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.