Thursday, January 21, 2021

UNIROYAL/LANXESS/CRA/GHD BIG LIE # 7

Yesterday here I went through six "Big Lies" that much of the Woolwich and Waterloo Region public have swallowed over the last thirty years. Today we will discuss "Big Lie" #7 which is giving Lanxess Canada fits. They along with Woolwich Council and the Ontario Ministry of Environment (MOE/MECP) have long pushed the idea that all of Uniroyal Chemical's east side toxic liquid wastes flowed south and west. The big lie at the north half of the site is that these toxic wastes never reached either the deeper sub-surface aquifers nor the Canagagigue Creek. This was premised partly upon magical qualities along the alleged due western route of these liquid wastes. Suppposedly shallow aquifer contaminants discharged at the surface where they and surface flow from the east side RPE (retention pond east) pits ended up in swampy areas that broke down or nuetralized these toxins. Like most good lies it had at least a tiny grain of truth. Cattails have some ability to uptake liquid wastes but certainly not remotely the daily volume that Uniroyal discharged over decades. ................................................................................................................. The other claim was that man made ploughed ditches directed overflowing surface waters southwards and hence less actually flowed westwards. First off these were ditches in the ground. They were not pipes or even open concrete swales or waterways. Hence they leaked both through the bottom into the sub-surface as well as during precipitation events the liquid wastes overflowed the shallow man made ditches and discharged along their entire pathway. ................................................................................................................... Finally these man made ditches did not go directly into either GP-1 or GP-2, their polluter designated and wishfully hoped for final resting place. The ditches stopped near the bottom of the most southerly major pit, namely RPE-5. They discharged into the swampy area just south where they gravity flowed mostly south-eastwards and crossed over to the lower lying Stroh ptoperty into a bowl shaped topographical area. Here they settled out with likely hydrophobic compounds such as DDT, dioxins/furans, PCBs etc. soaking into the ground where they adhered to (bonded) soil particles. ..................................................................................................... To date Ramin Ansari and Lanxess have flatly refused to do serious, honest soil sampling in the appropriate areas of the Stroh farm and property. Their ridiculous (Big Lie) excuses include that well we took a public walk with TAG in 2019 near the area (i.e. Lanxess property only) and that put the issue to rest. ........................................................................................ BULL.HIT, HORSE MANURE and "BIG LIE" all rolled into one. Shame on GHD (consultants) and Lanxess but even more shame on Woolwich Council, TAG chair and the Ministry of Environment, Conservation and Parks whose "sweetheart deal" apparently absolves Uniroyal/Lanxess of off-site cleanup to the east.

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