MORE WEIRD ELMIRA AQUIFER RESULTS

Is it mere coincidence when one notices bizarre results that are non-intuitive and non-consistent with the various stories peddled by dishonest brokers here in Elmira, Ontario? For example the following results have been getting stranger over time as surprisingly the last holdout of chlorobenzene contamination, above the provincial criteria,  focuses more and more exactly below the former Varnicolor Chemical site on Union St. between First and Howard Ave. This occurs in both the Municipal Upper and the Municipal Lower Aquifers (Fig. 3.14 - 3.17 in the most recent 2023 Annual Monitoring Report). Why this is very strange is that groundwater testing done by the Ministry of Environment showed zero chlorobenzene on that site which was bizarre in and of itself.   

Varnicolor were a solvent recycler and most of their solvents were from paint and automotive companies. Chlorobenzene is a common solvent associated with all kinds of paints and the lack of chlorobenzene has always bugged me. Yes across Howard Ave. was the former Borg Textiles which had their own paint shop which also should also have had chlorobenzene present.

So why am I skeptical with the stories and data suggesting zero chlorobenzene came from the Varnicolor site or even indirectly from Borg Textiles? It's because the entire history of the Elmira Water Crisis and cleanup has been riddled with half truths, outright lies and severe gilding of the lily when it served the purposes of our various elected and unelected power brokers. I also do not forget the blatant lying associated with the finding of free phase DNAPL (chlorobenzene) at monitoring well OW57-32 beside the Howard St. water tower. 

 

PROPOSED FIRST AGENDA ITEMS FOR THE NEW WOOLWICH TRAC COMMITTEE

 

1.  Awards and plaques for all citizen members whether from Woolwich or not

2.  Awards and plaques for Lanxess Canada and the Ontario Min. of Environment (MECP)

3. Awards and plaques for the GRCA, Region of Waterloo, Woolwich Township

4.  Awards and plaques for Conestoga Rovers, GHD and Stantec for their efforts

5.  A special participation award from the federal government to be presented to all by Prime Minister Trudeau

6.  A single group plaque for all those who have died from cancer in and around Elmira

7.  A single group plaque for all adversely affected wildlife in and around the downstream Canagagigue Creek

8.  Purchase of opaque glasses, nose and ear plugs for all TRAC members

9.  A national holiday celebrating the victory of private profits over public health

10.  An individual award each year for the polluter who best represents "The Triumph of Corruption, Deceit and Citizen Betrayal" in Elmira, Ontario 

HAS THERE EVER BEEN A 100% HONEST & ACCURATE TECHNICAL REPORT PRESENTED TO UPAC, CPAC, RAC/ TAG & THE PUBLIC?

 The answer is that I honestly don't know.  By the way yes I am specifically referring to technical reports presented by CRA, GHD, and a number of other consultants over the decades regarding the Elmira Water Crisis caused primarily albeit not solely by Uniroyal Chemical. Based upon the number of trees turned into paper one would almost assume that sometime in the last 32 years (Jan. 1992- March 2024) there has to be at least one completely honest report. By the way I'm not even counting typographical errors or honest mistakes merely the intentionally dishonest ones. 

The only way for me to be confident that there is one such report out there would be for me to start at the beginning and reread everything. Nope not going to happen. I did a tremendous amount of reading and review prior to writing my book:  " Elmira's Water Woes:  The Triumph of Corruption, Deceit and Citizen Betrayal".  I'm currently not prepared to either do that over again or to update my book right now. 

Certainly there are items about Elmira's grotesque contamination that I read outside of the public advisory committees. Hmm... yes that might be the place to start looking for full transparency.  I am skeptical that anything specifically written for UPAC, CPAC, RAC /TAG would be allowed into the public venue without some "editing".  Without some careful and judicious "softening" of the bad news and less careful and more injudicious beefing up of the good news. Gilding the lily if you will. After all what is the point of being completely in charge of the entire program if you can't make a few self-serving tweaks along the way? We all know that corporations can't lie. You have to be a human being to lie and boy has our species ever gotten "good" at that.   

THIRD IN THE RECENT TRILOGY SENT TO WOOLWICH COUNCIL: STROH DRAIN, DITCH & BERM

STROH DRAIN, DITCH & BERM (SDDB)

How many Woolwich councillors know what the Stroh Drain, Ditch & Berm is? What it means? How many of them have ever seen any part of it? The SDDB is a manmade ditch, dug by backhoe or excavator, that joins from further north with the natural spring that comes to the surface as groundwater and becomes what may be known locally as Martin's Creek and which discharges into the Canagagigue Creek very close to the in-ground, dug swimming pond known as Martin's Pond. 

