Item 4.1 on the Agenda is "RAC and TAG Terms of Reference Review". It was a croc from start to finish including the exclusion of Sebastian from attending after he properly filled out the stupid "Doodle" Poll put out by Woolwich Township. Several other problems and biases existed and they have already been discussed and written about here in this venue. I am confident that the TAG Chair and or others will spin this however they want in order to pretend that it was an honest process. It was not and never intended to be.
Item 4.3 is "TAG Comments on Revised Draft Human and Ecological Risk Assessment (HHERA)". I expect that TAG will have come up with some accurate criticisms however they've missed the boat by believing Lanxess's claims years ago that the HHERA would appropriately weigh and include all their early process criticisms AND also TAG's serious criticisms around soil and sediment sampling in the Creek. TAG's criticisms as well as mine (in writing) should have been game changers in that extremely high Method Detection Limits (MDL) greater than provincial and or federal health criteria combined with shovel sampling versus core sampling vastly reduced the number of detections of most toxic compounds in the Creek including DDT, dioxins/furans, PAHs, mercury and PCBs.
Item 4.4 is "Creek Hotspot Removal Update". This of course is merely the red herring to allow Susan and TAG to maybe save a little face. Eight years of wasted time with little or nothing accomplished including the failure to achieve drinking water standards in the Elmira Aquifers by 2028 will only be exacerbated by the failure to properly clean the Creek. The fact is that a proper cleanup isn't even on the Agenda whereas the whole idea of "hotspot" removal is both inaccurate based solely upon geographical sampling biases and inadequate to actually clean up the Creek. When you take hundreds of samples from only two to three areas of the Creek and only a couple of dozen from the rest of the five mile long Creek down to the Grand River, then guess what? Those two or three areas become alleged "hotspots". Sure they are highly contaminated areas but there are lots more if you even put half the effort into finding them that you did into the three areas conveniently located along the access roads namely New Jerusalem, Northfield Dr. and Jigs Hollow Rd just outside West Montrose.
Item 4.5 are the Monthly Progress Reports. Linda has been doing her best for some time to point out pumping failures and of course TAG always thank her, commiserate and do little or nothing about it. Unfortunately both Linda and TAG have totally missed the extreme reductions in on-site pumping of the Upper Aquifer (UACTS). Embarrassingly Woolwich Council tried repeatedly to respond to my written concerns on the matter but their total lack of knowledge about the pumping regimes on the site prevented any kind of intelligent written discussion and of course the proposed face to face talks between Council and CPAC (Citizens Public Advisory Committee) have fallen through.
I intend to attend this meeting in person despite the stupidity of it all. Usually there will be a couple of gems of information released which can assist myself and CPAC down the road. Of course it would also be helpful if each and every TAG & RAC meeting were covered by our local paper.
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