CREDIT GOES TO SANDY SHANTZ FOR ANNOUNCING HER STEPPING DOWN EARLY

 

Instead of delaying her announcement that she wasn't running and hence possibly being viewed as a "lame duck" mayor by both her Woolwich and regional colleagues; she has announced already that she is not running for Woolwich Mayor again this October. Hallelujah albeit the damage is done and the last ditch chance to reverse Woolwich Township's disgraceful "water crisis" legacy is now well past. The Township rolled over early and joined the Uniroyal Chemical fellow travellors' cheerleading group. After the new CPAC (2011-2015) changed the channel and set the new direction however it was Sandy Shantz who re-embraced Uniroyal/Chemtura, kicked out CPAC and went back to the status quo of much talk and little action or cleanup.  

Uniroyal and their corporate successors have made a laughing stock of local democracy and of the provincial Ministry of Environment (MECP). Clearly our provincial environmental laws are absolutely no match for multi billion dollar, multi national corporations with large legal budgets and tiny ethics and decency. No effort was ever spared by the polluters to minimize their cleanup costs and enhance their soiled reputations. And our local councils aided and abetted that over decades to their everlasting shame. 

To date I believe that councillor Eric Schwindt has thrown his hat into the ring.  I guess I'm not terribly surprised nor alarmed although I will admit my knowledge of him is limited. What I have seen over the last four years has been positive in a number of areas . I do not know if there will be other contenders or not although it seems likely. You know I can live with a mayor with a different background than myself but dear God at least let them have an open mind regarding our public water supply and they must put the public interest first in all matters. They must not be beholden to developers, builders, industrialists or our local big shots or for that matter any other self-serving groups especially including regional and provincial governments.   

GROWTH AT ANY COST MANTRA

 

All around the world economic growth continues to be the alleged panacea of all our ills. Which is complete nonsense even on the face of it. Yes it would be nice to have enough food, water, shelter, health care etc. for everyone on the planet but it is an impossible task getting worse everyday. Why is that you ask? Well there are more and more people on the same size planet everyday. There is however not an automatic and corresponding increase in those life sustaining items everyday as the population continues to grow.  Combined with that is the fact that economic growth at least partially depends on population growth. In other words it's a case of having an ever expanding market for your goods be they foodstuffs, clothing or automobiles.

Population growth leads to some awful environmental problems from basic dumping and overflows from sewage treatment plants into our lakes and rivers as well as forest removal in order to grow more food for more people. Then of course we have climate change which certainly is attributed to more petroleum uses whether for heating our homes or running cars and trucks delivering more products to more people. Climate change including rising ocean levels as ice caps melt is causing havoc with flooding of coastal towns and cities. Greater heat worldwide is causing massive increases in both the numbers and magnitude of violent weather events resulting in more hurricanes and tornados destroying property and lives. Both droughts and floods are increasing in numbers and both affect food production which is already under stress.

Water shortages used to be an issue in third world countries. Now countries are looking for water sources outside their own borders. Water, whether groundwater or surface water, is in greater demand even as our industries continue to ignore pollution laws with little or no public recourse against them. Here in Elmira the now responsible chemical company are bragging about their fine "cleanup" work even as the Ministry of Environment rewrites the Control Order (1991) that was supposed to restore our local aquifers destroyed by Uniroyal Chemical. The deadline is 2028 and it won't happen although desperation may cause attempts to reopen parts of the aquifer to drinking water pumping while pretending to isolate other more contaminated parts. 

This is all our futures unless growth is more seriously limited and supervised. 

ABUNDANT, ACCURATE & HONEST ADVICE WAS GIVEN TO UNIROYAL & SUCCESSORS : IT WAS ALL IGNORED AND DENIGRATED

 

Who gave them advice exactly? CEAC gave them good advice for years. The Region of Waterloo as well until they walked away unhappy with being ignored. Various bodies from the initially independent albeit stacked with Uniroyal supporters UPAC followed by CPAC (Crompton/Chemtura) followed by RAC/TAG and then TRAC all gave some good advice but other than the 2011-early 2015 CPAC none of the others ever stood up to the company and the Ministry (MOE/MECP) and demanded honest discussions, action and good faith from them. Chemtura were just like their predecessors incapable of doing any of that. 

Woolwich Township have always been far too sympathetic and deferential to the chemical company with the Oct. 2010 to Oct. 2014 council of Todd Cowan at least trying to support greater honesty at CPAC although even then Todd Cowan personally was a problem. Eventually as we all know he self destructed albeit with a little help. The GRCA can best be described as a joke which speaks volumes as to my lack of response to Doug Ford's clipping their wings. 

The advice given was based upon various reports and experts advising what needed to be done including the MOE from time to time, in between polishing Uniroyal's apple and kissing their feet . Advice included Source Removal including DNAPLS, pumping to both the on-site and off-site Target Rates determined by their own consultants,  removing dioxins, DDT and more in the downstream Canagagigue Creek and so much more. Off-site there were poorly managed DNAPLS (chlorobenzene) whether from Uniroyal or a now decades later admission to a second (unnamed) industrial source. There was also advice given to clean up their air emissions which literally took them years to get around to meanwhile harming local residents' (adults & children) health. 

The company's and the Ministry's (MOE) early on sweetheart deal (Oct. & Nov. 1991) set the tone for the company's continuing to be in charge of the "cleanup" from start to finish. The "cleanup" unsurprisingly has failed just like the company and Ministry have failed Elmira, Woolwich and downstream residents. 

HOW MANY WOOLWICH COUNCILLORS WANT TO HANG AROUND FOR THE WATER BLAME ?

 

Well the chief architect of the Elmira cleanup failure over the last twelve years by the time the October elections roll around is running for the hills. She also bears some responsibility at the regional level for the water crisis throughout all of Waterloo Region. How many other regional as well as local councillors do you think will join the exodus? I would expect the mayors with more than one term as mayors and regional councillors might be thinking that this is a good time to hit the road. Is that only Barry Vrbanovic or is one of the other big city mayors a repeat culprit?

I expect that up here in Dogpatch (Woolwich) that there might be some small exodus of councillors although actually other than Bonnie Bryant, the others are all first term councillors. Hard to fault them horribly from one term's experience in which a quadruple term Sandy Shantz was leading the pack. She also spent a term as a councillor before her three terms as mayor. A small peccadillo derailed her for one term between her term as councillor and her three terms as mayor.  

I have spent years trying to figure out if she basically is a naive fool, easily swayed and manipulated by the likes of Dave Brenneman, Mark Bauman, Chemtura/Lanxess and other local big shot companies and individuals. Or has she with full knowledge ploughed ahead wrecking havoc on our environment and health by prioritizing growth and business at all costs?  Uniroyal and successors is not the only industrial dump  in Woolwich Township. Breslube, prior to Safety-Kleen, damaged our environments's air and water for extensive distances throughout the 70s, 80s and 90s. Safety-Kleen were always welcomed with open arms and glad handing by earlier Woolwich mayors including Bill Strauss who personally owned multiple contaminated sites related to the fuel industry. 

Perhaps we the citizens deserve both the environment and the mayors that we've had. Sebastian (TRAC) has very lately sent an excellent treatise on to some local environmentalists and unfortunately to a couple of wanna bees that may bite him. That could be unfortunate or it could turn out to be a blessing in disguise as he spends less time with those he refers to as deferential.  

MAYOR SHANTZ"S LEGACY IS LIKELY PROBLEMATIC

 

I suggest that her legacy is problematic mostly based upon her efforts regarding Elmira's water situation. Yes I am aware that the Woolwich Observer and others have been warning taxpayers here in Woolwich Township for decades about profligate municipal spending. Those folks have also likely suggested either empire building or at least unnecessary municipal hires which further add to the Township's financial burden when wages, benefits and long term cost of living increases are all included.

It is also possible that there are other issues such as local development both in Breslau and Elmira that may have offended many citizens. I do not however pretend to be either an expert on the intricacies of development nor on waste water infrastructure. I do have considerable knowledge however on water supply including both municipal, regional and even individual wells on private residences.

For myself there is one other major area of recent dispute that Mayor Shantz possibly cleverly avoided at all costs and that is the Region of Waterloo's mishandling of  Wilmot's water supplies. Keep in mind that Mayor Shantz has also been a regional councillor for the past twelve years and should have stepped up and provided some leadership within regional council. Absolutely none was heard or reported upon at regional council meetings that multiple media have been attending vigorously for at least the last six months. 

I have a colleague here in Elmira who has resoundingly been repeating the following mantra namely that Ms. Shantz's actions and decisions over the last eleven years have guaranteed the now universally accepted failure to clean up the Elmira Aquifers by 2028. While the "cleanup" has been irregular, inconsistent and inadequate for decades, the last chance to turn things around was in 2015 after the previous year's election which made Ms. Shantz mayor. Unfortunately, likely with bad advice (Brenneman & Bauman), she did absolutely everything wrong to restore the public's aquifers and everything right to minimize the polluter's environmental expenses and to polish Chemtura's and Lanxess's public images. 

She has announced that she won't run in this fall's election. While that is a long overdue blessing I am not sure that local powers that be will not have multiple replacements waiting in the wings to solidify their influence generally at the expense of the public interest.  

IS JUSTICE CRAIG PARRY ANOTHER JUSTICE ROBERT REILLY ONLY 2.0 ?

 

I have noticed both the similarities and the differences. Both judges are local (Waterloo Region). Both are arrogant know it alls beyond belief. Both are stupid enough to think that either everybody in the world will believe their horseshit or that those who don't, do not matter.

The Dishonourable Robert Reilly dismissed the testimony of seven parent witnesses who supported me and my wife at trial. He blamed me alone for allegedly holding them under my spell and inducing them to falsely testify against the Plaintiff who sued both myself and my wife. Justice Craig Parry on the other hand dismissed the evidence of 48 female witnesses against Dr. Jeffrey Sloka. Justice Parry claimed that ALL the witnesses were unreliable however he blamed Waterloo Regional Police, the media and the prosecuters for having misled them in a variety of ways. I guess if you don't like multiple witnesses testimony than you need to scapegoat somebody.

Oh and my case was a civil case not a criminal case plus the co-accused (my wife) was found NOT liable as there was absolutely not one single shred of evidence presented against her.  When I refused to put her on the stand in my defence both the Plaintiff's lawyer and the asshat Judge went ballistic.  My in hindsight conclusion was that they were hoping to get her to say something on the stand to implicate herself because they had absolutely no evidence against her.

