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 approximztely 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.
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