THIRTY YEARS OF NEGATIVE PUBLICITY

In actual fact the bad press may possibly have started as early as the second or third day of production at the Uniroyal Chemical plant in Elmira around 1942. For all practical purposes that is unlikely however. The plant was built to produce explosive stabilizers for the second world war. These included diphenylamine and aniline. So it just wasn't the employment that the factory offered but also the general support for the war effort that would have discouraged negative publicity.

Shortly thereafter the war ended and production shifted towards pesticides and herbicides such as DDT and 2,4-D, and 2,4, 5-T. The Signet and the Kitchener-Waterloo Record newspapers were both active and I suspect that by at least the 1950s concerns were being raised about the stench and the damage to the Canagagigue Creek (the Gig). Do not forget that the "Gig" was actually a trout stream early on. Certainly by 1960 the Ontario Water Resources Commission (predecessor to the MOE) were becoming extremely concerned. In 1966 a major biological survey of the Grand River and its tributaries such as the Gig was undertaken. The descriptions of the lack of life in the Gig were nasty.

Finally between 1965 and 1970 the brand new Elmira Sewage Treatment Plant (STP) came on line. It was desperately needed both for human sewage treatment as well as for treatment of various Elmira industries especially including Uniroyal Chemical. The Creek was still in horrid condition throughout the 1970s despite some improvement. Local trappers and fishermen spoke loudly and publicly about the loss of the formerly beautiful creek and area. Local residents complained about the ongoing odours but were reassured (falsely) that they weren't dangerous, merely smelly.

From the mid 1970s through to the mid 1980s both the public and the media were expressing concerns regarding the drinking water. It used to taste very good but had not for some time. Our authorities investigated and publicly lied and reassured everyone that everything was under control. At the same time the MOE issued their first Control Order on Uniroyal in 1984 and besides monitoring it also induced a major cleanup of some of the pits and ponds on the Uniroyal site. This went on throughout the 1980s.

Alas it was too little too late. In November 1989 the Ontario MOE released the results of September 1989 testing of the south wellfield. And the rest is history. Certainly from that point on until the last four years when the Elmira Independent went out of business, Uniroyal and successors received a ton of well earned bad publicity.