I had hoped and thought that Justice Reilly was the only local piece of crap Judge we had. I was mistaken apparently. I wonder if anybody at trial asked the police whether or not there were any male patients of Dr. Sloka (neurologist-brain, nerves etc.) who had complained about inappropriate and or intimate body examinations.  If not that kind of looks bad on the doctor don't you think? I also wonder how Justice Parry satisfied himself that Dr. Sloka's intimate bodily examinations were appropriate?  The Crown Prosecuter's witness a Neurologist said it was not appropriate. No other independent and certified witness said otherwise yet our Justice Craig Parry seems confident enough to substitute his judgement for that of a well known, certified professional Neurologist PLUS the opinions of the College of Physicians and Surgeons who permanently stripped Dr. Sloka of his medical license for his behaviour with female patients.

If if looks like a duck ....if it waddles like a duck ....and if it quacks like a duck ...it probably is a duck or in this case he probably is two letters past d....  and rhymes with duck.  

JUSTICE CRAIG PARRY JOINS THE ELITE JUDICIAL GIANTS WHO ACQUITTED JIAN GOMESHI, FIVE HOCKEY CANADA PLAYERS & OUR OWN ROBERT REILLY

 

Now I must add something critical here. Surely to goodness based upon the judicial precedents set over decades (centuries?) combined with the clearly vastly superior mental, emotional and psychological attributes of  male judges, there is no need to continue the trial of the unfortunate Frank Stronach who is being dragged through the mud by a plethora of obviously jealous and petty women. These women recall had dinner with him in a public restaurant and then despite his advanced age compared to themselves, they allowed him to convince them to go and look at his etchings... oops I mean his view of the Toronto (Hamilton?) harbour from his condominium.  There the inevitable happened and their disappointment afterwards was manifested via rape allegations by many of them.  Surely the Judge currently involved can see that (if he is male as the organ involved self centres and points due south) hence grounding and stabilizing male opinions and attitudes. This is very important in matters of jurisprudence and wise male judges while denying reliance on their little head versus their big head nevertheless are far more capable of understanding the intricacies of biology versus neurology. 

Speaking of neurology I can hear the critics now hammering Justice Craig Parry simply because he was experienced enough to be able to overcome the aura of competence and intellect professed by many doctors, particularly female ones. The neurologist who testified against Dr. Jeffrey Sloka was female and clearly the good Judge with his decades of legal experience was eminently qualified in all spheres of human knowledge to overrule her medical training, knowledge and certifications as an accredited neurologist in order to discredit her competence on the stand. We are indeed blessed to have such courage and steadfastness in the face of  so many undeveloped brains and emotions compared to those of our various judicial giants. Justice Parry I expect that some day statues will be raised to yourself and your male peers on the stand.  

HISTORY REPEATS ITSELF BOTH AT TRAC AND WITH WILMOT TWN. & WATERLOO REGION

 

I TOLD THE LIARS & DECEIVERS AT CPAC BACK AROUND 2005 THAT THERE WAS  CHLOROBENZENE DNAPL OFFSITE BY THE HOWARD AVE. WATER TOWER - They denied it then, now they admit to the chlorobenzene and "residual" DNAPL.

WATERLOO REGION PLAYED DECEPTIVE GAMES WITH WILMOT'S WATER BACK IN THE 1970s. They initially denied it, then admitted it. They are doing the same thing all over again.

Parents stop lecturing your children to stop lying. Clearly we are always going to need politicians and clearly they are always going to lie to us. If your child likes to lie then nurture that skill and hope for the day when they lie to further your interests versus the public interest.

Today's K-W Record has the front page story and headline titled "Former Wilmot mayor watches history repeat itself". Clearly back in the early 1970s the City of Kitchener had absolutely no problem robbing Peter of water to quench Paul's thirst. This continued until Wilmot stood on their hind legs and gave the Kitchener bullies whatfor. Agreements were made including that the Region would pay any Wilmot residents' costs required to drill deeper wells due to Kitchener drawing them down. 

Similar bullies, polluters, politicians and long compromised regulators (MOE/MECP) have infested UPAC, CPAC initially, RAC, TAG and TRAC, all alleged public consultation bodies.  I presented very strong evidence to the Chemtura Public Advisory Committee prior to 2007 that actually suggested that what Uniroyal's consultants had found was likely DNAPL (Dense Non Aqueous Phase Liquid) made up of chlorobenzene and other contaminants.  As with pretty much all conclusions regarding contamination and cleanup it was based upon hard evidence actually provided by Uniroyal and corporate successors own, client driven consultants. In this case it was published in their monthly Progress Reports and examined a surprising discovery found one hundred feet below ground surface in well OW57-32R very near the Howard St. water tower. It has been vehemently denied for decades despite pumping well W4 being installed right beside it in order to speed up the dissolution of the DNAPL as well as keep the dissolved plume from spreading further under Elmira. Shortly after pumping well W4 was shut down, perhaps a little prematurely, downstream pumping well W3(R) and nearby observation wells such as CH75 began exhibiting increases in chlorobenzene. Hardly any surprise at all under the circumstances. Then in 2017 or 2018 Dr. Neil Thompson dropped the first bomb by advising that there was a lot more chlorobenzene in the Elmira aquifers than anybody had expected. By 2025 Jesse Wrighte of Arcadis Inc. advised that there were other sources of chlorobenzene located near the former Borg Textiles and the former Varnicolor Chemical. Allan Deal of GHD on behalf of Lanxess, also less than a year earlier, had advised as per the Minutes of a September 2024 TRAC meeting that nearby residual DNAPL was now dissolved. OH MY GOD BUT THE LYING BAST*RDS JUST CAN"T TELL THE TRUTH EVEN WHEN IT'S BITING THEM IN THE *SS.  Residual DNAPL is the tail if you will of passing free phase DNAPL that is no longer continuous as in a "pool" of DNAPL.

This deceit, lying and manipulation of the truth has been the never ending story of the Elmira Water Crisis and our politicians not only have failed to call the polluter (Uniroyal/Crompton/Chemtura/Lanxess and regulator (MOE/MECP) on it but  have enabled them throughout the last 36 1/2 years.

 

VOICES FROM THE PAST: ESTHER THUR, KEN REGER & SUSAN RUPERT

 Obviously I can't include everybody. One obvious voice who is still going strong from his moving to Elmira in the mid to late 1990s is Dr. Henry Regier who was mentioned in last Saturday's Blog posting. Another name which I've seen recently in some old newspaper clippings is Dr. Murray Haight who was involved both with CEAC (Citizens Environmental Advisory Committee) as well as assisting the MOE with matters at Uniroyal Chemical I believe mostly in the 1990s although it could have been longer. 

Esther advised both citizens and the Environmental Appeal Board (EAB) in 1990 or 91 about conditions here in Elmira possibly for many decades prior to the start of the 1989 Elmira Water Crisis. She also advised that Uniroyal's fumigations in the old days were so severe that they even sent employees such as her husband Ed home from work (Roxton Furniture) for the day.

Ken Reger had worked for several years at Uniroyal Chemical and he too testified at the EAB as to what he saw both at work and in the Elmira area including wildlife suffering from the effects of Uniroyal's environmental negligence. This included muskrats, groundhogs, carp and others. He referenced the old municipal damp (M2) on the Uniroyal property which had both barrels and likely dioxins in it from the company. 

Susan Rupert, co-founder of APTE with Sandra Bray and Esther Thur, got right to the heart of the matter asking the EAB to expedite Uniroyal at least starting the process to remediate all the damage they had caused. She would be appalled to know today that not one shovelful of downstream contaminated sediments, creekbank soils or floodplain soils has been removed to date and in fact the company have played the cleanup game to the point of buying a Risk Assessment that had the brass and nerve to suggest that there are no unacceptable downstream risks. Likely it is true that the bought and paid for bureaucrats and other alleged "experts" who will never live or work along the downstream Creek feel no "unacceptable" risks to themselves or their families.    

DR. HENRY REGIER AGAIN ADVISES ELMIRA BE DESIGNATED AS AN "AREA OF CONCERN" WITH AN ACCOMPANYING REMEDIAL ACTION PLAN

 

Currently by request I have forwarded Henry's latest report titled "A Road Not Yet Taken with Elmira's Contaminants" dated April 23, 2026 to both the Waterloo Region Record and the Woolwich Observer. Here right now I am merely going to describe some of Dr. Regier's ideas and suggestions, not reproduce his exact report without his express permission. Sorry about that but upon request I can always go to him and ask if I can provide the report to whomever asks for it. It is only six paragraphs on one page but it has a world of value in it.

 Dr. Regier refers to politicians solving problems by the Wand method which stands for Work Around with Non Disclosure. My interpretation is this basically means somewhat paying off victims of bad behaviour but on the understanding they keep their problem and solution to themselves. Now at the same time Dr. Regier suggests that there were formal mechanisms set up through the GLWQA (Great Lakes Water Quality Agreements) to address contamination affecting the Great Lakes. These mechanisms included Areas of Concern (AOC) and Remedial Action Plans (RAP).

Strangely enough at the very same time I am wondering about a bit of a coincidence.  Just today I have been approached on a matter dealing with who and how has the Elmira remediation been undertaken. Basically a little bit similar to Dr. Regier's title of "A Road Not Yet Taken with Elmira's Contaminants".  Dr. Regier does however refer to Elmira's version of a Public Advisory Committee as a deplorably weak version of a RAP process. He also takes a shot at local (Elmira) polluters and their enablers by suggesting that avoiding the GLWQA  RAP method was a major success for them. 

Dr. Regier ends on a hopeful note by suggesting that even now it is not too late for Elmirans to change roads and get onto the GLWQA route with their specific RAP methodologies.

.  

ONE SIDED TRAC MEETINGS FOR DUMMIES, FELLOW TRAVELLORS, CO-OPTEES, AVERAGE JOES AND EVEN INTELLIGENT, HONEST FOLKS

 

TRAC is the result of a thirty year metamorphosis (1992-2022) of public consultation from a citizen run, citizen oriented, open to all interested parties and individuals to a polluter/politician totally controlled and membership vetted body whose real purpose is to restore credibility and trust to a grossly broken system. That system not only includes an underfunded MOE/MECP, a series of corporate successors to Uniroyal Chemical but also political aberrations of democracy from the municipal, regional, provincial and federal levels. Imagine what used to be a town council monopolized by Uniroyal Chemical employees who used to decide which local industries were approved for industrial disposal in old fashioned dumps without any  modern leachate controls or even normal restrictions on chemical and toxic wastes. Normal restrictions that is for landfills/dumps located appropriately away from residents much less located right here in town (i.e. M1, M2, First St. Landfill, Bolender Landfill etc.).

