Saturday, April 30, 2022

THE INTENTIONALLY DEAF & BLIND STILL LEADING THE DEAF & BLIND

Hmm likely not a politically correct title. Unfortunately the only other interpretations are even less flattering. By the way I do not view either deafness or blindness as some sort of either mental or moral value. It can however sometimes inhibit one's talents and abilities. Along with reading the latest list of reports produced on behalf of the proponent (39A Holdings) I have also been reviewing some of the older technical reports for the Bolender Park Landfill. Boy there is simply no way around saying that in my opinion Woolwich Township have been negligent for decades as far as 1) sharing information with both locals (Elmira Pet Products, High, George and Charles St. residents) and the public. 2) carefully monitoring the entire perimeter of the former landfill for methane 3) collecting/permitting only tiny amounts of methane to escape over the decades 4) extreme tardiness in restoring either broken, flooded or disappeared gas probes as well as maintaining the gas blower allegedly pulling methane from the sub-surface. ................................................................................................................ Will the proposed development (parking lot for trucks and trailers) make it worse? Perhaps this isn't the right question. Perhaps the question should be: What is most appropriate for the health and safety of nearby residents and future workers living and working on or near this site? Atmospheric pressure can reduce methane gas release from the sub-surface. So can simple snow cover in the winter. Possibly a thick layer of even coarse gravel will do the same. Certainly parked trucks and trailers in the future will inhibit remedial activities. As I strongly believe and understand that there are both safety and environmental ongoing threats (leachate to the creek) from this property I do not understand why the Township would willingly tie their own hands by making it harder to ever properly remediate this site.

Friday, April 29, 2022

SUSAN BRYANT CORRECTS WOOLWICH OBSERVER, POINTS OUT WEAKNESS OF RISK ASSESSMENT & THEN FALLS FOR LANXESS'S TRAP (Maybe)

Last Saturday I posted here with strong criticism regarding the Woolwich Observer's headline from a couple of days prior. Their dead wrong headline was "Testing shows creek poses no unacceptable risk to humans". My posting last Saturday was titled "Clarifications in Woolwich Observer's story this week about the Creek". I made it very clear that the headline was a stinker and was false. Lo and behold in yesterday's Observer we have a Letter To The Editor from Ms. Bryant saying the same thing. She is correct "Testing" does NOT show the creek poses no risk to humans. In fact the testing of creek soils, floodplain soils and creek sediments (bottom of the creek) shows incredibly high concentrations of toxic chemicals far in excess of health criteria. Unfortunately the damage is done as likely more people will read the stupid headline than either Ms. Bryant's Letter To The Editor or my Blog post. .......................................................................................................................................... Susan points out the contradiction between scientific facts and the assumptions and value judgements of the Risk Assessment. She feels that "...the assumption in the risk assessment is that because the farming population along the creek is small, the chance of people being exposed to these highly toxic spots is limited. So no action need be taken." If indeed that is accurate then I am even more disgusted. Does the killer of one human being get a pass because he hasn't killed multiple human beings? .................................................................................................................................. Lastly Susan suggests that "The most toxic deposits in our creek are small areas, relatively few, and easily accessible." A more accurate sentence would be "The most toxic deposits in our creek are easily accessible as miraculously they are all immediately beside roads (New Jerusalem Rd,. Northfield Dr.) such that equipment and personnel can be brought directly to these areas." Susan may have fallen into the intentional trap of "locational sampling biases". The polluter intentionally picks his sampling locations in easy areas to access. That would be where you don't have to trudge through bush along the creek carrying all your equipment with you. As soon as you have detections of toxic chemicals from your first easy foray then that success leads to more sampling in the same area. That is what has occurred over the years at the New Jerusalem Rd. crossing of the creek as well as further downstream at Northfield Dr. One you lower costs via easier sampling and two you lower costs by geographically scoping/reducing your area of so called "hot spots". ................................................................................................................................. So does Susan really believe that only one or two "hot spots" exist in the creek? She desperately needs a win after decades of compromises, private meetings and private deal making with the polluter and his successors. Maybe a "compromise" on a tiny cleanup has already been decided. That would be a win-win for Lanxess and Susan. Not so much for the downstream Mennonite farmers, their livestock and or wildlife.

Thursday, April 28, 2022

NON-EXISTENT SECURITY AT OUR LOCAL LANDFILLS IN THE 1960s to 1990s

Varnicolor bought Lot 91 from Woolwich Township in 1972, two years after they were banned from using either the Bolender Landfill or the First St. landfill. Do you know why they were banned? They took a load of solvents and other highly flammable substances to the town dump and they caught on fire. This information is in Susan Rupert's post grad degree thesis (Environmental Studies) at the University of Waterloo. Yes Susan Rupert, Esther Thur and Sandra Bray founded APTE, not Susan Bryant. So why do you think Varnicolor bought Lot 91 located in the floodplain of both Landfill and Canagagigue Creek? Illegal dumping! Did Woolwich Township monitor or investigate this purchase? No. Thirteen years later there was a scandal exposed in the Globe and Mail by Jock Ferguson proving that General Motors paid top dollar for hazardous waste disposal of drums that ended up sitting both vertically and horizontally on the ground, exposed to the elements, on Varnicolor's Lot 91 beside the two creeks in Elmira. .......................................................................................................... In the early 1990s Varnicolor were in the midst of another environmental scandal. Their spills and intentional dumping were exposed by me to APTE and the Ontario Ministry of Environment. The MOE came publicly to Varnicolor's defence claiming that there was no contamination etc. When the smoke cleared the owner (Severin Argenton) was charged and convicted of multiple environmental offences and received the longest jail sentence for environmental crimes ever in Canada. Prior to his trial and convictions I exposed one of his scams this time with the Region of Waterloo's landfills. Apparently a skid of used and dirty liquid solvents (highly illegal) ruptured after being dumped probably at the Ottawa St. Landfill in Kitchener (approx. 1987). It took both Varnicolor foremen to clean the mess from the Region's bulldozer combined with a bottle of booze to settle ruffled feathers. No charges of course. The second scam which I personally exposed involved a document (Bill of Lading?) that Mr. Argenton simply photocopied over and over again showing the contents of his garbage to be non-hazardous thus giving him dumping priveleges. Presumably he changed the date as he went along. The Region were appropriately embarassed and the K-W Record had a few more days of highly interesting and inflammatory stories. ....................................................................................................... These events took place AFTER Elmira's landfills (M-1, M-2, Bolender, First St.) were closed in 1936, 1962, 1969, 1972). Do you think that either before or after his dumping priveleges were banned and restored that Mr. Argenton wasn't pulling the same games there? Art Gorman, General Manager of Uniroyal Chemical, was the Chair of Elmira's Sanitation Committee and decided which industries and what industrial wastes they could put into the Bolender Landfill. Also multiple Uniroyal Chemical employees served on Elmira Town Council prior to the Region being formed and the advent of Woolwich Township. No conflict of interests there ...what! Until November 1989 (Elmira Water Crisis) Elmira was a company town i.e. Uniroyal Chemical. ............................................................................................... Currently due to global warming concerns there is a focus from both Canada and Ontario to reduce the release of greenhous gases. Methane is far worse than carbon dioxide and a major contributor is from former landfills. Despite that Woolwich have happily allowed free venting of methane to the air presumably hoping that will avoid any nasty fires or explosions. Regarding the current Stantec Risk Assessment my concerns are with the lack of leachate controls from Lot 91 (Varnicolor), Bolender Landfill and the First St. Landfill. As I have previously mentioned maybe a lot of the buried drums have already ruptured and maybe not. Also solvents and petroleum hydrocarbons can be dumped as sludges, tars and semi solids. All three can be further mobilized via groundwater percolating through and all three are in all of Elmirs's landfills, legal and illegal. I suggest that TAG members do not have adequate knowledge of the history of Elmira's (& MECP) mismanagement of toxic wastes, industries and landfills to be accepting or agreeing to any claims of only acceptable risks to human beings downstream in the Canagagigue Creek. AFTER a major remediation of local landfills and soils and sediments in the Creek plus any other probable sources (Stroh & Martin farms) then go ahead or not if you wish and do an honest Risk Assessment. Perhaps this time it should be under the purvue not of the polluter (or sucessor) but of a nuetral, unbiased party.

