OUR AUTHORITIES HAVE HIDDEN ELMIRA'S GROUNDWATER PROBLEMS FROM THE REAL EXPERTS FOR 33 YEARS

So who are the real experts? That's easy. They would be people who have spent their lives and careers researching (& teaching) all there is to know about groundwater issues, challenges and fixes. With but one or two very minor exceptions Uniroyal Chemical, Ontario Ministry of Environment, Region of Waterloo and  Woolwich Township have either run and hidden or buried their heads in the sand when it comes to communicating with or discussing groundwater contamination and remediation with the world class and world renowned experts at the University of Waterloo. These experts by the way are not bought and paid for "hired guns" selling their services to the highest paying polluters unlike those who have worked for Uniroyal/Crompton/Chemtura/Lanxess.

To my knowledge there may have been all of two approaches to the University of Waterloo Groundwater Research Institute over the decades. I was involved in one of them in January 2007 and the second more recent involved Dr. Neil Thompson who was contracted to write a formal Conceptual Site Model (CSM) of the Elmira Aquifers. Dr. Thompson had been recommended by Dr. Richard Jackson, the first TAG Chair (Sept. 2015-Dec.2016). By the way Dr. Jackson had repeatedly advised TAG and the public that the long time CSM produced by Conestoga Rovers & Assoc. (CRA) was merely a one page cartoon picture. Now Dr. Thompson's scope (the CSM) was very limited but indeed he did an excellent job and he made a number of new and interesting discoveries including the presence of possibly an additional 1300 kg. of chlorobenzene that had been released into the Elmira Aquifers. Oh my!

There is I believe only one reason why the U. of Waterloo Groundwater Research Institute was excluded from assisting for so many decades and that is that their motives were public interest motives versus both self-serving and contractual motives held by the involved parties to the contamination. In other words the U. of W. experts could not be relied upon to keep certain embarrassing and prejudicial facts out of the light of day the way the guilty parties could be trusted to do so.