DO GOVERNMENT DEPARTMENTS & BUREAUCRACIES EXPAND TO FILL ALL AVAILABLE SPACE?

This question in the title above is both figurative and literal In other words are budgets initially set based upon the perceived size of the problem and then once a certain equilibrium is met as far as work loads versus number of employees, is there an opportunity for a few who either by diligent work or even perhaps a slightly lower workload to actually have a little coasting time? Again if this is possible then do most of those who can finish say their 37 hour work week in say 31.5 hours wisely decide to take on some "busy" work in order to appear just that i.e. busy? Or are most government departments and bureaucracies under constant pressure to take on more work by their supervisors hence rendering alleged spare time as moot?  

For example at the start of the Elmira Crisis in 1989 I can certainly understand that the MOE/MECP were likely overwhelmed with constant requests and demands for more and more data and information most of which was not at their fingerprints.  Was there massive hiring simply because of that one major crisis or were all the current employees expected to step up, work overtime and do both their regular duties plus whatever their supervisors deemed necessary in response to the crisis? I can also understand all the Ministry's lab workers suddenly being inundated with requests for ground and surface water analyses and more. 

So I wonder where the MECP's staffing levels are today. Are they similar to what they were in 1989 prior to the Elmira crisis or did they expand and have never retrenched? All of these questions are of course relevant to the never ending tax increases that citizens are constantly subjected to. It is also relevant to the bull*%@# inflicted upon all citizens for many decades (centuries) by our governments whether municipal, regional, provincial or federal.  They constantly have told us that growth reduces individual tax requirements. What a pile of pus that has been. Population growth, economic growth, infrastructure growth are all allegedly supposed to reduce per capita taxes as we have more people sharing the burden. 

Politicians can not be charged with lying. Yes if caught in a humdinger they can lose the next election unless of course their name is Trump. Most politicians actually believe that as the anointed ones in charge that they have the right if not the duty to lie to their own citizens. Until or unless there are strong, consistent consequences for lying we the public will be cursed with unaccountable, non-transparent governance forever. 

  

LESS THAN EVEN TALKING TO LOCAL RESIDENTS MUCH LESS LISTENING TO THEM

 

Uniroyal Chemical and successors along with Woolwich Township faked real Public Consultation for decades however in fact they didn't even want pretend public consultation for years until they realized how much they could cover their tracks by selling all their snake oil to an incompetent, uninformed, deferential bunch of part time volunteers. UPAC, CPAC, RAC, TAG, and TRAC were and are merely a smoke screen to hide behind. Same thing with the Ontario Ministry of Environment (MECP). When it comes to Push and Shove the MECP has neither. 

The instant Sandy Shantz got rid of CPAC in the summer of 2015 all hope for a real cleanup was lost. All hope for any kind of an honest investigation of the Stroh farm was also lost.  In hindsight if Lanxess had little or no plans to clean up the Creek then why would they care about the Stroh farm via the Stroh Drain, Ditch & Berm discharging contaminants into the Canagagigue Creek?

Same thing on the other (west) side of Uniroyal/Lanxess. The Nutrite/Yara property had extraordinarily high concentrations of DNAPL chemicals clearly indicating the probability that DNAPLS had already flowed from Uniroyal's former landfill (M2) over to the Nutrite property. Yet again simple denial followed by ignoring the issue knowing that the new Sandy inspired deferential TAG (later TRAC) committees would play nice at all times.

Finally there were DNAPLS discovered and ignored at OW57-32, 100 feet below ground surface, beside the Howard St. Water Tower. They could have come from Uniroyal directly or from either Borg Textiles or Varnicolor Chemical. Exactly zero attempt was made to determine anything about them. The coverup was proceeding nicely thank you and any unusual discoveries especially of DNAPL could rock that boat. Allegedly and falsely Uniroyal was the sole source of pollutants in Elmira and anybody else was a distraction. This was why Richard Clausi, Susan Rupert, Ted Oldfield and I had to expose first hand lying and coverups by the Ministry of Environment before they would admit that Varnicolor Chemical were a very bad actor. 

AND TO DATE YET ZERO COMMITMENTS TO CLEAN ANY PART OF THE CANAGAGIGUE CREEK

 

Let me be clear. I am referring to public commitments. Maybe privately Lanxess have given some promise to either Woolwich Township or the Ontario Ministry of Environment but one who knows and two of what credibility would such promises be? Keep in mind Uniroyal Chemical and past corporate successors have even made public promises and commitments only to renege on them.  The November 2012 promise to triple the amount of off-site pumping in order to achieve drinking water standards is a major example of that. As they never even doubled much less tripled the pumping volumes we really will never know if that is because they were saving pumping and treating costs or whether they themselves suspected that tripling the pumping rates still might not do the job. Hard to say.

So the Creek more than fifty years after the stopping of daily discharges of liquid toxic wastes into pits, ponds and lagoons along the Creek still has large amounts of DDT and dioxins above provincial and federal criteria in its' creekbank soils and below water surface sediments. I expect that there are dozens of other contaminants also still present but as long as they are not routinely tested for they can be easily denied by Lanxess and the MECP. 

We were promised the Cadillac cleanup back in the early 1990s and all we've received to date is the broken down Volkswagon Beetle version.  None of the local citizens who volunteered to sit on the Uniroyal Public Advisory Committee (UPAC) would have believed how little has been accomplished more than thirty years later. Susan Rupert the first head of APTE advised against them joining UPAC as she felt that the citizens would be outnumbered, out maneuvered and overwhelmed.. Sylvia Berg and Susan Bryant of APTE had other plans and quickly joined UPAC as soon as Susan Rupert moved to Waterloo. The results are a triumph for the polluter and fellow travellors.  

NOTHING NEW WITH THE DECEMBER PROGRESS REPORT FOLKS. BOTH ON-SITE & OFF-SITE PUMPING CONTINUE TO FAIL TO ACHIEVE TARGET PUMPING RATES.

