our biggest local manufacturers the former Uniroyal Chemical, now known as Lanxess. There is a corporate connection to Bayer.

NATURAL "ATTENUATION" MOE STYLE

The Canagagigue Creek continues to transport Uniroyal and Varnicolor Chemical liquid toxic wastes downstream to the Grand River. Uniroyal's wastes are both from their site as well as from two in-town landfills in which they disposed of their wastes namely the Bolender Park Landfill and the First St. Landfill. Varnicolor's wastes continue discharging into the creek via the two same landfills as well as from their Lot 91 site at the east end of Oriole Parkway.The Lot 91 site was saturated with solvent wastes at incredibly high concentrations. Unlike Varnicolor's Union St. site it was never hydraulically contained nor was anywhere near the volume of contaminated soil removed from it. The excuses of the MOE and their consultants were less than pathetic.

There's an old saying about the dose being the poison. In other words there are some incredibly toxic poisons that if taken in infinitesimal tiny concentrations may actually be of some benefit to the human body. Many medicines that are helpful can certainly be fatal if over consumed. The Ontario Ministry of Environment and their "clients" (polluters) seem to have embraced this theory with a vengeance. Unfortunately there are also some poisons which have no threshold level below which they are harmless. Dioxins fit into this category and based upon the incredibly low drinking water standard for NDMA of .009 parts per billion it may be another.

The discharge to the Canagagigue Creek from all sources essentially made the creek devoid of life in the late 1950s and through the 1960s and 70s. The real improvements happened after the construction and eventual improvements in its effluent in the late 1960s. The next major improvement was after 1997 with the Upper Aquifer Containment & Treatment System (UACTS). Of course none of that stopped the discharges from either of the two landfills nor from Lot 91. Yes there are fish in the creek however they are full of Dioxins, DDT, mercury and PCBs and likely so much more that hasn't even been measured. Also most of these fish are of the hardier, more pollution resistant kind such as carp, suckers, shiners, bullheads etc.

The creek will never improve further until the other sources of discharge to the creek are stopped. Currently it's all about denial and our local council has led that parade for decades. Uniroyal and its successors have had their number for decades due to past councils having made incredibly huge and incredibly bad concessions to them related to their disposal of toxic wastes.

MORE ON THE JULY 2018 LANXESS PROGRESS REPORT

Table A.1 lists the concentrations of various contaminants at some of the pumping wells in the Elmira Aquifers. The pumping well nearest to W9 which is on the west side of Union St., is W8 which is between Union St. and the former Nutrite property. In other words it might be a couple of hundred metres away at the most, probably less. Chlorobenzene at W8 was 2,900 parts per billion (ppb), NDMA was an astonishing 71.7 ppb (drinking standard is .009 ppb), Benzothoazole was 33 ppb and Carboxin was 80 ppb. Why wouldn't Conestoga Rovers and Lanxess expect that W9 would be similarly contaminated?

The MISA outlets to the Canagagigue Creek on the Lanxess site continue to discharge low levels of contaminants. These include Lindane, benzothiazole and Carboxin. Two of the MISA (Municipal Industrial Strategy for Abatement) outlets have decreasing trends for Lindane and the other two don't tell us one way or the other.

Table C.2 is particularly bizarre this month. Usually the downstream concentrations of contaminants in the Canagagigue Creek are slightly higher than the upstream readings at SS-110 which is beside Bolender Park. This month several contaminants are actually higher upstream than downstream. Now do keep in mind that these so called "upstream" readings have always been kind of bogus. Afterall they take the upstream readings beside Bolender Park which was also part of the Bolender Landfill which accepted both municipal wastes and industrial wastes including from Uniroyal Chemical. Therefore in fact all we've been measuring is whether or not the Uniroyal site is at the moment contributing more contamination to the creek than the Bolender Park Landfill is. What a way to run a railroad, folks.

The following chemicals have LOWER average concentrations upstream than downstream which is what most of us would consider to be normal. They include Mercaptobenzothiazole, Benzothiazole, NDMA, NMOR and BEHP.

The following chemicals have HIGHER average concentrations upstream than downstream which is what most of us would consider to be bizarre. They are multiple chlorophenols, two different dichlorophenols, phenol, two different cresols and p chlor-m-cresol.

What this all boils down to is that the Lanxess site continues to leak toxic chemicals into the Canagagigue Creek just as the Bolender Park Landfill does.

BACK TO THE JULY 2018 PROGRESS REPORT

On Wednesday August 15/18 I posted here about the pathetic volume of off-site pumping for the month of July 2018. I will now point out a few other things in that monthly Progress Report.

How dumb are they? Check out Figure A.1 . That Figure shows us the layout of the entire groundwater treatment system and all its components and various treatment methodologies such as activated carbon, Ultra Violet light, activated sludge, clarifiers, separators etc. Then look at each individual pumping well as marked on the Diagram. Whether on-site wells or off-site wells they all have various treatments including activated carbon above and beyond ammonia removal. All of them that is except for W9.

W9 is located in the north end of town just west of Union St. It's very close to both Nutrite and Uniroyal and as a general statement concentrations of contaminants are highest the closer you are to the source of them. Other off-site wells such as W3R, W3, W6A and W6B are all much farther away from the site in the south end of Elmira and they all receive activated carbon treatment prior to any further treatment such as ultra violet or ammonia removal. For the last year we've been advised that there are exceedances of benzothiazole and toluene after treatment therefore they've shut down well W9. Duhh! Well that's a no brainer folks. The only treatment W9 receives is Ultra Violet light which we were all told decades ago was for NDMA removal. Why on earth would GHD and Lanxess ever think that a pumping well that close to their and Nutrite's site could get away with only UV light? Oh right, probably in order to save money. That folks is precisely why nearly thirty years later we are so very far from having our own Elmira Aquifers restored. Saving corporate money and a lack of will by our local politicians and the MOE have failed us. Woolwich don't want to offend either the MOE or Chemtura/Lanxess. Well how has kissing their respective corporate asses for the last thirty years worked out for the public?