What is/was the purpose of the SDDB? It was designed to drain the chemical swamp on the Stroh property that was the collection point for overflowing toxic waste pits on the Uniroyal side of the property line between Uniroyal and the Stroh farm. It was also possibly designed (i.e. the Berm) to minimize erosion of the soils in the low lying "sink" area of the Stroh farm. These soils were saturated for decades with Uniroyal Chemical dioxins/furans, DDT and so much more.  Prior to the SDDB this "sink" area could be readily flooded and scrubbed by the Canagagigue Creek and the surface soils and persistent organic pollutants (POPs) attached to them mobilized both in the spring floods as well as other large precipitation events. I wouldn't be much surprised if the Region of Waterloo, and the province of Ontario decided the lesser of the evils was to keep as much of the dioxins and more on the Stroh property rather than either remove them ($$$) or to allow them to be eroded into the Canagagigue, the Grand and further downstream through Waterloo, Kitchener, Cambridge, Brantford etc. That plan clearly has failed.

Decisions like this of course would take local Council's support and would not have been run by a highly skeptical local Elmira population. Lying and deception are politicians' first recourse when making sketchy environmental and other decisions that likely would not pass the transparency test much less the smell test. To this day the Ontario Ministry of Environment, Lanxess and Woolwich Township have refused proper soil testing in specific areas on the Stroh property. You will never find what you refuse to look for. Or quoting Saul Bellow again "A great deal of intelligence can be invested in ignorance when the need for illusion is deep."

HAVE RAC OR TAG EVER DISCUSSED DOWNSTREAM UNIROYAL CONTAMINATED FISH?

 Maybe just a little early on over the last 8  1/2 years. I mean really no one wants to embarrass anybody. It's all friends gathering together and no one wants to be the bad penny who raises awkward matters. Remember when your young cousin once asked her parents at a family gathering how come she was born only four months after they got married? Nobody wants that. Everyone appointed by Sandy goodie two shoes have to agree to be "nice". No intentionally rubbing a polluter's face for example with pictures of deformed fish much less children deformed by 2,3,7,8 TCDD (dioxin), the same toxin distributed throughout the Grand River watershed by Uniroyal Chemical initially and still leaking and migrating under Lanxess supervision. Fifty-four years since the ending of the blatant chemical discharges to open pits and ponds and despite annual floods and more we still have DDT, dioxins, mercury, PCBs exceeding all criteria in all media (sediments, soils, fish tissues etc.) the length of the downstream Canagagigue Creek all the way to the Grand River and beyond. 

No it's best to let sleeping dogs and dying fish be. Uniroyal/Lanxess have paid the Township enough (taxes, employment??) to demand an amnesty. Just because they haven't yet cleaned up their mess is no reason for Woolwich Township to dig in their heels and beg even for crumbs in the Creek cleanup. Be nice Woolwich residents. Your mayor has ordered it.

  

SHAMELESS WOOLWICH INVITE CONTEMPT AS WELL AS WILMOT

 Maybe it's a truism that the worst of people are still human beings. Does that mean that despicable behaviour should be tolerated much less rewarded ? I think not. Perhaps gratuitous insults are not necessary each and every time one meets such offensive people including politicians. Fact is it's neither comfortable nor helpful to anyone to have a hate on 100% of the time.  It's probably not even healthy for the accuser no matter how blatant the misbehaviour of the politician, authority figure or other bullying individuals. Make no mistake those behaviours that I'm talking about are indeed bullying behaviours.

Look at the latest crap coming from both Wilmot Council and Region of Waterloo councillors. Oh we can't talk to you about expropriating your property because we've been told not to. Councillors allegedly are not allowed to speak to their own constituents about expropriating their homes and farms. BULLSH*T ! This is extreme bullying behaviour by non-transparent and unaccountable politicians. Lying to one's constituents is insulting, disrespectful and bullying behaviour by people hiding behind the power (including police) and authority of the state. 

Give these ignorant politicians the rest of the weekend to give their own heads a shake. This is neither Russia nor Haiti, it is Canada. After that if they won't talk to you then the rules of a civil, democratic country either apply to both the governed and the governing or to neither. If it's the latter then the aforementioned politicians may just as well pin a "Kick Me" sign on their backs. 

THE "NEW" TRAC IS REARRANGING THE DECK CHAIRS ON THE TITANIC WHILE DISPLAYING LIPSTICK ON A PIG

 TRAC is also sleight of hand. Woolwich, Lanxess and the MECP (Min. of Environment) are waving TRAC around with their right hand while they are furiously refusing to debate the facade that the pump & treat system has become. 

