MARCH & APRIL LANXESS PROGRESS REPORTS

Today's posting is the first since March 30, 2020 in regards to Lanxess Canada's monthly "Progress Reports". On March 30/20 I described the absolute horror show of off-site pumping during the month of February 2020 when daily average pumping was at 38 litres per second versus the very old Target rate of 53 litres per second (l/sec). The current Target rate is at 65 l/sec.

The average daily March pumping rate at least got back up to the old (2012) rate of approximately 53 l/sec. Still well below the current Target rate of 65 l/sec. Part of the problem remains pumping well W9 located just off of Union St. near the former Roxton Furniture factory. E7 was also a little lower than its Target rate of 23.9 l/sec although Lanxess/GHD have certainly thrown a spanner into the works by out of the blue declaring that "pulse" pumping of E7 is superior to sustained ongoing pumping. This is somewhat like telling Canadians on a Wednesday that facemasks of any kind are helpful but then on a Thursday staing that they aren't. WTF! The other wells are achieving their Target rates but that is rather ingenuous when your pumping Target rates are so incredibly tiny namely .42 l/sec for wells W6A and W6B, and .08 l/sec for well W8. Also on-site pumping well PW5 did not quite make its Target rate but my suspicion is that might be intentional because heaven forbid that Lanxess spend a nickel more in on-site treatment costs of the pumped water that is necessary to allegedly maintain on-site hydraulic containment with the currently lower off-site pumping rates assisting in maintaining hydraulic containment.

April pumping rates off-site were much better in regards to the Target rates albeit still nowhere near the promises of 2012 and afterwards of first Tripling the pumping rates and then later claiming that they would Double those pumping rates. Total off-site pumping from all wells including E7 was 63.26 l/sec. Hence February was 38, March 53.8 and April 63.26. Of course this is all moot the day that the wells stop pumping and the company hightails it back to either the U.S. or Europe. Then the Ontario MOE/MECP may actually understand that the whole thing has been a game of delay and minimize while ownership plays musical chairs over the ensuing decades. In this case however the last company owning the former Uniroyal Chemical will likely just walk away leaving Ontario taxpayers to pick up the long overdue cleanup bill.