HALF A CENTURY OF GOVERNMENT SANCTIONED COVERUPS

Canadian General Tower, Northstar Aerospace, Ciba-Geigy, Breslube, Uniroyal Chemical, Hart Chemicals, Eastview Landfill, Bolender Park Landfill, Varnicolor Chemical, Sunar, Canbar, Seagrams?, North Woolwich Landfill,the list just keeps on growing. I've included Seagram's on the list from old memories but at the moment I can't come up with any specifics hence it gets a question mark behind it. The others all have documented histories and they aren't pretty ones environmentally.

While Canbar and Sunar did some serious remediation on their sites I also can't at this time prove collusion or corruption regarding our Ministry of Environment. That said I expect the trichloroethylene (TCE) at both sites is a part of the many decades of TCE still found in our drinking water coming from the William St. Wellfield in Waterloo, Ontario. There are many other sites throughout Waterloo Region that have contaminated our aquifers and degraded our environment. Ever hear much about the legacy of contamination left behind by Budd Automotive in Kitchener? How about not just air pollution but groundwater pollution by some of our tire and rubber manufacturers? And so on and so on.

Of course one reason many of our municipalities are loath to aggressively take on industrial polluters is because of their own culpability. Sewage treatment plants are constantly in non compliance with their operating rules. Landfills are also the elephant in the room, even those that retroactively have been fitted with leachate collection systems. Elmira prefers the use of direct discharge versus leachate collection. The direct discharge translates into ongoing leakage into the Canagagigue Creek from the First St. Landfill as well as the Bolender Park Landfill. The former municipal landfill on the Lanxess property named M2 has some leachate controls but they are not 100% effective all the time by a long shot. Do you think Woolwich Township are in bed with Uniroyal/Chemtura/Lanxess just for the fun of it?

Our provincial government and their Ministry of Environment (MOE) are nothing but deal makers, behind closed doors, with polluters like Uniroyal Chemical. Some of the deals are in the public interest and some are in the MOE's interest. After all they don't want the public to be outraged by their past and current negligence and cost them even more budget cutbacks. Folks we are paying a fortune in taxes and most of it goes to protect the interests of industry and polluters, not to protect our interests.