2028 was based upon computer modeled pumping rates being maintained week in and week out. It's never happened. Promised tripling and then doubling of the off-site pumping rates six years ago has never happened. All we've got are years of excuses and delays. Source removal via ISCO (In-Situ Chemical Oxidation) was promised six years ago. Hasn't happened yet!

Let's have a public exhibition of Wilf Ruland, Pat McLean, Bill Strauss, Susan Bryant, Sandy Shantz and Mark Bauman all smooching Lanxess and MOE behinds. Gee maybe you can sweet "talk" them into submission as Sylvia Berg attempted back in 1993 with her Uniroyal stroking letter to the Canadian Chemical Producers Association.

THE TRUTH IS THAT OUR IN-TOWN LANDFILLS CONTINUE TO POLLUTE THE CANAGAGIGUE CREEK

We have a total of four known in-town landfills namely M1, M2, First St. Landfill and the Bolender Park Landfill. Three of the four of these are located within mere metres of the Canagagigue Creek. The fourth M1 is at the intersection of Park St. and Union St. putting it at least a few hundred metres away from the creek. The problem of course as mentioned in yesterday's post is that we aren't just talking about domestic garbage including food scraps. In the infinite denseness of our previous generations of ruling politicians we allowed all our local industries, including textiles and chemical industries to dump their chemical wastes into these dumps over the decades. This included drums containing solvents, herbicides, agent orange and the accompanying dioxins. It would have included azo dyes, NDMA and much more. It doesn't get much worse. It is likely that the landfill farthest from the creek (M1) also is the least toxic based upon its very early years of operation. M2 which is right on the south-west bank of the Uniroyal site (now Lanxess) accepted everything from Uniroyal including drums as per testimony from former employees at the Environmental Appeal Board Hearings in Elmira in the very early 1990s. Some of these drums were unearthed in 1965 during the excavations for the Elmira Sewage Treatment Plant which is on the south border of the current M2 and Uniroyal/Lanxess property.

The good news is that currently M2 is somewhat hydraulically contained by both the UACTS and the CTS which are the names for the upper aquifer containment and treatment system as well as the Containment and Treatment System for the upper municipal aquifer. I say "somewhat contained" based upon both decades of reading monthly reports of the extent of containment as well as a review of the Annual Monitoring Report (AMR 2017) done very recently by the Ministry of Environment's hydrogeologist, Mr. Quyum and reported here. Over thirty years of attending UPAC, CPAC, RAC and TAG public meetings I have never been advised of any such containment systems for either the Bolender Landfill or the First St. Landfill.

Anyone who thinks that either Uniroyal or Varnicolor Chemical restrained themselves in their disposal of highly toxic wastes, both solids and liquids, anywhere at all, are dreaming in technicolor. Uniroyal buried dioxins from agent orange in M2. They buried them in uncontained pits and soils on their property including ploughing them into the ground. Varnicolor illegally sent their
liquid and solid toxic wastes to the Region of Waterloo's landfills in Kitchener-Waterloo for years. They also sent still bottoms in drums to the North Woolich Landfill just north of Elmira. Contaminant plumes from there have been reaching drinking wells in the vicinity of Sandy Hills Drive for years, requiring action by the Region of Waterloo.

There are descriptions of wastes from Uniroyal Chemical going into local landfills from MOE and other reports produced in 1985 and later suggesting that filter cloths, polyester resins and paper wastes only went into the Bolender and First St. Landfills. Please! Funny how there aren't any descriptions of the wastes from Walco, Great West Felt, Sulco, Varnicolor, Borg Textiles, McKee etc. Who do you think the source of that information about Uniroyal garbage was? Exactly, from current at the time senior Uniroyal staff to the MOE and GRCA. Do you think those senior staff were going to confirm that just as they sent all their toxic wastes to M2 and to the North Woolwich landfill north of town that they also deposited them into in-town landfills sitting beside the Canagagigue Creek? Hardly!

The other huge advantage to dumping your industrial wastes into landfills immediately beside the creek is that there are no easily defined downgradient groundwater contaminant plumes as there are at the North Woolwich Landfill. That is because the groundwater immediately discharges into the Canagagigue Creek and is quickly diluted in the much larger volume of surface water. This is why groundwater plumes have much higher concentrations of toxic contaminants than surface waters do.

This of course is the leverage that Uniroyal and all their successors have had over both the Ontario MOE and Woolwich Township for decades. This is how this town has been owned by Uniroyal. It's not just about employment, taxes and using local contractors etc.; it's about blowing the whistle on the indiscriminate disposal of toxic wastes next to and into the Canagagigue Creek for the last 73 years and the human and environmental costs still being paid.

These landfills need to have leachate controls installed. That would only put Woolwich Township about fifty years behind the environmental curve if they were to do it now. Lying of course is much easier and cheaper however.

DON'T LIE FOR ME WOOLWICH TOWNSHIP

DO YOU REALLY THINK IT'S JUST ABOUT COMPOST (Rotting Foodstuffs)?


Look at the situation logically. You've removed thousands upon thousands of tonnes of gravel and received money for each and every tonne. Likely not very much per tonne and now you've got a very big hole in the ground. A very big hole right in the Town of Elmira that likely is filling up with groundwater. That groundwater which discharges into the Canagagigue Creek, of course used to be filtered by the very same sand and gravel that you've just sold. So what do you do? Well of course you lease it to the Town of Elmira who then pay you for each and every tonne of garbage that they put back into your hole. By removing nature's filter right beside the creek you kind of have demonstrated your environmental credentials already. Soooo besides ordinary municipal garbage such as foodstuffs you also have been advised that the Town Council have approved local, industrial wastes going into your landfill, subject of course to the Council's waste committee. That waste committee was chaired by Art Gorman, General Manager of Uniroyal Chemical. Well! So if Uniroyal, Varnicolor, Borg Textile, Walco, Sulco and everybody else have access then why would you even think of discriminating against anybody or anything else going into your dump beside the river? Or possibly on both sides of the river if you look at Bolender Park a little more carefully.