Wednesday, April 27, 2022

PHONY "BACKGROUND" LEVELS HIDE UNIROYAL/LANXESS POLLUTION OF THE CANAGAGIGUE CREEK

................................................................................................... UTTER & COMPLETE HORSE MANURE THAT CREEK POSES NO "UNACCEPTABLE" RISKS TO HUMAN HEALTH ................................................................................................... OIL BUBBLING FROM BOTTOM OF CREEK FOR TWO WEEKS .............................................................................................................. For decades I've publicly stated at UPAC and CPAC meetings that the alleged "Background" concentrations of contaminants upstream of Uniroyal Chemical were bogus. Uniroyal installed numerous toxic waste pits and lagoons alongside the west side of the creek which both overflowed as well as discharged to the creek via groundwater. They were a little more subtle on the east side pretending that those toxic waste pits and lagoons, being farther from the creek, did not do exactly the same thing. They did albeit the overland path to the creek included via their east side neighbour's (Stroh) property. Meanwhile just upstream, across Church ST. (Hwy #86), they dumped their chemical wastes into the Bolender Park Landfill, as well as any and every other nearby landfill that they could including M-2 and the First St. Landfill. Far more likely than not they also contributed to the plume of contaminants that has left the Woolwich Landfill (Seiling Dr.) north of Elmira that has been impacting private wells on Sandy Hills Dr. just north of Elmira. ................................................................................................................................. Having intentionally forgotten pollution upstream lessens the responsibility of downstream polluters as they can hide behind the "other" sources even when they themselves are the "other" sources. That said it also helps to have sloppy friends upstream contributing to the overall degradation of the creek's quality. I would only somewhat hypothetically suggest that that could include the former Silverwoods Dairy and the former Great West Felt Co. both of whom located directly beside a flood prone creek. Now while I have heard stories of dairy products being flushed into the creek I can not say that I've heard anything similar with Great West Felt. There is yet another upstream source however who was responsible for groundwater contamination that has never been made public. Then we have the ERIS (Environmental Risk Information Services) report included in the proponent's consultants reports for development of a truck and tractor parking area on the former Bolender Park Landfill. .................................................................................................................. There are numerous apparently small spills listed in ERIS including the following companies: Martin Mills Inc., Elmira Pet Products, Esso Petroleum Canada, Bio-Bob's Corp. Of these Elmira Pet Products is the number one source of spills and discharges with contaminants being released to the natural environment including bleach solution, sodium hypochlorite, grain feed additives, food preservatives and animal fat and oil. Martin Feed Mills had a spill that is written up as "TEMBIND/Water To Grnd & Canagagigue CreeK". Now "Grnd" is obviously "ground" but what the hell is TEMBIND/Water ? Even with the release of this data the various codes appear intentionally obtuse. Also of interest to me are what appear to be storage of PCBs by Martin Feed Mills. This grabbed my attention because of allegedly unknown sources of PCBs having been released into the Canagagigue Creek over the decades. One page indicates that Martin Feed Mills had 1600 kg. of drums with PCB carrying ballasts in them. Where are they now? ........................................................................................................................ I've saved the "best" for last. We the public in Elmira are supposed to be kept in the loop by the Ontario Ministry of Environment. There has been one perverted form of public consultation or another since 1992 dealing with Uniroyal, Varnicolor, the Elmira Aquifers and the CANAGAGIGUE CREEK. Approximately twenty years ago an allegedly "UNKNOWN" source was the cause of "OIL BUBBLING FROM BOTTOM OF CANAGAGIGUE CREEK, ONGOING 2 WEEKS". Has anyone here in Elmira, Ontario ever heard of this incident of oil bubbling up through the bottom of the Canagagigue Creek non-stop for two weeks!!! I certainly hadn't and I've been paying close attention since late 1989. ........................................................................................................................... So this once again is how our authorities sell their bullshit. Keep public information quiet. Who the hell do you think owns the Canagagigue Creek? It's not Uniroyal, it's not Woolwich Township and it sure as hell is not the Ontario Ministry of Expanded Corporate Pollution (MECP). We the citizens own the creek and you will share information with us or else you will be publicly called out for what you are. This is the ongoing history of the Canagagigue Creek and our municipal council, regional council, MECP, RAC and TAG are on the cusp of approving and accepting a bogus Risk Assessment that says there are no unacceptable risks to human health from the creek. Slap on a bandaid here and there or even put a little lipstick on the report, it's still garbage and toxic garbage at that.

Tuesday, April 26, 2022

FOUR OUT OF FIVE FORMER ELMIRA LANDFILLS HAVE NO LEACHATE OR METHANE CONTROLS

That would be M-1 beside Shirt Factory Creek at Park and Union St., Bolender Park Landfill immediately north of Church St. and beside the Canagagigue Creek, First St. Landfill literally built on top of a former meander of the Canagagigue Creek and now on the west side of the creek just south of Uniroyal/Lanxess and Varnicolor Chemical's Lot 91 immediately beside Landfill Creek just before it empties into the Canagagigue. Now keep in mind this last one is an illegal industrial landfill whereas the others were all approved by the Town of Elmira. The former municpal/industrial landfill (M-2) on the Uniroyal/Lanxess site is subject to hydraulic containment from the UACTS (Upper Aquifer Containment & Treatment System) which by the way is not perfect and has occasional losses of containment. ..................................................................................................................... Here's where it gets interesting. Various authorities and fellow travellors lie pretty much constantly. For example they minimize how much and what industrial wastes were deposited/dumped into the various municipal landfills. At least with Varnicolor's Lot 91, minor excavations have not revealed any municipal waste but a plethora of buried drums, solvents and even PCBs. Also the First St. Landfill has buried drums in it. This information I sent yesterday to TAG members, MECP, Lanxess, RMOW and half of Woolwich Council. The buried drums came from excavations around 1965 during construction of the Elmira Sewage Treatment Plant (STP) and yes they are documented in at least one of several reports dated 1985, 1991 and 1992. The last two were authored by Conestoga Rovers & Assoc. for Uniroyal (1991) and CH2MHILL consultants on behalf of the Region of Waterloo (1992). The first one (1985) is the well known "History of Uniroyal Waste in Elmira" written by Wayne Jackman, Anthony Smith and a third who escapes memory at the moment. According to the relevant report the drums containing both solid and liquid contents were stacked on top of each other and buried well below ground surface. The problem today is how carefully were they transferred out of the way from the new STP and into the First St. Landfill. In other words how many were ruptured early on versus how many were carefully placed in the First St. Landfill so as not to rupture right away? It is those that have not yet ruptured/rusted through that are the environmental concern. Currently an already bogus Risk Assessment of the downstream Canagagigue Creek is nearly completed and it has not adequately considered how many drums in how many landfills along the creeks (Shirt Factory, Landfill, Larch's, Canagagigue) in Elmira are still ready to give up their toxins including dioxins, pesticides (DDT), PCBs, and a litany of solvents including benzene, toluene, xylenes, chlorobenzenes, trichloroethylene as well as Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAH), lindane, endosulfans, mercury and petroleum hydrocarbons (PHC) such as gasoline, diesel, and their components. ........................................................................................................................................ Or TAG and RAC can simply close their eyes, ears and hold their noses while they greenwash and rubberstamp a nonsensical Risk Assessment that tells us to smile, be happy and please die quietly of unknown causes preferably sooner than later.

Monday, April 25, 2022

WOOLWICH PLANNING DEP'T FAVOURTISM ?

