MONEY IS THE ROOT OF ALL EVIL - JUST ASK CONESTOGA ROVERS & ASSOC.

 

As soon as I saw the phrase Conestoga Lands Inc. in reference to the proposed zoning change and breach of the country side line on Bridge St. in Waterloo, Ontario I smelled something rotten in the air. Was it possible that a (in my opinion) rotten company, long ago merged with a bigger maybe less rotten firm, could still be spreading their anti social, anti environmental actions upon unsuspecting citizens? Well now that is a tricky question. I did a little bit of research trying to find out if the developers behind this proposed industrial site located beside Martin Grove Village in north Waterloo were indeed the former Conestoga Rovers & Associates (CRA) who made their initial claim to fame with the Love Canal disaster in the United States.

Well things get a little murky here. First of all CRA merged with GHD an Australian engineering firm around 2015 or so and carried on in name as GHD. CRA employees and shareholders were given shares in GHD and many (most ?) carried on with the new group. That being said the reference to CRA Lands Limited does refer to my least favourite engineering firm who are multiple winners of the MACHO Award.  They were presented with this award for their work with Uniroyal Chemical in Elmira and the award name stands for Memorial Award for Creative HydrogeOlogy. 

Now here's the rub. According to Google/AI,  CRA Lands Limited while referring to lands formerly owned by Conestoga Rovers & Assoc. are actually owned by a group of land developers. Maybe they thought that CRA had a good reputation environmentally or perhaps a good reputation as engineering consultants. I think it would be fair to suggest that dirty, rotten, polluting industries just love companies like CRA who give them the veneer of scientific oversight in their environmental decision making. Of course my harsh comments concerning dirty, rotten, polluting industries are a result of my working with/against CRA in Elmira for a couple of decades at least as they psuedo scientifically and drastically reduced  Uniroyal Chemical's cleanup costs.  

Now I don't claim to be any kind of land expert but it appears as if CRA Lands Limited and CRA Lands II Limited are controlled by Cook Lands Group. This company, again according to AI, is owned and operated by "...local Waterloo developer Ian Cook, founder of Cook Homes Limited,...". So here we appear to have once again the tail wagging the dog as home builders and developers are attempting to expand the hard country side line in order to obtain more lands to build profitable for them homes. 

I guess that I am less appalled because it isn't CRA directly behind this attempt to crack the countryside line; but only slightly less appalled. With Woolwich Township's penchant for sleeping with polluters and their fellow travellors, I expect smooth sailing for anybody riding on CRA's coattails.   

I REVIEWED PAST MEDIA STORIES ABOUT ELMIRA- SO DISAPPOINTING

 

And so inaccurate. I guess that's not too surprising. They took an educated guess and guessed wrong. They've backed the wrong horse and aren't going to admit it now. There was a large article in the Record last November with a number of pretty obvious errors in it. I contacted the Record in writing with specifics and details and basically got nowhere. They weren't interested in having to change any part of the narrative, accurate or inaccurate. I might add that there is a good comment published on yesterday's Blog posting regarding what appears to be Lanxess's intentional leakage and even pumping of contaminated groundwater pulling it off the Uniroyal/Lanxess site into the Elmira drinking water aquifers. 

Overall media coverage has been pathetic for years despite ongoing RAC & TAG meetings later followed by TRAC meetings. My initial name for TRAC was "Totally Rotten & Corrupt" but I have softened that to "Too Reticent and Compromising". Either one works for me although the second is politer and acknowledges that there are at least a couple of members whose intentions are good. The rest know what the game is and are fine with going through the motions and providing the Ministry (MECP), Lanxess and  Woolwich Township with the cover and credibility they require. Following is the verbatim Comment from yesterday's Blog posting:

 AnonymousAugust 19, 2026 at 9:08 PM

Yesterday's Analysis is SHOCKING!!! "By pumping less on-site and more off-site they are intentionally losing on-site hydraulic containment. This means that they are purposefully drawing contaminants off their site where they Lanxess only pay 50% of those cleanup costs versus 100% of all on-site treatment costs." so they drained the surface with ditches and swales and trenches into the river AND the parts of the Aquifer that were most contaminated they are attempting to just flush away downstream as well. Wow that is so environmentally mindboggling.