 

This of course has been going on for years but has been especially bad the last several years. It appears as if Lanxess and the MECP continue to meet privately, make deals in their best interests versus the public's and then turn around and lie to the public. It also appears that as those two guilty parties have seen the muted response to their now public cleanup failure, it has emboldened them. The December Progress Report is the latest one released and both on-site wells are below their Target pumping rates whereas of all the off-site wells only a total of half are deficient. Unfortunately three of the four off-site that achieve their Target pumping rate are the wells with the tiniest Target rates namely W6A, W6B and W8 (.2, .3, .05 l/sec). Truly pathetic pumping yet again.

Not based upon the crap being sold today as much as the crap being sold ten  to twenty-five years ago we were advised that those Target rates were absolutely necessary to be achieved in order to cleanup the Elmira Aquifers by 2028. So maybe the question is : If Uniroyal and corporate successors had been able to achieve the Target rates all along (not forgetting the 2012 promised TRIPLING of those rates) would the aquifers be close to being at the Ontario drinking water standards today? In other words did the successive corporations and MECP fail due to NOT achieving the rates or was the always least effective pump & treat (hydraulic containment) regimen doomed to failure from the beginning? In my opinion the answer is likely YES to both .

PERHAPS HUMAN BEINGS ARE NOT BUILT FOR LONG TERM BATTLES

 

Most wars are over in two, three, four or five years thank goodness. To me war is the ultimate failure of common sense and reason. Show me the "winners" of the current Israeli-Palestinian conflict. 46,000 dead Palestinian men, women and children. Israel has lost thousands of lives albeit no where near as many.  Israel has spent millions upon millions of dollars blowing up buildings in Gaza. They are currently releasing allegedly hardened Palestinian fighters and "terrorists" from their prisons at a rate of about 200 to 1  i.e. one Israeli citizen or soldier for each 200 Palestinians.  Finally I suspect that decades of improved support and respect for Israel around the world may have been permanently harmed due to the numbers of Palestinian dead. How does that possibly make Israel the winner of anything?

Same with the war between Russia and Ukraine. Three years of bloodshed and sacrifice and Russia, a former top world power can't defeat dinky little Ukraine even with the Ukraine receiving weapons and ammunition assistance from abroad. Apparently Russia has the upper hand but the rest of the world has seen Russia's weakened economy, industrial base and military. Their reduced state has been exposed. Some win that is.

Closer to home look at Grassy Narrows as well as here in Elmira, Ontario. Local residents and citizens took to the streets, spoke up and demanded government fulfill their responsibilities. I am amazed at the resilience from the Grassy Narrows community as they are still fighting today. Elmira not so much. Many of the activists have died, retired or simply run out of steam. A couple  have become senile. Time as in decades has overcome resistance. The ones left were not here fighting back in the early 1990s. They too however want the whole thing to end. They want a happy ending which it appears isn't going to happen. Only capitulation to the inevitable seems to be the peaceful, final route. There is little to no fight left. 

Time and delay are the weapons of the guilty. Every year that injustice and personal harm continues, resistance and fight seems to falter until almost nothing is left. Peace, even an unjust peace usually finally prevails. The victors pretend that the world is fine and the vanquished seethe waiting for another opportunity. The victories of the unjust come at a great cost to them as well as to the rest of us.  

CAN THEY REALLY BE THAT DUMB?

 

Time as always will tell.  Yes Lanxess and the MECP and all their political allies will bulls*it and bafflegab as many of the public as possible into believing that all was done that could possibly be done but gee that NDMA is just so tough. Of course that begs the question as to why the chlorobenzene concentrations also haven't  been  reduced to drinking water standards. Never fear our infallible "men in suits"  can come up with self-serving answers to almost anything.

The Ministry of Expanded Corporate Pollution  oops Min. of Environment, Consternation & Parks (MECP) are in the process of writing a new psuedo Control Order or whatever flavour of the month name they will christen it with.  Rest assured it will not start as follows: "Based upon our efforts combined with our corporate polluters' best efforts being woefully inadequate over the last thirty-five years in Elmira we have decided to rewrite this Control Order being careful this time not to hint or suggest that there is any legal or binding language that could remotely, adversely affect corporate health and well being in any way.  In regards to our already prematurely deceased Woolwich citizens as a result of industrial, chemical induced environmental cancers  we can only suggest that they have been martyrs for the cause of corporate shareholders' benefits and financially improved retirements. You too can wisely invest your money in our shares with full confidence that your governments will never impede profits or share values simply to protect the health of either the environment or any of its' inhabitants, especially your loved ones." 

PUMP & TREAT i.e. PUMP & DUMP I.E. HYDRAULIC CONTAINMENT

 

The first problem is that Pump & Treat is often used instead of Source Removal such as the obvious excavation of subsurface toxic wastes. Excavation is very expensive up front as the heavy equipment needs to be mobilized and it uses lots of fossil fuels to operate. Then there is the tricky question of what to do with the tonnes of contaminated soils after they've been removed from the ground.  That said excavation ends up with cleaner soil and groundwater decades faster than Pump & Treat ever will. 

Pump & Treat has been referred to as the least expensive, least effective form of remediation. That sure seems the case here in Elmira, Ontario. There are many other forms of Source Removal such as ISCO, encapsulation, thermal destruction, biodegradation, introduction of sub surface steam to thin contaminants and allow them to be pumped out and many more.

We have also learned from experience that pumping wells running 24/7 have all kinds of maintenance problems and breakdowns. In fact if we are to believe Uniroyal Chemical and their corporate successors it seems nearly impossible to keep multiple wells running simultaneously for any length of time. There are also electrical shutdowns as well as all kinds of treatment equipment breakdowns and never ending maintenance. Finally there is what I view as a huge drawback here. No matter how much NDMA, chlorobenzene plus dozens of other chemical compounds are removed from our aquifers it can all be for naught if either the on-site Pump & Treat fails or if the owners abandon the site.  Once that happens the unremediated masses of contamination below the Uniroyal site just start flowing en masse once again and recontaminate the Elmira aquifers. Basically thirty years of half ass*d pump & treat figuratively goes down the drain.