Apparently Woolwich Township's poor planning and governance have been with us for a very long time. This particularly includes their alleged environmental decision making. Whether it involves local polluters such as Varnicolor Chemical, Uniroyal Chemical or local landfills it seems clear that human economic activity has and still takes precedence over everything else, especially the natural environment. Polyester resins, tars and sump sludges from Uniroyal Chemical have been documented as entering the in-town municipal landfills. I'm sure that I've also read that foundry wastes were permitted into some or all of the local landfills. These can include phenolic resins which are toxic. At the same time apologists and friends of Uniroyal Chemical have also alleged that the only "industrial" wastes they put into the Bolender Landfill were filter clothes and paper wastes. Time frames vary from report to report but generally speaking the Bolender Landfill was accepting both municipal and industrial wastes from 1962 until 1968-70. The First St. Landfill also accepted municipal and industrial wastes from approximately 1966 until 1972 and after that both Municipal and INDUSTRIAL waste went to the Woolwich Landfill north of Elmira on the aptly named Seiling Drive. It was in operation from 1972 until approximately 1985-88 depending on which report is believed. ................................................................................................................... Then of course we must not forget the former municipal landfill now located on the Uniroyal/Lanxess property known as M-2. It accepted both municipal and industrial wastes from 1936 until 1962. As per testimony at the Environmental Appeal Board hearings (1990-92), Uniroyal routinely dumped and buried herbicides, pesticides, rubber additives etc. into this landfill which they now own. They also buried 45 gallon drums full of wastes including off-spec chemical products which at a later date were unearthed during the construction of the Elmira Sewage treatment Plant. They were then transferred to and reburied in the First St. Landfill. ...................................................................................................... The Ontario Water Resources Commission (OWRC) were so impressed with Elmira and Woolwich landfill decision making that they ordered both the Bolender and the First St. Landfills shut down. Who would have thought that anything could go wrong with burying both municipal and industrial wastes right beside the Canagagigue Creek? Local industrial companies likely all enjoying in town dumping priveleges would include textile companies including Borg Textiles, Link-Belt Foundry, Varnicolor Chemical, Nutrite, furniture companies including the one right beside Uniroyal on Union St., Great West Felt and on and on. ................................................................................................... After this horrific history of either dumb or arm twisted decision making where are we today? Right, Woolwich planners think that building a gravel parking lot for trucks and trailers above the Bolender Park Landfill is a dandy idea. Oddly enough once again they are ignoring provincial rules and regulations but hey currently we've got a Conservative provincial government who just like the Liberals are pro business/industry. I doubt that Doug Ford and company could care less what Woolwich does today with the Bolender Landfill. There were no penalties for environmental and health & safety mismanagement from 1962 until now so why would a few more broken rules be a problem? My reading of the "Guideline D-4 Study" indicates that there can be no development or land use on top of a landfill with either leachate controls or methane gas controls. BINGO! Just get the Township's (& Uniroyal/Lanxess's) consultants to write yet another self-serving report advising that no controls are necessary. At the same time it will be necessary to ignore once again the most recent gas probe results showing methane gas at potentially dangerous levels (> 20% LEL), methane gas at greater than the LEL (Lower Explosive Level) and finally methane gas levels at above the UEL (Upper Explosive Level). Fortunately this is Woolwich Township where many bureaucrats and politicians are Master Level contortionists.

Saturday, April 23, 2022

CLARIFICATIONS IN WOOLWICH OBSERVER 'S STORY THIS WEEK ABOUT THE CREEK

First of all the title is dead wrong. That title is "Testing shows creek poses no unacceptable risk to humans". Excuse me but that is 100% WRONG! Testing actually shows incredible risks to human health as DDT, DDD. DDE and dioxins/furans all EXCEED health criteria in both creek soils and creek sediments. In some cases by a very wide margin so please do not misinform the public by suggesting that the concentrations in and around the creek of even just those two toxic groups of compounds (DDT, dioxins) are acceptable. THEY ARE NOT! .............................................................................................................................. Here in the Advocate last Saturday I responded to Jamie Petznick's letter to TAG . Jamie was answering some questions from TAG and as well he provided an informative article from a Donald L. Siegel which explained the difficulties involved with groundwater remediation. I objected to any scenario/interpretation that would let the polluter in charge off the hook for their inadequate and at times incompetent remediation efforts since 1989. .................................................................................................................... Back to the first paragraph: That which shows the creek poses no unacceptable risk to humans is the bought and paid for Risk Assessment (RA) done by Stantec on behalf of Lanxess Canada. Stantec made it very clear that they were relying on Lanxess/GHD monitoring and testing of soils and sediments over the decades in their RA. That testing/sampling has been poor and written about here for many years. Far too many samples are analyzed at Method Detection Limits (MDL) far in excess of the health criteria which both greatly reduces detections at all (i.e. ND-non-detect) and greatly reduces exceedances of the criteria. For example if the MDL is 3 parts per billion and the criteria is 1 part per billion then only samples that are three times the concentration of the health criteria will be registered as present in the sample. Some of these MDLs are ten, twenty and a hundred times higher than their cooresponding criteria. That folks is not scientific investigation it is fraud. It is exactly like the cartoons I've sent out recently whereby the Boss is ordering Dilbert to use blatantly bad data because it's the only data available. .................................................................................................................. .........................................................
........................................................................................................................... LEFT CLICK ON CARTOON TO MAKE IT LARGER ................................................................................................................... P.S. Our authorities simply cover their ears and eyes and pretend that nobody is on to them. That is how they are fooling the media and the public.

Friday, April 22, 2022

THE FOLLOWING E-MAIL WAS SENT TO WOOLWICH PLANNING DEP'T RE: ZONE CHANGE & DEVELOPMENT PROPOSAL FOR BOLENDER PARK LANDFILL

39A Holdings Ltd./Bolender Park Landfill2 Yahoo / Sent ............................................................................................................... Alan Marshall To: jvink@woolwich.ca , pmerlihan@woolwich.ca Fri, Apr 22 at 9:49 a.m. .............................................................................................................. Jeremy: Councillor Merlihan has requested that I send my concerns regarding the proposed zone change and development of the former Bolender Park Landfill to you. These include but are not limited to : ......................................................................................................... 1) Recent results indicate 73.8% methane in air by volume at GP2-15. This is blandly and self-servingly dismissed as methane not produced by the Bolender Park Landfill. Really? Then it is up to the consultants and proponents to explain exactly where that methane is coming from. .......................................................................................................................................... 2) The limits of the Bolender Park Landfill allegedly have been determined/confirmed by twenty testpits installed in 2021. Unfortunately those test pits are ALL in the east end of the entire property that begins at Arthur St. in the west. In fact municipal garbage has been found by relatively recently installed weigh scales much, much closer to the former Paleshi garage/buildings . If not from the Bolender Park Landfill could it be from the former Arthur St. dump and if so why is methane from there ignored as somehow not being pertinent to methane production and migration? .................................................................................................................... 3) Those twenty testpits are inaccurately described as ONLY having industrial wastes in testpits 2, 3, 9,10, 11, 12, 13 whereas according to photo 4 provided, testpit 5 also has industrial wastes in it. ............................................................................................................. 4) Some industrial wastes are described such as construction debris (wood?), bricks, broken asphalt, concrete, felt etc. Meanwhile for decades there have been written reports (1991 Environmental Audit (CRA)) describing filter cloths from Uniroyal Chemical containing pesticide residues etc. being deposited there. Also when the Bolender Park Landfill was open, Art Gorman, General Manager of Uniroyal Chemical was the Chair of the Sanitation Committee for the town of Elmira. Hardly surprising that Uniroyal wastes entered the Bolender Landfill. Hardly surprising that NDMA , a Uniroyal by-product, was found in multiple monitoring wells in Bolender Park throughout the 1990s.. Other industrial wastes were from Varnicolor Chemical, Great West Felt and Borg Textiles etc.. Therefore I wonder why some of these industrial wastes are briefly described whereas chemical wastes from local textile, chemical and manufacturing plants are not. I have personally seen and smelled buried chemical wastes and they are distinctive to say the least. More than fifty years after the Bolender Park Landfill was closed there are still monitoring wells between that landfill and the Canagagigue Creek detecting industrial chemicals including xylenes, toluene, napthalene etc. Meanwhile a Risk Assessment of the downstream Canagagigue Creek is underway pretending that everything upstream of Uniroyal/Lanxess is just dandy. .............................................................................................................................................. 5) Five new methane gas probes were installed in 2021. ALL of them have concerning and dangerous methane gas concentrations namely : ........................................................................................................................ GP1-21 ......8.2% GP2-21 .....22.1% GP3S-21......1.4% GP3D-21......5.5% GP4-21 ......9.8% .........A previously ( 2015) constructed gas probe (GP2-15) had an astounding 73.8% methane in air by volume. While both it and ............................ GP2-21 actually exceeded the UEL (Upper Explosive Limit) of methane gas nevertheless those concentrations could very easily be ............................ within the explosive limits (5-15%) in the future. Undoubtedly this is why methane alarms were installed in the former Paleshi garage. ............................At one point a few years back CRA (Conestoga Rovers & Assoc.) had also recommended methane alarms in a couple of houses nearest the east end of the Bolender Landfill. The standard rule is that any methane in air by volume exceeding a mere 20% of the LEL (LowerExplosive Limit) are potentially dangerous. That concentration is about 1% methane in air by volume. For these reasons you can understand my concerns regarding unresolved methane issues. After the inadequate active methane gas removal system was removed in 2015 Woolwich came back to the current owner (Mr. Rattasid) asking permission to enter his land to install a passive methane gas removal system. By that point in time I understand that Mr. Rattasid was no longer cooperating with the Township and refused his permission. ............................................................................................................. 6) I would like copies of only five of the reports mentioned in the Page 2-3 (Guideline D-4 Study 39 Arthur Street North, Elmira, ON) Burnside &Assoc. report namely the January 2008 "Landfill Gas Monitoring Probe Installations Bolender Park Landfill.., the February 2009 "Summary of Additional Landfill Gas Monitoring Events Bolender Landfill...", as well as the August 2010, November 2015 and July 2016.Landfill Gas Probe reports mentioned on page 3 . Thank you very much for your cooperation in this matter. ...................................................................................................................................... Jeremy I understand that past failures regarding both methane control/venting and a total lack of industrial leachate control can not be reversed now. That said should some mitigation of the ongoing dangerous methane situation and ongoing leakage of allegedly low concentrations of industrial chemicals into the Canagagigue not at least be seriously considered? ................................................................................................. Sincerely Alan Marshall

