ANY OTHER METHODS TO INSIST THAT MECP & LANXESS FOLLOW ENVIRONMENTAL LAWS?

Laws that are unenforced are essentially useless. This certainly includes environmental laws. Also laws written with huge loopholes are essentially useless. Finally laws that depend upon voluntary compliance are beyond shameful. In this case here in Elmira, voluntary compliance has been converted into the polluter being in complete charge of the cleanup, from initial Phase 1 investigations to major input into Control Orders as well as all monitoring, work plans, investigations and finally remediation. The system is built so as to give the polluter control over much of the expenses he is going to face over the decades in the case of a major mess, such as Elmira, Ontario. There is one other fly in the ointment. Just as Russia is alleged to have compromising information on former President Trump, so to does the polluter here have compromising information on the Ontario Ministry of the Environment. ....................................................................................................... How could they possibly not? The Ministry or its' predecessor, the Ontario Water Resources Commission (OWRC), made concessions and deals with Uniroyal Chemical that were not in the public interest. Either formally or informally permitting unlined in ground waste pits, ponds and lagoons to operate for decades with the toxins being produced by Uniroyal was way beyond negligence or ignorance. Sure the company suggests that their "historical" waste practices were the norme. Or they were the best available practices at the time. Hog rot to that. Early chemical manufacturers in Germany and Switzerland had learned their lessons the hard way in the late 1800s (1860-1890). There were actually sucessful lawsuits launched against those companies prior to 1900 which forced them to stop the practice. Granted some of them then simply discharged directly into the Rhine and Rhone Rivers until that too was stopped and chemical liquid waste treatment became mandatory. All of this was half a century prior to the explosion of North American chemical manufacturing with both governments and industry pretending that the wide open spaces of Canada and the U.S. could readily dilute, diminish and naturally attenuate toxic liquid wastes. It didn't work in Europe and it sure as hell has not worked here. The reality is that chemical manufacturers simply found a less stringent jurisdiction in which to inflict their own waste treatment costs upon the general population. ............................................................................................................ So what is left for citizens? Well Greenpeace and other environmental organizations have certainly focused attention upon environmental disasters such as Grassy Narrows (mercury) and many others. David Suzuki took quite an interest in Elmira in the very early days (1990-1993) and produced an excellent Documentary. Local media also did a fabulous job in the early years between the Elmira Independent, K-W Record, CKCO-TV and local radio. It is however all old news now with some minor exceptions. I was advised decades ago that APT seemed unenthusiastic about longer term interest and engagement by outside environmental groups. At the time I assumed (wrongly) or was told that it was better for a local group to be in charge of opposing Uniroyal Chemical than some outside group. Maybe it's time to see if one of the bigger groups would like a second kick at the can because at the moment it's looking very bad. Lanxes/GHD/MOE/MECP are running the show and running it very badly. Pathetic, bullsh.t, psudo scientific reports rule the day (still) and the "cleanup" of the Elmira Aquifers by 2028 is an admitted failure. All that's left is the disappointment awaiting Elmira and downstream residents when the multiple guilty parties finally determine how little cleanup of the Canagagigue Creek that they can get away with. Rest easy however, they'll have "experts" galore on board with whatever they want to do.