Based upon the evidence, reports, maps, discussed here over the last few days (plus more) it is highly probable that the entire cleanup from start to finish has simply been an exercise in public relations. Yes it has been an elaborate exercise and yes it has to date been stunningly successful. I am even going to throw TAG members one more lifeline by suggesting that if they had been involved from day one (Nov. 1989) they would not have been so co-operative, collegial and trusting of Uniroyal/Crompton/Chemtura/Lanxess much less of the Ontario Ministry of Environment (MOE/MECP). Nor would they have put any faith in those who appointed them to TAG namely Woolwich Township.
I have to state that way back in the late 1990's I publicly put a sign on top of my car which read "The Cleanup is a Sham". I also had another sign of which a photo thereof ended up in the Elmira Independent newspaper. It read "Uniroyal Chemical masks chemical odours with horse manure". The second one is the funnier with the horse manure pun involved in a town with regular donations of real horse manure to the streets as well as lies, obfuscations and verbal horse manure at public meetings. My only regret now is that my intent and understanding for the first sign above was only related to the issue at the time whether DNAPL coverup or the failure to hydraulically contain the entire Uniroyal Chemical shallow aquifers from discharging to the Canagagigue Creek. As omniscient as stating in the 1990s that "The Cleanup is a Sham" was, in fact even I did not realize the depth and breadth of the power and dishonesty of all the involved parties. To have believed then that they had zero intentions of fully restoring our aquifers, our Creek (the "Gig") and of cleaning up their site would have lit a fuse that nobody could have extinguished. That is precisely why all the private deals were made between Uniroyal and the MOE, Uniroyal and the Region of Waterloo and Uniroyal and Woolwich Township. They were private and only portions disclosed to the public. The palatable portions that is. Nobody made any private deals with APTE, the Elmira Environmental Hazards Team, CEAC etc. However at a later date many private deals were made between a couple of influential leaders of APTE which did cause a rupture within APTE to the thrill of Uniroyal and the APTE leadership. They were home free with the excellent former APTE members gone including Susan Rupert, Rich Clausi, Esther Thur, myself Al Marshall and later Dr. Henry Regier. If only the remaining honest APTE members had asked more questions and demanded satisfactory answers rather than relying on faith in their leadership.
There have been three dates in the history of on-site excavation of contamination such as sludges, drums and solid wastes. Liquid wastes however have freely flowed into the Canagagigue Creek mostly untreated from 1943 until 1965-70. The three solids and sludges excavation dates are 1970, 1986-89 and 1993. After 1965-70 liquid wastes were supposed to have been somewhat treated by the then new Elmira Sewage Treatment Plant. The "treatment" however was actually designed for bacterial treatment of human wastes with Uniroyal wastes being at best partially treated and at worst wholly untreated such as NDMA and others. In 1997 a partial, as in south-west corner only of the shallow aquifer, hydraulic containment via "pump & treat" technology was implemented. Yet again where do you think the reduced in concentration liquid wastes ended up? Of course right back into the Creek.
The 1970 excavations merely removed toxic wastes from both the west and east sides of the Creek and then reburied them into the leaking "Consolidation Pits" namely RPE-4 & 5. What a filthy joke! The 1986-89 excavations actually removed again west and some east side drums and sludges and sent them allegedly off-site. I have never seen any documentation proving any such disposal and likely never will. The 1993 excavation of RPE-4 & 5 could somewhat be seen from off-site several hundred metres away. Those wastes ended up in the Mausoleum aka the "Envirodome" and several years later were transported to Corunna, Ontario. I do believe that there likely is honest evidence of the 1999 shipments to Corunna..
There are two burning questions for me. ONE: Did The 1986-89 Excavations Actually Leave the Site? and TWO: Did the 1993 Excavation of RPE 4&5 Actually Empty Those Pits of Their Contents? From several hundred metres away honest citizens could not tell versus bought and paid for employees/contractors present on site. Bought and paid for plus bound by NDAs i.e. Non-Disclosure Agreements Uniroyal insisted their contractors sign prior to being awarded cleanup contracts. The 1999 removal of wastes from the Envirodome to Corunna would have been a more difficult task to fudge as then readily visible wastes left behind would be forever visible to anyone entering the Envirodome versus covering up the excavated areas in 1986-89 and 1993 with several feet of soil.
Citizens were verbally lied to repeatedly regarding the lack of need for shallow aquifer hydraulic containment on the east side of the Creek. We were never told that there was any flow from Uniroyal's east side pits onto the Stroh property nor that there was a major Drain running north to south twenty some feet east of their property line with the Stroh farm and property. A corrugated steel pipe runs north to south into the Stroh Drain at the northernmost end of the Drain. It collects groundwater most likely from both properties. There is also evidence of manmade sub-surface pipes or trenches on the Uniroyal property heading directly towards the pipe that discharges into the Stroh Drain. Finally there has been years of excavations (86-90, 93 ) in and around the property line between the two properties that could easily have resulted in additional drains or trenches being installed for longterm drainage of liquid contaminants including groundwater into the Stroh Drain pipe installed approximately in 1983 although possibly a little later.
When one is dealing with proven gild the lily, bullsh.t artists one can not assume that anything they say is 100% truthful. This is especially true when they have made self-serving deals with all the formal groups, parties and authorities. I believe that none of them have the morals or ethics NOT to divert contaminated liquids, ground and surface water onto a neighbour's property to save themselves millions of dollars in cleanup costs and to minimize the apparent extent of environmental damage that they have done.
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