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 lower 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.

INTERESTING CHOICES & OUTBURSTS BY PREMIER DOUG FORD

 

This post today is supposed to be about Susan Koswan's excellent Opinion piece in today's K-W Record titled  "Water and nature need protection from politics".  Essentially the politics she is describing are the politics of our current Conservative government led by Doug Ford. I am of two minds right now. Or maybe even three or four. Yes Doug Ford and his merry band have been awful for the environment and Ms. Koswan  clearly describes his gaffes, errors and plain bad thinking and behaviour on the environment file. 

Meanwhile back on the first page there is Doug Ford blustering about how a homeowner recently shot one of four home invaders. Four on one in the middle of the night is hardly a fair fight especially as at least one of the home invaders was caught on video with a gun in hand. Undaunted the homeowner shot one of them and they all fled. Doug Ford meanwhile was quoted as saying that the homeowner should have shot him a few more times for good measure.

Doug of course is pandering to the public's discomfort with firearms legislation that essentially for decades has stated that citizens may own guns to shoot unarmed animals and or harmless paper targets that have never attacked anybody. But by God any use of a firearm to defend oneself from physical attack is beyond the pale. Under no circumstances are Canadian citizens supposed to have the right to readily and quickly defend themselves from robbery, assault or worse. Being even blunter I expect that our police, prosecutors and courts will cheerfully advise women that mere rape also doesn't justify shooting someone. For our justice officials that would be a case of using disproportionate force to defend oneself. Well! Let me simply suggest that if any of either Harvey Weinstein's or Frank Stronach's alleged victims had been armed, their criminal activities would have been nipped in the bud.

So I like Dougie for standing up to the stupidity of our judicial system and the temerity of all participants within it to expand the legal rights of citizens to defend themselves from unprovoked attacks. At the same time I am appalled at his biased and self-serving environmental behaviour in this province. He is a one man environmental wrecking machine and needs to be cut down (only at the polls please).

WATERLOO REGION RESIDENTS ARE LONG OVERDUE FOR A DIOXIN REVIEW

 

One of the terms used in past reviews and studies concerning dioxins has been that it is a non threshold contaminant. In other words there simply is no safe level of exposure for human beings. Now that is very concerning particularly when one realizes that human beings throughout the world have already accumulated body burdens of dioxins. Amounts mentioned thirty plus years ago were in the 4 to 6  picograms  range per day exposure for Canadians. At the same time that Canada had a guideline maximum of 10 picograms per day per kilogram of body weight, our American cousins had a guideline of only .006 picograms.  Now it is entirely possible if not probable that either concentrations or body burden guidelines have changed since 1994. Personally I have found the silence in the media on the matter to be nearly deafening.

It is also possible that up to date science may very well have decided that the only safe guideline number is zero especially for vulnerable populations. This would include pregnant women, young children and those with compromised immune systems. Regardless it is next to impossible for citizens to either stop or reduce their exposure to these now ubiquitous contaminants. While the simplest expression of the source of dioxins is chlorinated substances being burned the fact is that they are in our food, water and the air we breathe. Yes polluting industries such as pulp and paper  as well as chemical companies are major contributors but there are many more including hospital and municipal incinerators.  

Instead of studying, monitoring and sometimes ignoring them as we have done for the last thirty-six years here in Woolwich Township (Elmira), what is needed is proper removal. It can be done but for profit industries are willing to sacrifice human life in exchange for millions of dollars and our local, regional and provincial politicians are only too willing to accommodate them. Now lets be clear.  No politician will ever admit to this. It's about them finding ways to weasel word their way around the reality. It's about them finding ways to disparage the science, the data and if necessary the scientists themselves. Isn't it ironic that unqualified, sometimes dyslexic, sometimes illiterate and most times mathematically challenged politicians when pressured to stand up for their own constituents will run and hide behind criticism of those far more qualified than they to come to conclusions and make decisions.     

PROMISES & OTHER LIES BY UNIROYAL CHEMICAL/SUCCESSORS AND THE MOE/MECP

 Jeff Merriman promised us six litres per second of on-site Municipal Aquifer pumping in order to maintain hydraulic containment and stop off-site migration of Uniroyal's groundwater. For a number of years the total from two or three on-site pumping wells was around 5.3 to 5.5 litres per second. Close although not quite there. In November 2012 after Conestoga Rovers admitted that their off-site pump & treat wasn't going to complete the job by 2028, they and Chemtura promised a TRIPLING of the volume of off-site pumping. Oddly no mention was given of increasing on-site pumping at the same time in order to avoid the increased off-site pumping from dragging on-site contaminated water along with it as the groundwater levels were lowered off-site. That in hindsight should have been our first indication that we were being lied to yet again.