This metamorphosis has been partially successful simply due to the time involved.  Most citizens have jobs, families and homes as the major part of their responsibilities.  Hence having anyone still actively involved for nearly thirty-seven years is almost unheard of.  There is only one such who has not been the recipient of various forms of consideration including permanent guaranteed lifetime attendance at both private and public meetings and that is myself. Other forms of consideration include editing work from Conestoga Rovers (Uniroyal consultants) and or in the case of a former councillor, expense paid trips around North America to attend conferences for which she was and is totally unqualified for.   

I must add that there have been and still are local Canadian citizens residing here in Elmira and nearby who contributed greatly in years past. Some of them still contribute as they are able and thank goodness for that. Like myself, those who have paid attention, are appalled by what passes for public consultation today.  Woolwich Township are in total control of the process with the responsible polluter (Lanxess Canada) being their only source of information and data. Well to be correct Lanxess and their various client driven consultants such as GHD and WSP. All reports, all data, all speakers are at the choice of Woolwich Township. Yes this is the same political body who sat back for decades and said and did mostly nothing as Uniroyal Chemical turned our Creek into a sewer and poisoned their residents with grossly contaminated water all the time denying there was a problem. 

Can you imagine if I was allowed to speak to either Council or TRAC for even 5% of the time that is allotted to Lanxess, the MECP or GHD?  Can you imagine if other citizens not affiliated with TRAC or Woolwich were given even an hour or two to speak publicly to either body? Nor can I because currently we aren't even allowed to so much as ask a simple question at a public TRAC meeting. I live here and I pay taxes and I find your deference and one sided protection of the polluter from criticism to be dishonest, cowardly and contemptible. 

 

SPECIFICS ON LAST THURSDAY'S TRAC MEETING

 

TRAC does not stand for Totally Rotten and Corrupt. That would be unfair to almost all the citizen members on this Woolwich (with Lanxess approval) appointed committee. I expect that with perhaps only one or two exceptions they all joined hoping to contribute to a better and quicker cleanup. Now in regards to Lanxess and the MECP my acronym for TRAC is totally accurate. 

Yesterday I suggested that even Sebastian was giving the benefit of the doubt to Lanxess and their consultants far too often. I also advised readers that I had to that point only watched the on-line video (Woolwich website under Council & then Council Calendar) for the first hour and a quarter. Well I finished the rest of the video later in the day (just over two hours) and guess what? That buggar (said affectionately) Sebastian up and digs his heels in on two important points namely NAPLS/DNAPLS and the effluent criteria for NDMA at the south end of Elmira (i.e. well E7).  Lanxess and GHD pushed back hard but Sebastian, bless him, dug in his heels and insisted upon the information he had. Now the other two parties have decided that maybe they do need to check this out which is good. It could be a miscommunication by Lanxess in a report or it could be more insidious. We shall see.

Here are the results of Joe Ricker's analysis of four plumes mentioned yesterday. NDMA concentrations in the Municipal Upper (MU)  Aquifer has been greatly reduced to .086 ug/l (micrograms per litre) or parts per billion. The drinking water standard is .009 ug/l. Therefore going on thirty-seven years since the wells were shut down in 1989, NDMA is still nine and a half times greater than it's drinking water standard.

NDMA concentrations in the Municipal Lower (ML) Aquifer have also been greatly reduced to .81 ug/l. This  is NINETY times greater than the drinking water standard.

Chlorobenzene concentrations since 1989  (pumping didn't start in the Elmira Aquifers until 1998) in the Municipal Upper (MU) Aquifer have also been greatly reduced to 120 ug/l  (parts per billion). The drinking water standard for chlorobenzene is 80 ug/l therefore chlorobenzene, the allegedly easier compound to remediate, is still 50% higher than the drinking water standard.

Chlorobenzene concentrations since 1989 in the Municipal Lower (ML) Aquifer have also been greatly reduced to 144 ug/l.  This is 1.8 times higher than the drinking water standard of 80 parts per billion.

Hadley Stamm (Lanxess), bless her pointed little head,  reiterated a major revelation from approximately a year and a half ago when she stated that Lanxess believes that there is another source of chlorobenzene to the Elmira Aquifers. HALLELUJAH !  While Lanxess and friends including the MECP do not feel the public are worthy to know whom that is, my guess is still Borg Textiles or Varnicolor Chemical. If it is Varnicolor then jail time would be appropriate for MOE/MECP officials complicit in that coverup. Yours truly has been advising a second source of chlorobenzene since approximately 2004/2005 since discovering free phase DNAPL (now also recently admitted) in OW57-32R beside the Howard St. Water Tower.

All the guilty parties are heavily involved in drafting a communications strategy in order to explain away their remediation failures over the last nearly 37 years. Likely they will focus on groundwater and try to avoid the total non-cleanup of the downstream Canagagigue Creek.

Thanks to Sebastian we have a tacit admission from Lanxess that likely there are still free phase DNAPLS on their property. This is hardly a surprise to those of us who have followed the decades long  DNAPL coverup closely. Joe Ricker (WSP) and Lou Almeida (GHD) who both know where their bread is buttered, of course leapt in to minimize the possible harm to their client, which only clarifies their conflict of interest opinions.  

Geoff Moroz (Region of Waterloo) impressed me with his factual, no nonsense approach. He made it clear that even Uniroyal/Lanxess's treated groundwater effluent was high risk water and should not be used without extreme care and much better testing. He referenced emerging contaminants such as PFAS  (poly fluorinated whatever?) and as well made it clear that Lanxess's treated discharge effluent currently to the Creek is NOT being sampled for the full suite of possible contaminants. WOW! 

For those paying attention that reminds me of APT Environment's phrase from three and a half decades ago that the proposed cleanup of the aquifers should be called  PUMP & DUMP. They may have forgotten since.

TRAC MEETINGS ARE SO MUCH LIGHTER, BRIGHTER, FUNNY AND FRIVOLOUS

This of course is ideal for the responsible polluting company Lanxess Canada and as well for their alleged regulator the MECP (not the Ministry of Enhanced Corporate Pollution - not in name at least ). Now today I listened to approximately the first hour and a quarter of last Thursday's TRAC meeting with the very smooth snake oil salesman Joe Ricker (WSP) taking the lead. He supposedly does plume analytics which a skeptic (knowledgeable realist) like me views as part public relations and part comedy set. In this presentation he is partially assisted by Hadley Stamm of Lanxess who never saw a presenter that she didn't want to interrupt. 

Mr. Ricker analyzed four plumes in the Elmira Aquifers namely the MU  (Municipal Upper) NDMA plume, the ML (Municipal Lower) NDMA plume, the MU chlorobenzene plume and the ML chlorobenzene plume. Right off the bat this is leading us down the garden path as is fully intended by the guilty parties. Of course no mention of DDT or Dioxins in the Elmira Aquifers and certainly no mention of benzene, toluene, xylene, aniline, carboxin, benzothiazole, mercaptobenzothiazole, chlorophenols, polyaromatic hydrocarbons or a myriad of other solvents. I mean really all of these others contaminants absolutely affect the drinkability of the groundwater right along with NDMA and chlorobenzene. But really TRAC is more of a celebratory party rather than a dirge. No one is mourning the  wildlife that have suffered and died much less the human beings who have contracted various cancers from Uniroyal/Lanxess toxins in the air, soil, ground and surface water. That would be gauche don't you know.

Almost every second sentence is a brag about decreasing toxin concentrations of only TWO toxins. Nothing is mentioned about the status of all the other toxins. Nothing is mentioned about how very far away even the two are from drinking water standards, in both aquifers. These meetings are feel good, lets pat ourselves on the back not for any kind of successful resolution but for having deflected appropriate public approbation. Frankly I can't stomach either the company's behavior nor the MECPs. There is not one hard core citizen activist on the committee willing to rock the complacency on view. Perhaps Sebastian is the closest but he too is far too willing to always give the professional B/S artists the benefit of the doubt.

It is this complacency and glad handing that has allowed Lanxess and predecessors to change the channel and the story from a disgusting, polluting corporation killing local citizens to a supposedly successful  (it is not) environmental cleanup story.   

1982 LETTER FROM MOE TO UNIROYAL TELLS ALL

 

This above letter was written on May 5, 1982 and published in the Elmira Independent on February 19, 1991. It is the Ontario Ministry of Environment telling Uniroyal Chemical in Elmira that among other things both their Upper and Municipal aquifers on their site are heavily contaminated plus the municipal wells in the south end of Elmira (E7, E9) are in the same Municipal aquifer as is beneath the Uniroyal site. Furthermore there is a direct hydraulic connection between both locations. Uniroyal and the MOE had seven and a half years from this point to 1) tell the public the truth  2) take drastic steps to avoid the shutdown of Elmira's south wellfield (E7, E9) in November 1989.. 

A  LEFT CLICK ON THE NEWSPAPER ARTICLE SHOULD MAGNIFY IT FOR YOU. OTHER METHODS MAY ALSO ASSIST.

NOW IT'S OPIOIDS AND ANTIDEPRESSANTS FOUND IN LOCAL FISH

 

The title of the story in today's K-W Record is "Researchers find traces of opioids in Ontario fish population". A few years back we were advised that birth control pills were the source of feminization of some fish in our local waters. Apparently even trace amounts of hormones getting through our wastewater treatment plants were adversely affecting fish species in the Grand River. Today it's more drugs both legal and illegal also damaging fish species. These include fentanyl, methadone and venlafaxine and as testing and research continue we will find more in the future. 

This is the big fraud, if you will, both with wastewater treatment and drinking water treatment. We don't know what we don't know. The numbers of untested chemicals in both treatment systems vastly outnumber those that are tested for. A prime example of this neglect was NDMA allegedly not being tested for in Elmira's drinking wells until 1989 despite a large chemical plant (Uniroyal Chemical) as well as Sulco, Varnicolor Chemical, Borg Textiles, Nutrite and more all in town. Both regional and provincial governments knew that NDMA was associated with rubber and rubber additives production as well as fertilizers, animal wastes (pig farms?) and chemical companies yet they conveniently let Elmira citizens unknowingly imbibe it for decades prior to sampling for it.