Thursday, April 21, 2022

PHEW - NOT THIS TIME: TWO EXPLOSIONS ON GEORGE ST. LAST EVENING

Initially I thought that my worst fears had happened. I received a phone call and over the phone I could hear sirens and I believe a small explosion. The caller was advising me that there had already been a louder explosion in the vicinity of George St. in Elmira. This street is located extremely close to the former Bolender Park Landfill and as I have just recently read updated (2021) gas probe results I thought that it was a methane explosion. Shortly afterwards I was advised that it was an explosion and fire from a garage behind a home on George St. The garage contained both a car and a lawn mower with of course likely gasoline present as well. At this point in time I trust that there were no injuries and that damages were minimized by the fire department as much as humanly possible. ...................................................................................................... I am awaiting information regarding updated methane gas controls on the site that had been suggested to the former owner by Woolwich Township. If indeed the removal of the long inadequate methane gas pumping system was premature as the recent gas results indicate then clearly a new system is required. Why was that not front and centre at the Public Meeting held by Woolwich Council recently?

Wednesday, April 20, 2022

LAST WEEK'S RAC MEETING WAS BORING AND DULL AS ADVERTISED

Back on April 9 I wrote here that the upcoming RAC meeting ( Thurs. April 14/22) was likely going to be dull and boring. Well it was. Oh well you can't have fireworks and excitement all the time and in fact I'm sure that Lanxess, MECP and Sandy are all thrilled to read and hear the words dull and boring. It is exactly what they want as it decreases public interest in what is and is not going on. ................................................................................................................... There will be a little more field work this summer in the two most upstream areas to Lanxess (i.e. Reaches 3 & 4) in the Canagagigue Creek. Ramin of Lanxess advised that this timing is of course dependent upon how quickly TAG and the Ministry of Environment (MECP) get their comments submitted. Nearly 53 years since Uniroyal/Lanxess stopped dumping their liquid toxic wastes into the natural environment and it is the regulator and volunteer citizens who are holding up the works? Really? Allegedly Lanxess are looking for clarification for the Ecological Risk Assessment by pretending 1) that they care 2) that animals eating worms, slugs and invertebrates MIGHT be exposed to high levels of DDT and dioxins which is a no brainer as the worms, slugs and invertenbrates are indeed contaminated and hence so will there predators be. P.S. As Ramin so likes to tell TAG, this work is all voluntary as if this company and regulator bore no responsibility for the toxic mess. ................................................................................................................................. Wilson sure knows how to sugarcoat things when he tells Lanxess that we (TAG) support the results although there are still inconsistencies in the Risk Assessment. Wow. Susan Bryant asked a good question when she asked how the "outliers" (i.e. high toxin concentrations) get "flattened". By this I expect that she means either averaged out or reduced such that they no longer stand out as hot spots along the creek. There was no answer that I can recall. ........................................................................................................................................ Joe Ricker of Earthcon/WSP suggested that "Pump & Treat technology was good early in the day." I interpret that as meaning it is essentially useless now however Joe did not say that. Back Diffusion refers to contaminants that migrated from the aquifer (water) into the soils such as the less permeable aquitards and then as the water becomes cleaner these contaminants diffuse from the aquitard soils back into the aquifer (water). This process of course dramatically slows cleanup. Co-Chair and councillor Scott McMillan asked if homogeneous sub-surface stratigraphy improves confidence in Pump & Treat cleanups and the answer was yes. Conversely bedrock fractures etc. lessen confidence as the flow path is much more tortured and unpredictable. Joe also again advised of the unlikelihood of the Elmira Aquifers being clean by 2028. ............................................................................................................................................ Jason Rice of the MECP advised that the new Environmental Compliance Agreement (ECA) allegedly will address loss of containment issues in the Upper Aquifer Containment System (UACS) with greater monitoring. Good luck with that. All media (air, soil, ground and surface water) continue to assist in bleeding contaminants off-site to share with the rest of us. Yes various containment measures do slow that migration. You the readers judge whether it was a dull meeting or not. It certainly was civil which is really all those in charge are hoping for. All the rest is just for show.

Tuesday, April 19, 2022

OLD (?) NEWS BUT GOOD NEWS - HALLMAN PIT

Early last week Wilmot Council voted unanimously to reject the zone change application for the Hallman Pit. That there is major opposition to this pit is obvious but that rarely induces municipal councils to do the bidding of their electorate. Possibly this being an election year (Oct. 24/22) had just as much or more to do with it. Various Wilmot councillors gave differeing reasons including the loss of fertile farmland, the proximity of the village of Shingletown, potential groundwater contamination and negative effects to wetlands and other natural buffers. Of course issues with noise and dust are also commonplace near operating gravel pits. .......................................................................................................................... Momentum appears to be growing against the unecessary proliferation of gravel pits throughout the countryside. There is a proposed moratorium on new gravel pits that has been endorsed by the City of Cambridge, Wilmot, North Dumfries and Woolwich Townships. Clearly the provincial election in June will also put the spotlight on our provincial, highly biased in favour of rampant gravel pit proliferation. Let's see if Premier Ford is ready to do at least a symbolic turnaround on that issue. The Waterloo Region Record published an article titled "Wilmot rejects Hallman Pit", written by Paige Desmond, last Wednesday.

Monday, April 18, 2022

SUSAN KOSWAN"S EXCELLENT RECORD OPINION PIECE

Last week the Waterloo Region Record published Ms. Koswan's Opinion piece titled "Region's eco heroes deserving of a salute". She spoke to the environmental volunteers who have stepped forward regarding Ministerial Zoning Orders (MZO), housing projects and gravel pits. She also mentions the Uniroyal Chemical site in Elmira and their current owner, Lanxess Canada. I found her comments regarding the Draft Risk Assessment for the Canagagigue Creek to be on the money. Her description of the Old Order Mennonites living alongside and downstream of the creek was very specific including exposures sufferred by both adults and children. She also states regarding them "Some report illnesses and conditions that are strongly associated with chronic chemical exposure, but have no definitive answers." I suggest to you that our authorities know very well what those illnesses and conditions are but have always hidden behind privacy concerns in order to avoid acknowledging and properly addressing them. Afterall the bulk of the chemical discharges ceased approximately fifty years ago and yet we are still talking about NOT cleaning up the bulk of the creek's contaminated soils and sediments. ........................................................................................................................ There is one fly in the ointment of this overall excellent article. Ms. Koswan obviously is getting her information from a single source. That source certainly has been a strong advocate for cleanup in the Canagagigue Creek for a very long time. Unfortunately she has inappropriately played fast and loose both politically and personally with her local environmental colleagues along the way. Literally selling out and backstabbing colleagues she has viewed as competition is never the way to improve environmental cleanups involving recalcitrant polluters. Short term gain while undermining friends, colleagues and supprters does not improve environmental performance of any of the parties. This is sadly reflected in the failure to achieve drinking water standards in the Elmira Aquifers thirty-three years after the Ministry of Environment suddenly "discovered" that they were contaminated with NDMA. .............................................................................................................. Ms. Koswan has suggested that "...the current owner, Lanxess, seems to be fulfilling its mandate on the property itself-including the aquifers below." First of all there is a very limited "mandate" to do anything on their grossly contaminated site hence they have done very little to actually remove hundreds of tonnes of remaining contaminated soils and chemical wastes. With Ontario Ministry of Environment approval the company has nothing more than hydraulic containment (pump & treat technology) preventing on site massive leakage of contaminants. Once the on-site pumps stop pumping the contaminated groundwater, the off-site (rest of Elmira Aquifers) will be grossly recontaminated with a myriad of solvents, pesticides, PHCs, PAHs etc. etc. The claim of aquifer cleanup is simply to give Ms. Koswan's source a victory to hang her hat on. Current estimates for "sucessful" pump and treat cleanup of the Elmira Aquifers has been moved back to the 2050s or 60s or never. All of which will be negated once the on-site hydraulic containment of groundwater is interrupted. ............................................................................................................................................. The bottom line is that it is now admitted by all parties that the Elmira aquifers will not be cleaned up by the mandated 2028 or possibly ever. That is a failure. Lanxess Canada have declared that the human health risks downstream of their plant are "acceptable". In other words once again world class polluters (with political assistance) are claiming victories from the smoking ruins of their failed and minimal cleanups.

