TINY, INCREMENTAL STEPS LURCHING TOWARDS DISASTER

The Ontario Water Resources Commission had serious concerns regarding Uniroyal Chemical in the late 1960s. This of course was based upon the results of their 1966 study of the Canagagigue Creek (Gig). The Creek was in horrible shape all the way down to the mouth of the "Gig" at the Grand River just south of West Montrose. The baby steps at Uniroyal included emptying out the west side lagoons, clay lining them and putting their contents into the two "Consolidation" pits on the east side namely RPE-4 & RPE-5. This also occurred after Elmira finally left the stone age and had their own Sewage Treatment Plant built in 1965 versus the flowing of raw sewage into the Creek. Why would Uniroyal care about the Creek as long as nobody else did?

A decade later (1980-81) it was acknowledged that the clay lining leaked. Therefore later in the decade (1985-87) the lagoons were taken out of service and filled in. Pumping the municipal aquifer on the Uniroyal site was discussed, ordered, countermanded between 1981- 84 and eventually reinstated in 1990. What a farce. The two east side pits were eventually polyethylene lined on the bottom side thus allowing rainfall infiltration from the top to produce ongoing leachate which spilled out just like an overflowing bathtub.

These east side pits eventually had a cover put over them in 1991. Too late the damage was already done and they were then excavated in December 1993 and put into the Envirodome building on Uniroyal's north-east corner. Then a hydraulic containment system was installed in Uniroyal's south-west corner doing absolutely nothing for the east side contaminated groundwater discharge to the Creek. That was O.K. however as the brain trusts involved (Uniroyal/MOE) already were discharging the east side ground and surface water into the Creek through both the Stroh and Martin properties immediately downstream of the Uniroyal property and their apparent responsibility. This leakage of contaminants off-site has never fully been stopped and indeed appears to be a part of the "cleanup" strategy of the partners in pollution. Dilution/Deception is the solution to pollution in Ontario it seems to me.