 Currently our authorities knowingly are allowing citizens to drink tap water with high sodium, nitrate and nitrite levels as well as low level TCE . Then there are all the toxic disinfection by-products such as THMs, HAAs, chloramines and chlorine. I wonder if locally either drinking water or wastewater is being tested for PFAs? Glyphosate concentrations, the active ingredient in Round Up herbicide are not fully known partly because of the highest Method Detection Limit in regional tap water of 25 parts per billion  

Current generations are the guinea pigs of modern day technologies and production. While the current crisis concerns water capacity we should also remember that constantly expanding populations also put enormous pressure on our surface waters which are used for their assimilative capacity (i.e. usually treated human sewage).  At the same time the more water we pull from our aquifers for expanding industry and populations the less is available for downgradient discharge into surface waters. 

Short term thinking (I.e. the growth mantra) is both unsustainable and eventually will lead to collapse. We are on that route now with limited time to reverse course. 

ONGOING, LONG TERM LIKELY NONSENSE CLAIMS BY LANXESS, MECP etc.

 

1) No chlorobenzene in the Bedrock Aquifer

2) No second source of NDMA

3) There is ongoing hydraulic containment on site

4) There is ongoing hydraulic containment off site

5)  Uniroyal is the only source of chlorobenzene in the aquifers

6) Varnicolor never handled chlorobenzene

7) There are no unacceptable health issues in the downstream Canagagigue Creek

8) DDT and Dioxins are hydrophobic hence none in the Elmira aquifers

9) DNAPLS don't need remediation. Leave them alone.

10) Achieving drinking water standards by 2028 is for certain

11) Honest unrigged, unmanipulated public consultation is beneficial

Late in the day admissions by Lanxess, MECP etc.

1)  A second source of chlorobenzene-tacit- other companies near south end of Uniroyal/Lanxess used chlorobenzene   Also an "excess" 1,900 kg. found in aquifers by Dr. Neil Thompson 

2) Yes there was off site DNAPL near W4 and Howard St. Water Tower-Jesse Wrighte

3) We can't achieve drinking water standards by 2028

4)  O.K. maybe pump & treat (hydraulic containment) on its' own won't restore the aquifers to drinking water standards

Lying to the public is both appropriate and necessary for polluters and their regulators. Based upon their behaviour they clearly believe that shareholder profits trump ethics, morality, decency and health concerns. 

      

THE GROSSLY DISHONOURABLE JUSTICE (Former?) ROBERT REILLY

 

 I was advised that in civil cases involving men versus women that he tended to side with the women's testimony. Whether accurate or not it was evident in my case in which allegations of defamation were made against myself. Now of course after reading up on libel law it seemed clear that the truth was the best defence against libel or defamation claims. That may be so but what I found was that the truth simply did not hold up against a biased or ignorant judge right from the start. Also keep in mind that the school board were involved as they backed the other party. Perhaps the dishonourable R. Reilly merely was biased in favour of the local power establishment.

I was manipulated by both the Judge and the Plaintiff's attorney out of my right to a jury trial. Without advising myself, an unrepresented defendant, the Judge agreed to a on the surface ridiculous pre-trial Motion stating that I could not attend the Plaintiff's property. I asked the Judge why this was necessary as I had not been alleged to have already done so and furthermore I had absolutely no idea or interest as to where she lived. Regardless he granted the Motion which I was later told then gave the Judge the right to remove my choice of a jury trial in favour of him (Judge) alone. What a scam!

During the trial the dishonourable judge asked me if I would appeal a verdict made against myself. While warning bells were going off  as this felt like a weird question mid trial nevertheless I answered no. I honestly didn't see how losing was possible with the numerous parent witnesses I had ready to give supporting testimony to my case. Turned out that answer likely emboldened a possibly corrupt (stupid?) judge.

Judge Reilly also refused to enter as documentary evidence written reports by the Council of Teachers. Now if I have that name incorrect the group I am referring to were the provincially mandated oversight committee who had made detailed notes of interviews they had done with a number of my witnesses. I had copies of those detailed notes and my multiple witnesses had done an excellent job in detailing odious behaviour by the Plaintiff. Judge Reilly flatly refused to enter them into the record claiming that my witnesses could speak for themselves on the stand as they did. My view was that the notes would help my defence as my witnesses testimony was reaffirmed by their earlier testimony. Then of course when Judge Reilly found against me without any legitimate contradictions or breakdown in testimony by my witnesses he flatly stated that they had all been enthralled by me and actually referred to me as the Pied Piper without a shred of any such evidence before him. He did this with confidence that if I didn't have the money for a defence lawyer at his trial, combined with my suggesting I wouldn't/couldn't appeal his decision ; then he could decide the case not based upon evidence but based upon his biases or worse.

How many other asshats sit as judges in Ontario? In Canada? Could what I view as bias  actually be corruption or maybe simple influence?  Did the dishonourable  judge have somebody important whisper in his ear that I was a *hit disturber causing trouble for the school board? Did they whisper that I was a *hit disturber causing trouble for Uniroyal Chemical in Elmira? Regardless the facts were clear. The Plaintiff had a long history of poor behaviour. Thirty years later the province (and the courts) have both commented and acted upon bad behaviour of the same board. How much damage and disrespect have all parties including the courts suffered because of this gross miscarriage of justice? 

"MAGIC BULLET" CLEANUP THEORY : THE TAIL (DEVELOPERS) CONTINUES TO WAG THE DOG (WATERLOO REGION)

 

Today's K-W Record has yet another front page story  about the Region of Waterloo Water Crisis written by Luisa D'Amato and titled "There could be more water available than we think, engineer says". This engineer of course represents local homebuilders looking for more water capacity in the region. The engineer involved claims to be both an engineer and a groundwater expert. Hmm a certain odour is already arising.

Once again we are advised in this article that Cambridge water can't be sent to Kitchener-Waterloo due to the different disinfection system used. Now again this isn't spelled out but I had presumed that it related to a chloramine disinfection system versus a straight chlorine system. Again I wish the Region as well as the Record would clarify and or confirm this. There is another possibility and that refers to the AOP or Advanced Oxidation Process used at the Middleton Wellfield to remove TCE (trichloroethylene) from the groundwater. Now technically this is not a "disinfection" system because disinfection normally refers to the removal of bacteria such as Coliforms and E. Coli.

The "magic bullet" cleanup theory mentioned in the title above is a quote from the first and by far best Chair of TAG (Technical Advisory Group) namely Dr. Richard Jackson. The homebuilder's engineer suggested that "recent scientific advances" may result in a safe water supply for Elmira "sooner than we think". Hmm my experience (36 years) here in Elmira is that hot air and bulls*it are plentiful whereas new technologies all come with drawbacks. Dr. Jackson also suggested the same whenever Uniroyal/Chemtura representatives made extravagant claims about faster cleanup.

Apparently the Parkway resevoir and wellfield has been upgraded and or repaired. I hope they are properly treating the TCE that's been there for decades. Meanwhile still no further mention of the Greenbrook Wellfield (Stirling & Homer Watson Blvd. Kitchener) or the river wells along the Grand River in Kitchener known as the Woolner and Pompeii Wellfields. Just what we need, more contaminated wells added to the system likely with minimal treatment and counting on dilution from other wells to reduce contaminant concentrations.   

WHY HAS THE UNIROYAL CONTROLLED ELMIRA GROUNDWATER CLEANUP FAILED?

 

First of all keep in mind that the Elmira groundwater cleanup is barely one third of the problem. The Uniroyal site was and is a disgusting subsurface mess with wastes in the form of tars, sludges, liquids and solids in places down to seventy feet below ground surface. Then there is of course the Canagagigue Creek which to this day has not received so much as a shovelful removal of soils or sediments downstream from the company's property. Air has also been a huge problem in the past although it would appear that the company and successors have done better with it than anywhere else.

The off-site Elmira groundwater has failed because of both on Uniroyal and off-site failure to do source removal of toxic wastes. Years of pump & treat (hydraulic containment) could have been reduced if they had done so. This failure to do source removal off-site is particularly egregious when decades after the fact Lanxess and consultants (Jesse Wright) admitted that there were companies using chlorobenzene in the area of First and Union St. This combined with the known but denied  DNAPL for twenty plus years one hundred feet below surface at OW57-32R (Howard St. water tower) is a big part of the reason why chlorobenzene to this day is still well above drinking water standards in both the Elmira Municipal Upper and Municipal Lower aquifers. Its' removal or encapsulation or other remediation would have cut decades off of the time required by using pump & treat alone. 

On-site failure to remove DNAPL and other wastes has also guaranteed that each and every slowdown or stoppage in on site pumping has allowed even more contamination to readily flow off site. It has also then demanded more and more off-site pumping in order to catch up the new and ongoing leakage of contamination off site. I also believe that besides the now known and admitted sources of Nutrite (Yara), Uniroyal and Varnicolor Chemical that contaminated the municipal aquifers with ammonia, NDMA, chlorobenzene and dozens of other solvents; that there was at least one more source of NDMA. It could easily have been Varnicolor or someone else although our authorities would rather pass on of old age than ever admit to it.

Finally there is the obvious failure for Uniroyal and successors to maintain pumping rates at their own Target pumping rates for years at a time. They even admitted that they needed to grossly increase their own off-site pumping rates (Triple them) and never even got close much less been able to maintain their original far too low pumping rates. They talked a good cleanup and lazy politicians and a few citizens let them get away with it.   

THE ELMIRA DNAPL COVERUP AND SYLVIA BERG

 

Sylvia Berg former second -in-command at APT Environment rolled over and reversed herself and APTE's position on DNAPL's after December 10, 1993. In so doing she caused the loss of three strong APTE members including one of the original founders Esther Thur as well as Richard Clausi and myself. Esther was a real founder along with Sandra Bray and Susan Rupert. Notice the last name Rupert; not the co-opted pretender Susan Bryant who both herself and the media too often inaccurately refer to as one of the founders. Sylvia in reneging on her and APTE's strong opposition to Uniroyal Chemical's inadequate and inaccurate DNAPL position basically totally sold the farm on a proper cleanup right there. That was the beginning of the end for Elmira achieving a proper and permanent cleanup of their drinking water aquifers. At the time however I still naively believed in the basic decency and honesty of Sylvia and Susan Bryant.