The on-site municipal aquifer pumping wells (PW4 & 5) have not made their Target pumping rates in over TWO YEARS!

The on-site Upper Aquifer Containment & Treatment System (UACTS) has been decreasing over the last five years. Normal pumping rates were from .9  l/sec to 1.2  l/sec for many years. Starting in July 2019 they began to slowly and consistently decrease with no intelligent explanation being given either to the public or at RAC & TAG. They have since been as low as .2, .3, .4   l/sec. Hence one can expect the leakage that they admit to plus more going from the extremely contaminated south-west corner of the Uniroyal/Lanxess site  into the Canagagigue Creek. 

The off-site containment & treatment system (OSCTS) consisting of W3R, W5A/B, W6A/B, W8, W9, E7 has also been hugely problematic. Their pumping rates are up and down like a toilet seat and have been for decades. 2019 wasn't a bad year for consistent pumping (not perfect) and 2015 - 2017 were very good. Keep in mind these "good" years however were at the Target Rate set prior to 2012 when in November of that year Conestoga Rovers and Chemtura publicly promised to TRIPLE the off-site pumping rates in order to achieve drinking water standards in the Elmira Aquifers by 2028.

They were as good as their word (sort of) in that they never Doubled much less TRIPLED their pumping rates and they have NOT achieved drinking water standards nor will they by 2028, 2050, 2060 ???

Woolwich Council has clearly embraced failure so just like RAC, TAG and now TRAC they won't talk about their failed pump & treat system.  Who knows, without source removal maybe adequate and consistent pump & treat might have worked.  Personally I doubt it but we will never know because we have allowed the polluter to under pump, by their own Target Rates,  for so very long. They will again allow garrulous, deferential bureaucrats, "experts", consultants, councillors and others to set the Agenda and determine who talks about what and when.  Do you actually believe you will accomplish anything in the public interest? Nobody can be that naive for this long . Or as Saul Bellow stated "A great deal of intelligence can be invested in ignorance when the need for illusion is deep." 

FULL, DIRTY TRUTH OF TRAC REVEALED

 

O.K. I have seriously crapped on councillor Nathan Cadeau for his involvement and dare I say leadership  in the never ending Woolwich Township saga of pretend public consultation.  Seriously Nathan what do you expect when you are playing for the wrong team? Let me be clear ...by wrong team I mean the corrupt team and I don't use that term loosely. Despite the non-clarification Tuesday evening at the Woolwich  Council meeting, all was clarified late yesterday and in fact Nathan assisted in that clarification. At the moment the new TRAC (Totally Rotten & Corrupt) committee consists solely of all the old RAC and TAG apologists, twits, upwardly mobile professional or semi-pro consultants, bureaucrats, butt kissers and highly deferential and even more accomplished butt kissers. Oops I was advised that one of them, Wilson Lau (risk assessment expertise) has said no thank you to the TRAC invitation.

Here's where it gets hilarious. Yes the one CPAC member who has been on TAG for years and who did step up and declare in writing how "deficient" and overly "deferential" his TAG colleagues were to the Lanxess hired "experts" on RAC/TAG, is now back on TRAC. I view that as lipstick on a pig with TRAC being the pig. Meanwhile the other CPAC member who declared his wishes to be on TRAC has been told "no" (by Nathan) because "TRAC is not in a position to recruit beyond former TAG/RAC members at this time, as we are focused on the transition process."  The third CPAC member who had incorrectly been alleged to likely join TRAC responded in writing with "What a surprise! Transition process yah right!" It was clear to me early on that this individual was made of sterner stuff and less easily led down the garden path.

So what is the dirty truth of TRAC? They are NOT a new improved, more honest, less deferential group of individuals.  They are the very same folks over the last many years and they have done nothing but give credibility and support to the intentional poor cleanup, false promises and smooth talkers from Lanxess and the Ministry of Environment (MECP) as well as their client driven consultants. The whole "Review" of RAC & TAG was just one more smokescreen and pack of lies by Woolwich Township. Keep up the good work Nathan, Sandy and David B..  

