"THE ELMIRA CLEANUP IS A SHAM"

 I first put the title above on a sign on the roof of my car in front of the former Arena/Rec Centre on Snyder Ave. in Elmira way back in the late 1990s. Little did I know then exactly how accurate I was. After 2013 and the announcement by the Region of Waterloo that they had absolutely no plans to use the Elmira Aquifers again for drinking water, I did consider the possibility that the incentive for both Uniroyal/Chemtura and the Ministry of Environment to follow through on promises to restore the aquifers to drinking water standards had just died. Well it certainly has turned out that way. Off-site pumping (i.e. the Off-site aquifers) has been inadequate by the pumping rates we (CPAC) were promised way back in November 2012 . Just no where near the amount of pumping that we were promised. Now it's gotten even worse.

Last month (June) the On-Site pumping rate with a Target Rate of 4.7 litres per second was again short of the mark. At my fingertips I have the on-site pumping results for eight of the last ten months. They range from a high of 4.6 litres per second to a low of 3.5 l/sec.(twice). As per the monthly Progress Reports "GHD recommends that Lanxess maintain the target pumping rates greater than or equal to these rates." Now half of these months have also had reduced off-site pumping rates. The good news is that when on-site pumping is reduced or inhibited then lower than targeted off-site pumping will lessen the amount of "leakage" i.e. contaminated on-site groundwater migrating to the off Lanxess site aquifers i.e. the Elmira Aquifers. To make matters worse however last month (June) had one of the highest rates of off-site pumping we've had which exacerbates the quantity of on-site contaminated water migrating to the off-site aquifers and requiring treatment. Put plainly the groundwater cleanup is NOT adequate and all the bullsh*t, excuses and obfuscation in the world will not fix it.