Some of these revelations literally took decades to come to light. This is primarily due to intentional obtuseness if not outright obfuscation by the guilty parties. Please check out the "anonymous" comment posted on my last Thursday Elmira Advocate posting. The reference to "...oldtimers north-east of town..." talking about the oozing and flowing of liquid wastes onto the Stroh property is both interesting and revealing. There are lots of folks older than I who knew, saw and remember the bad old days. Lanxess may wrongly think that all these "oldtimers" are gone but they are not.
I particularly found the reference to flowing onto the Stroh property and then flowing into the gravel pit to be interesting. Which gravel pit? Ahh but that is the question. Uniroyal and their hired guns, Conestoga Rovers, seemed to have no problem making a particular gravel pit (GP-1) get up and walk to wherever they wanted it to be. An examination of various maps produced by CRA/Uniroyal over the decades is illuminating. Also illuminating are other maps produced in the 1980's, earlier and later by outside parties that seemed to have a different opinion about various gravel pits on and off the Uniroyal property. Keep in mind that the Stroh property itself has a gravel pit.
These very convenient and self-serving relocations of gravel pits are the stuff of corporate fantasies. This is yet one more reason why properties that are directly attached to public aquifers and public rivers, creeks and streams (and air) should not be treated by our governments as some sort of sancrosanct, inviolable, a man's home is his castle bullsh.t. Furthermore our "captured" public regulators (MOE/MECP) should also not have a monopoly on attending contaminated sites whether private or public (DND-Dept of National defence) etc. This makes "creative" solutions way to attractive to polluters. We learned early on that Varnicolor Chemical was literally hiding behind the lies of the Ontario Ministry of the Environment (MOE) in Elmira. They counted on the long culpable MOE not to further damage their own reputation by either pointing fingers or by admitting to their own lack of control of Elmira polluters.
Uniroyal and fellow travellors have long claimed that overflowing Uniroyal east side liquid wastes flowed directly into their favourite position of GP-1 (gravel pit 1) which was on the west side of the high NW to SE diagonal ridge of land. They simply redrew maps of the gravel pit to where it suited their narrative best. Their narrative was never going to be that they intentionally or otherwise caused/allowed their toxic wastes to flow directly onto their neighbour's property. Especially not in large quantities and over a period of decades (1945- 1970 approx.).
How utterly convenient when governments are so accommodating to the fantasies, wishes, preferences and desires of industry. Even polluting industry.
The only regulations with teeth are with Regulatory Systems that selectively enforce and selectively reward. Worst yet soon we have will more "government related" employees and people behoven to the State than regular taxpayer's in our society. It is all by design! Truth is when a government fears or totally respects its citizens there can be democratic rule(s) .
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