WOOLWICH TOWNSHIP RUSH DOWN THE DARK & DIRTY POLLUTION ROAD

 

ONTARIO POLLUTERS VOTE ELMIRA THE MOST WELCOMING COMMUNITY IN THE PROVINCE

Let's see to date we have a former TAG Chair (Dr. Richard Jackson ) plus a former/current ? TAG member for 8  1/2 years both strongly criticizing Woolwich Township's cleanup attempts in Elmira. Last night I watched on YouTube as Woolwich Council rubber stamped the new TRAC committee. Favourite alternate names are already appearing including CRACK, CROC and my favourite ... Totally Rotten & Corrupt.  Sometimes you just have to laugh at the professional liars and their sycophant's and fellow travelers. 

Last night there was no explanation regarding the In Camera determination of TRAC's "new" membership. Yes we know it is a merger between the hopeless TAG and more hopeless RAC committees but there well could be an addition or subtraction possible. According to one of the highly confused CPAC members there allegedly is a third CPAC member interested in joining TRAC although I am doubtful.

Also the so called Consent Items (12.1.1) from the Committee of the Whole of March 5, 2024 passed last night without discussion or debate. Shameful but par for the course with this Township. It is so much easier to go through the motions than to actually engage a public who are more knowledgeable and honest than themselves in discussion of a difficult issue such as the continued poisoning of downstream Old Order Mennonites and the failure to remediate the Elmira Aquifers by 2028, almost fourty years after the start of the Elmira Water Crisis in November 1989..   

MAY COOLER HEADS PREVAIL (INCLUDING MINE)

 Last chance! I've appealed to the two CPAC members to look at CPAC's unity as in "United we stand, divided we fall". This is classic strategy by professional manipulators and obfuscators. Attempt to fracture the opposition via offering them status or influence in decision making. Both CPAC members know better deep down. They know who they are dealing with at the The Township yet they so desperately want to believe that they are better off "inside" than outside the latest and greatest pretend public consultation now known as TRAC.

Tonite at Woolwich Council Dave Brenneman (CAO) and mayor Sandy Shantz will continue their deception. They've gotten the new councillors onside which is unfortunate and now they are poised to break CPAC's unity albeit with help from CPAC. Both CPAC members will regret the wrong decision down the road but the damage will be done both to their credibility and respect from their peers as well as to CPAC's credibility. Wow the cards always available for abusive and inappropriate actions to those in positions of power and authority as in CAO and mayor. 

CPAC BETRAYAL, PERSONAL CHARACTER WEAKNESS, NAIVETE OR SOMETHING ELSE ENTIRELY?

 How things can change in a day or two. Tomorrow Woolwich Township are somewhat doing 2015 all over again. Back then they took the best citizens public consultation body that Woolwich had ever had and threw it out. Tomorrow they are throwing out two of the worst committees (RAC/TAG) and replacing it with a merger of members from RAC & TAG and calling it TRAC (Technical Remediation Advisory Committee). Talk about putting lipstick on a pig. Meanwhile in fact that is exactly what mayor Sandy Shantz and CAO Dave Brenneman are doing by poaching two CPAC members to sit on TRAC.  TRAC are the pig and the two CPAC members are the lipstick.

Full credit to Sandy and David in the sneaky and scheming department. When it comes to  transparency, accountability and honesty they are number one at the bottom of the list. However when it comes to manipulation, back room deals, offering niceties in exchange for support and or using the resources including taxpayers money of the Township, in less than totally appropriate ways, I rate them as number one. Meanwhile my reference to "poaching" two CPAC members is admittedly a little strong. It is quite possible that the two members actually approached Woolwich Council first.  The reference however to the two CPAC members being the "lipstick" on the pig is dead on. Shame on the pack of them.

TRAC MEMBERS TO BE APPOINTED IN CAMERA THIS TUESDAY (?)

 I mean it certainly refers to that on Agenda Item 1.a. on the Woolwich Council Agenda already out for this coming Tuesday. But does it explicitly say so? Maybe. Regardless I would be surprised if any CPAC members were appointed to TRAC by Woolwich Township (i.e. David B. & Sandy). That said stranger things have happened. I will say that to my knowledge no CPAC members have been invited to be on TRAC to date. The only reason for any CPAC member to sit on either the former TAG or the new (still unratified) TRAC is to get inside information that actually should be distributed to the public. Insights could be helpful although again are the Township stupid enough to have a less than 100% loyal to the mayor and CAO, versus to the public, individual(s) present? Well yes they are as evidenced by Sebastian Seibel-Achenbach's presence on TAG for the last 8  1/2 years.

