TIFFANY SVENSSON SPEAKS TO WOOLWICH COUNCIL

Last evening Tiffany Svensson, Chair of TAG (Technical Advisory Group), spoke to Woolwich Council about the status of the Lanxess (Uniroyal Chemical) cleanup. She started by suggesting that her talk would not be about minutia or remediation details and specifics as much as it wold be "out of the weeds" and at a higher level.That is very appropriate as it should be at the level that the councillors can understand, which isn't very high.

Tiffany referred to the "Gap" area and how TAG were still pushing Lanxess and the MOE to do more soil testing there near their south-east corner as it was the low lying area where overland flow of waste waters occurred. She also referred to the excess chlorobenzene that is in the Elmira Aquifers, allegedly from an unknown source. Tiffany also referenced the Conceptual Site Model produced by Dr. Neil Thompson. She referred to it as an agreed upon statement of facts describing the Elmira sub-surface in detail including where the contaminants are, where they are going and where they are from.

Tiffany mentioned the likelihood that the 2028 deadline to clean up the Elmira Aquifers will not be achieved. She suggested that by 2019 the pumping rates in the Elmira Aquifers will be where they need to be. Unfortunately that is not accurate. Even with the addition of Well W9 the pumping rates are far behind what Chemtura (Uniroyal) and Conestoga Rovers (CRA) claimed were necessary in November 2012 to achieve 2028 cleanup.

The only good news that I heard was that there will be a search for enhanced remedial technologies. In fact as Dr. Richard Jackson advised us there are no "magic bullets" coming down the pipe. There are however far better established technologies available than pump and treat (hydraulic containment) and hopefully Ms. Svensson and TAG will push RAC (Remediation Advisory Committee) into pushing Lanxess to use them.

Tiffany referred to the pending Risk Assessment of the Canagagigue Creek several times. She has not seen how pathetic the last one was (2004) or I doubt that she would be quite so enthusiastic about it. Lanxess apparently are hiring other outside experts to assist in this effort. That I suppose is a start.

Both councillors Patrick Merlihan and Mark Bauman briefly spoke about the 2028 deadline. Tiffany was positive and upbeat in her presentation however she also honestly presented a number of unresolved problems and issues. It will be up to both Council and the public to determine a) whether anything close to best efforts have been underway since 1989 and b) whether the current efforts are satisfactory. It is my opinion formed over nearly thirty years of in depth study that the answers are no to both a) and b).