Speaking of Bolender Park isn't that just precious? After you've filled up your huge hole in the ground with both municipal and industrial wastes, you then cover over the mess with soil. How much exactly? Perhaps two or three feet? Maybe. In spots maybe less, maybe more. Enough to at least bury the stink. The flow of both groundwater and leachate to the river will resume. Who's going to point the finger at you with everything that's discharging into the creek just on the other side of Church Street on Uniroyal's property? At this point in time you then sell half of your dump to the Town of Elmira to be used as a park for the local residents. What a deal. It's a win-win whereby the private property owner (Mr. Bolender) possibly gets paid three times (gravel out, garbage in & property sold) and the Town of Elmira gets a park, hopefully on the cheap. Anybody know how much our local industries paid per tonne dumped or otherwise paid under the table for "extras"? "Extras" at other Ontario dumps would include after hours access, pre-dug holes in the garbage to accommodate pre-packaged wastes (drums), inappropriate liquid wastes etc.

One year ago Woolwich Township staff, authorized by Council delivered a handout to local residents living on High St. and George St. The handout included a map that was blatantly false. Yes that map was similar to ones that their consultants, Conestoga Rovers, had been basing their technical studies on for the last thirty years plus. Both parties likely knew full well that the map was pure fiction. The evidence that the park was filled with garbage just keeps on mounting. It includes local testimony as well as the results of both a formal soil testing examination done prior to the splash pad construction as well as testimony from an employee involved in that excavation.

Our authorities while trying to shield past guilty parties including their political colleagues, often hide behind the subterfuge that they wish to avoid public panic. More likely, in my opinion, what they want to avoid is a public lynching of their own unworthy selves. Don't lie for me Woolwich Township. I can stand the truth. Can you?

METHANE FROM CHEMICAL WASTES?

For years, simply looking at the chemical composition of methane (CH4) I just assumed that methane could be produced both by rotting garbage as well as by the breakdown of various hydrocarbon solvents all of which by definition consist of hydrogen and carbon. Then as the more I started reading on-line articles about methane the less that seemed plausible because none of the experts even remotely suggested it. The icing on the cake was when a friend and environmental colleague also advised me that methane was most certainly the result of food wastes in municipal garbage breaking down, not from solvents.

So now that I've got that firmly wrapped in my head I inadvertently come across a website www.envirogroup.com in which this company is discussing Special Issues in regards to methane in and around old landfills. Lo and behold there is one sentence which reads "Methane may be a by-product of BTEX degradation." I couldn't find any elaboration or clarifcation on that one sentence. Hunh! BTEX by the way stands for benzene, ethyl benzene, toluene, and xylenes all of which are very common solvents.

Sooooo is the high methane readings on the Lot 91 site at the extreme eastern end of Oriole Parkway from the former First St. Landfill separated from Lot 91 by a few feet of Landfill Creek or is the methane from massive dumping of BTEX liquids and their subsequent degradation on the former Varnicolor Chemical site?

Lastly is the ongoing and enduring methane at the Bolender Park Landfill due to purely 100% rotting food stuffs from municipal garbage or is the methane exacerbated by the industrial solvent wastes deposited there by Uniroyal, Varnicolor etc.?

EXCELLENT EDITORIAL TODAY BY THE WATERLOO REGION RECORD

The title of today's Editorial by the Record is "Like it or not, it's high time to talk about ..sewage". A week or so ago the Record had a couple of articles listing by the numbers the volumes and frequency of raw and semi-treated sewage discharged into Canadian waterways, year after year. It was horrific.

About 2/3 of the amount released last year was deliberately released by authorities when their sewage treatment plants were overwhelmed during heavy rain storms. Clearly both here in Elmira and across the country the use of cross-connections between storm and sanitary sewers has had a serious negative effect upon our natural environment.Fish kills, drinking water advisorys, beach closures and fish and shellfish harvesting restrictions occur after incidents of this nature.

Here in Elmira the term I & I was used to describe Inflow and Infiltration issues occurring during heavy rain events. Eavestroughs , residential basement sump pumps and even tile around the basements of houses had improperly been hooked into the sanitary sewers in some houses in the Birdland subdivision. No wonder the Elmira Sewage Treatment Plant was discharging only semi-trested sewage into the Canagagigue Creek after rain storms.

It seems a simple enough concept. Excess Rainfall and groundwater belong in storm sewers. Toilets, laundry facilities etc. belong in sanitary sewers. Yes two completely separate systems are expensive. In the long run they are both cheaper and better for the health of the environment and everything in it, including ourselves. Politicians it's time to focus tax money on the less glamorous expenditures rather than on arts, LRT, expensive courthouses and police offices.

HYPOCRISY, STUPIDITY & PREVARICATION THRIVE ON THE HORSE MANURE HERE IN ELMIRA

In the September 28, 2007 Elmira Independent, Julie Sawyer wrote about CPAC's concerns regarding the loss of hydraulic containment on the Chemtura site both before and especially after construction begins on the new Ammonia Treatment System. The issue included "well pairs" being designated during construction in order to easily and quickly determine if hydraulic containment was successful. Unfortunately the generally uninformed Chemtura Public Advisory Committee members and particularly the grossly, technically uninformed Chair, Pat McLean managed either to forget all about that within a month or two or else as in Pat's case, conveniently forgot about it; that is if she ever understood it in the first place.

