WHEN ALL WAS SAID & DONE, MORE WAS SAID THAN DONE

The Waterloo Region Record published an article by Paige Desmond titled "Chemtura boosts water cleanup" on November 2, 2015. Allegedly four new wells were installed and the infrastructure (piping etc.) was under construction. Now of course with the benefit of hindsight we know that overall the pumping and treating of groundwater off the Uniroyal/Chemtura site has essentially not increased as promised. A couple of these wells such as W8 and W6A/B have been pumping at a ridiculously tiny volume such as .44 litres per second and it appears as if they were installed simply to reduce a small local source of contamination all the while pretending that everything under Elmira comes from Uniroyal Chemical. Also well W9 which was supposed to be pumping a much larger volume of water still isn't up and running, many years later. The excuses however have been varied, interesting and never ending. .......................................................................................................... Ms. Desmond also pointed out that there are other cleanup challenges besides the groundwater. Dioxins/furans and DDT in Canagagigue Creek sediments are well above provincial and federal criteria. As well there is mention of the "now-disbanded" township committee (CPAC) and the fact that they raised the issue of Chemtura failing to achieve groundwater cleanup by 2028 as mandated by the Ministry of Environment. To this day the cleanup of the downstream Canagagigue Creek has not started. When it does it is most likely to be the result of a Risk Assessment of extremely dubious quality and accuracy on a par with much of the cleanup efforts over the last thirty plus years.