Sylvia and Glenys McMullen who both assisted me in writing APTE's DNAPL critique on Conestoga Rovers (Uniroyal consultants) final DNAPL report were in complete agreement with our finished report. Oddly however Sylvia wanted me to sign the report on my own as she correctly stated I had done the bulk of the DNAPL reading and research. I protested, she insisted so I said O.K. blissfully unaware of the game she was playing. Then after the Ministry of Environment's surprise acceptance on December 10, 1993 of the badly flawed Conestoga Rovers DNAPL report, she suddenly wanted to support it. What the hell?

She convinced APTE coordinators (Susan B. was in India) in January 1994 that despite her, Glenys and my DNAPL critique that Conestoga Rovers report was O.K. This was also despite a Kitchener-Waterloo Record article of September 28, 1993 titled "Cleanup of 2 toxic waste pits going smoothly, Uniroyal says" written by John Roe. Sylvia was quoted in this Record article stating that the company must excavate "all DNAPL hotspots" and as well she stated in reference to the environment ministry needing to approve Uniroyal's DNAPL plan that she'd "be very surprised if they found this report adequate." 

Despite all this she reversed her position after December 10, 1993 without any substantive grounds to do so. She turned the APTE January 1994 meeting into a bit of a popularity contest and if I still didn't realize then what she was then neither did anybody else. The myth that APTE were a united and big happy family was just that, a myth. There were other less than amicable departures later on although I believe that Susan Bryant was responsible for them.

  

REGION STEALS THEIR WATER & THEN TREATS WILMOT CITIZENS POORLY - TRAC MEETING THIS THURSDAY 6PM. IN WOOLWICH COUNCIL CHAMBERS (MORE SMOKE & MIRRORS TO DAZZLE THE PUBLIC)

 

Geez my title above could encompass half my Blog post today if I were a little more short winded. Joe McGuinty of the K-W Record has a front page article titled "Wilmot farmers and residents raise the alarm".  I've been hoping that dry wells and former wetlands were symptoms primarily near the west side of Kitchener and were localized drawdowns in the aquifer from high volumes of municipal pumping. Unfortunately the Record seems to be hearing from folks a significant distance from Kitchener who are actually closer to Baden and what I see on my map as "Wilmot Centre".  Now again without proper data and documentation including groundwater levels and stratigraphic (subsurface) maps it is difficult to be 100% certain but the drilled well in Petersburg that is discussed in today's Record certainly caught my eye.  That's not only not a shallow well but at 294 feet deep I have to believe that that is one hell of a deep well, screened well into the AFB2 aquifer beneath Baden, New Hamburg, Petersburg etc. If that is the case then unless there is a regional well pumping steadily within a mile or less that well water distance from ground surface that used to be at 55 feet should not now be down to 122 feet below ground surface. 

Normally water elevation is measured in masl or metres above sea level. That said whichever way you measure it a drop in elevation of nearly seventy feet is extremely concerning. We the public still need multiple groundwater elevation readings from twenty or thirty years ago to compare with the elevation readings today (as in several wells on different days and weeks). Anything else and we are simply being harassed, intimidated and bafflegabbed by professional bulls*it artists (i.e. politicians) and their well paid employees who know where their bread is buttered.    

REGION OF WATERLOO'S DIRTY TAP WATER SECRETS

 

For many years I faithfully waited each spring (March) for the Region of Waterloo to release their Annual Water Report. It did take several years of careful observation, monitoring and research before I felt even reasonably confident that I had a fair understanding of the good, the bad and the ugly within those reports. Some of the negatives were glaring such as the far too few industrial chemicals being monitored including up until recently the infamous NDMA (N-nitrosodimethylamine) made known by Uniroyal Chemical in Elmira. Then there were the far too many wells in Waterloo Region impacted by a notorious industrial cleaner namely trichloroethylene (TCE). There were also far too many wells with incredibly high Sodium (i.e. sodium chloride or salt) levels and as well our landscape and agricultural neighbours have also blessed us with too many Nitrates and Nitrites . Sodium as well as Nitrites are not healthy for individuals with heart problems etc.

I let my vigilance down over the last couple of years and just decided this morning that a look see was a good idea. Well! The bad news is very bad and the good news so far is non-existent. That said I have not completed my foray through the Region's gilded lily Water Report for 2025.  Some of these reports can be found on the Region's website under Water and Wastewater. Likely most of their Annual Water Reports follow provincial guidelines for them however that isn't necessarily saying much. I strongly suspect that there was lots of "collaboration" and "consultation" between municipal and regional water managers prior to the province setting out the rules for these reports. The lack of NDMA testing of wells located within urban areas for decades after the Elmira Water Crisis (1989) is a prime example of a major loophole.

Here are my first two surprises in the Region of Waterloo 2025 Annual Water Report. The Region have been drilling new wells over the last few years almost as if they expected our current water quantity issues and they have been shutting down some notoriously polluted wells. Also the Strange St. Wellfield (Kitchener) appears to have seriously deteriorated in water quality with a large number of detections of trichloroethylene (TCE) . Now this wasn't exactly a shocker as that wellfield has had industrial chemical detections over many years. Also it is possible that the Region may have outsmarted themselves by blending/diluting mildly contaminated water with what they thought was less contaminated water that maybe really wasn't.

The shut down wellfield that jumped at me was the lack of appearance of the William St. Wellfield located at the corner of Regina St. and William St. in Waterloo. Now this wellfield has had trichloroethylene (TCE) in it for many decades and yet was a staple water source for many, many decades. Did the TCE levels rise with increased pumping perhaps? TCE is a DNAPL chemical which can reside in the subsurface slowly dissolving into groundwater over decades and even centuries.

These reports need improvements making them easier to read for laypersons who have not spent decades studying our water supply and groundwater contamination.

LUISA HAS HIT THE NAIL ON THE HEAD. THE REGION OF WATERLOO HAVE LOST CITIZENS' TRUST JUST AS I LOST TRUST DUE TO THE ELMIRA WATER CRISIS

Today's Opinion Piece by Luisa D'Amato is titled "We're not just low on water. We're also low on trust". Luisa begins by referring to the Region's behaviour as a slap in the face to Wilmot. I agree and maybe, just maybe a little chaos is necessary aka such as closing the Strait of Hormuz. Not literally of course but figuratively. For example what would happen if Wilmot advised the Region that maintenance and repairs were necessary on the Wilmot Centre wellfield. Not just on one well but on all of them, however many there are. Maybe start off telling the Region that the wells are closed to regional pumping for only 24 hours. Then unlike the Region who apparently have never apologized for pumping six years worth of water from Wilmot; Wilmot after 24 hours could say "Oops sorry, we were wrong. It's going to take longer."

I'm really not sure that regional councillors are bright enough to fully understand that in the real world  when you crap on somebody they tend to crap right back. Regional staff told councillors two days ago that they desperately need the current 30 litres per second of water from Wilmot and are going to need even more in the future. Reporter Luisa D'Amato finds that behaviour astonishing and for her an indication that the Region is currently under extraordinary pressure regarding water.

Luisa suggests that it is possible that regional water pumping has lowered the groundwater levels to below the depth where local, nearby wells have been drilled even near the Wilmot Centre Wellfield. Hence new, deeper, private wells possibly costing $30,000 may be required. Full documented disclosure has not yet been made  available as to the health (quantity) of water available in the AFB2 Aquifer that is a major component of the Waterloo Moraine. The problem is that the same aquifer is below Mannheim and those wells according to Geoff Moroz (regional staff) have been pumped nearly dry and need to rest whereas the Wilmot Centre Wellfield according to the same Geoff Moroz is in "excellent" health with lots of water. 

Maybe there is some creativity going on here and maybe not but it's way past time for the Region to understand that full disclosure includes documentation and written data, not just their word. Here in Elmira after 36 years of similar behaviour by the MECP, the polluting companies, Woolwich Township etc. I no longer believe anything they say and barely half of what they put in writing.

REGION OF WATERLOO CRAPS ON WILMOT TOWNSHIP: IS WOOLWICH NEXT?

 

Something smells at regional council and the odour is floating all the way westwards to Wilmot Township. Natasha Salonen, mayor of Wilmot, may be trying to please two masters and it's not working.  She appropriately supported a motion to make data on the health of the underlying aquifer in Wilmot, public. It did not pass. She also voted unsucessfully along with four other councillors against the permitted taking of water from the Wilmot Centre wellfield for use in the cities. 

It certainly appears as if the majority of regional councillors have been able to overcome any squeamishness or heaven forbid guilt over the Region surreptitiously having been stealing Wilmot water for the last six years. As one local Wilmot resident stated "If the 1980 agreement cannot be trusted, what protection do we have?"  "Once trust is broken, it cannot be easily rebuilt."

There also appear to be possible discrepancies in the health of the aquifer underlying Wilmot. Regional staff apparently are handing out verbal assurances that water levels are healthy however now we are hearing that citizens complaints of drying up wells and wetlands are not just miles away but nearby the Wilmot Centre wellfield. It seems as if the so called data can be interpreted however the reader so decides. After decades of drivel, junk science and self-serving interpretations of a plethora of technical reports here in Elmira, Ontario I can appreciate how easy it is for highly motivated groups and authorities to interpret and see everything through rose coloured glasses.

Today's K-W Record article written by Luisa D'Amato is titled "Wilmot water pact down the drain". 

ARE DIOXINS AND DDT ACTUALLY DNAPLS AS WELL ?

 

Perhaps twenty years ago I asked that question of Jeff Merriman (Chemtura) at a public CPAC (Chemtura Public Advisory Committee) meeting. Now most of the time Jeff was a pretty calm fellow but that particular question set him off. He became loud and agitated and behaved as if the question itself was a personal afront and secondly as if I had worded the question more like "You dirty dog are your disgusting Dioxin and DDT contaminants also further disgusting Dense Non Aqueous Phase Liquids (DNAPLS) that only the most slovenly polluters would have on their site.?".

Now his response surprised me because it was a calm and serious question. I did not know the answer then and am still not certain if they could actually be defined as DNAPLS or not. My suspicion then and now is that they could be according to some DNAPL criteria but possibly usually are not for some reason or another. Also just to be perfectly clear I most certainly did not phrase the question with words like ", "slovenly", "disgusting", "dirty dog" etc..

Mr. Merriman strongly answered my question in the negative while somehow implying that the question itself was somehow inappropriate which for Jeff was unusual. Don't get me wrong, he was a company man through and through but still usually he at least attempted to answer questions, even difficult ones, without being unusually defensive. This response of his was strange.