WOOLWICH OBSERVER HAMMERS MAYOR SHANTZ & WOOLWICH TOWNSHIP

 The title of the article in yesterday's Woolwich Observer on page 5 is "Woolwich shifts gears again on committee monitoring Elmira chemical plant". I would characterize it as one of the strongest articles criticizing Woolwich Township's behaviour surrounding public consultation and their history of public advisory committees, in many years. By implication if not by name the strong criticism would include CAO David Brenneman and somewhat to a lesser extent former councillor Mark Bauman. 

Quoting the Observer's article written by Steve Kannon "...the 2015 split, which essentially removed both the citizen and the watchdog  function of what was a public advisory group reaching back to the early days 35 years ago...". This references the immoral and unethical behaviour of Sandy Shantz, Mark Bauman, David Brenneman, Pat McLean and Susan Bryant with their sham April 9/15 "stakeholders" meeting in which only one CPAC member was invited while other totally uninvolved with groundwater remediation citizens were invited (eg. Inge Rinne). 

Further quotes include "The goal in splitting up the committee was to entice both the company, then Chemtura, and the Ministry of Environment back to the table by eliminating some of the most vocal critics from the process. The idea was for meetings to be less adversarial." Imagine that, both Chemtura and the Min. of Environment were obfuscating as well as using junk science to back up their do as little as possible cleanup and citizens appointed to hold them accountable became adversarial. Shocking (not). A further point in 2015 is that dissenting councillor Pat Merlihan referred to the alleged "citizen" makeup of RAC & TAG as "cringeworthy".

As I was a Delegate to last week's council meeting, the Observer also quoted some of my comments to councillors such as "This new plan is just the same old don't rock the boat, let Lanxess and the [ministry] do their thing and allow another 35 years of slow leakage into both our aquifers and our creek,".  Furthermore I also stated "I'd rather see Woolwich abandon the field rather than continue to tarnish themselves by being cheerleaders for the two biggest polluters in the province.".  The two biggest polluters being Uniroyal/Lanxess and the Ontario Ministry of the Environment. 

It is being gentle suggesting that Woolwich Township has improperly been in bed with Uniroyal/Lanxess for the last 35 years. Apparently they like and wish to continue that arrangement for the next 35 years. 

THE ONTARIO MINISTRY OF ENVIRONMENT LIED TO THE DOWNSTREAM ("GIG") OLD ORDER MENNONITE RESIDENTS

 How blatantly did they lie. Well that of course varies with whom you ask. Dr. Richard Jackson and TAG were very unimpressed. Mayor Sandy Shantz to my surprise also appeared to be upset with them. I found the MOE/MECP behaviour to surpass what I feel is a level of corruption. Essentially the MOE sent a letter to all the Old Order families living along the Creek between Uniroyal/Chemtura and the Grand River at least five miles downstream. The letter was to reassure them regarding the health and safety of the Canagagigue Creek,  creek sediments, creekbank soils and even floodplain soils. In order to do so they lied, gilded the lily and stretched the truth. The letter from the province of Ontario (MOE) advised these residents living along the Creek that levels of bio-accumulative and persistent toxic compounds such as DDT, dioxins and furans and more had decreased over time when in fact the data said otherwise.

To my pleasant surprise Mayor Shantz and Woolwich Township ignored the MOE's objections and went ahead and posted warning signs by the Creek at New Jerusalem Rd., Northfield Dr. and Jigs Hollow Rd. (#46) several years ago. They are still present . These signs advised fishermen not to eat anything they caught due to contamination. This is one of the very few instances when the Township did the right thing however the behaviour of the Ontario Ministry of Environment was dishonest, corrupt and true to their character. 

NON-VERBAL COMMUNICATION?

O.K. this is a little tricky.  I'm a great believer in "say what you mean and mean what you say". In other words "call a spade a spade" and in fact sometimes I can be a tad pedantic (great word) and will nitpick others vague or ambiguous verbal and written utterances .  So what's my problem here?

CPAC (Citizens Public Advisory Committee) are a great source of both strength and inspiration. This is because of the variety of  experiences and  knowledge of the various members. One in particular has an outstanding record and history of accurate, early reads on people whether new to them or not. Personally I'm at the other end of the spectrum and do not trust my own early "reads" on people because I've found that over time as I learn more about them I have often totally misjudged them early on both positively and negatively.

Let's take councillor Nathan Cadeau for an example. I found him difficult to like right from the getgo. He has presumably trained himself to present all information from his mouth as first hand knowledge and as coming from an extremely informed individual.  The problem for him is when the subject matter is groundwater contamination, remediation, local toxic waste disposal, Uniroyal Control Orders etc. all subjects that I have seriously studied for the last 35 years. He on the other hand has not so studied and as expected doesn't  know shi* from shinola yet he babbles on as if he's an expert. That bugs me but over the last fifteen months I can say that my dislike and disrespect for him has only grown. But let's give him another year or two and see how I feel then. 