Since about 2017 the on-site municipal aquifer pumping  has been slowly dropping until it's at about 3.3 to 3.6 litres per second. As serious as that is, the problem is only exacerbated as the off-site pumping has indeed been increased. Now that increase certainly never achieved  even a DOUBLING much less a TRIPLING of the off-site volumes from 2012 (around 53 l/sec) as promised.  It did increase however to often achieve 65 l/sec and occasionally as high as 70 or 71 l/sec. This has been going on for years now with nobody including TRAC so much as raising questions directly about increasing off-site pumping while lowering on-site pumping.  This practice we were advised for years while on CPAC absolutely would cause the Uniroyal site to lose hydraulic containment and further increase off-site contamination. 

There has never been an iron clad test to prove to citizens that hydraulic containment was being kept. Promises and assurances from proven liars that groundwater levels here and there "prove" containment aren't worth the paper they are or aren't written on. More, louder and shriller exhortations of integrity and honesty from Lanxess Canada and or the MECP also mean less than nothing. They and their predecessors have never stopped lying to us.  

SO WHEN EXACTLY DID UNIROYAL/CROMPTON/CHEMTURA/LANXESS THROW IN THE CLEANUP/REMEDIATION TOWEL?

 

Or put differently was there ever a time when anybody in authority seriously believed that they had a viable plan to restore the Elmira aquifers to drinking water standards? By those in authority I'm referring to the Min. of Environment (MOE/MECP), the four companies listed above, Waterloo Region or Woolwich Township. These are not idle or spurious questions. Hindsight being 20/20 gives one an entirely different flavour and view of what has gone on. Certainly over the intervening decades there have been significant changes in the surface water of the Canagagigue Creek, the air over Uniroyal/Lanxess and the groundwater beneath the town.

At one time decades ago the Ontario Ministry of Environment was derided as the Ministry of Lumps and Colours in reference to surface waters in the province. In other words the Ministry were satisfied the moment rivers and streams stopped routinely being discoloured by industry  discharges and even solids and sludges being dumped into them. Yes the Canagagigue has far fewer solvents and dissolved toxins in them than they used to have courtesy of Uniroyal Chemical. Unfortunately there has been an extremely limited reduction in Persistent Organic Pollutants with the likes of DDT and dioxins topping the list. These are present whether as suspended sediments (as Dr. Dick Jackson thundered repeatedly) or even as low concentration dissolved contaminants in the water.

The bad old days even as recently as 1998 to 2000 when air discharges sent the "Duke St. rowdies" out of town in the middle of the night seeking refuge  hopefully are done forever.  To many including myself these air discharges simply reinforced our belief that the company (Crompton) were long on talk and awfully slow on action including spending money and time to remove the biggest and baddest air discharges.

It would appear that both the concentrations of contaminants as well as the volume of the various plumes underneath Elmira have been reduced. To what effect however? If the two most obvious targets, NDMA and chlorobenzene still aren't at drinking water standards do you think any of the dozens to hundreds of others are? 

If one has ready access to the on and off-site pumping records as I do then it is obvious that years ago the various polluting companies began cutting back on their pumping and treating volumes just when  they most needed to increase them and when they had publicly promised to do so. They did no such thing nor did they even seriously try to. It was all a scam simply buying time and wasting time as they and their consultants talked and bamboozled both lay citizens and even educated, credentialed members of RAC, TAG and TRAC into deferential submission. The last gasp chance to turn the ship around died in 2015 under the pathetic and woefully uninformed guidance of Sandy Shantz at the Woolwich Township helm. Frankly success was already in huge jeopardy but her embrace of all pleas and lamentations from Chemtura and the Min. of Environment sealed the deal. Lots more talk and lots more hot air but it's all been window dressing and less. 

THE K-W RECORD ARE ALL OVER THE WATERLOO REGION WATER CRISIS

 

Frankly I am impressed. I have very good reason to be angry with the Waterloo Region Record (aka K-W Record) but geez it is difficult to stay mad at the twits when they are currently so fulfilling their mandate of keeping the public informed on serious issues. Take note of that Woolwich Township. Decades of bias towards filthy polluters may never be forgotten but it could be mitigated possibly even to the point of forgiveness. Of course that requires some immediate, heartfelt changes in both attitude and behaviour on your part. 