Saturday, April 16, 2022

RESPONSE SENT TODAY TO LANXESS, MOE/MECP, WOOLWICH TWN., TAG, RAC, REGION & CPAC

April 16, 2022 ......................................................................................... THE PROBLEM IS NOT THAT TECHNOLOGIES DO NOT EXIST: THE PROBLEM IS THE TOTAL CONTROL OF THE CLEANUP BY THE POLLUTER AND THEIR UNSURPRISING RELIANCE ON THE CHEAPEST & LEAST EFFECTIVE TECHNOLOGY NAMELY PUMP & TREAT ..................................................................................................................................... Jaimie: Thank you for your clarifications and responses to questions raised at the last TAG meeting (March 24/22). I attended (virtually) as usual and was (un)able to assist particularly with the first three questions as Woolwich Township and your employer (Lanxess) feel that the cost of having a very knowledgeable and experienced citizen present at meetings and quite able to clarify and answer TAG's questions is too high. Informed criticism and embarassing questions leading to a loss of credibility for agencies, institutions, politicians and polluters really is outrageous and obviously can not be tolerated. ...................................................................................................................................... I also thank you for the very interesting article by Donald l Siegel that you passed on. Although some might view his position and opinions as merely those of an apologist for polluters, I do not. On page 3 of your comments to TAG you state that “Other technologies of today are either not viable in the Elmira case, or haven't been discovered and developed by the scientific and engineering community yet.” That is not correct. One of the simplest (not cheapest however) technologies is source removal. On the odd occasion when Uniroyal/Crompton/Chemtura/Lanxess have attempted it, generally the results have been very good. Attempts at using ISCO (In Situ Chemical Oxidation) on the Lanxess site (near pumping well W3) were amateurish and incompetent according to Dr. Richard Jackson the first Chair of TAG (2015 & 2016). I must ask you and Ramin how you believe that the myriad of other remediation technologies including different forms of sub-surface source removal and or encapsulation, thermal technologies etc. are not viable as none have been tried. ................................................................................................................................................... Mr. Siegel could be faulted for suggesting that regulatory agencies are unrealistic in their demands that polluters clean up contaminated aquifers to drinking water standards. He appears to be unhappy that these criteria are so very small. Hopefully those very small concentrations are based on honest science and reflect how toxic to human life many industrial chemicals are. Mr. Siegel also references what he calls “bleeding out” as contaminants diffuse back into clean water after remediation ends. This phenomenon has also been long referred to as “rebound”. Preferential flowpaths are also a major issue. Back to Dr. Jackson of TAG who publicly excoriated Chemtura/CRA and the Ontario M.O.E. for their decades long failure to recognize and act upon the basal gravel unit at the bottom of the Municipal Aquifer. That coarse gravel unit was a major preferential flowpath that should have been targeted for pumping and was not. ............................................................................................................................... Lastly we have decades of citizen input including other informed suggestions for cleanup technologies. Those were either ignored or dismissed out of hand with little to no intelligent rationale provided. Yours truly first suggested to CPAC and Chemtura around 2009 that ISCO had provided solid results at the Northstar Aerospace facility in Cambridge. That was dismissed out of hand until the previously mentioned amateur hour attempt at Uniroyal/Chemtura. In 2003 CPAC's Soil & Water sub-committee provided a three page list of specific locations and contaminants on the Uniroyal site that were shallow and easily accessible. Again yours truly did the bulk of the research for this project that was accepted by CPAC and presented to Crompton/Chemtura, the M.O.E. and other stakeholders. A couple of locations were many years later partially (only) excavated by Chemtura. ............................................................................................................................................. I think that the merit of Mr. Siegel's article lies in his straightforward grasp of the difficulty in successfully achieving long term cleanup of contaminated aquifers. Of course this difficulty should not be used by polluters as their excuse to do the cheapest and least effective cleanup possible as Uniroyal/Crompton/Chemtura/Lanxess have done and are doing all with the support of the Ontario Ministry of Environment. Furthermore the various corporate polluters and their plethora of fellow travellors, stakeholders and partners in pollution should never have been in a position politically to pick and choose young, inexperienced and highly amenable to career pressure, members of the public, no matter how well motivated, to sit on citizen committees allegedly overseeing the cleanup. They also should never have been permitted to cast vetoes with our local uninformed and or biased councillors in order to eliminate proven, experienced, knowledgeable citizens such as the last CPAC in 2015. .................................................................................................................. Jaimie both your responses to TAG and your submission of Dr. Siegel's article are praiseworthy. Neither however remotely exonerate the ongoing cleanup failures of the polluter and its successors. Uniroyal/Crompton/Chemtura/Lanxess own the failure to remediate the Elmira Aquifers to drinking water standards. They also own the failure to clean up the Canagagigue Creek soils and sediments from their site to the downstream Grand River or further. As an avid participant and stakeholder for the last thirty-three years what I view as the worst behaviour is the ongoing and incessant lying, probably less so by the current owner, your employer. Even after Woolwich Township and CPAC announced in 2012 that the 2028 cleanup deadline was dead in the water, Chemtura like their predecessors kept on lying and denying. Currently Lanxess are mathematically manipulating extreme DDT and dioxin concentrations downstream as being acceptable risks. They are NOT! How dare they pretend that it is O.K. to both poison their neighbours, livestock and wildlife fifty to seventy-five years ago and it is now O.K. to continue to deny it and not fix it. ....................................................................................................................................... Sincerely Alan Marshall CPAC & EH-Team member

Friday, April 15, 2022

WOOLWICH CONTINUE TO BURY THEIR HEADS IN THE SAND (METHANE GAS AT BOLENDER PARK LANDFILL)