There are major known areas of contamination on and off the Uniroyal site that could have and should have been remediated decades ago. That would have resulted in at least some permanent improvement instead of where we sit now hoping not to have to start over after thirty-five years of much more being said than being done. Our local and provincial politicians let the polluter off the hook and we the public as usual have paid the health price, the financial price through taxpayer contributions and heaven forbid much more of the same if the current owner decides to depart.  

GROUNDWATER REMEDIATION RAISES MANY QUESTIONS IN ELMIRA & THROUGHOUT NORTH AMERICA

 

The theory here in Elmira, Ontario was to hydraulically isolate the grossly contaminated Uniroyal Chemical site from the rest of the Elmira Aquifers. According to those who have made a small fortune in consulting fees over the last thirty-five years plus; they were successful. Of course both they, their clients and the Ontario Min. of Environment (MECP) are professional truth stretchers who have been caught over and over again gilding the lily and interpreting all data in the most flexible manner helpful to their cause.

 Once the disgusting mess under the Uniroyal site, in places close to a hundred feet deep, was hydraulically contained allegedly preventing it from migrating off-site in the various groundwater regimes (UA, ML, MU, BR etc.) then off-site pump & treat (i.e. hydraulic containment would begin. Once again all those guilty parties including the political ones praised and raved about the efficacy of the various pumping wells for the various impacted aquifers . They praised their efforts and results for twenty-five long years (1991-2016) before they finally bailed and admitted they couldn't do it by 2028 as promised and mandated.

Citizens including myself suggested various times, locations and methods of source removal in addition to pump & treat. Most were dismissed out of hand as unnecessary.  This source removal would have made a major difference both on and off site. No go and the MECP backed the company all the way.  So the question is : Is the remediation failure in Elmira solely the result of a pig headed, self-serving polluter fully in charge of the cleanup with only token oversight by the MECP and or by the various deferential, partially co-opted public consultation bodies or is there more? Is the cleanup simply impossible ?

Every year Uniroyal and successors brag about how many kilograms of NDMA and chlorobenzene that they have extracted from the Elmira Aquifers. Basically it's been way too little, way too late. But...has it all been for nought? If I truly believed that the Elmira Aquifers EVER were completely isolated and protected from further migration of Uniroyal contaminants, then I might be a little optimistic. The problem is I believe every aquifer both on and off site has continued to leak/migrate from day one. I believe that those responsible know full well that the more that migrates off-site the less that they have to remove by pump & treat.

We the public have been lied to from the very beginning and that lying includes the polluters, their fellow travellors and our authorities who simply want to be able to claim a successful cleanup regardless of the facts. How can we ever trust their word again on anything? Now these politicians want to use the remediation failure as ammunition for a multi billion dollar pipeline to Lake Erie. We the citizens work so that these parasites can spend our tax money on their legacy projects versus proper housing, jobs, climate change, health care etc.       

ELMIRA CONTAMINATION & WRDSB CORRUPTION ARE TWO OF MY FAVORITE TOPICS

 

Hence as you can imagine I greatly appreciate seeing media and newspaper reports on both of those subjects. Of late I've been quite appreciative. Today's K-w Record has both of them on the Opinion page (A9).  There is a Letter To The Editor titled "Drinking water is endangered by suburban sprawl" written by Sue Savor as well as a major opinion piece by WRDSB trustees Cindy Watson, Bill Cody and Mike Ramsay titled "WRDSB has to realize why it is driving students away".  WRDSB of course stands for Waterloo Region & District School Board. Alternatively it could also be called Wholly Repugnant & Distinctly Stupid Behaviour which I have just now coined.

Ms. Savor states that "...Elmira's drinking water, contaminated by industry, has resulted in permanent groundwater toxicity.".  She may be right or perhaps not. All the suits, Qualified Persons/Pe*is*s, MECP, Lanxess staff, GHD staff all say otherwise. They now claim that maybe by 2050 or 2060 we could see our groundwater restored to drinking water standards.  However do keep in mind that these same folks also claimed from 1991 until 2016 (25 years) that absolutely Elmira's groundwater would be back to drinking water standards by 2028.  They would brook no negativity, no contrary opinions, no discussion otherwise because after all they were the experts who knew all. Allegedly.

 The three trustees take quite a round out of the WRDSB who also over the decades have exhibited extreme belief in their own infallibility.  They make the Pope seem like a piker in that regard. These trustees would like to see parents back in the education equation as if somehow they actually mattered. Maybe even as if they had some rights to expressing their opinions on the education of their own children. What an amazing turnaround that would be after personally suffering at the hands of arrogant, hostile bureaucrats pretending to be looking out for our children. Even today the pedophiles within the system appear to be removed  only long after their illegal behaviours have been reported. All in all I would characterize the three trustees message as being one of greater inclusion by parents as well as greater transparency.  All good things.       

LOWLIFES BEYOND IMAGINATION AND WEAPONIZING THE JUSTICE SYSTEM

 

Thank you Donald Trump for letting the world see and understand that you don't have to be intelligent, honest, decent or ethical to get to the top. In fact being overbearing, arrogant, fat,  rude, a liar and a criminal seems to have worked for him. Access to money also helps dramatically.

Today's Waterloo Region Record (i.e. K-W Record)  has a story on page A6 titled "Biden guards against "revenge"".  Former President Biden is giving out pardons to particular and specific employees and politicians whom he believes that the new President (Trump)  would like to punish for their honest and appropriate behaviour whether involving Covid  (Dr. Fauci) or  involving investigating the January 6, 2020 attack on U.S. democracy by Trump and his allies. Biden's exact words are "even when individuals have done nothing wrong - and in fact have done the right thing - and will ultimately be exonerated, the mere fact of being investigated or prosecuted can irreparably damage reputations and finances."

