THE HYPOCRISY BEHIND OUR ENVIRONMENTAL LAWS

 

"Polluter Pays" is a good one. Here in Elmira the taxpayers are on the hook for 50% of the cleanup costs of the aquifers not underneath the former Uniroyal Chemical (i.e. "off-site"). Why are the taxpayers on the hook for these sums? Uniroyal dumped toxic wastes willy nilly both on and off their site essentially at will. The Ontario Ministry of Environment were mandated to control these discharges and failed to do so properly. The result is the mess that we still have today and for which taxpayers continue to pay.

Our environmental laws with assistance from corporate lobbyists have focused solely on off-site impacts. Therefore . theoretically at least if a polluter could dig a big enough and deep enough hole, lined with say steel they could simply dump everything into that.  The problem is that our earth and waters are interconnected.  Dr. Gail Krantzberg (McMaster), years ago at CPAC, stated that every toxic waste that Uniroyal, spilled, dumped or  placed on or into their property will eventually leave their property. This can be via volatolization as liquids evaporate or it can be via groundwater movement, surface water erosion and or even soil gas migration. So what do progressive polluters do? Why they hire talent, QPs, consultants and anybody else who will sell their bull while pretending to be independent of the polluter themselves. They cut down forests to write reports stating that nothing has left their site. Dead fish downstream just blame somebody else. Odours and colours in Canagagigue Creek then lets do another study and waste another couple of years "discussing" it. Anything rather than clean up their own messes.

Then of course well off polluters who are big fish in a small community can easily overwhelm local councils. Between the equally guilty Ontario Ministry of Environment on side with natural attenuation and hydraulic containment of  industrially contaminated aquifers, local councils have few resources. In fact it is the MOE/MECP they turn to for assistance. The system has been corrupted beyond repair and that's exactly how polluters like it. Relatively small fry like Varnicolor Chemical or smaller can be put through their paces by the MECP.  Uniroyal/Lanxess just laugh at them because multi national, multi billion dollar corporations have much deeper pockets and budgets to play in the courts with. Again even our courts have lost their independence of the unholy dollar.