Conversely early on and for at least several years I thought that Sandy Shantz was the real deal as in honest and straightforward. To my embarrassment now I voted for her against Todd Cowan back in October 2014. What a gross miscalculation regarding her character.

Anyhow the CPAC member with a much better early on track record than mine has noticed something and that is the non-verbal cues such as body language and facial expressions of Woolwich councillors.  Without being specific I can tell you that she has watched the on-line (Woolwich Township Website) video of Tuesday, March 5/24 Committee of the Whole and has carefully watched the non-verbal cues of three of the councillors in particular. Sandy she felt was angry and upset during my Delegation whereas Nathan was difficult to determine. The other three visually present were totally different and if you are so inclined I leave it to you to go on the Woolwich Township Website and via "Mayor and Council", followed by "Council Calendar" click on the VIDEO for Tuesday, March 5, 2024 Committee of the Whole.  My Delegation starts perhaps fifteen minutes into the start of the video.     

ONTARIO'S FORMER (?) RACIST, SEXIST, HOMOPHOBIC & BIASED JUDICIAL SYSTEM

 Today's Waterloo Region Record has an article by Michelle Landsberg, a former Toronto Star columnist. Back in the 1980s and likely much earlier she and the Star had been publishing articles openly and harshly critical of what passed for impartial, unbiased adjudication by racist, homophobic, sexist and clearly biased male judges or as she put it (always men). Now speaking from experience I believe that idiot, biased judges don't have to have all the detriments just described. For example I was oppressed with an idiot, biased judge in 1996 who was sexist in that he was apparently biased in favour of females not against them. This occurred both in my case and in others in which I was advised that he was ordered to apologize to the husband in a marital dispute for how he the judge treated him in court. This particular judge I refer to as the Dishonourable Justice Robert Reilly.

Getting back to the article at hand titled "Ontario's system of naming judges is well-respected" tends to throw one off at first glance. Further reading however clarifies that the author (Ms. Landsberg) is describing the improved system of naming judges since approximately the early 1990s, not in time to help me as I was inflicted with an entrenched judge. Ms. Landsberg is warning citizens not to be complacent as Doug Ford is attempting to turn back the clock even as his Conservative predecessor Mike Harris attempted in 1999. Our former inglorious leader didn't appreciate his crony and Conservative buddy not receiving a judgeship in Mr. Harris's home riding of North Bay and refused to appoint one of the three short listed applicant for the position. Eventually he caved.

Lastly as a warning of what our judicial system used to be I quote Ms. Landsberg's comments in support of the then new JAAC (Judicial Appointments Advisory Committee) when she stated "As we discovered the depth of cronyism and patronage in the Ontario court system, we felt strongly affirmed in our work...".  Isn't it disturbing to realize that without open, transparent and honest decision making how all our man made systems, including judicial systems, descend into anarchy and chaos?    

TRAC - DOES THE WATCHDOG NEED TO BE INSIDE THE HOUSE OR OUTSIDE THE HOUSE?

 That is an age old question and I suspect, depending on the circumstances, to have at least two different answers. A watchdog with full access to both audible and visual stimuli may quite likely be able to pick up potential trouble far sooner outside the house than inside. Slight noises in the night possibly combined with olfactory (smell) stimuli may very well not be noticeable inside the house until it is under attack. Or a contrary opinion might suggest that an outside dog is far too exposed and vulnerable outside to be a reliable warning system. It's a lot easier to silence an outside dog than an inside dog. 

CPAC agreed 8 1/2 years ago that while none of them could further stomach Sandy and Mark's contemptible behaviour and lying nevertheless if Sebastian wanted to REAPPLY as a member of TAG after we had all played by the rules and formally APPLIED prior to the Woolwich imposed deadline, then so be it. The arrogance, hypocrisy and contempt for their own process by Sandy and Mark went way beyond what I could tolerate. I would not sit with such an abomination based upon blatant lying, deceit and political manipulation. The lack of respect for democracy has proven to be a hallmark of our municipal governance for decades.

CPAC are discussing the current situation. My opinion is that this is yet another charade in support of the two biggest polluters in Ontario namely the Ministry of Environment and Lanxess Canada. Both the Stroh Drain and the stinking, putrid Draft Risk Assessment of the Canagagigue Creek speak loudly to Lanxess's dishonesty and lack of credibility.     