I went through the appropriate information sharing as much as I possibly could with CPAC members. I was intentionally stymied by Chair Mclean and hypocrite Bryant by the cancellation of all CPAC meetings from November 2007 through to at least April 2008. That CPAC members did not insist upon meeting and hearing what I had already advised Pat, Susan, Wilf, the MOE, Chemtura and Conestoga Rovers regarding inappropriate well pairs is to their shame and it's no wonder that none of them have ever been back to a single CPAC, RAC or TAG meeting since they all got the boot by the Todd Cowan council in early 2011. Also CPAC members failure to contact me during this period even though I attempted to, is also to their shame.

The net result was a win for hypocrites and the ignorant and uninformed. Also a win for the MOE and Chemtura while a huge loss for the public interest. Well done Woolwich Council, Susan and Pat. At least that pair of self-serving manipulators never regained their preeminence and dominance of the Council appointed citizens committee allegedly overseeing Chemtura/Lanxess.

Oh and by the way the Environmental Review Tribunal in their Decision did point out that it was unreasonable of Conestoga Rovers and Chemtura to use obviously inappropriate well CH97 as one of their well pairs as I had clearly shown and explained to all parties including that twit Wilf Ruland. That he then complained about my "behaviour" at a meeting on the Chemtura site is simply the height of hypocrisy and cowardice. You sir rolled over like a little baby when Chemtura and Conestoga Rovers were rude,ignorant and disrespectful to you. I did not and you and your buddies then schemed to use that to get me voted off CPAC by a bunch of idiots it later turned out had absolutely zero right or authority to be kicking anybody off. Hence the title above.

COMMENTS REGARDING MR. QUYUM'S REVIEW OF THE AMR

In the third paragraph of yesterday's posting here Mr. Quyum of the MOE suggests that the Upper Aquifer Containment & Treatment System (UACTS) which has allegedly hydraulically contained Uniroyal Chemical's grossly contaminated south-west shallow aquifer isn't completely doing its job. In other words, unsurprising to most of us, the site is still leaking into the natural environment. This only makes final cleanup of the Elmira drinking waters by 2028, even more unlikely. But then why should this worry either the MOE or Lanxess as there apparently is no legal imperative for them to accomplish this goal?

In the next paragraph (#5) Mr. Quyum suggests that there is also leakage in the municipal aquifer from the north-west quadrant which is not being recaptured as required by pumping well PW4.

Contaminated municipal aquifer water is also likely leaking off-site in Lanxess's south-east corner (paragraph #6). All of these leakages are contrary to various legal or quasi legal instruments that the MOE have with Uniroyal (Lanxess). The actual legal jeopardy the company is in is of course difficult to say based upon the ability of liars to figure and figures to lie. Also based upon weasel wording in these various documents.

The seventh paragraph in yesterday's post raises the spectre of other major sources of contamination to the Elmira Aquifers. Oh well the MOE/Uniroyal sweetheart deal in which Uniroyal accepted all blame in exchange for an Indemnity & more, did last nearly thirty years. Now that is really professional lying to the public.

The DNAPL scam and coverup has only festered because APT Environment under the guidance of Sylvia Berg rolled over on the DNAPL issues in late December 1993 and early 1994. She sold the farm but at what price we can only speculate.

IRONIC TIMING- I LIKE THIS MOE EMPLOYEE

His name is Abdul Quyum and he is a hydrogeologist. His chances of serious advancement to any kind of a senior management position within the MOE are likely between zero and nil, unless of course he changes his attitude. The MOE have preferred low intellect, barely competent folks along the line of Bill Bardswick. Loyalty first, brains and honesty way down the line. That's their kind of a company man.

Mr. Quyum has written a review of Lanxess's Annual Monitoring Report for 2017 and he hasn't held much back. Rest assured that Lanxess, just like Chemtura, Crompton and Uniroyal in the past, will be yelling loud and clear at the MOE about that. In polite company (ie. corrupt organizations) like the MOE, courtesy and respect are uppermost and truthful bluntness is anathema.

On page 2 Mr. Quyum suggests that there may be non-compliance issues with the ECA (Environmental Compliance Approval?) in regards to groundwater monitoring and containment in the upper aquifer, in the south-west corner of the site.

On page 3 he suggests that the municipal upper groundwater allowed to migrate off-site in the north-west may only be partially recaptured by pumping well PW4 which is unacceptable.

On page four Mr. Quyum advises that he does not support proposed changes in groundwater monitoring and he is opposed to contaminant concentration contours plotted from different sampling events. That should be obvious even to CRA and Lanxess.

On page 5 he suggests that NDMA has been migrating off-site in the south-east corner near OW105d and Ow 16i. That's a no-no.

Pages 5 & 6 are stunning. Mr. Quyum is making it clear that all the off-site chlorobenzene likely is not from Uniroyal/Lanxess and that can be confirmed with isotope analysis. Of course this could have been done many years ago but that would likely have destroyed the MOE and Uniroyal narrative supporting Uniroyal's sweetheart deal. Also Mr. Quyum's chlorobenzene comments are in line with Neil Thompson's (U.Of Waterloo) comments about excess chlorobenazene in the Elmira Aquifers in his CSM (Conceptual Site Model).

Page 6 & 7 have interesting comments about the inadequacy of DNAPL monitoring in the Annual Monitoring Report. That's hardly news again to those citizens who have followed the tortured and convoluted DNAPL thirty year coverup on this site.

Lastly Page 8 advises us that there are issues with the Mann-Kendall method used for Trend Analysis of contaminant concentrations. This lay person has known that for decades. The Mann-Kendall method misses all kinds of trends whether up or downwards in contaminant concentrations.

IT'S ALWAYS BEEN A SHAM AND A LIE

Once again the latest Monthly Progress Report is out but now we know why they really don't give a damn as to making progress or not. We, CPAC members, have received a legal opinion regarding the 2028 deadline to have our drinking wells restored to Ontario Drinking Water Standards. It's all been a lie and a misrepresentation from the start. The weasel worded, professional prevaricators managed to word all their control orders, certificates of approval and other official and legal sounding dictums in such a way that they can not be enforced in a court of law. That folks is your Ontario Ministry of Empty Corporate Promises (MOECP) at its best.