There are many legitimate concerns about changing the Zoning from Open Space to Industrial for nearby residents on High St., George St., Charles St. and Spruce lane. My concerns as an Elmira resident living a mile or two due west are more environmental including the still existing methane concentrations well above the Lower Explosive Limit of 5% methane by volume. I also am concerned with the toxic industrial chemicals dumped into this landfill without leachate controls or frankly an iota of common sense. Building both Bolender Park right beside it and then adding the childrens' Splashpad is far beyond my comprehension of good planning or good anything. ....................................................................................................................... Various self-serving parties have long minimized the extent of industrial wastes put into the Bolender Park Landfill. That's kind of ironic as it actually is the municipal food refuse which produces the methane particularly under the anerobic conditions present there (high water table). Regardless the latest reports presented by Burnside Assoc. on behalf of the new owner as well as by GSP group paint a clearer picture of what went on. There are references to both items (municipal/industrial wates) particularly although not solely in the "Guideline D-4 Study (Dec. 2021). These include asphalt and concrete debris, building materials (drywall/wood?), bricks, felt (Great West Felt), bottles, organics (foodstuffs) and ashes. Oddly there is no mention of long ago admitted in writing (1991 Environmental Audit etc.) chemical filter cloths from Uniroyal Chemical. Nor is there any mention of Varnicolor Chemical who were caught (with my assistance) illegally sending barrels of liquid and semi liquid solvents to Region of Waterloo landfills in the early 1990s. Oh and let us not forget that Uniroyal senior employee Art Gorman was the Chair of the Elmira Sanitation Committee of Council and he decided which industrial wastes were accepted in the Bolender Landfill. Afterall this is the Woolwich Township way of doing things and laws, people and the environment be damned. .................................................................................................................................. Even now the coverup continues. Burnside excavated twenty test pits of which nineteen were in the east end of the former landfill. Seven of those nineteen test pits encountered industrial wastes. Testpit 2 described them as building wastes perhaps drywall, wood etc. Testpit 3, 9, 10, 11, 12, and 13 also had industrial wastes with no mention of municipal wastes also present. Testpits 9-13 are all along the northern border of the landfill closest to Elmira Pet Products. Is there any connection to fires, explosions and even an extremely unusual employee death on the premises? Did our authorities investigating fires and the tragedy of an at work death receive full information and cooperation regarding the nearby explosive methane concentrations? It would appear that industrial wastes may have been segregated from municipal wastes at the time. Also odd is that Burnside chose not to give any indication of what kind of industrial wastes they found. For example it would have been appropriate to mention any chemical wastes that were found. ............................................................................................................................................... Besides the 20 testpits there were also five Boreholes drilled and eleven groundwater monitoring wells installed. Oddly four of the five Boreholes (BH 1,2,4,5) are in the west end of the site as are seven (MW 1-7) of the eleven monitoring wells (MW). Even odder is the fact that Appendix A in this report only shows some of those boreholes and monitoring wells Logs namely BH 4 & 5, Monitoring Wells 6-11. So what the hell happened to BH 1-3 and MW 1-5 ??? Hiding something are we? ....................................................................................................................................... Appendix B shows results of the Gas Probes installed by Burnside last year as well as Gas Probe GP2-15 installed in 2015. The methane concentrations can best be described as horrific with results from 1.4% methane in air by volume to an astounding 73.8% in GP2-15. 5% methane in air by volume is the LEL or Lowest Explosive Limit. As low as 1% methane in air by volume (or 20% LEL) is considerwed potentially hazardous whereas 5% is absolutely hazardous. A possible good news scenario (???) is that the 73.8% concentration actually exceeds the maximun explosive limit substantially. Or not good news in that it's present. ............................................................................................................ Likely the consultants included descriptions of the industrial waste found in their Draft reports to their client. That embarassing and potentially expensive data was likely expunged long before the reports became public. Afterall it's all about serving the client's needs not the general public. i.e. the public interest be damned when there's money to be made!

Thursday, April 14, 2022

MORE THAN HALF A CENTURY LATER THE CANAGAGIGUE CREEK IS STILL BEING USED AS A SEWER

It (1970) was a signifciant year. The Ontario Water Resources Commission ordered the closing of the Bolender Park Landfill due to its' proximity and obvious negative impact on the Canagagigue Creek. Not to be inconvenienced the town of Elmira kept the First St. Landfill open for a few more years. That landfill was even closer to the Canagagigue Creek. It was also by 1970 that Uniroyal Chemical's leaking and overflowing east side waste pits were taken out of commission. Those liquid wastes started to be diverted to the Elmira Sewage Treatment Plant (STP) in 1965 but on occasion as the STP had start up issues, Uniroyal liquid wastes were sent eastwards back over the creek to the RPE 1-5 series of pits/ponds. ............................................................................................................................................ Currently there is a Zone Change Application underway for part of the former Bolender Landfill. Currently it is zoned Open Space and the new owner (2019) would like it changed to Industrial so that he can expand the gravel parking lot to park trucks and trailers on. The first hurdle of course is that Zone Change which the past owner was given zero to nil confidence by Woolwich Township that they would even consider it. Apparently not so as the current owner has spent time and money buying self-serving consultants' reports AND Woolwich Twn. Planning Dep't. seem to be equally on board. Amazing what a few short years can do isn't it? ...................................................................................................... The good news for the public is that the required bought and paid for reports include soil sampling, groundwater sampling and test pits. The bad news is that unsurprisingly contamination is still present and is in fact migrating through groundwater into the Canagagigue Creek as it has been from day one (approx. 1962). Now of course particularly for the more mobile contaminants it is likely that the really huge concentrations and volumes are long downstream. That said there are low level detections of chlorobenzene, ethylbenzene, xylenes, benzene, toluene, dichlorobenzene, Petroleum Hydrocarbons(PHC) and Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAH) still entering the creek via groundwater. Methane results are also of interest as there are numerous ones exceeding the generally accepted criteria. .................................................................................................. Currently there is no attempt to intercept or mechanically vent methane to the atmosphere. This is odd as after Woolwich Township removed the inadequate active venting system in 2015 they advised the then owner that they wanted access to his property in order to install a passive venting system. Where the hell is it now?

Wednesday, April 13, 2022

LYING TO THE PUBLIC (& Others) IS AN ART FORM: PUBLIC MEETING HELD AT WOOLWICH COUNCIL

Is it possible? Could it be that it just isn't incompetent or nasty councillors who are damaging the public interest? Yesterday I watched the YOUTUBE video of Monday night's Public Meeting held by Woolwich Council. This Public Meeting was in regards to the proposed Zone Change to allow an expansion of a gravel parking lot further over top of the former Bolender Landfill. Various lies were both by commission and omission. One big omission was everybody's refusal to utter the word "METHANE". It was actually hilarious as various parties including consultants as well as Woolwich staff gave a plethora of reasons and excuses why the covering of the parking lot had to be coarse gravel not asphalt. The truth as buried in GSP group's "Planning Justification Report" is that a gravel surface will not prevent subsurface methane from venting to the surface whereas asphalt or other impermeable surfaces will. Why do we want this methane to vent upwards into the air? The alternative is that internal, sub-surface pressures will push the methane laterally until it finds an outlet. If that outlet is a house basement with a gas fireplace, gas furnace or even a gas water heater all three having an ongoing pilot light, then guess what follows. BOOM! ........................................................................................................................... Other lies included the claim that asphalt (recycled or otherwise) will leach chemicals into the groundwater. That's not good if true because the last time I looked all our roads, highways and parking lots are covered with asphalt. Yes if dumped and submerged for decades, old broken up asphalt can leach chemicals. Otherwise not so much. When one spots one or two glaring lies then it's hard to have any confidence in what is being presented. Once again the long term neighbouring residents are going to be inconvenienced for the financial benefit of the few. It is not good planning to constantly encroach Industrial activities into residential neighbourhoods. Also it is not good faith to constantly lie to the local residents about the still ongoing methane issues. Buried in the consultant's report is the admission that methane is still present above the Lower Explosive Limit at several locations. Zero mention of that at the Public Meeting. To date I believe that no one has died or been injured. Is that what Woolwich are waiting for before they honestly and transparently properly address that issue?

Tuesday, April 12, 2022

METHANE? NO WE GOT NO METHANE HERE!!!

Last evening's Woolwich Township Committee of the Whole meeting was pretty funny. I've watched the approximately 50 minute You Tube video and while they are O.K. saying the word "landfill" and maybe they even said "Bolender Landfill" but they sure as hell never said the word "methane" even once. All participants even danced around why they can not cover the former landfill with impermeable asphalt. "Oh it would alter the water balance equation" or "recycled asphalt chemicals would leak into the groundwater". Yet oddly enough both regular asphalt and recycled asphalt are used everywhere else without second thoughts including on public highways, parking lots etc. Meanwhile it was mentioned that the Region of Waterloo continue to "manage" and "monitor" the old landfill. Apparently there is unsurprisingly still a need for "long term management". ............................................................................................................................... Interestingly there seems to be a sweetener thrown in here for the Township. That is the problem with a municipal waterline running through private property that did not show up on the deed or other appropriate documentation. The new owner is offerring to give the land it is beneath to the Township. The former owner was unhappy with after the fact "conditions" imposed upon him for a waterline on his property that he had no knowledge of prior to his purchse of the site. Our local courts (Kitchener) once again disgraced themselves with "home cooking" i.e. blatant bias towards local/regional entities such as Woolwich Township. This current "deal" may be to absolve themselves decades after the fact for their stupid handling of this municipal waterline going across private property to the former Martin Feed Mill. ............................................................................................................ It was made very clear, over and over again that there will be no buildings or structures on this proposed, expanded industrial lands. Also there will be no impermeable covering (asphalt, concrete etc.). Clearly as I would expect the subsurface methane gas is still a problem. Perhaps if the Township had not cheaped out in the 70s and 80s and properly installed an excellent gas removal system, the problem would be long gone by now. No such luck. They would rather cheap out and lie later. The new owner's name I believe is mentioned (i.e. Robert Shapiro). As per usual there are lots of studies and reports all most likely giving the Township the answers required to make this zone change (Open Space to Industrial Lands) happen. Approximately 200 mature trees will be removed in the process. ........................................................................................................ Citizen delegations are concerned with increased truck traffic, noise and air degradation (diesel fumes). Likely trucks will be both moving and idling on this expanded site with very small buffers between them and long term local residents. The mixing of industrial uses along side residential land uses never ends well. Councillor Merlihan in fact asked why all of a sudden rezoning from Open Space to Industrial Lands is so easy. He had been told in the past that it rarely occurred. Jeremy Vink, Township Planner, suggested that the province does not prohibit it although he also admitted that it is not common. In my opinion, something stinks, once again in Woolwich Township.