It appears as if the Record along with others are embracing the over pumping of our groundwater as fact not possibility. The Record once again in today's article titled "52 billion litres of water too much, and not enough" goes through the litany of errors and miscalculations of water supply and demand by the Region's water staff.  It is almost to the point of slapstick comedy if it weren't so serious. Yes both developers and home builders' groups are still on the bandwagon of it's not really a case of too much growth or of water supply. They are all too willing to throw both regional staff and councillors under the bus in calling the crisis a "management issue". 

Personally I can embrace both the idea of a finite water supply as well as to a certain extent management issues.  The particular "management issues" that I find so offensive are the lying and blatant disinformation over a period of decades. Items such as the Inter Urban System (IUS) supposedly allowing water from anywhere in the Region to flow wherever it is needed has turned out to be nonsense. Allegedly that is, because I can no longer trust that the Region are telling us the truth. Also the fact that they have lied to Wilmot Township for years as they've been taking their water surreptitiously for use in the cities while the water table has dropped significantly in parts of Wilmot.

I still would like to see both past and current groundwater elevation data from throughout the various moraines and aquifers to confirm that the Region have been inappropriately  "mining" those aquifers and significantly lowering the water levels.   

LOCAL MEDIA COMMENT ON REGIONAL COUNCIL'S DECISION TO HIRE OUTSIDE EXPERTS TO STUDY REPORTING & COMMUNICATIONS ON WATER ISSUES

 

Overall Luisa D'Amato seems pleased with the direction that the Region are taking by hiring an outside consulting firm.  While she does state that "This is a good start." she has a number of suggestions to make it even better. That said what I noticed was her very first sentence in which she suggested  "Finally we may get some answers to the question of why the water supply crisis we are in was allowed to happen, and how the news came as such a complete shock." Hence I was a little taken aback to read that the final report is due within a year. A year !  I'm sorry but that for me does not jive with "Finally we may get some answers...". Citizens deserved honest and confirmed answers a couple of months ago not hypothetically a year down the line. Is this simply more bureaucratic and political gamesmanship to delay and deflect our attention?

Ms. D'Amato raises good points and suggestions. She would like to know why both the Mannheim treatment plant for Grand River water and the Greenbrook pumping station are still in disrepair. Why weren't both of them repaired promptly? Somewhat oddly to me she hasn't repeated her comments about the possible rehabilitation of the Parkway Wellfield or the Woolwner/Pompeii wells along the Grand River . Could she herself have signed some sort of NDA (Non Disclosure Agreement) with the Region? Perish the thought! She is a professional reporter.

Ms. D'Amato also advises that here in Ontario we had a public inquiry after the following major public system failures namely the Walkerton water crisis, the light rail debacle in Ottawa and the fatal mall collapse in Elliot Lake. Oddly enough somehow the 1989 Elmira Water Crisis with its' now failed remediation never was subject to a public inquiry. That was ridiculous then and even more so now when we realize how much more desperately Elmira's water is needed.

WATERLOO REGION COUNCIL DOING WHAT THEY DO BEST: DEFERRING DECISIONS, DELAYING & HIRING FRIENDLY CONSULTANTS

 

I am curious as to how many citizens don't know that the main purpose of so called third party consultants is to do almost the same thing as public consultation does. That is to give a veneer of credibility and respectability to Council decisions that are more likely to be politically motivated than factually motivated. Indeed it is possible sometimes to have an overlap between good politics and good governance.  Just not often enough.

Today's K-W Record has an article by reporter Bill Jackson titled "Council orders water capacity review".  In fact that's a bit of a misnomer. The review being ordered is a review of water capacity reporting and communicating processes. That's a whole different beast.  Councillor Doug Craig suggests that it won't be about assigning blame. Well darn what's the fun in that? We the citizens and paying taxpayers want names. We want to hang people in effigy. We want accountability and let the chips fall where they may whether it be politicians or staff. We want guilty, incompetent or negligent people turfed whether from regional council or regional staff. Hmm it makes me suspect that this review may be no more than a glad handing exercise. Put some obvious reporting triggers onto paper as well as even more frequent sending of memos upstairs to staff supervisors to continue being ignored while publicly praising the consultants and everybody else involved. Isn't that generally how politicians work?    

