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".