PUBLIC CONSULTATION & TIMING OF MEETINGS

This post is I suppose an extension of my comments about the new RAC and TAG Terms of Reference that I posted here last Saturday. I will generally avoid comments about the inherently undemocratic and plainly ridiculous claims that either RAC or TAG are legitimate forms of public consultation because neither one is and that is intentionally done by the Township to please both Lanxess and the Ontario MOE. Hence while the entire process is an illegitimate and perverse facade many of the individual members of TAG are sincere and honest.

Today's blog posting is primarily about the number of meetings per year. RAC's original Terms of Reference stated that they would have a minimum of four meetings per year. That was ridiculous and frankly a huge concession to Chemtura Canada who found that regular monthly meetings with CPAC from 2011 until Chemtura bailed in October 2014, reduced their ability to delay and avoid. Now after Sandy Shantz's announcement followed by these new Terms of Reference, Lanxess Canada are only expected to attend three times per year! This means that even with the six times per year minimum meetings for TAG, they and the public very well may only be able to speak to Lanxess three times per year. To me this is simply the partners in pollution, MOE and Lanxess (now joined by Woolwich Township), insulating themselves from timely accountability. A designated TAG member only (not all) asks them a question and they can respond (after research) four months later at the next regularly scheduled RAC meeting. Such utter horseshit!

This year is the thirtieth anniversary of the Elmira Water Crisis. Uniroyal and their plethora of successors are masters of delay. They don't need help from anyone, especially from the so called representatives of the citizens of Woolwich Township. The last TAG meeting was on Thursday May 9, 2019. There was supposed to be a RAC meeting the following Thursday, May 16, 2019. I went through the appropriate process to speak to RAC as a Delegate.

My topic was the current major ongoing issue with both RAC and TAG, namely contamination in the Canagagigue Creek as well as the March 2019 report by GHD (on behalf of Lanxess) describing the findings of dioxins/furans and DDT in Creek sediments and soils as well as in floodplain soils. TAG members have been discussing this major issue and I have submitted written reports to TAG on the matter. TAG Chair Tiffany Svensson has indicated her concerns regarding criticisms from both TAG members and myself including her attempting to get expert advice regarding method detection limits for soil and sediment samples and why they are so much higher than both the federal and provincial health & safety criteria. Essentially it is my position that these elevated detection limits render the entire report moot. Eighty percent of the sediment samples are non-detect because the detection limits are so high and thus we can not state with any accuracy at all as to how severely contaminated the Creek actually is. These detection limits by the way are far higher than detection limits used in numerous previous reports and thus many criteria exceedances are hidden.

Last month's RAC meeting was postponed a week ahead of the scheduled meeting. We still don't have a new date although I have been advised that the new RAC meeting will be sometime after the next TAG meeting. We were just informed this morning that the next TAG meeting is scheduled for August 1, 2019. Not a bad way to defuse what might have been strong criticism of Lanxess and the MOE by TAG members. From May 16/19 until presumably in August or September TAG members will have time to forget the specifics and details of their concerns. Delay always favours the guilty and well off. They have the money to pay their consultants to review and stay on top of issues for years and decades whereas citizens with families and full time jobs are doing this work for free in their spare time. Having to redo the same thing over and over again is simply impossible and polluters and their partners and fellow travellors know that. TAG members also have more months to forget details and specifics that they learned at the April 11/19 site tour. All the better for the interests of the polluter and worse for the public interest.