The request to the province to put a pause on new or expanded water taking permits has been deferred to March 25/26 ostensibly. There was also discussion around a Lake Erie pipeline. You know that that water will most likely be treated at least enough not to cause immediate, debilitating pain or disease.  I mean right now our water, food and air have already been horribly contaminated and compromised albeit within carefully selected parameters. Did you know that Health Canada and Ontario Health are routinely lobbied for reduced health criteria by business and industrialists? To clarify, by reduced health criteria I don't mean lower concentrations of contaminants, I mean less stringent standards allowing higher concentrations of toxic chemicals in our food and water and air.

Along with the Lake Erie discussion there was also concern expressed by some regional staffers (Kenneth Brothers) who suggested that "We have to be very cautious in that we're vulnerable in terms of the aquifer restrictions.".  I believe that this information is the most important to have as soon as possible. Until the Region know absolutely the water levels of the various aquifers in and around the Waterloo Moraine ( & others) it is impossible to know what long term sustainable pumping amounts really are.   

FURTHER DETAILS REGARDING THE FAILURE TO REMEDIATE THE ELMIRA AQUIFERS

 

I did mention yesterday that there were both LNAPLS (light non aqueous phase liquids) as well as DNAPLS  (dense non aqueous phase liquids) on the 62 Union St. Varnicolor Chemical site. Those alone could have destroyed any chances of cleaning up the Elmira Aquifers either solely or mostly with pump & treat technology.  This is because both LNAPLS and DNAPLS have a low solubility in water and tend to either float on the surface of ground and surface water (LNAPLS) or at the bottom of aquifers (DNAPLS) and only slowly dissolve into the water  over a period of decades or even centuries. Hence they are an ongoing almost never ending source of contamination in the subsurface.

Add to that the recent statements (yesterday's Blog posting)  in which Jesse Wrighte of Arcadis Inc. advised TRAC, the MECP, the Region and the Township of multiple nearby Varnicolor Chemical companies who used chlorobenzene in their processes. How extraordinarily strange that that little tidbit took 35 years to be released publicly. Also extraordinarily strange that a solvent recycler like Varnicolor Chemical allegedly never used and abused chlorobenzene on their site as they did virtually every other solvent they dealt with. That is strange because chlorobenzene is a very common solvent both used as an intermediary in production processes (i.e. Uniroyal Chemical) as well as with paint manufacturers and auto body shops as well as car manufacturers all of whom were clients of Varnicolor Chemical. Does anyone really wonder why I have been calling out those in charge of our failed cleanup as dishonest swine or worse?

Then there is the incredible attempts by the Ontario Ministry of Environment (M.O.E./MECP) to cover up the illegal activities of Varnicolor Chemical. Their efforts stopped at nothing. They lied about everything. But for two things they might have gotten away with it. Firstly despite being ordered years previously to erect fences around Lot 91 they never did. Good fences make good neighbours but I and others had no qualms about gathering evidence including video and photographs which constantly refuted the Ministry's lies. Then there was my inside person at Varnicolor. I did hear at one point that Severin suspected his office manager Jeanette. I hope that wasn't so because she was a loyal and dedicated employee unlike myself who found more than a couple of employers over the decades to be absolute a**holes with Severin Argenton being front and centre.  My inside person tipped me off constantly as to what was happening or going to happen at Varnicolor next. This even included the Glen McDonald fiasco in which he was fired by the Ministry of Environment and charged by the Crown for tipping off Mr. Argenton about an upcoming police and Ministry raid of his property (62 Union & Howard Ave. property). 

Lastly of course is the problem of low concentrations of dioxins dissolved in Elmira's groundwater despite all howls and protests by our favourite polluter to the contrary.  I mean seriously after 36 years of delay, deception, manipulation and lying only fanatical, pro business, left hating, anti communist, anti socialist ideologues would put weight on any gross polluters' opinions. Until PROVEN otherwise I have to ask exactly how keen are pro NDMA drinkers going to be about including even low concentrations of incredibly toxic  2,3,7,8 TCDD (dioxin) to their morning coffee. 

So go ahead and mix Elmira water with the low level solvents and stuff already in our Integrated Urban System (IUS) and watch another social problem of too few workers supporting too many seniors also disappear, me included.

  

IS VARNICOLOR CHEMICAL THE ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM REMEDIATION WISE?