Lanxess can brag that four new wells have been added to the off-site cleanup of contaminated groundwater. Sure they have, sort of. They are pumping wells W6A, W6B, W8 and W9. Last month, July, in total they added 1.61 litres per second of pumping to the monthly total of normally around 60 litres per second. That would be an increase of approximately 3%. WOW! That is a little short of their initially promised tripling and then later promised doubling of the pumping rates.

Oh wait a second. Let's be scrupulously accurate here. While 60 litres per second is the normal over the last few years, last month, July, was not normal. Not to worry they had lots of excuses for that as always. Last month total average pumping for the month was only 43 litres per second plus the 1.6 litres per second already mentioned for the new wells. Therefore last month's average pumping was 44.6 l/sec. This increases the percentage increase from the four new wells to 1.6 divided by 43 which equals an increase of almost nearly 4%! Well again, sort of. That's an increase based upon their addition to the total pumping, without them. It's still way below the normal and way below what was publicly promised in November 2012.

I can hardly contain my enthusiasm. It's almost as if they don't care that their word means nothing.

REGION OF WATERLOO YOU ARE ON THIN ICE

Yesterday's Waterloo Region Record carried the following article titled "Monsanto to pay man $289M US in Roundup weed killer lawsuit". Science as always takes considerable time to study and make determinations especially in the matter of toxic substances. Cancer takes years to develop and sometimes is due to years of exposure to toxins and other times not. Industry, especially the pesticide and chemical industry, rely on this. They literally make billions of dollars on products first and only after either the environmental damage is obvious (DDT) or after the health damage is obvious (2,4,5-T agent orange) do they stop production.

Glyphosate (Roundup) has been problematic for a very long time. The chemical industry of course say that it is safe. They have both their own tame scientists as well as the current U.S. President putting his man at the top of the EPA to reduce government oversight over business and industry. Our own Doug Ford, here in Ontario, is simply a Donald Trump "light" version.

The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) as well as the World Health Organization (WHO) believe that glyphosate is a probable carcinogen. The state of California have also added glyphosate to its list of chemicals known to cause cancer.

How is this relevant to the Region of Waterloo? WE have glyphosate in our tap water thank you very much to both local agriculture and local residential use as well as probably to local pesticide manufacturing. Simply check the Region of Waterloo's website under Quality & Treatment of our drinking water. Their Annual Reports have indicated Glyphosate for many years at <25 ppb which means less than 25 parts per billion. The problem is this. Other industrial chemicals are either very low as in one to three parts per billion or they are listed as <.5 ppb. That's right if all the other toxic chemicals are listed as non-detect at a method detection limit (MDL) of 1/2 a part per billion then why is glyphosate at <25 ppb. The answer is simple. Glyphosate is likely to be present at 5 or ten ppb in our drinking water and by using a very high MDL we don't get to see the actual concentration. If it rises to 25 to 30 ppb will the Region then represent it as <50 ppb?

ALL TOO OFTEN INSTANT DILUTION IS THE "SOLUTION" TO POLLUTION

The timing after Saturday's posting about Dilution Being the Solution to Pollution is appropriate. Today's Waterloo Region Record is carrying two stories about raw sewage discharges into our rivers, streams and lakes. It is not a pretty picture and here verbatim is the one story titled:

"By the Numbers: raw sewage leaks in Canada"

215 billion litres: Reported amount of untreated sewage flowing into Canadian waterways in 2017.

1.02 trillion litres: Reported amount of untreated sewage flowing out between 2013 and 2017.

269: Number of municipal water systems that are supposed to report sewage outflows to Environment Canada each year.

159: Number of municipal water systems that actually reported sewage outflows to Environment Canada each year.

1: Number of municipalities known to monitor the actual amount of sewage outflows versus a calculated estimate.

36 per cent: Share of total leaks and spills in 2018 that came from British Columbia.

Source: Environment Canada

A shout out to Kingston, Ontario who are the only city in the country to report the actual amount of their untreated sewage outflows.

DILUTION MAY BE THE "SOLUTION" TO POLLUTION BUT LEAKAGE & HORSE MANURE WORKS EVEN BETTER

Pretend that hydraulic containment is the panacea. Pretend that the cheapest, least expensive solutions are also the best. Hire the most credentialed experts and consultants to peddle your mish mash of wishful thinking, junk science and self-serving conclusions. Then add to the mix uneducated, unsophisticated, ignorant, small town wannabies who want to be big shots but secretly know in their hearts just how unqualified they are for the job. The job of municipal councillors that is. At best what most of them are is actors and actresses who know how to pretend. Pretend to care, pretend to understand, pretend to be nuetral and unbiased and finally pretend to act in the public interest. Most of them are simply too uninformed to have a clue what the public interest really is. They therefore are extremely receptive to the real bigshots around town who are informed, knowledgable, wealthy, powerful and influential.

Our local politicians, in general, want to emulate them. Therefore they give them much to much credit for their opinions and advice. You'll notice I haven't said that the real local big shots give a whit for the public interest. They know what it is but it is often in conflict with their private interests. Afterall that's what successful entrepreneurs and businessmen excel at, namely conflating their interests with the public interest. That is how they get the zoning they want. That is how they get government grants. That is how they peddle their "trickle down" theory of economics.

Thus our local politicians suck up to these powerful people. Even if the politicians know they are being manipulated, most don't care. These big shots are both donors and fund raisers towards election campaigns. Other equally ignorant people listen to their opinions no matter how biased and self-serving. Newspapers quote them and politicians further up the provincial or federal foodchain want to be seen with them at media events. It's all a self-realizing, self-fulfilling prophecy whereby sincere voices of the people interested in the public interest are drowned out by all the background noise. And our people and our society suffers for the benefit of the few as it's always been regardless of the name of the type of government.

