I attend either in person or virtually these window dressing highly contrived public meetings because little tidbits of truth sometimes are revealed. Regarding the first TRAC meeting of former RAC & TAG members last Thursday there were a couple of big tidbits of truth making it worthwhile. On to them later.
Lanxess and friends including Joe Ricker of WSP are all bought and paid for. Do you think these "independent" consultants work for free? Especially do you think all their praise heaped upon Lanxess is honest admiration? Then we have retired RMOW hydrogeologist Eric Hodgins. Good Lord what a toady he is. His praise of an individual, less hired for his hydrogeological experience than his public relations skills, was embarrassing. Eric made Ramin Ansari look like a saint which he is not.
The "Ricker" analysis of the contaminant plumes in the Elmira Aquifers is grossly deceiving. First of all he is closely examining TWO contaminants only, namely NDMA and chlorobenzene. Thirty years ago we had plume maps of over a dozen different contaminants in the aquifers courtesy of Uniroyal Chemical (& others). Benzene, phenols, toluene, chlorophenols, MBT, BT, Carboxin, Aniline, dichlorobenzene were all examined and for good reason. There is a witch's brew of hundreds of chemicals in the aquifers and they react and interact with each other. They also make human health criteria for individual chemicals an absolute joke. Chlorobenzene by itself has an Ontario Drinking Water Standard (ODWS) of 80 parts per billion (ppb). What however is the drinking water standard for chlorobenzene in the presence of NDMA in exceedance of it's ODWS? The very same because science has yet been unable to determine the drinking water standards for multiple contaminants in water simultaneously. What is the real drinking water health standard for chlorobenzene in the presence of dozens of other toxic chemicals? Nobody knows. Same with NDMA. Same with all of the different chemicals.
A number of TRAC members are more worried about the negatives of a public meeting to explain the 2028 cleanup failure etc. than in properly informing the public. Words like "eliciting fear" and even the suggestion that if TRAC aren't careful they could make a "laughing stock" of themselves were made. There were also references to the Elmira Environmental Awareness Event held at Rural Roots in February and the excellent turnout it had. Basically many TRAC members are far more worried about being seen as what they are which is generally useless, deferential, out of their depth possibly well meaning citizens. Hence their public meeting will be all about CYA (Cover Your A**).
The biggest "tidbits" occurred during the discussions of a large excess mass of chlorobenzene found in the aquifers. This was found by Dr. Neil Thompson (U.of W.) as well as by Lanxess as they did isotope testing of chlorobenzene as I explained in Monday's (two days ago) posting here in the Elmira Advocate. This is but one of a number of huge incidents of deception and deflection by Uniroyal right through to Lanxess Canada that have forever marred their credibility, honesty and integrity. It has done the same for the MOE/MECP as they staunchly looked the other way and allowed the polluting companies to deceive and lie to the public. Ramin (Lanxess) and Joe Ricker talked about and showed a graph of chlorobenzene concentrations over time for well CH-75B in the Municipal Upper Aquifer near pumping well W3(R) which is just off of Industrial Dr. in Elmira near the Midas(?) Muffler Shop. Around September 2017 Well W3 began pumping and very shortly afterwards pumping well W4 located near the Howard St. water tower stopped pumping (permanently). NDMA concentrations immediately plummeted whereas chlorobenzene concentrations soared.
No logical or serious explanations were offerred partly because it has been the MECP's policy in conjunction with Uniroyal/Lanxess to deny the presence both on-site and off-site of free phase DNAPL. Chlorobenzene is a major DNAPL chemical in the Elmira Aquifers. It has been found literally in the free phase form both on -site (Bob Hillier MOE 1994 ) and off-site and was described in a monthly Progress Report which I brought to CPAC's attention approximately in 2007. They along with the MOE/MECP and Chemtura ignored, dismissed and deflected their own discovery of free phase DNAPL (chlorobenzene) in observation well OW57-32 beside the Howard St. water tower.
Only committed and desperate professional liars with the assistance of their fellow travellors, Woolwich Twn., CPAC at the time, and various bought and paid for consultants along with the two Conflict of Interest Queens could have been so brazen. This DNAPL coverup has been gross for decades despite solid evidence that it exists both on and off site and Ramin Ansari's latest words reinforce that. Thank You Ramin!
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