DNAPLS are known as "sinkers" because their density (specific gravity) is greater than 1 . This means that they will literally descend through both surface water as well as unsaturated and saturated soils (i.e. groundwater). Water has a density of 1 .   Generally DNAPLS also have a low solubility in water which means that unlike NDMA which readily and fully dissolves in water, DNAPLS have a maximum mathematical solubility in water which can limit the extent of their groundwater contamination. For example chlorobenzene is a recognized DNAPL chemical with a solubility of around 440,000 parts per billion.  While 440,000 is a big number it isn't when compared to one billion. In fact as a fraction chlorobenzene can only dissolve in water less than one half part per thousand parts of chlorobenzene. The problem arises with chlorobenzene as with many DNAPLS that their low solubility in water (i.e. 440,000/1,000,000,000) still greatly exceeds their human health drinking water standard of only 80 parts per billion. Both Dioxin and DDT have very low solubilty in water although certainly Dioxins solubility exceeds the drinking water standard which is an extremely low 15 parts per quadrillion or  15/1,000,000,000,000,000).  The Ontario Drinking Water Standards (ODWS) does have a health criteria for DDT which makes me believe that DDT under some circumstances can dissolve in water at a rate greater than the ODWS. If not then why have a drinking water standard at all?

There are numerous other DNAPL criteria that I believe Dioxin and DDT have. The real issue may be the  difficulty in finding them and other DNAPLS in the subsurface. This is because they are able to migrate under gravity flow versus the usual subsurface groundwater fllow.  They can also penetrate both aquifers and aquitards and may or may not end up in depressions where they are capable of slowly dissolving over decades and centuries at concentrations greater than drinking water standards. Despite these difficulties, at least since January 2007 when Drs. Cherry and Parker (then Univ. of Waterloo) advised myself, Susan B., Wilf Ruland and Pat McLean that they should be removed or remediated from the subsurface, this world class professional advice has been ignored at CPAC, RAC, TAG and now TRAC.

I believe that both DDT and Dioxins are now probably in the off-site Elmira Aquifers courtesy of this negligence.

 

  

  

K-W RECORD KEEPS THE PRESSURE ON WATERLOO REGION

 

Tomorrow is the big day for the Region as they see whether or not private discussions/negotiations with Wilmot Township mayor Natasha Salonen will bear fruit. Keep in mind that regardless of new municipal governance legislation coming from Ontario, she like all other regional mayors will face the voters this October. Hence if she appears to bend too easily to regional wishes to take Wilmot water she might pay for that  at the polls and lose her job.

Meanwhile two new articles have appeared in today's K-W Record. The one mostly deals with more incentives for large water users to cut back on their usage and the other mentions some water upgrades to the Mannheim Service Area. This second article by Bill Doucet advises that 60 litres per second of water will be restored to the capacity of the Mannheim Service Area via upgrades to the Parkway water system located near Fairway Rd. and Manitou Dr. in Kitchener. Now of course as we already know these wells have long had trichloroethylene (TCE) in them courtesy of the former Deilcraft furniture building on the site. If the name Deilcraft rings a bell it may be due to association with Electrohome and or with Shanley St. in Kitchener which had an abandoned former Deilcraft factory there for many decades also with TCE contamination in the grounwater.

The first article reminds us that "...the region incorrectly combined the capabilities of two separate systems in its capacity calculations.". Now this is yet still another unanswered question by the Region of Waterloo.  Presumably the Record are referring to the two different water treatment systems namely the Middleton System using chlorine versus the Mannheim System using chloramination. Why are there two systems and why can't the treated water be interchangeable whether used in Cambridge versus used in say Waterloo?  At one point in time I suspected that the more highly contaminated (especially with bacteria and viruses) Grand River water required stronger treatment and maybe that was the reason for chloramination versus straight chlorine.

This first article also points out that the region has been over pumping the Mannheim Water Service Area. Presumably again the reporter is referring to specific wells very close to Kitchener's west side and just barely into Wilmot Township. This over pumping was also mentioned in the second article done by Bill Doucet although he referred to it as the Mannheim well field. That description I believe to be more accurate. 

Finally there still has been no followup in the Record regarding the shutdown Greenbrook wellfield (a little too close to the Ottawa St. landfill) or the very long time shut down Woolner and Pompeii wells beside the Grand River very close to Breslau (& Safety-Kleen).  

WHY WAS UNIROYAL SO TERRIFED OF GOING BACK TO THE ENVIRONMENTAL APPEAL BOARD (EAB) IN LATE 1992 ?

 

The simplest and most straightforward answer is DNAPLS, DNAPLS & DNAPLS. Boy is hindsight ever clearer and easier to see what has gone on behind the scenes. Uniroyal also had the October 1991 sweetheart deal negotiated between themselves and the Ontario Min. of Environment (MOE) to protect.  The  EAB announced their decision, after being unceremoniously dumped by the MOE in October/November 1991, that their jurisdiction remained and provided any party asked for the hearing to restart, they would do so. This also explains the timing to me as to why APTE did not ask for the hearing to restart. Susan B. and Sylvia were both made offers they could not refuse including lifetime permanent seats at the table provided they played ball on the DNAPL issue. 

Despite quotes in local newspapers from Susan B. in late 1992 stating that DNAPLS were the biggest environmental issue at Uniroyal Chemical she and Sylvia willingly sold the farm on the matter in late 1993. This even included a critique of consultant Conestoga Rover's DNAPL efforts by Sylvia, Glenys McMullen and myself on APTE letterhead in the fall of 1993. December 10, 1993 the MOE inexplicably (other than corruption & backroom deals) accepted Conestoga Rovers (CRA) and Uniroyal's plainly pathetic latest DNAPL report. Then APTE (i.e. Sylvia ) inexplicably without prior APTE consultation also accepted CRA and the MOE's new DNAPL position.

I've known for many decades that APTE buggered themselves and the public interest with their bizarre turnaround on DNAPLS in 1993-94 but until 2008 I felt that they had made a horrible but honest decision. I was wrong. The evidence of their (Sylvia & Susan B.) being co-opted by the polluter has only risen since. This co-opting of the citizens group via its' leadership is the primary reason that we still do not have either a restored aquifer nor a clean downstream Creek today.  That said the cooperation (legal or illegal) by our elected politicians has certainly aided and abetted the polluter, their successors and fellow travellors.

Most citizens are straightforward albeit complacent. The ambitious ones often become politicians and quickly learn how to deceive. Those that can't get elected sometimes learn how to gain respect and authority in other ways. Being "friends" with people in power and authority is one of those ways. One that I hope never to learn.  

WATERLOO REGION RELEASES WATER INFO IN DRIBS & DRABS

 

Today's K-W Record has an article written by Luisa D'Amato titled "Regional council advised to rescind restricting draw from Wilmot aquifers".  Now according to a staff report supposed to be debated at regional council this Wednesday; both the Wilmot Centre wellfield and the Mannheim wellfield draw from the same underground aquifer known as AFB2. This particular aquifer is the largest one beneath a very large portion of the Waterloo moraine. The Wilmot Centre wellfield includes wells K50, K51 and K52. Samantha Lernout of Citizens for Safe Ground Water is appropriately demanding transducer data (i.e. presumably groundwater elevation levels)   since 2019 for these three wells. 

While the Region admit to over pumping at the Mannheim wellfield and that it should be allowed to rest and recover, apparently according to the Region water levels are fine in the Wilmot Centre wellfield and can be drawn from further. Now here is where the Region have to expect pushback at least until and after citizens have seen and analyzed water elevation levels from the Wilmot Centre wellfield. I hope that regional councillors are not so stupid as to rubber stamp the taking of more water from Wilmot Township this Wednesday until, at the earliest, citizens and other stakeholders have had time to look at the data presented. Right now the Region's credibility is on thin ice and any more "mistakes" in communicating honest information and data will never be forgotten or forgiven. 

GENTLEMAN'S AGREEMENT BETWEEN POLITICIANS - WELL THAT WAS BOUND TO BLOW UP IN EVERYBODY'S FACES

 Today's Woolwich Observer has a story by Meg Deak titled "Wilmot demands that Waterloo Region reveal well monitoring data". According to this story there really wasn't a written agreement at all between Wilmot and the Region regarding Wilmot water being pumped to the three cities. So let me get this straight. Is this just like my accountant friend's quote that  "a verbal agreement isn't worth the paper it's not written on." ?  Apparently the Region of Waterloo think so albeit that's with some pretty convoluted language suggesting that it didn't really happen it was just all a test of sorts. Hmm maybe the word "test" is the problem. Wilmot are supposed to think that the "testing" being discussed has to do with aquifer capacity and sustainability whereas the Region view the whole thing as merely a "test" of the gullibility of rural politicians.

Wilmot councillor Lillianne Dunstall is having none of it. Especially the part about the Region don't have groundwater levels readily available to share with Wilmot. Next Wednesday Regional Council want to discuss officially and formally taking water from Wilmot Township for use in the nearby cities. Both Ms. Dunstall and mayor Natasha Salonen want more transparency from the Region as well as better accountability as far as monitoring the water requirements of never ending growth. 

NOVEMBER 10, 2022 LETTER TO THE EDITOR

 

This letter to the editor (Woolwich Observer) was published over three years ago. As usual exactly zero response or comment from various guilty stakeholders in and around Elmira, Ontario. In one sense that is a good thing. The title put on my Letter To The Editor is "Uniroyal problems persist, but so too does inaction". I view the lack of response, whether verbal or legal, as both an admission as well as  a belated understanding that poorly crafted, weak denials can be worse than admissions sometimes.

My letter to the editor is a broad indictment of the system currently allowing polluters to run their own cleanups with little more than superficial oversight by the Ontario Ministry of Environment (MOE).  Afterall it was the Ministry's shoddy oversight in the first place that got us all into the Elmira Water Crisis and so many more around the province.  Yes certainly the Ministry have been underfunded and understaffed. That has always been an intentional situation by each and every provincial government for many decades ever since Bill Davis first announced the beginnings of that new Ministry. It was simply virtue signaling to the electorate that their government would include environmental preservation among their other poorly managed ministries such as labour and transportation. Make no mistake Mr. Davis most likely had to calm corporate fears of any serious attempt by the government to reverse many decades of corporate and industrial environmental abuse and damage .  

This is the trick of governance. You must appeal to the masses publicly and tell them what they want to hear while at the same time quietly assuring the much, much smaller but powerful elite and wealthy that you will not change the status quo which they love so much. 