That is exactly what happened to me more than twenty-five years ago.  The various and assorted lowlifes include the Dishonourable Robert Reilly,  G. Pecker,  WRDSB (Oman, Stine, Witeman etc.), the WRPS and so many more. Suggesting that I could/should have appealed Reilly's beyond asinine decision which minimized my many parent witnesses' testimony and elevated Board fantasy testimony ignores the reality of the costs of Motions, pre-trial Motions, time off my job, and appeals. Our courts are a playground for the rich and I never stood a chance once that total twit Reilly was running the show. He even denied me a jury of my peers among other questionable actions he took.

I think that you can imagine the joy I had running Mayor Sandy Shantz as well as then councillor Mark Bauman through the judicial system. Of course the huge difference is that they were as guilty as sin regarding their contraventions of the Municipal Elections Act whereas I told the truth and went through the appropriate channels (Principal, trustees, Board Superintendents etc.) unsuccessfully before acting on my own trying to get justice from the education system. They and their employees weaponized the judicial system to try and ruin a parent, his spouse and family. They are filth and they know it.  And shame on the Judicial System for allowing those kinds of clear and obvious abuses of their system.  

REMEDIATION FAILURES & A PROPOSED LAKE ERIE PIPELINE

 

I am referring back to both my Saturday Blog post as well as to the article in the K-W Record that day by Terry Pender. One of the questions I have is exactly how hard have efforts been across North America to actually, fully and properly remediate contaminated sites? I know that Conestoga Rovers did work at both the Love Canal in New York State as well as up here in Elmira, Ontario. My understanding is that problems with oozing contamination still exist at the Love Canal. Sure as hell little on-site source removal of toxic wastes has occurred here in Elmira. It's all about off-site, to date unsuccessful attempts to remediate the Elmira Aquifers to drinking water standards. Therefore are remediation failures based upon mediocre to poor efforts being used to justify taxpayers' costs of multiple billions of dollars for water pipelines here and or perhaps south of the border as well? Is this just one more boondoggle or legacy project for our corrupt politicians to get their names in the history books at our expense? 

Secondly I did not mention last Saturday another error besides the two incorrect dates given namely 1989 and 2030. Susan Bryant mentioned that "millions of gallons" of treated ground water were being dumped into the Canagagigue Creek every day. By my calculations the number is shy of a million gallons and certainly not "millions of gallons".  

These three errors may be an attempt to to intentionally mislead the public by Susan however I am not convinced of that. It is quite possible that karma has reared her head and decided to bestow some justice on Susan.  Over the past year there have been several incidents of mistakes and errors by Susan that may simply be no more than fairly normal ageing.  Despite relatively modest but problematic benefits being received by her over decades for assistance to Uniroyal and successors she has been the go to person for information, facts and opinions by the media and others. Maybe her current memory failures are both to discourage further media reliance upon her or even for them to realize that her grasp of  all the facts and history has deteriorated significantly over time. This is not a bad thing.

"ONCE THE CONTAMINATION IS IN THERE, YOU DON'T GET IT OUT"

 Oh boy but that quote is a tough one. Let me amend it somewhat as follows: "Once the contamination is in there, allowing the polluter to be in complete charge of the cleanup, guarantees you don't get it out." Today's K-W Record has an interesting pro water pipeline story by Terry Pender. Mr. Pender calls upon Susan Bryant and the Elmira situation to back up various  supporters of a multi billion dollar water pipeline to be built from Lake Erie presumably all the way to Elmira! 

Unfortunately Susan's memory continues to slip as there are some serious errors of date and fact in this story presumably supplied by Susan to the reporter, Terry Pender. Firstly Leander Martin's cows did not die from drinking in the Canagagigue Creek in 1989. Rather they died shortly after drinking from the Creek in 1965. Secondly the first deadline for the cleanup has not come and gone as stated with a second deadline of 2030. That is nonsense on both counts. The first deadline is 2028 and yes all parties agree it won't be met. Secondly there is no public 2030 deadline but in fact 2050 or 2060 has been suggested as perhaps the next time that we can allegedly see the cleanup of the Elmira Aquifers. 

All in all it is good to remind people of the consequences of sloppy handling and disposal of toxic chemicals. Using that behaviour and more however as an excuse to build a multi billion dollar water pipeline to Lake Erie is disturbing. Clearly the decision has been made long ago and clearly many somebodies are going to become rich when there is literally billions of dollars of  TAXPAYERS MONEY on the line.

INDEED HAWKRIDGE HOMES DEVELOPMENT IN ELMIRA IS STARTING

 

The timing for building affordable housing is impeccable. Just in today's K-W Record (front page) we are advised that housing starts continue to sputter. Imagine that, prices are between ridiculous and asinine and it is actually slowing down sales.  Today's Woolwich Observer has the following front page story titled "Orchard razed at site of future Union Street development ".  

The Observer article does point out that Woolwich Township past councils did have concerns over a residential, family building being situated so close to both Lanxess Canada and the CCC (Sulco) as well they should. I would suggest that CCC overall has an excellent reputation for both safety and community engagement whereas Lanxess has an excellent reputation for bull*&%# and pretend community engagement.  There is also the potential odour issue of the nearby Elmira Sewage Treatment Plant. 

The Observer article has two main directions as it interviewed local residents regarding the removal of the apple orchard on the site. Many locals decried the loss of trees which is a legitimate concern and others reminisced about past decades either playing in the orchard or helping to pick the apples. Personally I still feel that that location is beyond the pale for families with young children to be living beside chemical companies, especially Lanxess.  

MAYBE A TAD TOO MUCH EXCITEMENT FOR A 75 YEAR OLD!

 Very late today. Sorry folks. The really good news is that it appears as if the war in Gaza may be finally over. Allegedly peace talks are within a whisker of all sides being somewhat satisfied. My God the lives lost of men., women and children.  Other news is much less dramatic. 

I should be back to normal tomorrow. The bad guys continue on in their nefarious ways and the good guys are outnumbered, outfinanced and out dirty dealed. In other words everything is normal locally. Money continues to rule the roost while always pretending that each and every life is equally as important.  Pulease! 