Polluters are rich, powerful, influential but generally disgusting human beings. Apparently the first three characteristics overpower the last one.

GOVERNMENT CORRUPTION AND HOW IT AFFECTS US

By government I don't just mean politicians. All the trappings of government including provincial ministries, federal departments, police forces whether municipal, provincial or federal etc. I would also include Revenue Canada, OMB, ERT, former EAB, MPAC and a slew of other alphabet agencies whose members are appointed by the government of the day or the premier, prime minister etc. This could also include judges who are nothing but lawyers (with all that baggage) who are politically active outside of court and are then appointed by the appropriate party in power to a judgeship. Hell of a way to run a country. If this so called democracy is the best form of government then it's no wonder the world is in such trouble.

I read yesterday in the K-W Record that there are predictions that within eighty years humanity will have made the earth uninhabitable for our species. Way to go to every single politician around the world, past and present,on our planet. Job well done. In one sense other lifeforms on the planet probably hope that the time frame is shorter. My children assure me that insects will carry on just fine after humanity ends. I hope that they are right and I hope that much more than insects survives the plague of humanity on earth.

I suspect that every living, breathing politician on earth believe that humanity will move to the precipice and then unite in a sudden recognition of the end, and make miraculous efforts and changes to avoid the inevitable. Dream on. Most of our politicians look good and that's how they got elected. Our citizens in general aren't smart enough or diligent enough to elect smart and honest politicians hence we get a bunch of good looking dummies. No justice, no democracy, no accountability, no transparency, no long term thinking and eventually no human beings. Count on it.

BISHOP ST. (Cambridge) CONTAMINATION AFFECTS PROPERTY VALUES

Tracy Hipel a candidate in the upcoming municipal elections in Cambridge has just had a victory in his appeal of the assessment of his property for property tax purposes. All parties agreed that the initial assessment was reasonable under ordinary circumstances and that these however were not ordinary circumstances. The home in question is squarely in the area of impact of TCE vapour intrusion in the Bishop St. community. The TCE impact is of course courtesy of both Northstar Aerospace and a second property (G.E.) across the street from Northstar.

Hundreds of homes south of these properties and between them and the discharge point of the shallow aquifer into the Grand River have been affected by Trichloroethylene (TCE) vapour intrusion into their homes over a very long period of time. Studies and remediation have been ongoing since approximately 2005.

Frankly I believe that Mr. Hipel was very reasonable if not conservative in his request for a 15% reduction in his assessment based upon the reduction in value of his home due to the ongoing and very visible remediation on his property. This consists of a shed in his backyard which pumps out vapours from around his basement and then filters them through activated carbon before releasing them to the air. As was stated in the decision this also entails regular replacement of this carbon from duly authorized personnel entering his backyard which also disturbs his enjoyment of his property.

The City of Cambridge and the Municipal Property Assessment Corporation (MPAC) conceded to a 10% reduction in assessment of the property. Mr. Hipel suggested based upon a report (Valco) done several years ago that a reduction in assessment from 15 - 30 % was more appropriate and the Assessment Review Board agreed with him in their Decision handed down yesterday.

THE UNIROYAL TAIL HAS ALWAYS WAGGED ELMIRA

Late in September 2010, Chemtura Canada (Uniroyal) had an unfortunate fugitive release of one of their products namely BLE-25. This item is a combination of acetone and diphenylamine. Above and beyond the nuisance value as this airborne liquid and gas made a mess of houses, cars, playground equipment etc. was the health factor. It certainly was nothing compared to the witch's brew of toxins that this company has managed to release to the natural environment over the decades but it still was nothing you would want to ingest from gardens or inhale into your lungs.

All three of the "local" papers produced stories on this spill from a rupture disc on one of Chemtura's pressure vessels used to contain the batch of product at the time. These rupture discs are meant to rupture and allow the pressure vessel to vent to the outside air rather than explode inside the building. One would like to think that this is out of concern for the operators on site rather than to reduce repair costs to the company.

The K-W Record even had a colour picture of mayoral candidate Todd Cowan examinng the damaged finish on a car outside his workplace. That kind of publicity you just can't buy. That was arranged by me phoning the Record and suggesting they interview Todd about the spill. It helped boost him into the Mayor's Chair but the ungrateful wretch just like every other mayor rolled over to Uniroyal pressure and bounced me from the brand new CPAC at his earliest opportunity. What a piece of shoot this is a family Blog so I won't say it. The Record story and picture was in their September 29, 2010 edition.

P.S. The Uniroyal pressure was both direct and indirect. Certain senior Woolwich staff know where their bread is buttered.

THE 1989 ELMIRA WATER CRISIS WAS BOTH AVOIDABLE & INEVITABLE

The crisis was avoidable in that all parties clearly saw it coming. It was inevitable because of the lying and self-serving behaviour of Uniroyal Chemical and their consultants, Morrison-Beatty as well as Conestoga Rovers. It was avoidable in that the writing was on the wall at least ten years prior to the shutdown and those responsible for the protection of the public knew it. It was inevitable because of the intransigence and bullying of Uniroyal Chemical and their U.S. parent. It was inevitable because of the arrogance, incompetence, laziness and corruption of Ontario politicians from the local level up to the provincial level. They were the ones, especially at the provincial level, who wrote weasel worded environmental laws with as many intentional loopholes as humanly possible in order to appease the monied interests. This in a nutshell is what pollution is all about. It is a transfer of business costs on to the suckers/citizens/public by greedy, immoral polluting industries and our politicians have always let them get away with it. In fact our politicians at all levels, especially the local level, have aided and abetted industrial polluters, the bigger the polluter, the bigger the municipal assistance.

Long after the horse had bolted the Ontario Ministry of Environment slammed the door with their 1984 Control Order. They insisted upon studies that should have been done twenty years earlier. They insisted upon actions that weren't accomplished for another decade such as the excavation of the two east side "consolidation" pits. They ordered the excavation of hundreds to thousands of buried drums on the company's eastern border that were "missed" in 1970 when some of them were excavated and put into RPE 4 & 5.