My letter focuses on technical reports produced by client driven consultants on behalf of the polluter (Uniroyal/Lanxess).  It also focuses on the Sept. 1, 2022  MOE report titled " Sediment and forage fish monitoring results from September 2020 in Canagagigue Creek".  Finally I focus on the long denied but blatantly obvious conflicts of interest in the entire remediation system here in Elmira. 

REGION OF WATERLOO: "THAT'S MY STORY AND I'M STICKING TO IT"

 

Luisa D'Amato's Opinion column today is titled "Region reveals the purpose of pumping water from Wilmot Centre wellfields".  Well in fact I would suggest that what the Region have done is not so much revealed anything as much as their own stubbornness. At least one local citizen, Samantha Lernout, may have expressed doubts as well when she said "You don't run an experiment and not tell people". If seven years of pumping water from Wilmot to Kitchener-Waterloo is merely a test then I wonder what the last many decades of pumping groundwater from the Waterloo Moraine should be referred to .  

I would also like to see the Region offer copies of these alleged hydrogeological reports claiming lots of available water in the Wilmot Centre wellfield to both individuals and citizen groups. It is conceivable that there is plenty of water at the same time as some residents' and businesses' wells are running dry. Factors include the depth of the wells running dry as well as their proximity to regional pumping wells. A high volume pumping well does produce a large cone of influence whereby water levels within half a mile or so of these wells can be seriously lowered while the rest of the aquifer water levels remain as high as ever. Another term for the resulting cone of influence is drawdown. Again a high volume pumping well can seriously lower nearby water elevations by several metres while having minimal effect or no effect on wells one or two miles away.    

FROM THE LOCAL NEWSPAPER ARCHIVES OF JUNE 30, 2022

 

The title of the article in the Woolwich Observer is "Community experts say Lanxess is not doing enough  to address contaminated hotspots in Canagagigue Creek". Susan B. and Tiffany Svensson , Chair of TAG (Technical Advisory Group), both are quoted as stating that Lanxess and their hired Risk Assessor (Stantec) are taking shortcuts. First of all this whole thing about "hotspots" has been beaten to death by all parties.  These alleged "hotspots" are basically very convenient locations for consultants, engineers and contractors to access the Creek both for monitoring /sampling purposes as well as for possible remediation. They are magically located right at the intersection (bridges) of New Jerusalem Rd. and the Canagagigue (Gig) , followed by miraculously the next downriver bridge at Northfield Dr. again followed miraculously by the last bridge over the "Gig" at Jigs Hollow Rd. (#46). Of course extensive sampling at those three locations has resulted in more exceedances there than in other less sampled locations.

Now the two TAG reps are not incorrect when they state that there are large exceedances of health criteria at those three spots. But seriously if there are exceedances miles downstream at Northfield Dr. and Jigs Hollow Rd. do you really think that there aren't lots of other exceedances upstream closer to the source namely Uniroyal Chemical? In my opinion TAG members were trying to be accommodating and compromise with Lanxess and the Ministry of Environment by suggesting/agreeing with the three "hot spots" claims. This has been the huge failure of citizens in general and UPAC, CPAC, RAC & TAG (now TRAC) and most definitely Woolwich Township. They have all been terrified of confronting the polluter. It's as if they believe that they can somehow be criminally charged for holding the polluter and his kid gloved regulator to account for their gross negligence which has resulted in both serious health issues and shortened lifespans for some Elmira residents.

Four years later and Lanxess continue to uphold their predecessors skills at perpetual delay. If the locals don't immediately accommodate the polluter's plans then the company's response is to do nothing. Every dollar they put off spending today is less money down the road both due to devaluation of that money as well as due to ongoing discharge to groundwater, air and the Creek. I expect that another one hundred years of delay while costing both downstream human beings and the environment health impairments will greatly reduce Uniroyal on-site contamination. Yes it's merely been shifted including as far as Lake Erie but if we're feeling bad about that we can always put a straw (pipeline) into the lake and suck some of the toxins back up here for consumption. I think that is referred to as political closed loop recycling. 

HAVE FAITH IN YOUR GOVERNMENT, WHAT IS THE WORST IT CAN DO?

 

I suggest that possibly as much as tonnes of contaminants have now been spread far and wide. I further suggest that they continue spreading on a day to day basis. I mean why wouldn't they? Any alleged proof otherwise is that of sycophants, co-optees, fellow travellors, client driven credentialed experts, self-serving credentialed experts who don't want to mess up their financial gravy train with the Ontario Ministry of Environment and finally politicians. Yes I suppose it is possible for a few honest people to be fooled by all the aforementioned. Maybe it's especially possible for honest and uninformed people to be fooled by all the other folks mentioned.

Yesterday Luisa D'Amato of the K-W Record suggested that "Anger deepens in Wilmot over water". While I believe that she is correct I also think that that very same anger is throughout the Region of Waterloo.  Developers and builders are angry about losing future revenue streams. Everyday, informed citizens are angry about the power and influence of those same builders and developers being the tail that is wagging the dog. How nice to be able to step to the front of the water line it must be for them. The Townships of Woolwich, Wellesley and North Dumphries must also be angry as they understand that their water really isn't theirs according to the Region. All the Region has to do is start pumping those township aquifers until they dry up. Maybe they already are doing so . 

Meanwhile in Woolwich their politicians who have gone with the flow for decades may actually just be starting to regret their laissez faire attitudes. Laissez faire attitudes generally mean to let it happen or leave it to do it's own thing. That has been what most Woolwich Councils have done with others stepping in and putting a thumb on the scale to ensure that temporary momentum by citizens remains temporary. That is what Sandy Shantz did back in 2015 to bail out both Chemtura Canada and the Ont. Min. of Environment (M.O.E.). They were both taking a verbal and psychological bashing by informed citizens who had run out of patience with their decades long delay and intransigence. In the mindsets of polluters and corrupt politicians mere telling of the hard to hear truth equates with rudeness, terrorism and bullying .   

Why right now would Woolwich politicians be having regrets? Simple. In good times when everyone was bragging about both the quantity and quality of the water supply here, nobody was too upset that K-W had a pipeline supplying water going up to Elmira. Now during major concerns over the quantity of water available to the cities especially, many will soon if not already resent water being pumped north. Why they wonder shouldn't it be being pumped south to the high population cities?

It won't surprise me if Lanxess Canada and the M.O.E. don't cook up a batch of silly juice and try to sell it as complying with requests and demands for water to go from the townships to the cities. Of course the "silly juice" that these two misanthropes cook up could really be something else again. Have you ever tasted water imbued with NDMA, chlorobenzene and a little more? We in Elmira have but it won't hold a candle to water enhanced with NDMA, chlorobenzene, ammonia, dioxins, polyaromatic hydrocarbons, toluene, benzene and multiple chlorinated solvents.  Try it you'll like it! Trust your government all the way to the grave.   

REGION OF WATERLOO'S REPUTATION MAY GO DOWN THE TOILET...IF THERE'S ENOUGH WATER THAT IS

 Or put a little differently by Samantha Lernout of Citizens for Safe Groundwater "I've lost complete faith in their ability to manage water".  This comment is in Luisa D'Amato's Opinion piece in today's K-W Record titled "Anger deepens in Wilmot over water". Personally I would suggest that while the Region of Waterloo have a long history of saying the right things publicly and indeed of some innovative planning decisions over the decades nevertheless when push comes to shove regional councillors  are and always have been a bunch of environmentally illiterate twits with a self-serving fascination for money, power, authority, economic growth at ALL costs and legacy projects. This is why I worry that they will latch onto the Lake Erie pipeline just like native born leeches latch onto their prey.

Apparently to date the Region have not shared groundwater elevation levels (i.e. metres above sea level-masl) with local councils. What a great way to keep everybody else in the dark while you make up your own numbers. The report on the groundwater elevations for the Wilmot Centre Wellfield has been delayed until April 8/26. Even then the fibbing has not yet ceased as the region apparently still claim that the surreptitious pumping of Wilmot's water since 2019 was only for "testing" purposes. I'm thinking that if I ever get caught robbing a bank my excuse will be that I was only "testing" their security. See how far that gets me.

Another article by Bill Jackson titled "Waterloo Region asks for provincial moratorium on water-taking permits" advises that the Motion put forth a month or so ago by a regional councillor (Barry Vrbanovic?) has actually been passed. That Motion was to direct 50% of all new water capacity to support new development in the region. Geez does that not make abundantly clear how weakly regional councillors prioritize water for everybody over more profits for the development and building industries? That Motion is a direct result of lobbying by those industries and how quickly councillors respond to them versus to all the rest of us who really by now just want to flush our politicians down the toilet if only we had the water to do so.

 

THE RISK ASSESSMENT OF THE CANAGAGIGUE CREEK IS BUT ONE MORE IN A LITANY OF PSUEDO SCIENTIFIC ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES IN ELMIRA, ONTARIO

 

In the past Conestoga Rovers (CRA), on behalf of Uniroyal Chemical, Crompton & Chemtura, were accused of writing Conclusions and Recommendations to reports that simply did not reflect the data and findings of those reports. In other words CRA would cherry pick items here and there within the reports of little significance and arbitrarily pretend to believe that they had far more weight and significance than they did. This was but one of their methods during DNAPL studies done in the late 1980s and early 1990s. They were actually accused by a consultant (CH2M HILL) for the Region of Waterloo of intentionally sampling for DNAPLS in the least likely locations to find them and then claiming "see there aren't any DNAPLS here."

Similarly monthly Progress Reports showing reduced on-site pumping might be acknowledged as a temporary mechanical breakdown easily fixed yet month after month and year after year the trend continued to decrease. Also there was never any acknowledgement of public verbal promises made by  Chemtura staff regarding the Tripling of off-site groundwater pumping in the monthly Progress Reports. Neither a tripling nor even a Doubling ever occurred and yet not a peep in those monthly reports as they bragged about exceeding their old off-site Target pumping rate by five or six litres per second (i.e. from 53 l/sec to 58 l/sec).

Now Lanxess continued that fine tradition with their Risk Assessment (RA) of the Canagagigue Creek. Apparently they can manipulate various assumptions throughout the RA process in order to conclude that despite many, many exceedances of health criteria for multiple contaminants both in Creek sediments and soils; not to fuss as the RA claimed "...no unacceptable risks...". There were also issues with floodplain soils as well and don't get me started on amateurish sampling of Creek sediments using shovels instead of professional core samplers. Along with these polluter self-serving failures were the locational sampling biases that failed to properly sample the majority of the five miles of downstream Canagagigue Creek all the way to the Grand River.