WRDSB CONTINUES TO MAKE THE NEWS FOR ALL THE WRONG REASONS

 

It's taken a long time with a lot of patience from me to see the destruction of the Waterloo Region District School Board's reputation and holier than thou attitude. Kiss my butkus Jimmy W., Howie S., Cecy O. , Sharan R. plus a bunch of other lying, deceitful former bigshots at the WRDSB. Yes there were a few good trustees at the time albeit most then like now were deferential lickspittles sucking up to the Board's money, power and authority. And yes generally speaking the welfare and education of the children attending their schools was barely in the top ten of their priorities. First and foremost was undisputed and unchallenged power and authority. In this they were backed by some senior as#holes at the Waterloo Region Police Service to their everlasting shame. I wonder if the criminal conviction (for preying on children) of a senior WRDSB teacher (Ron Archer) and the revelations around the Board's policy of "passing the trash" may have smoked out a few of the Board's most ardent supporters in the WRPS.

The latest two articles in today's Waterloo Region Record are about the proposed conflicting (?) Motions at the Board calling for more transparency possibly via a public meeting as well as yet another WRDSB employee (a Principal) being sentenced to four years in jail for attempting to lure underage girls for sexual purposes. Although I'm not a fan of entrapment procedures by the police it is hard to argue in this particular case that the ends don't justify the means. 

Then of course there is still the now years long disgrace of how the Trustees following Board procedures treated 20 year teacher Caroline Burjowski who was a registered Delegate to a Board meeting.  Unbelievable that the Board would immediately remove her from her duties for simply speaking her honest and polite opinion to the Board on matters of which she is a stakeholder and participant yet the Board apparently were in no hurry to do so with pedophiles in their midst and for decades simply "passed the trash" on to another school.

WRDSB your ethics and morality have been publicly exposed and they are disgusting.

 

AFFORDABLE HOUSING FOR HUMANITARIAN REASONS OR IN ORDER TO DEVELOP PROBLEM PROPERTIES?

 

Today's Blog post somewhat includes yesterday's titled "The Disgrace of  Contaminated Sites Cleanup in Ontario" as well as last Friday's titled  "The Cleanup is a Sham...Put a Banner On The Roof..." Basically I've been noticing for some time now that the "generosity" of developers seems to be related to market conditions for their residential properties they are selling. 

I will give you three examples namely Hawkridge Homes located across from Elmira's mini Chemical Valley,  the Shanley St. apartment building mentioned yesterday on top of the former highly contaminated Electrohome property and finally the former Sunar property in Waterloo which ended up as a seniors residence. Now at the time I felt that perhaps that might be O.K. as likely most residents there were for the short term not the long term.

All in all I wonder how much scrutiny those various "cleanups" would withstand if done by an experienced, unbiased person plus I would like to know how many more residential buildings for all ages are former contaminated sites playing the "Let's make a deal" game between developers and municipal authorities. Allegedly these deals are a "win-win" but frankly knowing some of the players involved such as the Ontario MECP as well as municipal politicians, I am skeptical.  I wonder how many of their children or grandchildren are being raised in those former (and current?) contaminated sites. 

If I am correct then do not despair  as even further externalization of costs from entrepreneurs (developers) to the public purse will occur as the health costs escalate for those exposed who are more susceptible (children).  What a "money talks" society we live in including throwing future generations into less than ideal living conditions.  Oh and one more example would be the IMICO site over in Guelph as it is being poorly remediated and turned into housing as well albeit with certain conditions and constraints involved on the incoming tenants.  

THE DISGRACE OF CONTAMINATED SITES CLEANUP IN ONTARIO

 

Today's K-W Record gives us a little further insight. On the front page is a story by Brent Davis titled "New building rises at old industrial site in Kitchener".  An eight story apartment building is being built at the former Electrohome site on the corner of Duke and Shanley streets in Kitchener. The developer allegedly finished cleaning up the contamination on the site in 2023.  The original 1898 building was torn down in 2020 and the site was contaminated with trichloroethylene for many decades. 

Firstly cleaning the site itself literally decades after the contaminated groundwater has left the site is unconscionable.  What if anything has been done regarding the now off-site dissolved groundwater contamination? Secondly has there even been the tiniest attempt to look for free phase (i.e. undissolved) trichloroethylene (TCE) which is a well known and prominent DNAPL chemical off site? Free phase DNAPL can flow underground significant distances based upon numerous factors including subsurface stratigraphy, initial volumes of TCE released etc. 

Dissolved TCE can enter homes via vapour intrusion through basements causing immense human health issues. Free phase TCE (DNAPL) can also slowly dissolve over decades producing toxic plumes of contamination for decades and longer.

Besides the City of Kitchener, the developer and our Mickey Mouse Ministry of Environment, who else has seen the remediation results including groundwater and soil samples? Exactly how much of a "cleanup" did they actually do? Has this whole process of our authorities allowing this contamination to migrate for decades simply been to reduce the on-site concentrations making the site more attractive for developers and to hell with the health of nearby residents? 

Utterly disgusting.

PUBLIC MEETINGS VERSUS DOG & PONY SHOWS

 

Right now there are loud calls for a public meeting regarding the Wilmot land scandal. Yes that is the 770 acres that the Region are trying to assemble (surrepticiously?) on behalf of the province and likely on behalf of some corporate giant. There are also loud calls for a public meeting regarding the Waterloo Region District School Board who are even more deaf and stupid than the Region and or our municipal councillors..  That is in regard to the sudden dismissal of the Education Director (chanika) and his controversial ideas that have negatively affected the Board's focus on student achievement. Finally a public meeting has been advised down the road regarding the Township's (Woolwich) and the province's plans (MECP) surrounding the gross failure to restore the public drinking water aquifers in Elmira by 2028.

TRAC meetings are NOT public meetings. They are Dog & Pony shows run by Lanxess, the MECP with Woolwich Township pretending to be in charge. The public are not allowed to ask questions. The public are not allowed to make statements. Delegations to TRAC have a rigid schedule and again little to zero feedback is given with little to zero questions asked of the Delegate. It is a sham.

