CLEANUP PROMISE BROKEN ALBEIT ONLY SLIGHTLY

If only all the other broken promises over the past thirty years were as minor as this one. Today's Waterloo Region Record carries the following excellent article with colour photograph titled "Cleanup launched after Elmira chemical factory taints farm next door." The article suggests that the (superficial and probably inadequate-my words) cleanup will be completed by January 11, one week from today. Of course both TAG, CPAC and the public were promised the excavations would be completed by the end of 2018 so they really haven't missed by much assuming we don't get hammered with a dandy blizzard or worse.

Sebastian Siebel-Achenbach is the Citizens Public Advisory Committee (CPAC) representative on TAG (Technical Advisory Group). Sebastian in consultation with CPAC was the only member who could stomach sitting on this Woolwich Council appointed committee back in July 2015 due to council's disgusting behaviour. Sebastian has properly pointed out that Lanxess's excuses in this article that wind or rain moved toxic chemicals onto the Stroh farm are "very self-serving". Those words speak volumes about the behaviours of the various corporate owners over the last thirty years. Toxic waste pits were located within a few metres of the Stroh farm with some literally on the property line. We citizens in Elmira heard stories of envelopes with cash in them going to the senior Mr. Stroh decades ago due to crop damage along his property line.

One minor error suggests that 565 tonnes were of fill and waste were most recently excavated in 2009. This may well be regarding waste pit RPE-3 (2009) or it could be about the most recent excavations in 2013 and 2014 in the area further south known as GP-1 (Gravel Pit 1).

Mr. Stroh advises us that "I grew all kinds of crops on that field." I do not find that encouraging. Those crops were either fed to humans or to animals that were then consumed by humans.

Sebastian also states that the company has only made baby steps on the Stroh property and he is correct. Much more needs to be done but despite recent improvements the MECP's (MOE) reputation is not a good one.

The chemicals involved in this cleanup include DDT, dioxins/furans, NDMA, chlorophenols, other solvents and likely PAHs and possibly PCBs.