Well done with yesterday's article titled "No end in sight for efforts to decontaminate Elmira aquifer". It is truly surprising how many relatively well informed Elmira and Woolwich residents assume that no news is good news and hence that the cleanup is over and everything has been restored. It's not even close despite percentages and numbers thrown out by Lanxess Canada and fellow apologists.
Ms. Gerber has defined for her audience the process of "back diffusion" whereby contaminants (from Uniroyal) have moved into the aquitards (clay & silt) in the past and now as the aquifer (saturated sand & gravel) slowly becomes cleaner the contaminants back diffuse (i.e. move) from the aquitard back into the aquifer. This process really isn't any surprise to knowledgable hydrogeologists and has been known for many decades or longer.
The "pulse pumping" strategy is also a cost cutting move for which Uniroyal Chemical and successors are famous for. Or as consultant Dave Belanger on behalf of the Region of Waterloo stated decades ago "Pump & Treat is the cheapest, least effective remediation method.". That has been proven true as despite the so called efficacy and cost effectiveness of hydraulic containment (pump & treat) the fact remians that all parties and stakeholders admit and understand that it has failed to deliver cleanup of the Elmira Aquifers within thirty years and perhaps within sixty years. As suggested other, better remediation is long overdue but the Ontario Ministry of Environment and Lanxess would rather not. Unfortunately all the culpable parties are in control of the cleanup and nobody wants to rock the boat provided it is only the public and the environment who suffer as a result.
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