Real public meetings have multiple microphones placed around the room and citizens do not need to request to be a f...ing Delegate a week ahead of the meeting. That is typical, dishonest, bureaucratic bullcrap. Honest politicians, if they exist, know what public meetings as well as what real public consultation is. Step aside and let the people paying the freight have their say. Some of us, maybe more than you think, know what we are talking about.  

"THE CLEANUP IS A SHAM" ... PUT ON A BANNER ON THE ROOF OF MY CAR PARKED IN FRONT OF THE OLD ELMIRA ARENA BACK IN THE 1990s

 

Lanxess, the MECP and Woolwich Township are idiots. All it's going to take is one bit of human or mechanical breakdown and the you know what will hit the fan big time. One serious, toxic air emission, one fire and explosion, one release of health data for either Elmira citizens or downstream, Mennonite farm families; any of that will trigger the simmering public outrage .  Even the upcoming "mandated" 2028 cleanup date may pull the trigger. 

I was advised this week that the long delayed and debated Hawkridge Homes may be breaking ground. Apparently equipment is being mobilized and taken to the site on Union St. across from Lanxess Canada, CCC (Sulco) and the Elmira Sewage Treatment Plant (STP). Geez what a metaphor for how our politicians view those with modest incomes and assets. Here let us build affordable housing in the least possible attractive locations. Tractor trailer traffic no problem. Middle of the night trains shunting back and forth no problem. Chemical odours and emissions no problem. Fires and explosions, been there and done that therefore no problem. Septic type odours from the STP when the wind direction changes, no problem. Of course it's no problem to the planners, politicians or developers...none of them are going to live there.

Back to my banner decades ago. I was protesting a couple of particular issues such as DNAPLS which were being swept under the carpet. Deceit and dishonesty by Uniroyal Chemical and their consultants and friends was upsetting me. I couldn't believe the brass, the nerve and the blatant lying going on with only a very few citizens attending and speaking up against it. This included Dr. Henry Regier, Esther Thur , Rich Clausi, Susan Bryant etc. At that point I had not extrapolated the deceit and lying going on over some issues as being indicative of the entire plan being focused on appearances not facts.  I stated that the cleanup was a sham but not in my wildest imagination did I believe that indeed that was the big picture. The big plan was simply talk, delay, talk, delay, delay. delay until citizen activists were dead or senile. New, more amenable, more deferential, more "professional" citizens could be coercred into joining the alleged public consultation. Perhaps I should rename TRAC from Totally Rotten and Corrupt to Technical,  Remediation And Cheerleading. It fits well.  

JANUARY 2017 AN INAUSPICIOUS TIME

 

Well there were a couple of major disappointments in early 2017 as recorded in the Woolwich Observer and the K-W Record. Firstly Dr. Richard Jackson was replaced as Chair of TAG which was the beginning of the slow descent into the environmental abyss. Less important possibly than Dr. Jackson's world class reputation versus Tiffany Svensson's (new Chair) was her apparent willingness to follow orders.  Misplaced orders, stupid orders, orders that were NOT in the public interest. These orders would have come from Mayor Shantz who knows less than nothing on this file. She likely took her orders from Lanxess Canada and the Ontario Ministry of Environment. This was the beginning of the end as TAG basically became a cheerleader for Lanxess and their consultants GHD. 

The second gross failure had to do with Election Act charges being dropped against councillor Scott Hahn. Of all the pathetic financial reports filed by incompetent councillors (Hahn, Shantz & Bauman)  his were the most blatantly false. My goodness he didn't really even try. It was as if someone at Woolwich whispered in his ear "These reports are for show only. Nobody pays attention to them. Write whatever your little heart desires." Thus he did and they were a disaster.

Then of course it was excuses time and even there he messed up. Paperwork came and went,  alleged documents didn't back up his story and more. Through it all MECAC (Municipal Elections ACT Committee) showed their true pro politicians' colours and the courts while admitting that a conviction was likely decided to drop everything. I certainly would have suggested that of the three idiot councillors involved, Scott receive the mildest penalty simply because it was his very first election and he was inexperienced nevertheless a message needed to be sent that these financial reports are important and must be treated accordingly.  The Municipal Elections Act (MEA) was treated contemptuously and the lack of enforcement reinforced that politicians are above the law. A very bad show. 

TAG/TRAC DISPUTED OR CONTENTIOUS ISSUES ARE NEVER RESOLVED. THEY ARE DENIED OR BRIEFLY ADDRESSED THEN DROPPED

 

Of course this behaviour can only occur when the Chair and the Agenda are firmly controlled at all times. Whether Tiffany with TAG or Nathan with TRAC you will see lots of time wasting presentations by Lanxess and their consultants GHD.  Truth or accuracy are not as important as the message which is "Trust us, we know what we are doing. If in any doubt you may consider us as hydrogeologic Gods or better if that eases your mind."

Hot button issues should include DNAPLS, mass downstream exceedances of health criteria whether soils, sediments or fish tissues, ongoing gross pumping failures both on and off-site. Then of course instead of making up excuses such as "asymptotic behaviour" for the in your face failure to achieve drinking water standards for either NDMA or chlorobenzene by 2028; Lanxess should have doubled down and already implemented ISCO (In Situ Chemical Oxidation) or other source removal mechanisms in multiple areas both on and off site. This combined with the November 2012 pumping promises made ignored by Chemtura could have made a major improvement  by now in the current concentrations of dissolved contaminants. 

Two other points. Mayor Shantz's ill advised and petty assault upon Woolwich volunteers (CPAC) in April and September 2015 was grossly counterproductive to the cleanup as it effectively removed accountability. Also it will be interesting to see some of the concentrations of other Uniroyal Chemical contaminants still dissolved in Elmira's Aquifers. This is one more hot button issue that has been deftly kicked to the curb by the professional liars in charge. 