 

Has something new occurred? Have our authorities (Woolwich, Waterloo Region, MECP) in their infinite and never ending thirst to share knowledge with the public, released something? Well no, not exactly. Here's what we have however. About a year and a half ago (Sept. 2024) after a TRAC meeting in which Alan Deal of GHD, on behalf of Lanxess Canada, mostly falsely denied a relationship between Varnicolor Chemical and DNAPLS (Dense Non Aqueous Phase Liquids); the Minutes of the meeting were finally released. Lo and behold in writing was the decades late, astounding revelation that the 84 Howard Ave. site was responsible for six different chlorinated solvents (not chlorobenzene) in the Elmira drinking water aquifers. Now 84 Howard Ave. is simply the newer address of the former Varnicolor Chemical site which encompassed both the Union St. properties and the Howard Ave. property. Hallelujah !

Skipping to the third revelation also from a TRAC meeting back in September 2025 we have admissions from a consultant (Jesse Wrighte/Arcadis)  that there were multiple companies and locations using chlorobenzene (chlorinated solvent) near the corner of Union St. and First Ave. Again this revelation was approximately 35 years after the fact which included an alleged Five man team from the Ministry of Environment which toured Elmira looking for industries which could have contributed to the shutdown of the south wellfield in Elmira. 

This third revelation likely was to explain again a decades late proven fact that there was free phase DNAPL at OW57-32 (R) beside the Howard St. Water Tower. I had long suggested that this chorobenzene came from one of three sources namely Varnicolor, Borg Textiles or all the way from Uniroyal Chemical. None of my suggested sources however were politically correct for the liars and stakeholders in charge of the cleanup.   Nevertheless again in the Minutes of the Alan Deal TRAC meeting of September 2024  which he attended is the second revelation that the DNAPL near pumping well W4 and the Howard Ave. Water Tower was finally dissipated/dissolved and allegedly thus reducing it's contamination of nearby groundwater.

Since then I have reviewed both newspaper articles and most importantly photos of the extent of the contamination from Varnicolor Chemical at both their 62 Union St./Howard Ave. location as well as from Lot 91 at the east end of Oriole Parkway. The photographs of the remediation of the 62 Union St. / Howard Ave. property are interesting especially in hindsight.  These photos plus the 2016 Risk Assessment of the site by Peritus Environmental further combined with the now long admitted failure of the Elmira groundwater cleanup spell out an interesting hypothesis. 

There were both LNAPLS (Light Non Aqueous Phase Liquids) and DNAPLS on the Varnicolor site. There was a calculated and concerted illegal dumping operation underway at both the Union St. site AND at Lot 91. Initially the Min. of Environment only laid paperwork pollution charges against Varnicolor. It took the local media's clamoring to get those upgraded to actual pollution of the natural environment charges and later convictions. I suggest that Varnicolor Chemical whose cleanup has not been followed by citizens or activists or the media may well be the elephant in the room which has exacerbated the difficulties in cleaning the Elmira Aquifers, especially by pump & treat technology mostly on it's own. In fact the remediation tidbits that we do have (i.e. a shallow aquifer pump & treat system only) actually point to a grossly inadequate cleanup considering the volume, the depth and the characteristics and components of the liquid wastes dumped at the site over decades. 

In order to protect the Min. of Environment (M.O.E./MECP) from further embarrassment, humiliation and public contempt the province of Ontario denied and covered up the extent of gross contamination at Varnicolor Chemical, the second largest polluter in Elmira, with Nutrite/Yara the third (ammonia).      

AND THERE IT FINALLY IS... THE MONSTER FROM THE GREEN LAGOON

 

Of course I'm referring to the long proposed Pipeline from the Green Lagoon otherwise known as Lake Erie. Is there anybody who doesn't know about the prevalence of toxic blue-green algae on the surface of our smallest and shallowest Great Lake? Today's K-W Record has an article by Bill Jackson titled "Waterloo Region's pipeline possibility". For me having lived for almost a decade in West Montrose it's almost emblematic of the long threatened West Montrose Dam. At one time that was the bogeyman that hung over local residents wondering how badly their beautiful valley, covered bridge and lush farm fields would be destroyed.

Darn but you know the old saying that for a carpenter all problems can be solved with a hammer and for an engineer if it's not broken then you simply haven't built it yet. Build it and when it breaks fix it sort of attitude. Today's Record interviews both a former public works director as well as Kevin Thomason, vise-chair of the Grand River Environmental Network (GREN). Both are smart individuals but with totally different approaches to Waterloo Region's Water Crisis. Mr. Anderson with a  public works background is very big on class environmental assessments. It almost seems to me that he views the Class EA process as somewhat magical and without bias. Being from Elmira I've lived through a few Environmental Assessments now and I can tell you that depending on many factors they can and are manipulated beyond belief. He who is paying the shot calls the tune and that's exactly what has happened here with two very local Environmental Assessments.