IMMATURE, INEXPERIENCED OR CORRUPT THE RESULTS APPEAR THE SAME

Four of the six Woolwich councillors elected a year ago last October were newbies. Number five Bonnie Bryant had served one term of Council previously. Number six Sandy Shantz has been around for three terms now and literally has no excuse. With friends like Pat McLean, Bill Strauss, Mark Bauman, Susan Bryant, Lanxess etc. she will eventually go down in history as being particularly complicit in the Elmira Water Scandals. 

Woolwich Township are and have been masters of the rearranging the deck chairs of the Titanic as well as of expertly putting lipstick on a pig. Clearly long, long ago they were convinced to hold their position, never abandon their lies and maintain their cover as being pro environment and pro green all the while running interference for Uniroyal/Lanxess along with the Ontario Ministry of Environment. Their problem is 1) our local drinking water has not been restored 2) Our downstream Canagagigue Creek is toxic and lethal.  One last name needs to come out of the shadows. That would be CAO David Brenneman. I was recently mildly surprised to hear a local for many years verbally castigate Mr. Brenneman in an unusually hard way.  Apparently David had been particularly unhelpful. Now to be fair I also had a local for many years last fall tell me how seriously Mr. Brenneman tried to help her.  Now that was a major surprise to me. Well!

All in all the new TRAC Committee is garbage like. It is born and bred on a bed of bullsh*t, smothered in deceit and weaned on putrid, rot gut liquor. The twit on Council who was front and centre and led the so called Working Group is biased, unintelligent and driven. Good Lord as if we need any more of those. 

FEDERAL GOVERNMENT=MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT i.e. CORRUPT

 The title in last Wednesday's K-W Record was "Maine questions Canadian study of Agent Orange use at military base" Basically the state of Maine are not fans of Canadian junk and psuedo science no matter how well oiled it is. Among many criticisms they called the study inaccurate and biased. Ouch  . Woolwich Township, Lanxess and the Ont. Min. of Environment also rely upon the use of junk science on a regular basis. For 35 years they have based their least expensive, least effective remediation upon such alleged scientific rigor. The results are failure to achieve groundwater at drinking waqter standards as mandated by the Min. of Environment.

Not to panic however as Woolwich have renamed their alleged citizens committee hence putting lipstick on a pig.  The Min. of Environment will soon simply issue a new order calling for clean groundwater by 2050, 2060 or whenever they feel like it. Problems solved. Thank God for dishonest politicians.

IT'S ALL ABOUT THE MONEY - GOVERNMENTS CONSPIRE TO SCREW THEIR OWN CITIZENS

 How sad is it when five out of six Woolwich councillors avoid attending Elmira's Environmental Awareness Event two weeks ago? How pathetic is it when the one who did attend (Evan Burgess) presumably told his fellow councillors what the overwhelming mood of the 50-70 attendees was? Now we have a new useless committee called TRAC which Sandy Shantz and David Brenneman in conjunction with Lanxess and the Ont. Ministry of Environment will ensure is packed with "right thinking" individuals. Those "right thinkers" will not push, they will not dig in their heels, they will not cry out "BULLSH*T" no matter how thick, stinky and messy the junk science, psuedo science and wishful thinking from Lanxess and the MECP is. Furthermore they will at best politely express their disappointment if Lanxess and the MECP stick to their guns that the phony and dishonest  Risk Assessment trumps honest facts and common sense and no downstream cleanup is to occur.

The pack of professional liars and manipulators should be tarred and feathered and run out of Woolwich on a rail. Rest assured however our status quo, pro peace, quiet and stability police will always intervene to protect those who are profiting on the backs of the poor, unhealthy and unable or unwilling to fight to protect themselves citizens. This includes both Old Order downstream Mennonites as well as citizens living in Elmira suffering long term health effects from immoral and illegal toxic waste discharges over many decades. Thank you Woolwich Council for once again backing the coverup in conjunction with Lanxess and the MECP.

(NEW) WOOLWICH COUNCILLORS DETERMINED TO GO DOWN WITH THE SINKING SHIP

 Same old, same old. Other than one peculiar question from Councillor Bryant last night to myself no one else asked me anything. Her question seemed to assume that my only problem with the proposed TRAC committee was one of membership on it. Yes that is a problem but I made it clear the new committee was a crock right out of the starting gate. Tinkering with garbage just like changing the name is like putting lipstick on a pig. It changes nothing fundamentally.