I DISLIKE ALL POLITICIANS OF ALL STRIPES - TRUDEAU LIBERALS NEED TO GO ALTHOUGH I FEAR THEIR REPLACEMENT

I do not believe that either the Liberals or the Conservatives hold the public interest as their first priority.  Perhaps the NDP or the Greens do but the proof is in the pudding which means giving them a shot at power i.e. governing. I think after a term or two in office there would be less speculation and wishful thinking and more objective data as to where those parties priorities are. Maybe we would be pleasantly surprised and maybe we would shrug our shoulders and say "same old", "same as the Liberals or same as the Conservatives".  I really don't know.

The Liberal party are not as bad as Pollievre would have us believe. The carbon tax is actually a proven economic stimulus that helps decision makers move somewhat in a green direction.  Environmentally the Liberals are still subsidizing the oil & gas industry but the Conservatives will continue to do that until the last barrel of oil is extracted or the planet has burned to a crisp.  The real nail in the Liberal party for me is their willingness to scapegoat honest citizens who have followed the laws of the land whether in pursuit of recreational or competitive target shooting or those who legally hunt whether for ducks, geese or deer and moose etc. Literally via Order in Council (Cabinet decision) versus parlimentary legislation they have tied up hundreds of thousands to millions of firearms preventing citizens who have broken zero laws from using their own legally purchased property. At the same time the Liberals have not offered a nickel in promised compensation for these firearms to their lawful owners in the past five years. A government behaving like that desperately needs to f*&#% off and go sit in political purgatory for several years at least. 

Ideally I could live with a minority government consisting of Conservatives, NDP and Greens. If you like Doug Ford here in Ontario go ahead and hope for a majority Conservative win. You'll have lots of time down the road to regret that. 

My favourite joke is that politicians are like diapers and need to be changed often and for the same reasons  i.e. they are full of ...

WRDSB CONTINUES TO PUBLICLY UNRAVEL

 

Thank you Waterloo Region District School Board. Your idiocy and ideology combined with your inherent corruption is presenting a beacon of stupidity and incompetence throughout Waterloo Region. You have via thirty years ago with the Ron Archer scandal laid bare your fundamental indecencies. It was bad enough that he was knowingly allowed to continue teaching (?) and molesting school children but the failure of the police and judicial system to charge senior WRDSB staff involved in covering up Mr. Archer's criminal activity and indeed "passing the trash" to transfer him from school to school was almost equally as contemptible. For this our police and prosecuters never were held accountable much less those at the top of the WRDSB directly involved in lying to parents, denying childrens' complaints and ignoring the odd brave individual within the system who dared speak out.

Then there is the Caroline Burjowski affair. A twenty-year teacher was treated by the Board and Trustees like trash because she politely and professionally spoke her honest opinion regarding certain controversial books available to extremely young students. Right or wrong, 100% on target or not she both as a teacher , a stakeholder and a human being deserved so much better. 

Now we have the sudden removal of chanika jewan the Director of Education. His presence resulted in major educational developments not all universally favoured by parents, students or teachers. The WRDSB seems to think that all the other education stakeholders including Board members should have zero input in both decisions and even in major changes made by the brain trust at the WRDSB. Three trustees however have stepped up namely Bill Cody, Mike Ramsay and Cindy Watson and are agreeing with Louise D'Amato's (K-W Record) request for some kind of a town hall meeting. For decades I have watched the WRDSB play fast and loose with education in general, students progress and parents' abilities to significantly participate in their childrens' education.  It has been a disaster and the province should have stepped in decades ago and thrown them out of their cushy positions. Shame on them.

Is there significance as to the number of horrible politicians who learned their "craft" starting at the WRDSB? Does our current mayor of Woolwich Township (Sandy Shantz) even acknowledge any longer that she chaired the school board for a term or two? If I were her I certainly wouldn't.

TRAC CONTINUES TO FLOUNDER - WORST ROT IS AT THE TOP BUT ALL ARE TAINTED BY ASSOCIATION

 

Three points today. 1) The next TRAC meeting isn't until April 10, 2025 6 pm. which is beyond ridiculous.  2) Those in charge of TRAC are censoring/removing technical reports submitted to TRAC 3) Despite the title above a recent communication has me adding a proviso to my title regarding "Tainted By Association". 

3) first.  I still believe that the ultimate result of participation in a grossly corrupt and perverted body like TRAC will engulf and ensnare even those who are still trying to make a difference.  I also believe that that participation alone gives undeserved credibility to this 100% controlled by Lanxess and Woolwich Township group of individuals. Each time someone leaves they appoint another unprepared and most likely well out of their depth individual to TRAC. Despite individual credentials, zero experience in an ongoing issue thirty-five years in length is the height of stupidity but exactly what corrupt polluters and their fellow travellors thrive on.

1)  2025 - 2028  Three miserable years until in theory the hammer should fall. It should fall resoundingly upon Lanxess , the loser in the game of musical chairs in which they are the current owners. It should also fall upon the Ontario MECP and upon Woolwich Township for their deceit and manipulation in excluding legitimate opposition from an honest public consultation process much less from the perverted form they have made it into. TRAC should be pounding Lanxess and the MECP into a full assault upon the cleanup not throwing up their hands, admitting defeat and coasting as they have over the last five years. Shame on the pack of them.

2) Public input and consultation means exactly that. Our drinking water and our Creek are public issues and Woolwich have zero right to pick and choose only supporters or soft spoken, deferential to authority persons to TAG and now TRAC.  They also have zero right to refuse to send technical reports on to TRAC because allegedly there may be a harsh criticism or two embedded in said report. That said I continue to e-mail technical reports directly to TRAC members making it less tenable down the road to pretend that no one gave them serious alternate cleanup advice or pointed out blatant nonsense from Lanxess's consultants GHD.  

UGH! NEW YEAR'S RESOLUTIONS ARE FOR THE IMPERFECT AMONG US. OR THOSE LACKING IN TYPICAL MALE OVERCONFIDENCE

 

I read somewhere recently that one of the male gender's most endearing features is their overconfidence in their ability to quickly pick up extremely technical knowledge and then apply it instantaneously in an emergency. The example given was that twice as many males as females were convinced that in an emergency (eg. unconscious pilot ) that with a very brief few pointers that they could successfully land the airplane. Now the writer was female and she diplomatically did refer to this as an "endearing trait" of men. Hmm I sense that others of both genders might not interpret that scenario exactly the same. 