Monday, April 11, 2022

IS IT TOO LATE TO STOP THE CONSPIRACY IN ELMIRA, ONTARIO?

Nope, no such thing as too late. Hey it's taken over a hundred years for the truth about various local and national leaders to come out. Here in Waterloo Region we are willy nilly renaming schools that were named after famous leaders. Maybe even someday we'll rename Carl Zehr Square to something more appropriate. From John A. McDonald to local industrialist A. R. Kaufman people and historians are waking up to not only the good that they did but also the bad. Most of this Region's biggest and dirtiest polluters were heavy industries such as foundries, auto makers/suppliers, chemical plants, furniture manufacturers, rubber, plastics and textiles etc. Of course while those industries are inherently dirty with lots of leftover solid and liquid wastes, nobody forced them into using the cheapest and least effective disposal methods possible. This included direct dumping into lagoons on their own property as well as dumping both liquids (in drums) and solids in each and every landfill site (approved & otherwise) in the Region despite prohibitions against liquid wastes likely after 1973. Rules could be and were circumvented either by subterfuge or influence including well placed bottles of booze, cah or other bribes. ...................................................................................................................................... To this very day we need only examine the Region of Waterloo Annual (Water) Reports to see the leftover results for example of TCE (trichloroethylene) use and abuse by local industry in Waterloo, Kitchener and Cambridge. Small (relatively) concentrations have been and continue to be found in groundwater wells in those cities and in each case nearby and particular companies can be "credited" for their nasty disposal and or spills. Adding to C.G.T, Ciba-Geigy, Northstar, Canbar, Sunar, Uniroyal Tire in Kitchener, we also have Breslube in Breslau and Uniroyal Chemical in Elmira. ................................................................................................................ The conspiracy is simply the neverending attempts to rewrite history up here in the wilds of Elmira. Uniroyal were allegedly not cheap, lazy and dirty polluters of the air, soil, surface and groundwater causing ill health and early deaths. Oh no their "historical" toxic disposal methods were approved by the Ontario Ministry of Environment (who are equally culpable) and they have since spared no expense to properly and professionally clean that all up. Bullsh.t I say. They have always used the least expensive and least effective cleanup methods once again with the consent of the Ontario MOE/MECP. It is and has been a conspiracy of lies and disinformation.

Saturday, April 9, 2022

MY BOOK, "ELMIRA WATER WOES: THE TRIUMPH OF CORRUPTION, DECEIT, AND CITIZEN BETRAYAL" IS BACK ON MY OTHER BLOG, WATERLOO REGION ADVOCATE (waterlooregionadvocate.blogspot.com)

RAC MEETING THIS THURSDAY

Well recently in response to an inquiry I stated that "RAC is utterly useless with the exception of Eric Hodgins (RMOW)". RAC of course is the Remediation Advisory Committee and consists of the GRCA, Woolwich Township, Lanxess, Ministry of Environment (MECP), Region of Waterloo (RMOW), plus Sandy Shantz as Chair. OH and one or two rotating TAG members also attend. Allegedly TAG are the technical advisers to RAC who have the sole responsibility to "advise" Lanxess Canada regarding the Elmira cleanup of aquifers and creek (Canagagigue). In reality it is simply Lanxess and their consultants (GHD) running the show with the Ontario Ministry of Environment giving minor direction. ........................................................................................................................ The meeting is virtual and is at 4:30 pm. The Agenda consists of Lanxess advising RAC about the Draft Risk Assessment for the Canagagigue Creek as well as a Summary of the Annual Monitoring Report for 2021 by Lanxess. This will be followed by both an update on the 2022 Workplan (environmental) for the company as well as the MECP discusssing a new Environmental Compliance Agreement (formerly certificate of Approval) regarding sewer works (likely groundwater treatment and discharge to the creek. ........................................................................................................................... All in all it will be boring and dull except for those with the keenest interest but at least will be counterbalanced by the show of collegiality and comradeship necessary to sell a third world environmental cleanup to the public.

Friday, April 8, 2022

NEWS FLASH: LOCAL GOVERNMENT SPEAKS TRUTH TO THE PUBLIC

It happened here in Waterloo Region. Paige Desmond of the Waterloo Region Record in yesterday's article in the paper titled "Wilmot vote on Hallman pit moved to April 11" quoted a Region of Waterloo staff report. "In its comments on the proposed application, Region of Waterloo staff said there's no scientific evidence available to show that through rehabilitation, prime agricultural land can be returned to its original state when a gravel pit shuts down." HALLELUJAH! ...................................................................................................................... I've been following gravel pit applications and issues for a couple of decades now. That includes attending in its entirety the Hunder Pit Ontario Municipal Board (OMB) hearing back in approximately 2014. That proposed pit was just barely north-east of the Golf Course subdivision in Conestogo (i.e. just south of the village of Winterbourne). That was the very first time that I heard experts declare categorically that prime agricultural soils can not be returned to their original quality after being stripped from the surface, placed in piles and left sitting for years. Yesterday's newspaper article was only the second time that I've heard, seen or read that information. So much for rehabilatating prime agricultural land back to its original quality much less even close for pits that still remain unrehabilatated twenty years or more after they've opened. ........................................................................................................................................... As mentioned here (Sat. April2/22) there are alternatives to endless openings of new, unneeded gravel pits. Has the political will to buck the province finally emerged? If so how much of that is due to provincial elections in June and municipal elections in October of this year? Santa may come around once a year but politicians listening only happens one year in four at best.

Thursday, April 7, 2022

IF NOT DEAD DEMOCRACY IS AT LEAST SERIOUSLY WOUNDED

How else does one explain an imminent coroner's inquest into the police shooting of Beau Baker still awaiting a date seven years later? Today's Waterloo Region Record has the following lead title on their Editorial page namely: "Hold inquest into Baker's death now". Beau Baker had phoned 911 asking for help. He felt that he was a threat to himself and possibly others. The 20 year old lived on Brybeck Cres. in Kitchener. "A suicidal man with serious mental-health problems, Baker was armed with a knife when police answered his plea for help". My understanding is that "the knife" was a small kitchen knife. The officer fired seven times killing Baker on the spot. ..............................................................................................................................\ A coroner's inquest will not bring Beau Baker back. We are told that it will also not assign blame. The coroner's inquest is to search for better answers to a mental health crisis than dispatching armed police officers who shoot the individual seven times. Surely to God in this day and age there are better supports, help and solutions than either suicide or execution by cop. Obviously no one "wins" in this situation. All society suffers when citizens, family members or friends fear calling 911 on a distraught individual for fear that they are condemning the individual to death. .................................................................................................................... The family of Beau Baker have been treated as callously has he was. They want closure and they want to know that the system has changed to protect vulnerable citizens. Instead all they've received is excuses and delay. Are our authorities pounding home to the Baker family that they are unimportant? That they don't count? That they are powerless? That sure seems to be the case as once again our police, our courts and our legal and political systems look after themselves first and treat victims and their families with disrespect and contempt.

Wednesday, April 6, 2022

IS POKING THE WOOLWICH BEAR SUPPOSED TO BE THIS MUCH FUN?

