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.