Mr. Thomason of GREN however does not believe that blasting right of ways and cutting through forests and farm fields is the best way to solve our alleged water problems. He lists numerous less invasive and less expensive options in this article that can be done right here in Waterloo Region versus taking water from Lake Erie.

Alleged water problems is an interesting turn of phrase. We the public are still waiting for documentation that either proves or disproves the alleged low water levels in our major aquifers such as the Waterloo Moraine. Also it is rather convenient how often dishonest politicians such as our Woolwich Township mayor invent a crisis in order to implement a totally asinine solution as was done in 2015 . Chemtura and the Ministry of Environment (MOE/MECP) were crying about the new vigorous and informed Chemtura Public Advisory Committee (CPAC) holding them to account and failing to treat them with the deference and reverence that they were used to. 

Is it possible that this water crisis has been invented to push the multi billion dollar engineering solution of a Lake Erie Pipeline? Or is the crisis real? Maybe it could be part of each? Maybe we are currently in trouble but the fixes are right here within the Region's boundaries as suggested by Mr. Thomason. 

TIME DOES NOT ERASE LYING & DECEPTION

 

It is far too easy in an uneven power relationship for the weaker party to tend to forget past wrongs especially if the present is tolerable. To a great extent I wonder if that is one of the reasons that we have had three sales of Uniroyal Chemical in Elmira since around 2000.  It is very difficult to saddle the new company/new owners with the sins of the past including the almost never ending blatant delays, deceptions and lying.  This is especially so when the allegedly neutral citizens are also repeatedly turning over on the various advisory committees whether UPAC, CPAC, RAC, TAG, or TRAC.   Some of these new "citizens" are also no longer from Elmira which again makes it less likely that they would have personal memories of past promises and commitments. Finally too many have connections with the environmental community as consultants for private companies who tend to deal with the Ministry of Environment as well as municipal and regional governments. This includes engineering companies who have done engineering work for both Woolwich Township and the Region of Waterloo.

I have recently been reviewing old newspaper clippings both of the Esther Thur collection at the Wilfred Laurier University Archives as well as others. It is truly shocking as well as outrageous how many times Uniroyal or successor companies begged for time claiming that they were already addressing a problem or just getting ready to start to do so.  We at UPAC or CPAC would give them that time simply never to see the item ever on the Agenda again or in some watered down version. This of course was aided by local politicians arbitrarily removing members and appointing their own uninformed buddies, sycophants and deferential "experts" with skin in the game who did not want to rock the boat.

Elmira has become the poster child for public consultation abuse. It is also the poster child for corporate abuse of citizens aided and abetted by local politicians whether municipal, regional or provincial. It's also funny how polluting industries seem to have support from both Liberals and Conservatives. Gee I wonder which two parties are the biggest benefactors of corporate donations ? 

THE HUMAN CONDITION: DOES STATUS & AUTHORITY ENGENDER STUPIDITY ?

 

Oh boy but that title above is a strong statement. Can I back it up? Well first American politics. How about George W. Bush and the non-existent "weapons of mass destruction" in Iraq if I've named the correct President Bush for that idiocy. Or how about President Trump in all his glory? Nine months ago he bragged that Iran's nuclear ambitions were obliterated after bombing the country. Now he's trying to obliterate the rest of the country with claims that their nuclear program is alive and well and they are a threat to the U.S. and Israel. 

Recently our Waterloo Region councillors (& staff) have put their amazing intelligence and common sense up for debate by somehow forgetting to include infill development into their calculations of water demand. They have also been secretly  pumping water from Wilmot Township to the three big cities despite an agreement not to do so without discussion and agreement by Wilmot Township.

Now even closer to home we have the idjits on the Waterloo Region District School Board  (WRDSB) who attacked teacher Carolyn Burjowski for her comments and opinions on age inappropriate books for very young students. These comments were made as a properly registered Delegate to the WRDSB and as the courts have made clear since were done so in accordance with all rules and procedures. 