By 1981 phenols were found at low concentrations in the municipal drinking wells at the same time as they were being found in thousands of parts per billion on the Uniroyal site, both shallow and deep. The sludges in the west side lagoons were excavated in 1986-87. As was par for this site excavation of the contaminated soil beneath was ignored.

Uniroyal were handled with kid gloves from 1966 until 1989 when the MOE shut down the south wellfield. Is it possible that the MOE knew full well that the NDMA found in the south wellfield came from a much closer source than Uniroyal Chemical? Did the MOE finally discover their manhood and decide that this was the opportunity/crisis that they could use to beat this lying and disgusting corporate entity into environmental submission? They knew how much damage the company had done and was still doing and without major change would continue to do forever. They miscalculated the company's power, resolve and deep pockets and if Uniroyal were reluctant to pay for their own disgusting behaviour, how likely were they to shoulder the responsibility and costs for both themselves and all the other filthy polluters in Elmira who had operated surreptitiously under the umbrella of the big dog for decades? For enough money and indemnities and respect they ended up doing just that, but the MOE sold themselves and the public down the drain. Elmira, the environment and the public have yet to recover from the October 7, 1991 sweetheart deal the MOE gave to Uniroyal Chemical in exchange for "consideration".

THE ART OF THE COVERUP & THE BIG BANG THEORY

From 1963-65 there were a few gross examples of the contamination of the natural environment that put both Uniroyal Chemical and the Ontario Water Resources Commission (OWRC) on the hook. One was the Canagagiguie Creek (Gig) running orange. This may have been Uniroyal discharges or possibly dyes from Borg Textiles going through the storm sewers (or Landfill Creek) and into the Canagagigue. The second was the deaths of cattle drinking water from the "Gig" in 1965. The cattle were owned by Leander Martin whose farm was south and east of Uniroyal Chemical. Hos cattle died from liver failure. Years later testing did not find dioxins in the cattle's livers.

In 1979 word was spreading regarding dioxin, particularly 2,3,7,8 Tetrachlorodibenzopdioxin (TCDD). Former soldiers in Vietnam and their families were suffering as were civilians in Vietnam. It was learned that trichlorophenol, a raw product of Agent Orange manufactured both in the U.S. as well as at Uniroyal Chemical in Elmira, Ontario was contaminated with dioxin. Therefore there was a push by the MOE to more carefully examine Uniroyal and their sloppy housekeeping and third world waste disposal methods in Elmira. Studies, testing and monitoring revealed a litany of problems and issues which resulted in the 1984 Control Order demanding much more rigorous examination of ground and surface water around the Uniroyal plant. There was also a local sensation in WhiteChurch-Stouffville concerning an open revolt by citizens upset with their local landfill and the MOE.

Much work and semi-cleanup was done at Uniroyal including cleaning out the sludges in some west side ponds and lining them with clay. The contents of the west side ponds eventually ended up reburied on the east side of the creek in polyethylene lined pits (RPE 4 & 5). Both the clay and the polyethylene started leaking shortly afterwards. Hence the third "Big Bang" was the shutting down of the south wellfield in November 1989 due to groundwater contamination of the well water by NDMA.

Throughout the 1980s there were environmental concerns with other sites than just Elmira. These concerned Varnicolor Chemical's "valley of the drums" at the extreme east end of Oriole Parkway and former municipal landfills that had accepted Uniroyal Chemical and other industrial wastes. These included the M2 landfill now on the Uniroyal property as well as the Bolender Landfill and the First St. Landfill. Oh dear, what a mess. Studies were done of the landfills by CRA and they can be harshly and critically described as a crock. Their clients (Woolwich Township) most likely were much happier with them than I.

Add another decade and we have the "cleanup" of both Varnicolor sites. The Union St. site and its supposed five to ten year cleanup, is now in its twenty-fourth year and still going. Seems the MOE are not paying so much for their incompetence and or corruption as are the latest owners, Elmira Pump. The Lot 91 site is being allowed to slowly divest itself of its gross solvent contamination via what the MOE and various client driven toadies euphemistically call "natural attenuation". Natural attenuation is simply allowing the free phase solvents to slowly dissolve over decades or centuries and move moth deeper into the municipal drinking water aquifer as well as laterally into Landfill Creek, the Canagagigue Creek and finally into the Grand River to be enkoyed downstream by Kitchener, waterloo and Cambridge.

I have recently reviewed the technical data available for Lot 91. It is disgusting in so many ways. Above and beyond the intentional soil testing around the perimeter of the site, while ignoring the bulk of the centre of the site, we have the typical consultants' ridiculous, self-serving, client driven misstatements of fact and pollyanna conclusions. The concentrations of some solvents such as toluene, ethylbenzene and xylenes are in the thousands of parts per million (ppm). Parts per million concentrations are 1,000 times larger than normal soil concentrations in parts per billion (ppb) usually measured on contaminated sites. Soil concentrations according to one of the consultants usually result in groundwater concentrations five to seven times larger. Well already the groundwater is more than saturated with solvents. That's one of the definitions of free phase solvents in the natural environment. The groundwater simply isn't able to absorb or dissolve any more of them.

Some of the soil concentrations of solvents (Toluene) on Lot 91 include 110,000 ppb (110 ppm) and 160,000 ppb (160 ppm). Ethylbenzene has readings of 44,600 ppb (44.6 ppm) and 176,000 ppb (176 ppm) as well as 280,100 ppb (280.1 ppm). Various xylenes are the prizewinners with 522,500 ppb (522.5 ppm), 977,600 ppb (977.6 ppm) and finally 1,199,000 ppb (1,199 ppm). I have never seen concentrations even close to these including on the Uniroyal Chemical site. Natural attenuation my butt. Lie some more to us MOE.

