Wednesday, November 2, 2022

THE PRETEND CLEANUP CONTINUES

 Well the September 2022 Lanxess Progress Report is out and it needs to be renamed the Lanxess Pretend Progress Report otherwise known as the PP Report. I find that moniker to be both amusing and more accurate.

The problem is the ongoing and apparently permanent failure to maintain on site hydraulic containment in the grossly contaminated municipal aquifers (MU & ML). Recall the text that is part of these monthly PP reports namely "As wells and treatment system components require periodic downtime for maintenance, the Target Average pumping rate is set at 90% of the set point rate. GHD recommends that Lanxess maintain the target pumping rates greater than or equal to these rates." That is pretty clear to all except professional liars and the intentionally obtuse.  

September's on-site Municipal Aquifer pumping rate was 4.3 litres per second. The Target Rate is 4.7 litres per second and has been that same Target Rate for years despite off-site pumping increasing over the last year. There is a relationship between on and off site pumping in that greater off-site pumping requires greater on-site pumping to maintain on-site hydraulic containment. Eleven of the last twelve months have had significantly higher off-site pumping than we have had since off-site pumping started in 1998. There not only has been no increase to on-site pumping, it has actually decreased. Not once this year (2022) has on-site pumping achieved their Target Rate of 4.7 l/sec. In fact the only time recently that on-site pumping achieved  4.7 litres per second was September 2021, a full year ago. This is a recipe for disaster and as Lanxess only pay for 50% of off-site pumping and treating and pay 100% for on-site, then the company have a financial advantage to continue to allow escape of on-site contamination to the off-site natural environment. That is immoral and illegal and your Ontario Ministry of Environment is doing nothing about it.   

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