All in all unethical and dishonest junk science, psuedo science and wishful thinking science alone will not succeed. It also takes a combination of either stupidity, laziness or dishonesty by sitting politicians at the municipal, regional and provincial levels. Woolwich Township and Waterloo Region, fortunately for polluters, are blessed with an abundance of these. 

 

TYPO CLARIFICATION REQUIRED REGARDING METHOD DETECTION LIMITS HIGHER THAN HEALTH CRITERIA

 

Oops to err is Uniroyal like, to forgive divine. Gee I hope I haven't offended any Uniroyal lovers still alive in Elmira.  If I have then I guess I'll just have to live with it. By the way I bumped into former councillor Julie-Anne Herteis last evening.  She appears well and did not seem to still be mad at me for unkind things I may have said about her while she was a Woolwich councillor.  That's good because while sitting politicians are fair game, retired or those moving forward in life are not.

The typo is an easy one to make when we are discussing health criteria concentration numbers of toxins along with laboratory Method Detection Limits.  In yesterday's post I started off O.K. in my first paragraph stating that both the authors of a recent report and the Editor of Environmental Science magazine stated in their Summaries that "...analytical limits are far too high for detecting many chemicals, especially pesticides." Then however near the end of my second paragraph darn if I didn't reverse the word higher and use the word lower. Maybe that's not so much a typo as a brain fa*t? 

Here is an example. If you have a chemical with a health criteria concentration of  .5  ug per litre  (.5 ug/l) i.e. half a microgram per litre of water AND a laboratory Method Detection Limit however of 1 ug per litre ( 1 ug/l)  i.e. one microgram per litre then you have a problem because  the laboratory measuring the particular chemical can only measure as low as one microgram of that chemical per litre of water. Therefore the chemical can be above it's health concentration in drinking water (say for example three quarters of a microgram of chemical per litre of water)  however it is assigned a concentration of ND or Non Detect because the lab either don't have the equipment to measure that small or the appropriate process/method to do so. Also sometimes it can also be a matter of cost. Certain labs may charge extra for doing more expensive and difficult very low concentration analyses of a chemical.

Therefore this can be a legitimate limit on determining the toxicity of some chemicals in various mediums whether water, soil air etc. Or on the other hand it can be a very convenient method of weaseling out of showing exceedances of health criteria by toxic chemicals thus reducing expected cleanup costs. Unrepentant polluters lacking in ethics have become adept at this kind of gamesmanship just as regulators and credentialed public advisory committees have learned to look the other way in reports evidencing this kind of data. 

  

  

LIMITATIONS OF AQUATIC MONITORING ALSO LIMIT AQUATIC RISK ASSESSMENTS

 

Last year a scholarly article was published in Environmental Science Magazine titled "Limitations of chemical monitoring hinder aquatic risk evaluations on the macroscale". This was a very large study of decades of monitoring data from across the United States.  Both the Editor and the authors included a Summary or Abstract if you will. Each essentially said that despite decades of monitoring, less than 1% of chemicals with possible toxic effects have the proper data required for risk assessment. The second statement from both parties was that analytical limits are far too high for detecting many chemicals, especially pesticides. Thirdly both advised that these limitations have biased risk perceptions and I would add risk assessments.

If none of this rings any bells than you have not been keeping up with the risk assessments done by Uniroyal Chemical/Chemtura and later on by Lanxess Canada who are only too keen not to spend another nickel on cleaning up the Canagagigue Creek after spending millions (?) on lobbying, bribing?, monitoring and persuading politicians and credentialed TAG/TRAC members that all is well.  I have long said that risk assessments are mathematical models filled with assumptions that can be favourably bought by polluter clients for a fraction of real cleanup costs. When as it turns out these monitoring data are also woefully incomplete including laboratory detection limits of toxic chemicals higher than their mandated health criteria; then what you have is not a risk assessment it is actually a get out of jail free card produced by well educated, intellectual prostitutes all pretending to rely on the "professionalism" of others. 

Mention is made of both DDT and Dioxins as are present in the Canagagigue Creek, courtesy of Uniroyal Chemical and Lanxess Canada, accompanied by warnings as to their enhanced toxicity.  

 

WONDERING WHY LUISA D'AMATO (K-W RECORD) HASN'T REPEATED HER COMMENTS ABOUT OUT OF SERVICE, CONTAMINATED WELLS

 

It was all of once. I have the article on a pile of articles dealing with the recent Waterloo Region Water Crisis.  Ms. D'Amato mentioned out of service wells including the Greenbrook Wellfield, Parkway and Woolner/Pompeii Wellfields. All three have past contamination problems and most likely present ones if they reactivate them. Recently I mentioned the benzene plume emanating from the Ottawa St. Landfill and drawn via pumping towards the Greenbrook Wellfield on Stirling Ave. near Homer Watson Blvd.  I believe that mention was also made years ago of 1,4 Dioxane being in some of those wells. Then Luisa herself had advised of contamination (TCE) at the Parkway wells and finally the river wells from the Woolner and Pompeii Wellfields have lots of solvents and goodies from the Safety-Kleen site formerly known as Breslube and Forsythe. 

Before continuing on about fixing the out-of-service wells listed above I want to mention Luisa's following statement in her Opinion piece in today's K-W Record titled "Why water pipeline to Lake Erie is not a good idea". That statement is "...that underground water supplies in Wilmot have almost been pumped dry in an attempt to keep supplies up." Have I missed something? Yes I understand that various private wells on the west side of Kitchener and or between Petersburg and Baden have been going dry. I had hoped/presumed that these wells water levels were being drawn down by Region of Waterloo and City of Kitchener excessive pumping but that is a whole lot different than suggesting that water supplies in Wilmot have almost been pumped dry. Good Lord if Wilmot Township which is also home to a significant part of the Waterloo Moraine is as a whole going dry then we are all in serious, immediate trouble.

Back to the out-of-service wells.  The Region of Waterloo are masters of the weasel worded descriptions as to why wells were shut down.  Unfortunately they are also masters of protecting and constantly insulating dirty, industrial polluters from the full consequences of their environmental negligence.  This means never pointing out which specific companies and corporations have mostly singlehandedly contaminated regional drinking wells. "Fixing" these wells does not mean new pumps, wellheads, piping etc. Nor does it mean drilling a new well beside the old one or even simply drilling deeper hoping to go by the contaminated sub-surface zones (soils). It would mean costly remediation possibly including excavation that should have been done decades ago and wasn't. 

Now all of this is moot if the Region are desperate enough to mix in solvent contaminated water with cleaner water in order to dilute it.  Oh but wait! They are that desperate. They've been doing that with the TCE (trichloroethylene) at the Middleton Wellfield in Cambridge for many decades. I believe there are also other wells in the Region that are "managed" in similar fashion. 

RUBBING OUR AUTHORITIES NOSES IN THEIR WATER FAILURES

 

The sentence below was on my latest e-mail in the Subject column sent yesterday to Woolwich Council, Waterloo Region Council, MECP, Lanxess, K-W Record, Woolwich Observer and TRAC . 

"Don't you wish you'd listened recently and decades ago to Esther, Richard, Henry, Viv, Ron, Graham, Dan, Sebastian & myself about Elmira's water ?"

There are and were other honourable mentions such as Sadi, Barb, Mary, Randy, Shannon, Kenneth, Pat, Chuck, Susan R., Steve and others who stepped up over the years and decades. 

The point of the quote above is that if the guilty parties (councils, MECP, Uniroyal/Lanxess ) had done their duty, both moral and legal, then we would have Elmira folks drinking Elmira water  and not taking water from the three cities via a pipeline. Unfortunately the guilty parties instead of looking ahead to the obvious time when our finite water supplies became stretched were more concerned with coddling a chemical company who provided some jobs and some tax money. 

Yes I could agree that Lanxess Canada are less culpable than Uniroyal Chemical who both buried toxic wastes,  lied about them, lied about remediation options, lied about DNAPLS, lied about Dioxins and just about everything else involved. Uniroyal and Chemtura also participated in pressuring Woolwich Council into who they wanted on UPAC, CPAC, TAG etc. as well as who they wanted off. None of the successor companies to Uniroyal have shown any interest in properly cleaning up Canagagigue Creek to their utmost shame. 

Citizens stepped up and informed themselves. They spent countless hours attending mostly dog and pony shows orchestrated by the polluter and Woolwich Council. Citizens read reports and made good suggestions the vast majority of which were either ignored or laughed at and treated with disrespect. Well you sh**heads congratulations! 

We have neither our groundwater restored nor the Creek properly cleaned up. That's all on you as you've run the show from day one.   

DEVELOPERS & HOMEBUILDERS NOT CONCERNED ABOUT PROFITS ($$$); IT'S ALL ABOUT HUMAN SUFFERING

 

Furthermore to my title above I must inform readers that I am smarter than Bill Gates, stronger than Arnold Schwarzenegger ever was, and better looking than either Brad Pitt or Tom Cruise at their best. In other words my title above employs literary exaggeration to the maximum.

Today's K-W Record carries the following article by Bill Jackson titled "Case being made to give small developments green light amid water shortage". The usual suspects are quoted by the reporter such as Larry Masseo and Ryan Mounsey. The former representing the Waterloo Region Homebuilders' Assoc. stated that his association is not in agreement with the region "in terms of the extent of the seriousness of the issue at this point,".  Nowhere in this article does his position seem to be backed with data supporting his opinion.  Mr. Mounsey also advises in one statement that he only works with developers "...that have small infill, gentle density housing with a modest - the smallest - impact" on water useage. Then he advises that these clients range anywhere from one lot to 1,400 units for a total of 2,500 units in the Region of  Waterloo. In my opinion adding 2,500 units (approx. 5,000 people ?) all requiring water on a daily basis is significantly exacerbating the water shortage. 

At the moment operational resiliency within our water system will not be restored until 2027. Until or unless that determination is changed the ban on new building permits should remain. This coming Wednesday regional council are to revisit staff recommendations to add capacity to the system from wells in Wilmot Township as well as to have regional council ask the province to halt water taking permits for golf courses, gravel pits and other large industrial/commercial enterprises. Depending upon the results of those two recommendations the ban on new building permits might need to be extended even further down the road. It is conceivable that neither Wilmot Township nor the Doug Ford government may be in the mood to comply to the requests.