AN ILLEGAL INTERCEPTOR TRENCH

It is my belief and opinion that the Ontario Ministry of Environment surreptitiously and illegally conspired with Uniroyal Chemical to build an Interceptor Trench on the east side of Uniroyal's property between their buried pits (RPE 1-5) and the down gradient Canagagigue Creek to the west. Another possibility, albeit unlikely, is that the Ontario MOE are indeed as stupid and incompetent as their harshest critics have suggested and that therefore Uniroyal talked about a legal Interceptor Trench while installing an illegal one.

There was a discussion and questioning of Jeff Merriman (Chemtura) at the October 2014 CPAC meeting regarding this alleged Interceptor Trench. Some of our local politicians including Sandy attended and then complained afterwards that I was "interrogating" poor Jeff. It was a polite "interrogation" and Jeff even admitted so at the meeting after he complained that my questions were inappropriate. My questions were not inappropriate. What was inappropriate was the ill informed criticisms by the mayor-elect.

This Interceptor Trench appears to be surreptitiously diverting contaminated groundwater from the Uniroyal site over to the private property of, at the time, Earl Stroh. Currently it is owned by his son, Ron Stroh. It appears that the Interceptor Trench discharges into the Stroh Drain, an alleged agricultural drain. It also appears that this contaminated groundwater then flows through an open ditch on the Stroh farm and joins into a small spring fed creek which runs further south through both the Martin farm and pond. I am extremely doubtful that the Martin family over the generations were ever made aware that they were swimming in both shallow groundwater from their property as well as contaminated groundwater from Uniroyal Chemical. That is contemptible, disgusting and illegal behaviour by all conspiring parties.

The environmental damage is major as there is very little aquitard near the creek preventing Uniroyal's contamination from going downwards into the municipal drinking water aquifers. This diversion has likely therefore increased the introduction of Uniroyal's toxins to these deeper aquifers.

There are many additional pieces of evidence to this travesty. One significant piece is that neither the Ontario MOE nor any other independent authority have investigated these concerns and then advised both the Martin's and the public as to their findings. The MOE to date have refused to test the sediments or soils in and around the Stroh Drain. They are terrified of what will be discovered and of the consequences to the MOE of the illegal diversion of toxins, both with and without, permission of the neighbouring property owners.

TIDBITS & SNIPPETS

As early as May 1983 Uniroyal Chemical were whining about disrespect showed to them by the citizens on the Technical Steering Committee. Wow. Apparently Uniroyal folks figured that just because they had been polluting the air, the creek and the groundwater for the previous three decades plus that it was somehow O.K. Keep in mind that as of 1983 they hadn't been proven to have contaminated the north and south wellfields although there was suspicions in the community. This information was found in a May 13, 1983 internal MOE letter from Grant Mills to D.P. Caplice Assistant deputy Minister, Regional Operations Division. In the same letter were references to Mayor (at that time) Ken Seiling complaining about "having the citizens committee "dropped in his lap"". Interesting.

In 1961 several private residential wells south of Uniroyal had phenols found in them between 2 and 6 parts per billion. In 1961 !!!
The residential wells included those of E. Reist, E.B. Martin and P.B. Martin.

An earlier internal MOE letter from Mr. Mills to Mr. W. Bidell advised that at an Open House on July 28, 1982 the public were well behaved. In fact he said "During both sessions the attitude of the public was calm and reasonable, with no emotional outbursts." Well at least he didn't suggest that he was talking only about ladies present or that citizens didn't have a right to complain about lousy tasting tap water or stenches throughout town from Uniroyal Chemical.

In the early 1980s the MOE (originally OWRC) were on the hunt for dioxins at Uniroyal Chemical. They also were fully aware of Varnicolor Chemical`s Lot 91 storage site also known as the ``valley of the drums``. It was stated that ``Leakage has been noted``.
Now that is a major understatement.

IN THE LAND OF WOOLWICH / OZ

Black is white. East is west. Left is right. Truth is not black or white it's grey. Many, many shades of grey in Woolwich Township.

A year ago Woolwich staff sent a pamphlet to homeowners in and around High St. and George St. in Elmira. The pamphlet was inaccurate and the map attached with it was worse. A copy of the map and reference to the pamphlet was made in the August 3, 2017 Woolwich Observer. Did Woolwich knowingly deceive the residents? That's a silly question because they've been doing that since the first politician ever got elected locally. Was the map alleging that the former Bolender Landfill was not part of the current Bolender Park, an intentional lie? Or perhaps they simply made an honest mistake. I have my opinion and you can have yours.

The proof of integrity or not, now resides in Woolwich Township to come clean with residents. Now that Woolwich are privately admitting that the landfill and its municipal refuse extends beneath the park along with likely local industrial wastes including Uniroyal's; let's see if they will now send another pamphlet to the local residents.

If so it should begin thusly:

"Oops! My bad! Sorry Elmira citizens and residents but we misinformed you last summer. It turns out that we now know that the Bolender Landfill which already has problem levels of methane gas in it, actually is located underneath Bolender Park as well. This may be of interest to those residents who live on George St. and whose backyards actually end where the garbage begins (hopefully). It may also be of interest to those citizen volunteers who donated their time, energy and money into the Splash Pad project. Yes that's the splash pad that they wanted located in Gibson Park but that Council insisted be put in Bolender Park. Well done Woolwich Council. It may also concern any residents of George St. as well as users of the Park who might be thinking of firing up the old Hibatchi barbecue. Sorry but methane explodes. Can you wait for another twenty years or more please?"

Unsurprisingly Mr. Bolender did not exactly donate pristine land to the Township for a Park named after him. Unsurprisingly Woolwich Township have been a whole lot less than forthcoming regarding food waste garbage, industrial wastes and methane in and under our local park as well as abutting up to the neighbour's backyards. NIMBY time anyone?