Reply

alan August 20, 2026 at 10:47 AM

TRAC whether you know it or not your mandate includes enhancing not undermining the cleanup of Elmira's groundwater. Your willingness to be led around by the nose on matters of Agenda and Discussion items is disgraceful. Your naivety and trust in corporate Lanxess and the corrupt MECP has and will continue to damage the environment as well as the health of all inhabitants, human and wildlife.

TRAC THIS IS ALSO YOUR RESPONSIBILITY TO BE MONITORING & INSISTING UPON COMPLIANCE FROM LANXESS CANADA

 

Look it's one thing to be a cheerleader versus a watchdog but at some point you have to insist that Lanxess comply with their Control Orders, Environmental Compliance Agreements, MISA requirements and other mandated conditions affecting Elmira's groundwater cleanup as well as the cleanup of the Canagagigue Creek. Yesterday we discussed their failure to maintain the balance between on and off-site pumping necessary to ensure hydraulic containment in both areas. 

Again I have the data going back to 1997 at my fingertips showing the volume of pumping from the UACS (Upper Aquifer Containment & Treatment System). Each month I transfer the pumping results from the ongoing Progress Reports onto one individual page for the year thus reducing 12 monthly reports pumping information for all containment systems to a single page. Now if Lanxess Canada had made some sort of breakthrough several years ago that magically reduced the required amount of pumping and treating of groundwater, they certainly haven't publicly made a big deal of it. In fact for many years the Target pumping rates for each well along with the actual pumping that particular month were discussed in detail. Uniroyal, Crompton and Chemtura were occasionally balancing and adjusting based upon water level conditions ("Gig") and other factors which they openly and properly discussed with the UPAC and CPAC committees. We were often advised that short term reductions were not necessarily a problem however the Target pumping rates were carefully set in order to maintain the necessary hydraulic containment and avoid loss of contaminants from on-site either to off-site groundwater or for the leakage of contaminants from the on-site Upper Aquifer to the discharge point into the Canagagigue Creek.     

Above and beyond the committee members themselves is the fact that all actions and particularly changes from past practices are to be discussed at the public RAC/TAG and now TRAC meetings. When pump & treat is the primary remediation method it is of particular public interest to discuss rationales for any changes in pumping regimens, especially reductions. This has not been done either for on-site Municipal Upper Aquifer (MU) pumping or for on-site shallow groundwater (i.e. Upper Aquifer-UA) pumping. The pumping rates have simply been getting lower and lower over the last several years with no public discussion involved. Whether or not I have been able to stomach in person attendance at these alleged public meetings the fact is that I have watched and listened to them in their entirety via their on-line presence. I have also written critiques of each and every one afterwards. Perhaps there are implications to these Lanxess Canada, MECP and TRAC UA pumping failures somewhat similar to the implications I wrote about yesterday concerning the Municipal Upper Aquifer (MU) pumping failures.

ARE LANXESS & THE MECP INTENTIONALLY SABOTAGING THE ELMIRA GROUNDWATER CLEANUP?

Why would they do that? Money obviously is the most likely culprit. Have they figured out that if they can't reach the 2028 Elmira groundwater cleanup deadline then they may as well cut back on pumping and treating in order to save themselves money? But wait a minute! Their off-site (i.e. beneath Elmira vs. beneath their site)  pumping figures don't reflect that. In fact they are pumping as much or more off-site than they've ever pumped. Ahh! The dirty, slimy, rotten so and so's! Notice here that I have not named Hadley, Lou, Jason or Lubna or anybody else from Lanxess/GHD/MECP as specifically being the "...dirty, slimy, rotten so and so's."  That could be construed as either rude or disrespectful and heaven forbid I'd never want anybody to suspect that I have zero respect for professional liars, especially those on the taxpayers' payroll, who would dissemble or deceive their true employers.

