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.