............................................................................................................................. LEFT CLICK ON PICTURE TO MAKE IT LARGER .................................................................................................................... Yesterday I sent the above cartoon to TAG, RAC, Region of Waterloo, 2/3 of Woolwich Council, Ministry of Environment, Lanxess etc. Probably today I will send it a little farther as in to a number of Waterloo Regional Councillors. Basically what I am doing is simply publicly making my opposition to the self-serving, error riddled Risk Assessment for the Canagagigue Creek known to the so called authorities/persons in charge. I expect very little response as everybody clearly has signed off on this negotiated deal years to decades ago all the while pretending to be working with the public through the RAC and TAG committees. The "cleanup" has been a sham for thirty years plus and continues to be so.

Tuesday, April 5, 2022

"PRIMARILY DDT AND DIOXIN WITH A TOUCH OF BETA BHC & 2,4-D"

"Utter and complete horse manure" should be added to the end of the title above. The list above are the so called Contaminants of Concern culled from a list of COPC or Contaminants of Potential Concern. We have known for decades of at least 150 different chemicals that Uniroyal Chemical cheerfully discharged into the air over their site in Elmira, into the soil, groundwater and surface waters of the Canagagigue Creek. With even those, which most likely are a partial list only, many toxins are intentionally being ignored by Lanxess Canada and by the Ontario Ministry of Environment (MECP). Why? Money, money, money first and foremost followed by public relations. If government mass murderers like Vladimir Putin want status and prestige then why wouldn't dirty polluters as well? Just watch as our screwed up world that currently are condemning Putin for atrocities including civilian death and torture might just as likely give him a Nobel Peace Prize after he ends the war in the Ukraine. Lanxess Canada just like Uniroyal Chemical want it both ways. They want the status of being job providers and property taxpayers combined with supposedly cleaning up Elmira's ground and surface water. Never mind that they and their predecessors dumped toxic wastes everywhere they could including the local landfills in and around Elmira (& K-W). .................................................................................................................................... I can list another dozen or so chemicals that are in the natural environment downstream of Uniroyal (Lanxess). It's the ones that either I or nobody else (except Lanxess/MECP) don't know about that add to the problem. Just recently I've determined that Lanxess are a major world wide supplier of an automotive tire additive known as 6PPD. The real chemical name is closer to (dimethylbutyl) N phenyl p phenylenediamine but 6PPD for short. This tire additive is supposed to add to the tire's life by being an antioxidant. Meanwhile microscopic particles of tires get washed by rain into creeks and rivers in close proximity to highways causing serious mortality for coho salmon and some trout species. Funny thing is after studying Uniroyal and their successors for thirty plus years I had never heard of 6PPD until very recently and that information certainly didn't come from Lanxess Canada. The impending Risk Assessment for the Canagagigue Creek is just another two bit scam produced by Lanxess and fellow travellors to convince local residents, K-w residents and the rest of the country to smile, be happy, everything has been fixed in Elmira, Ontario. "Fixed" is a very appropriate word as in the "fix" is in and always has been.

Monday, April 4, 2022

SO YOU THOUGHT THAT DEMOCRACY AND THE COURTS COULDN"T BE PERVERTED?

In the March 31/22 Waterloo Region Record is an article titled "Media letter denounces criminal trial held in secret, not on docket". "A letter signed by the newsroom leaders of the province's major media outlets, including The Canadaian Press, stated their indignation and deep concern over the "shadow trial" revealed in a judgement rendered by the Qubec Court of Appeal, which was first published by La Presse." The police informant accused in the criminal case appealed his conviction and the appeals court issued a ruling in late February critical of the lower court proceedings. But for that appeal and ruling issued in late February the original trial's existence would never have been known by the public. It was not on the docket and its' decision was not initially made public. .......................................................................................................................... Yes that is horrible in a democratic country although fairly standard in many parts of the world (China, Russia, Syria, N. Korea etc.). Here in Ontario, Canada I saw a month long trial attended daily by a Record reporter (Dianne Woods) that received exactly zero coverage during the trial itself although there was a single article published in the Record a couple of months later based solely upon the 86 page Decision without reference to the damning testimony of many witnesses against the Plaintiff and school board throughout the trial. In hindsight that was likely a deal between the Plaintiff's lawyer and the Record to protect the Record from also being named as a Defendant.

Saturday, April 2, 2022

PROPOSED HALLMAN GRAVEL PIT

Paige Desmond has an article in today's Waterloo Region Record titled "Nearly fifty people register to speak on Hallman Pit at council". My guess would be that between 48 and 50 of those people will be speaking against approving yet another new and unneeded gravel pit in Wilmot Township. It's just as bad in North Dumfries, Wellesley and Woolwich Townships. How unecessary is the new pit? A senior Wilmot Township employee advised that there are 15 currently licensed gravel pits in Wilmot that are alllowed to extract up to six million tonnes per year. Normally a quarter of that or less is extracted every year. So where is the need? Simple it's not there. The massive number of gravel pits above what is needed simply allows gravel pit owners to shave nickels and dimes per load off their quotes to customers as the gravel pit owners have a multitude of pits spread across the Region that they can choose from. Hence if they have a customer in Woolwich requiring gravel and one in Wilmot they pick the gravel pit closest to their customer and quote a price based on that. ....................................................................................................................... Of course these very same gravel pit owners will suggest that it is environmentally sound to do that as they will save so many dollars per mile reduced for gasoline, tire wear, maintenance etc. That is true however it's also true that those gravel pit owners literally don't give a damn about the noise, dust, disruption, risk to groundwater, habitat destruction for wildlife etc. Those costs are borne by third parties namely local residents and those costs have been conveniently and self-servingly ignored by the aggregate industry, provincial and local politicians. Why not introduce a system whereby only the needed number of gravel pits are allowed within a Township. Yes they should be spread out geographically as much as possible and gravel operators/owners would each have access to all the pits. Literally a quarter of the pits would be needed and those pits would not be allowed to sit idle most of the time and hence not be rehabillatated for twenty years if ever as they are now.

Friday, April 1, 2022

ANNUAL WATER REPORTS HAVE TOO MUCH WIGGLE ROOM

This is typical of provincial government legislation. While ostensibly addressing a social need there are always vested interests out there who do not want to be embarassed by having their failures flagrantly exposed. Hence the Clean Water Act helps the public while at the same time allowing municipalities lots of wiggle room so they don't have to admit to their citizens that their drinking water is contaminated. Generally speaking contaminated by negligent industries maximizing their profits by intentionally mismanaging their production wastes. .................................................................................................... The three wellfields in Hespeler (Cambridge) are an example. Initially H1, H2 and H3 were the groundwater wells providing drinking water to areas of Hespeler. Then due to industrial contamination (perhaps Inglis, perhaps textile mills or others) these former industries cheaply dumped their wastes whether into the Speed River or into handy pits and lagoons. The result today are wells that are routinely shut down for months at a time. As additional wells have been added to the mix namely H3A, H4A and H5A a certain flexibility and ability to "managa" the groundwater issues has eviolved. The Region of Waterloo do not advertise their use of contaminated aquifers however on their behalf the Ontario Ministry of Environment have publicly in Elmira confirmed the use of various strategies to "manage" these contaminated aquifers. Pumping to waste using an "interceptor" well is one such strategy. This was used in Elmira around 1990-92 as well E2, closest to Uniroyal, was used to intercept contaminated groundwater courtesy of Uniroyal Chemical and dump it into the Canagagigue Creek. ...................................................................................................................................... In Hespeler one can look at the Annual Reports and see the results as even new wells are shut down for periods of time. My expectation is that the plume of contaminants is pulled towards the well that is pumping steadily and then as the plume arrives that well is shut down and the other well starts up. Back and forth pumping can do wonders but in my opinion is a disaster waiting to happen with a little bit of human error. Well H3 was offline for 26 weeks in 2021 and well H3A was offline for 25 weeks in 2021. No sign any longer of Well H4 but Well H4A was shut down for 2 weeks in 2021 which might well be for normal maintenance. Well H5 was offline for 41 weeks last year and Well H5A was offline for 13 weeks last year. With water restrictions and guidelines ongoing every summer it's pretty clear that these wells are being "managed" to avoid the worst of the contamination. My suspicion is the old relaible and decades to centuries in duration Trichloroethylene (TCE) may be part of the problem despite alleged Non-Detects in the sampling. Afterall if you are only publishing one sampling event per year surely you can find one Non-Detect. Also keep in mind that the Region don't even sample every year. Wells H4, H5 and H5A were last tested in 2020. Yes H3 and H3A were tested in 2021.