I think back thirty years to Stephen Quigley and Allan Deal of Conestoga Rovers (CRA) so confidently predicting that their expertise then would result in the smooth landing of the Elmira Aquifers past the line of the Ontario Drinking Water Standards etched in stone on the landing strip. Along with them was David Ash, Jeff Merriman and Dwighte Este all of Uniroyal Chemical. Mostly names from the past who appropriately took a hike after a while.

Regarding others making New Year's resolutions, I am cool with that. Regarding myself I am conflicted.   Yes in my most serious moments of reflection I can find an error or two over the decades, maybe even more. But... I take my word very seriously despite lying little shits like Robert Re..... oops this is part of my possible New Year's Resolutions and I'm already about to cross the line. O.K I take my word seriously enough that I don't want to lie even to myself. If I make a resolution I'm stuck with it. Hence problem solved by simply not making any resolutions.

Over the last seven or eight years I have expanded my list of crappers here in Elmira and area. Prior to that (approx.?) I believe that I focused strongly on the polluter (Uniroyal/Crompton/Chemtura), their consultants (CRA), and the Ont. Ministry of Environment (M.O.E.). It is my recollection that I did not strongly hammer Woolwich Township, GRCA, Region of Waterloo, Woolwich councillors etc. That expansion whether I'm totally correct or not on the 2016-2017 timeframe occurred as I began to understand the depth, the deceit and the malice behind  our authorities enabling the polluters' escape from accountability. 

So I was toying with the idea of backing off on my public educational campaign to expose ALL the guilty parties particularly the political ones. I considered making a Resolution to that effect based upon three friends and colleagues well intentioned advice. Maybe I will regret not doing it and maybe I won't.  

TWO RESPONSES TO YESTERDAY'S NEW YEAR'S DAY MESSAGE TO LANXESS, GHD, MECP & WOOLWICH TOWNSHIP

 

Firstly I believe that Sandy is ecstatic at the possibility of being honoured by being the one to dedicate the Uniroyal Chemical/Lanxess Canada cancer wing at Grand River Hospital. Now it is also possible that she may be somewhat confused as to why she was so nominated for this (dis)honour. I further expect that her guides, advisers, minions etc. will quickly get her up to speed. No Sandy, polluters and their corporate successors are not honoured by honest, intelligent, decent human beings for their refusals and failures to make the public interest whole again. Once your puffery and propaganda are removed  Lanxess and you will be treated much more appropriately. Perhaps you, just like your two sidekicks, Pat Mc. & Susan B. will also get the heck out of town for good. I am thrilled to have lived long enough to see that occur and maybe, just maybe I'll see your departure as well. 

The two responses were a pleasant surprise and consisted of the one pointing out that there is a more complete and factual book on the subject of "Elmira's Water Woes: The Triumph of Corruption, Deceit and Citizen Betrayal". Yes they are in fact referring to my 2019 book which can be found at www.waterlooregionadvocate.blogspot.com  The other response referred to righteous outrage and moral culpability for which I very much appreciate the author's words and sentiments.   

NEW YEAR'S DAY 2025 - TWENTY-FIVE YEARS OF INCESSANT LYING BY UNIROYAL/CROMPTON/CHEMTURA/MECP WITH NO CONSEQUENCES

 Starting as early as 1992 Conestoga Rovers and Uniroyal Chemical were talking about pump & treat i.e. hydraulic containment as the route forward. Yes they were also looking at and lying like dogs about DNAPLS (dense non aqueous phase liquids) not being on their site which has been disproven on a number of occasions. The lying about DNAPLS has continued to the present day whereas the lying about achieving drinking water standards in the Elmira Aquifers started to slow around 2017 and indeed since then Lanxess have grudgingly admitted that it isn't going to happen. Their lies have been more focused on excuses as to why it won't happen versus the reality that much more source removal was required as was much more groundwater pumping both on and off site. The latter was admitted in November 2012 by CRA and Chemtura but never implemented. 

 It is now 2025. Three skinny years until the mandated deadline.  Mandated...what a joke. The Ontario Ministry of Expanded Corporate Pollution (MECP)  are in the process of writing a new Control Order or whatever Mickey Mouse new name they want for the document. No penalties, no sanctions, no fines, no jail time, not even public denunciation from the MECP for the gross failure of the polluter, their consultants and their corporate successors. I believe that they the corrupt regulator (MOE/MECP) should also be facing consequences for their gross failures as well.

Polluters with deep pockets aren't even subject to moral suasion in this province. Where is the outrage that Uniroyal Chemical could destroy a former trout creek permanently with hefty downstream loads of dioxins, DDT compounds and so much more virtually untouched and unremoved to this day? Where is the outrage that they could lie without consequences for twenty-five years about cleaning up our drinking water aquifers by 2028? Elmira citizens including myself publicly criticized those lying filth, one corrupt technical report after another for decades and not so much as Thank You, you were right, It's not being cleaned up properly.  Our incredibly compromised authorities from Woolwich Township to Regional Government, GRCA, MECP etc. have been deeply in bed with the polluters and their fellow travellors since the beginning. Our corrupt authorities have enabled this pollution, this lack of cleanup and this  false narrative that it was nobody's fault from the beginning. Many of our authorities hands are dirty whether from personal benefit by supporting Uniroyal Chemical and friends or dirty/bloody from being complicit in the unnecessary destruction of people's health and lives. 

Cancers are rampant among us and do you seriously think that Uniroyal's toxic chemical additives to air, surface water, groundwater and soil have not taken their toll locally? Perhaps as a token of our "gratitude" we should name a cancer wing at Grand River Hospital after the company. It would be fitting if it was dedicated by say Woolwich  mayor Sandy Shantz who has put her personal stamp upon greasing the wheels for Lanxess Canada's smooth landing in 2028.