LANXESS CANADA (UNIROYAL CHEMICAL) & WOOLWICH TOWNSHIP: DECADES OLD FRIENDLY DEALINGS OR A SCRATCH MY BACK & I'LL SCRATCH YOURS GROSS CONFLICT OF INTEREST?

Back in very late 2014 and early 2015 when Uniroyal Chemical (Chemtura) ordered Woolwich Township to jump, the Township immediately stood their ground and asked "How high?". This was in regards to the pressure that CPAC (Chemtura Public Advisory Committee) whose members had been appointed by the previous Woolwich Council was exerting on Chemtura to investigate and clean up the Stroh and Martin farms to the east and south of the chemical company. The company knew that more millions of dollars, perhaps even dozens of millions of dollars would be required to properly remove PCBs, dioxins/furans, DDT, PAHs, and other Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) from the Stroh farm especially but also likely the Martin farm as well. The "How high?" was quickly answered by Chemtura. Get rid of the current CPAC members as well as one Alan Marshall. The company knew that in order for the thirty year coverup (east side/ DNAPLS/ hydraulic containment) to continue that they needed their partners in pollution (consultants, Ministry of Environment, Woolwich Township) to help get rid of the educated, intelligent and informed citizen activists on CPAC. Sandy Shantz and Mark Bauman lept to attention and began the "manufactured crisis" at CPAC which was simply the Ministry (Environment) and Chemtura refusing to attend CPAC meetings. Notice that this all started after the Todd Cowan scandal was in full swing and it was obvious that he was going to lose to Sandy Shantz in the October 2014 municpal election. (He came in last of four candidates). ........................................................................................................................ To my shock and consternation, after 2015 I began to discover the various business dealings and more between Woolwich Township and Uniroyal/Crompton/Chemtura and eventually Lanxess Canada. It turned out that Woolwich had been sharing consulting companies namely Conestoga Rovers & Assoc. (CRA) with Uniroyal for decades. This included ongoing technical reports commissioned by the Township for advice regarding the Bolender Park Landfill. These reports have been completed by CRA and later GHD since the early 1980s up until the present. Furthermore various engineering studies for infrastructure (roads/subdivisions etc.) projects in the Township and or Elmira have been also given to CRA/GHD. To the uninitiated, CRAs reports and studies have long been criticized by citizens as well as governments (Region of Waterloo) for their somewhat optimistic conclusions which always appeared to save their client (Uniroyal etc.) millions of dollars in environmental cleanup costs. Uniroyal and successors have also donated funds around town for various charitable and good works including the Maple Syrup Festival. Most recently in last Thursday's Woolwich Observer we learn that Lanxess Canada have been giving money to Woolwich Community Services towards arts and culture initiatives for local youth. ........................................................................................................... Now while they say no good deed goes unpunished I think that we need to look a little more closely at Uniroyal/Crompton/Chemtura/Lanxess's good deeds in light of how much "good will" it has BOUGHT them. For example if for every $1,000 that our local, infamous polluter has donated to Woolwich Township say for example also to the new arena/recreation centre several years back, have they directly or indirectly saved $1,000,000 in cleanup costs of the Elmira Aquifers, the air and the Canagagigue Creek? There is absolutely no doubt that both the Ministry of Environment (MOE/MECP) and Woolwich Township have shielded the company from the righteous anger of local citizens who themselves and family members have paid the price for the damaged local environment courtesy of the manufacture and negligent disposal of toxic wastes. There is absolutely no doubt that the Township have abused their position of authority in order to give assistance to the company and plant which destroyed Elmira's drinking water source. This assistance includes removing and stifling citizens who have honestly and accurately attempted to bring transparency and accountabilty to the cleanup here in Elmira. These same citizens donated their time and efforts for years to uncover the truth and to improve the environment only to be maligned and defamed by Woolwich Township, both verbally and in writing. These misdeeds were done to protect the polluter from a fuller more appropriate cleanup of the mess that they either caused or knowingly purchased. ................................................................................................................... Woolwich Township have been in a blatant conflict of interest regarding our worst local chemical polluter for decades. They have never had any moral authority to step in and take control of local public consultation yet indeed they did so back in 2000 with the assistance of one local councillor (McLean) and her buddy. They still are in this conflict of interest position and need to be removed from the issue entirely. Control of public consultation needs to go back where it was from 1991 until 2000 and that was securely in the hands of citizens despite the Township's meddling even then. They must abandon this project even as they have long abandoned citizens' interests in favour of the polluter's interests. ........................................................................................................... Oh the rotten, dirty dogs. I've just seen the front page of today's Waterloo Region Record. It's a story written by Leah Gerber titled "Elmira sets aside 67 acres for nature reserve". You know that this sh.t was kept quiet for decades but now all the guilty parties are feeling confident enough that they are letting the public know how much money our internationally infamous polluter (Uniroyal - Agent Orange,NDMA, DDT, dioxins etc.) and their successor companies are giving out to Woolwich Township. It is blood money folks and it is a tiny fraction of the health, environmental and financial damages that they have done here and elsewhere. We are advised in today's Record that Lanxess Canada are committing to financial support ($) for this "nature reserve" for the next five years. BLOOD MONEY. They have NOT properly yet, 32 years after the fact, cleaned up their site, nearby contaminated by them sites, the Elmira aquifers nor the Canagagigue Creek. But they are putting some money ($) into tree planting etc. And how many of us are lapping up this self-serving sh.t by Lanxess and friends at the Township?