THREE SEPARATE ISSUES REGARDING THE DOWNSTREAM (From Uniroyal/Lanxess) CANGAGIGUE CREEK

From my perspective there are three separate issues here. One is the health of the downstream Old Order Mennonite farmers who have knowingly been poisoned by Uniroyal and successive companies, as well as by the negligence of municipal and regional politicians ever since the original 1966 OWRC (Ontario Water Resources Commission) report, followed by the 1996 MOE (Bedard & Jaagumagi) report on the Canagagigue and finally the followup MOE/MECP 2012, 2013, 2014, 2017 and 2020 reports on the Canagagigue Creek. Readers may recall the written comments about the long term health issues of the downstream Old Order Mennonites, written by Susan Bryant of TAG. ................................................................................................................ The second issue is the health of the benthic invertebrates, the fish and wildlife in and around the Canagagigue Creek. We have MOE reports ( approx. 2015) indicating DDT, dioxin, mercury and PCB exceedances of Tissue Residue Guidelines (TRG) in the fish in the creek. These toxins are bio-accumulative and move up the food chain and will affect raccoons, foxes, coyotes, hawks, ospreys etc. ...................................................................................................... Thirdly is the issue of local political corruption. Both Woolwich council and Waterloo Region Council have approved rezoning and light industrial/commercial development on the immediate east side of Uniroyal/Lanxess. This includes the Ron Stroh and Edward & Selima Martin farms and more. This development will include construction of the long promised Elmira By-Pass up the east side of town and over top of grossly contaminated soils. This has been done with full knowledge of the contamination both in the creek since the 1940s and in the adjoining soils. Woolwich Council in particular have been fully informed for years (since 2014) about the Stroh property and have chosen to both ignore known evidence as well as assist in covering up and preventing proper investigation of the Stroh farm property. ............................................................................................................. The various guilty parties have demonstrated their dishonesty, deceit and bad faith for over thirty years now. Yes one can pretend that GHD and lanxess are "new" to these issues. Hardly. They both did their due diligence in acquiring Conestoga Rovers and Chemtura several years back and they made the decision that with the friendly local and provincial climate that they could maintain control of the extent, quality and cost of cleanup that they would be expected to do.