Firstly it's now official. There will be a "Public Awareness Event" at Rural Roots restaurant in Elmira (off of Industrial Dr.) on February 21/24 at 8 pm. until about 9:30 pm. A local resident has organized and is hosting this event which will include a Documentary a Chairperson and at least two guest speakers. This event should help the public understand what happened in November 1989 to shut down our drinking wells as well as what the status is today regarding the Elmira Aquifers, the state of the former Uniroyal Chemical site and the state of the downstream Canagagigue Creek.
The second item likely is not yet official although at the same time it has not been a secret that two councillors namely Eric Schwindt and Nathan Cadeau have been conducting for months now a review of the RAC and TAG committees. RAC stands for Remediation Advisory Committee and TAG the Technical Advisory Group. They've completed their review and as I've been advised will present their results to Woolwich Council for ratification sometime next month. They will also present their results to TAG either at the Feb.1 original next TAG meeting or at the probably new scheduled date of Feb. 15/24. Either way the idea I believe is to give TAG some sort of heads up and opportunity to comment.
It is my opinion that the two councillors review results are a wholly appropriate reform of a grotesque decision taken by Woolwich Council back in 2015 at the behest of Sandy Shantz, Mark Bauman, Lanxess and the Ontario Ministry of Environment (MECP). Quoting then councillor Merlihan the 2015 decision by Council was "cringeworthy". That said the devil is in the details of which I am not completely clear yet. The two committees are to be folded into one with a new Chair plus significant improvements in real public input including verbal Delegations as well as questions and comments at these upcoming public meetings. Hallelujah !
For the uninitiated who don't know the good guys from the bad let me simply say the following. Any party, any individual, any government level who compliment or support either the MECP or Lanxess are the bad guys. If not then they are simply woefully ignorant of everything that has happened in Elmira both since and before November 1989.
Left click on picture to enlarge it!
I hope so. My goal is for you and other speakers to inform the unaware. I was once unaware only 1 year ago as well. While I would like to believe knowledge is power, I think having knowledge only allows for potential power. Action is power. And hopefully action is what we’ll start to see in Elmira. Thanks for all you are doing Alan.
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