Eventually Woolwich Township's complicity in the pretend cleanup and coverup will become public knowledge. I gave these councillors an escape route and they appear to be uninterested. They are blindly following Dave Brenneman, Sandy Shantz and Lanxess and the Ontario Ministry of Environment. All the while we are still decades away, if ever, from our own drinking water and the downstream Canagagigue Creek continues to poison both wildlife and our downstream Old Order Mennonite neighbours. 

Well if nothing else even Sandy's slim chance to escape has now been sealed. Maybe I should thank the councillors for putting the final nail in her reputation and political coffin. She will be forever known as the Woolwich three term mayor who continued to ignore the obvious and continue sailing towards the abyss.

Ironically today's Waterloo Region Record carries a story about "flawed" Agent Orange studies carried out by our Federal government regarding CFB Gagetown in New Brunswick. As I said last night at Woolwich Council "No politicians, municipal, regional, provincial or federal want to pay to clean up the former Uniroyal Chemical site in Elmira...". Junk science studies are their favourite tool apparently right across Canada.

TALKING TRUTH TO POWER THIS EVENING

 It's been my experience that most of the time doing that has been a waste of time because "Power" already knows the truth. They know it and they have worked hard to hide it so that they can present their self-serving version of the truth. In this case all levels of government over the last 35 years have probably known full well that it was more important to communicate the appearance of a successful cleanup than the actual reality of it. Hence why spend hundreds of millions of extra dollars when time eventually (couple of hundred years) will allow most of Uniroyal's crap to migrate downstream and down gradient. Professional lying by client driven experts was the way to go.

So why bother tonite? Well it's an acid test . Will the new councillors stand up for the truth or will they hide behind the status, position and credentials of others? Are the majority of councillors self thinkers and confident in their own decision making or do they always defer to authority and power? We will see how tonite goes and then two weeks from tonite I believe is when the formal vote takes place.

I AM A DELEGATE TOMORROW EVENING AT WOOLWICH COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE

 The meeting starts at 7 pm. and basically it's the same old crap all over again only this time a little less rude and a lot less ignorant than say in 2015 when Sandy and buddies (Mark) sold a Bill of Goods to their fellow councillors. One of them (Patrick) publicly stated that the so called public consultation suggested in the then new Terms of Reference for RAC & TAG was "cringeworthy".

The new Terms of Reference are not as bad (possibly) as the very worst ones to date that Woolwich have ever come up with. Geez they really are pathetic. I mentioned some of the issues last Friday here as well as basically the whole idea of not only agreeing to Lanxess and the MECP having full control of the alleged "cleanup" but actually endorsing and supporting their amateur, mickey mouse attempts. To date the Township have abandoned the public interest on these issues. 

A few extra bodies tomorrow night in Council Chambers can only help. It's been far too easy for far too long for the guilty parties here in Woolwich. 

WOOLWICH COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE AGENDA CAME OUT YESTERDAY AFTERNOON

I got the Agenda package around 3:30 pm. Nice public consultation there. I now know more about the plans for TRAC than I did before. Hence today after 9 am. I will attempt to get my name in as a Delegate to that Council meeting this Tuesday at 7 pm.. The so called review has been the usual Woolwich bullsh*t. They really have no shame and no imagination. I guess their attitude is as long as we can fool most of the people most of the time then we are golden. 

By the way nothing in the report mentioning the specific criticisms of TAG that Sebastian formally submitted last October, November and finally this February 15/24 at the TAG meeting. Those criticisms are on the Township's website under the October 2023 and February 2024 TAG Minutes. 

SAME PEOPLE IN CHARGE,  SAME HEAVY DUTY PUFFERY AND  HIGH WRITTEN ASPIRATIONS,  SAME CLEANUP METHODOLOGY,  SAME RESULTS...i.e. FAILURE

The definition of insanity is ongoing failure followed by the same attempts over and over again hoping for a different result. This is insanity albeit probably contrived insanity. Woolwich Township have spent the last 35 years enabling the company and the Ministry to talk up a storm while doing very little. Hydraulic containment i.e. pump & treat is doing the very minimum and they haven't been able to consistently succeed even at that. Pumps and other hardware constantly break down and pumping rates are below their own Target Rates year in and year out. Promises are publicly made for increased pumping that are never even close to being achieved. 

Then there is the Canagagigue Creek. What a joke that POLLUTER PAYS. The Ministry of Environment have publicly stated that the cleanup of the Creek is voluntary. WHY!!! Uniroyal Chemical destroyed it and have only partially restored it by reducing their ongoing off-site discharges and leakage. Tha company (Lanxess) need to clean up the dioxins, DDT, mercury, PCBs, PAHs, Lindane etc.