Today's K-W Record carries an Opinion piece by Luisa D'Amato referring to a "witch hunt" by Waterloo Catholic trustees. Thank God our Catholic Board has stepped up to share the limelight and glory with our public board. This dispute went right to the Ontario Superior Court who determined that the Catholic Board's decision was "unreasonable and must be set aside." I mean maybe this is a sign that our courts  prefer to make decisions based upon law and reasonableness themselves. Who knows about that for sure but the facts as exposed by Luisa D'Amato certainly indicate that the trustee Kathy Doherty-Masters absolutely did not violate the trustee's Code of Conduct as alleged. 

What then have we learned? Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely? Nah we already knew that. Maybe it's that mostly dishonest and or self-serving people are attracted to getting elected to positions of authority? Possibly. Or maybe it's that voting citizens are far too easily swayed by appearances (looks), names and other trivial characteristics. That's a big one and doesn't make Democracy look so hot sometimes. 

WRDSB TRUSTEES GET THEIR ASS*S KICKED BY THE K-W RECORD

 Well to be specific by Luisa D'Amato. This takes me back decades when she was on the Education beat and used to lay them out like bowling pins, on a regular basis. I gained an immense amount of confidence and respect for her in those days.

In Ms. D'Amato's February 25,, 2026 Opinion piece she makes it very clear that leaving all control of education in the province's hands is not a good thing. She however clearly understands and believes that the current system of trustees is badly broken. She is correct and while she does suggest that there were/are? a surprising proportion of trustees with ties to the Waterloo Region & District School Board (WRDSB) as either former teachers or spouses or relatives, she does not specify exactly what the problem there was. Perhaps just that the trustees should better represent a more diverse group of citizens and parents .

I do have one strong disagreement with Ms. D'Amato's opinion however. In fact I'm wondering if she was speaking with tongue firmly in cheek when she suggested that the Region of Waterloo could step up and become the local board of education similar to their duties as the local board of health. Firstly we are daily and publicly, thanks to Ms. D'Amato, Terry Pender, Bill Jackson etc., learning exactly how inept and incompetent the Region of Waterloo staff and councillors are due to the region wide water crisis.  Secondly those of us living in Elmira never received the support necessary from the board of health for our own Elmira Water Crisis .So much more could have and should have been done by them to counteract the polluter and his tame regulator's (MOE/MECP)  false reassurances and minimization of health problems.

LUISA D'AMATO TAKES OFFENCE AT THE REST OF US BEING CALLED "GOLDEN RETRIEVERS"

Jeff McIntyre of the Grand Valley Construction Association really is a horse's patootie. What was he thinking when he referenced his like for Non Disclosure Agreements because he's on the inside while the rest of us are golden retrievers waiting by the door for news. No politician worth his salt would make such a stupid comment but then maybe Mr. McIntyre is a much better human being than most politicians (granted a low standard) . Maybe he's at exactly where he should be but really he should be a tad more careful in his public choice of words.

Ms. D'Amato makes a very strong case for the public being in the loop and immediately apprised of new facts or plans whether good or bad. She also bluntly puts the committee members/working group of councillors, developers and builders in their place when she advises that "We, the public, are the owners, not the companion animals. We will decide what happens to the water, and who gets elected in the fall."

I've been warning Woolwich councillors for some time now that their futures, their reputations and legacies are at risk regarding the Elmira water crisis. Perhaps we will have a regional housecleaning first over the regional water crisis and the Woolwich one four years later after the mandated 2026 failure and fallout occurs. Who knows though. It could be a doubleheader this fall during the 2026 elections.     

CHURCH'S HOUSING DEVELOPMENT VERSUS GRAVEL PITS: WHO SHOULD GET THE WATER?

 

One article in today's K-W Record (front page) written by Bill Jackson discusses the refusal to give the former Trinity United Church in Elmira a building permit and the other on page 3. by Bill Doucet is an article in which local M.P.P. Aislinn Clancy is asking the Ontario Minister of Environment to stop issuing industrial and commercial water taking permits. In particular she is not happy with local gravel pits putting in applications for large water taking permits. 

For me this is an easy choice. We've got more gravel pits than we need and more pits are simply to reduce distance and costs to transport aggregate to building sites, cement and asphalt facilities. In other words to boost aggregate producers profits which isn't necessarily on it's face a bad thing. I however vote in favour of  water permits going to the new housing being developed on the former Church property on Arthur St. in Elmira.

Now here's a twist.  Elmira supposedly is legally mandated to have our Uniroyal Chemical contaminated ground water rehabilitated and restored by 2028.  If that were to occur (it won't) then I dare say that Woolwich could have pretty much gone ahead with OUR water and given the new housing development the building permit they require for construction this summer. Maybe a little more support and citizen involvement over the years/decades would have lit a fire under all the guilty/recalcitrant local buggers including politicians who have gone along deferentially with the go through the motions status quo for so long.

