WHAT ABOUT LOCALLY PRODUCED MAPLE SYRUP?

 

Frankly it was a chemist who recently described the Elmira Maple Syrup Festival as the elephant in the room. His description suggested that the tree sap is magnified in concentration by about fourty times during the sap to syrup process and hence possibly so would any toxic contaminants present.  I only vaguely recall discussions around the Maple Syrup Festival decades ago . My recollection is that the concerns were that tourists and visitors might stay away based more upon fear and confusion than any real health concerns.

That being said was there ever any serious study or determination that concluded that locally produced Maple Syrup for sale at the Festival was safe and free of Uniroyal toxic chemicals? Well I know that if there was I sure never saw it and I've never turned down reading any kind of technical reports regarding Uniroyal and Elmira issues. I can also state confidently that various local authorities seemed far more concerned with subjective items such as real estate prices than with objective or scientific matters pertaining to health. Former Mayor Bob Waters certainly did his best to dispel fear and instill confidence in Woolwich and Elmira even at the height of the NDMA fear.

Similarly the Region of Waterloo and Ken Seiling seemed intent upon avoiding panic or public expressions of anger towards Uniroyal or the Ontario Ministry of Environment. Various excuses were floated very early on some of which turned out to be ridiculous such as the grease in the pumps for the drinking wells was the source of the NDMA. Wally Ruck of Uniroyal Chemical will remain famous for his statement that NDMA was not in Uniroyal's vocabulary thus falsely it turned out suggesting that just like the Ont. M.O.E., they had never heard of it before.

There was a lot of lying and bulls*it going around . Uniroyal Chemical did publicly and repeatedly state that they weren't the only source of contaminants to the Elmira drinking water aquifers. They then turned around later and accepted full responsibility for all the drinking water contamination. This likely was a major part of their sweetheart deal with the Min. of Environment who sure as hell didn't want to admit their negligence and failures to properly monitor Elmira manufacturers, chemical or otherwise. Eventually Nutrite (Yara) accepted blame for adding ammonia to the drinking aquifers and Varnicolor Chemical was just named this year, 36 years after the fact as a contributor of six chlorinated solvents to the drinking aquifers.  

So is it possible that trees were and are tapped for sap in groundwater contaminated areas around Elmira.? Possible for sure  but who's ever going to admit to it?