ARE THERE STILL LIVING VICTIMS OF UNIROYAL CHEMICAL TOXIC POLLUTION IN ELMIRA, ONTARIO?

The answer is yes although our authorities are quite happy to pretend otherwise. Or at least to be happy not to know. Recently I was talking to a middle aged gentleman in Elmira who played in the Canagagigue Creek as a child. This would be in the early 1980s. Now keep in mind the creek had improved somewhat by then because of the construction of the Elmira Sewage Treatment Plant (STP) in 1965. Now there were multiple issues with local manufacturers sending their wastes to the new STP after 1965 (such as Borg Textiles) and it took a while to sort them all out. Therefore until 1970 Uniroyal still on occasion were dumping in their on-site pits and ponds. Therefore the daily flow of thousands of gallons of toxic liquid waste had been stopped for perhaps ten years when this individual was playing in the creek. There are two ways to look at that. Chemical wastes and concentrations in the creek had been reduced although being in the creek not too far downstream from the effluent coming from the Elmira STP might not have been a great idea. ............................................................................................................... Of course the daily flow of toxic liquid wastes directly from new production into the creek may have ended but the ongoing flow from contaminated soils and groundwater theroughout the site had not been stopped. That did not even begin to be reduced until approximately 1996 after the introduction of the "cheapest and least effective" method of containing the highly contaminated South-West corner of the Uniroyal site was implemented. This method was referred to as the Upper Aquifer Containment & Treatment System (UACS) and it was an incredible crock and lie. It did not hydraulically contain the other 3/4 of the site from dischatging their shallow aquifer water into the creek. Therefore this individual was certainly exposed to Polycylcic Aromatic Hydrocarbons, DDT, NDMA, dioxins/furans and a plethora of pesticides and herbicides. In those days (the 1980s) there were no warning signs and little or no warnings from the company, health authorities or local municipal councillors. Everybody were keeping their heads down and hoping that Elmira might luck out and avoid the coming disaster finally known as the 1989 Elmira Water Crisis. ................................................................................................................ All our authorities are pleased to hide behind lies, damned lies and statistics as Winston Churchill once said. Currently over 40% of our population will have cancer in their lifetimes. I believe that industrialized urban environments have a disproportionate number of these cancers do to environmental toxins in our air, water and foods. This is courtesy of the results of Uniroyal Chemical's behaviours from 1942 until nearly 1970. The cleanup since 1989 can best be expressed as per local activist Rich Clausi: "When all was said and done, more was said than was done.". ................................................................................................................... Cancer is not the only result of environmental poisoning. Suppression of animal and human immune systems leads to an increase in biological and virological infections. Some of these are life threatening. Many other diseases, including rare diseases have been found locally again I believe due to damaged human immune systems courtesy of discharges to air, water and soil of dioxins/furans, mercury, PCBs, pesticides and herbicides. It seems clear to me that the decision makers at Uniroyal and their fellow travellors (politicians & bureaucrats) have no belief in or fear of hell. Otherwise they would never have permitted these atrocities.