TRAC MEETING OF FEBRUARY !9, 2026

 

First of all I'm late posting this because of human error at the Township. A staff person simply forgot to put the link to their You Tube video on the Township's website (look for "Council Calendar") after uploading the meeting to You Tube . That said I'm going to grudgingly, unhappily and with an overall lack of grace thank a Woolwich councillor whom I have many times in the past sharply criticized environmentally.  Nathan Cadeau when informed by me promptly fixed the matter. Thank you Nathan.

Hmm O.K. that wasn't as painful as I thought it would be. Maybe that's because I view my environmental criticism as factual but not personal. We were advised by Lanxess (Hadley) about the results of some bench scale remediation testing. Now I believe she was talking about aerobic (with oxygen) and anaerobic (without oxygen) use of either bacteria or possibly amendments to soils that hopefully stimulate the bacteria to degrade NDMA and or chlorobenzene. The aerobic degradation was much better than the anaerobic degradation for chlorobenzene. For NDMA however the degradation both ways was much less than that for chlorobenzene. This testing will continue halfway through 2026.

Public consultation was discussed for the upcoming 2028 instrument whatever it's name such as Control Order or Certificate of Approval etc.  This of course is the new instrument post the mandated (but failed) groundwater cleanup deadline of 2028. A rose by any other name smells as sweet and another pile of horse manure from the MECP (Min. of Environment) will be equally as useless as all the rest. 

Mayor Shantz suggested that the current Waterloo Region water quantity crisis may be conflated with Elmira's water quality crisis involving NDMA, chlorobenzene, dioxins and so much more. Personally I believe that the two crises are interconnected. If she and the other guilty parties had done their jobs one or two decades ago our aquifers could have been in much better shape by now. She also would like to know if there is a better place to discharge the treated groundwater under Elmira to other than the Canagagigue Creek. Look out folks still contaminated water is looking for a home near you.

Hadley Stamm (Lanxess) made a reasonably dumb statement when she suggested that the treated groundwater being discharged to the Creek was at drinking water standards. Well Lou Almeida (GHD) swooped in and rescued her from that . Clearly Lanxess are more about PR and appearances as Hadley is the point person constantly interrupting and talking over Lou. Lou is a middle aged male of average appearance who has a ton of local Elmira experience versus Hadley's five minutes or so. One of these days Lou just might snap and non affectionately tell Hadley to "Shut the *#ck up !" Hope springs eternal.

Karl Belan of the Region of Waterloo made it clear that the Region were not interested in further treating discharged ground water to bring it up to drinking water standards. There was also discussion about the stigma of drinking former Uniroyal chemically contaminated water. 

I was pleased to see that TRAC are flexible enough to shift gears somewhat in mid stream and discuss the current Waterloo Region alleged quantity crisis. I say alleged because although not yet fully proven it sure looks like we are in water supply (quantity) trouble plus quantity IS related to quality. When you have a number of wellfields shut down due to contamination as we do then certainly water quality is affecting quantity. Well E10 at the south end of Elmira is being looked at although I find it odd that the well shed or housing has been removed. Yes the pipe is sticking out of the ground there but why expose it unnecessarily? Also I have heard recently that the Region are looking elsewhere near Elmira for more water.  Well that should be interesting as we see them attempt to pump uncontaminated water from the same aquifer(s). In fact buddy (?) Nathan Cadeau actually suggested that the Region could drill somewhere else in the aquifer and have clean water. Well, well, well.

Hadley got into an interesting conversation with Karl (Region) when she appeared to say simultaneously that the Region Do/Don't intentionally pump drinking water from contaminated aquifers elsewhere than Elmira.  Maybe Lanxess would care to clean up the treated groundwater further for use as drinking water??? Eric Hodgins (former Region hydroG) maybe pointedly commented that the Ontario Safe Drinking Water Act does have provisions for fines and jail for violators. Hmm.

There was much discussion about a survey from Lanxess to determine local interest in these issues. Frankly I think that all Lanxess want to do is quietly get the heck out of the aquifer remediation business as soon as possible and that means keeping everything on the downlow. 

I am seeing which way the wind is blowing and it's all about winding this thing up gracefully and looking good spending the least amount of money possible. Thank you Region of Waterloo for putting water back in the spotlight.