So what are the poor, misguided, obviously soul and ethics damaged folks at Lanxess doing? Well simply by looking backwards, something I challenge TRAC to do now and then, one can learn the answer. Since 2019 Lanxess, right in front of the Ontario Ministry of Environment (MECP), are significantly cutting back on their on-site Municipal Upper Aquifer pumping. Now keep in mind they've already achieved permission not to have to maintain 100% hydraulic containment on their site as they were originally ordered to do. The sad theory is that contaminants that escape from their north-west property boundary allegedly are recaptured by either on-site PW4 or off-site W5 A/B. This scheme supported by CPAC, APTE and the MECP at the time appears not to worry that they (Uniroyal/Crompton) have increased contamination for private property owners along the west side of their industrial site. This concession saved the company money just as their unilateral/bilateral decision starting in 2019 to cut back on pumping the most heavily contaminated and hence most expensive pump & treat on-site area did so. 

Way back in time, before RAC/TAG & later TRAC came along, one Jeff Merriman from Chemtura promised CPAC that on-site pumping (PW4 & PW5 at the time)  would average 6.0 litres per second in order to assure full on-site hydraulic containment. Averages probably for a while were closer to 5.8 or 5.9  litres/sec but they were at least close. Then under Lanxess Canada they started to fall and continued to do so. Now certain honest, albeit softly misguided individuals currently on TRAC such as Sebastian do not have the full past pumping  regimens of all pumping wells at their fingertips as I do. Most certainly neither does Susan Bryant who does not share Sebastian's attributes of honesty and being only softly misguided. Hence TRAC mostly composed of citizen members with less than five years experience  have simply ignored both on and off site pumping rates because they have nothing to compare them to despite 34 1/2 years of on-site pumping and more than 28 years of off-site pumping. All the data are in the monthly Progress Reports although that's too onerous for volunteers to dig through as I have.

So in the short term Lanxess cut back on their most expensive pumping and treatment costs AND guess what? By pumping less on-site and more off-site they are intentionally losing on-site hydraulic containment. This means that they are purposefully drawing contaminants off their site where they Lanxess only pay 50% of those cleanup costs versus 100% of all on-site treatment costs. We the taxpayers pay the other 50% of the off-site costs. This of course also lengthens and stretches out  the time needed to fully and properly remediate the (off-site) Elmira Aquifers.

I call this at the least gamesmanship and at the worst fraud. Certainly it also shows gross disrespect of Elmira citizens and all citizen taxpayers. Not a peep out of RAC/TAG or TRAC because mayor Sandy Shantz intentionally eliminated those of us on CPAC in late 2015 with the knowledge and honesty to oppose this deception and gamesmanship.   

K-W RECORD ARTICLE MISSES THE ENVIRONMENTAL MARK - "THE SHANLEY"

 The article in last Saturday's Record is titled "Long journey to transform former Kitchener industrial site almost complete". My first concern is the inaccurate or at least deceptive claim that the building was "abandoned and derelict for years," Nice try as it sat there rotting above ground and leaking trichloroethylene (TCE) below ground for many decades. The words "contaminated" and remediation" are used twice and once respectively.

What it doesn't say are the negative health effects that TCE has had on the neighbourhood, the residents and local wildlife likely since early in its life more than 120 years ago. The article also doesn't give us any idea as to the extent of remediation. Did mayor Vrbanovic  and local illuminaries ask for and receive the Cadillac cleanup as promised here in Elmira or instead did they receive the Volkswagon Beetle cleanup as we have here? TCE is a DNAPL chemical. Did they find remaining pools of TCE and if so what did they do with them? How deep did the soil and groundwater contamination go? What other chemicals were released along with the TCE? One component spills, releases and dumpings are mostly a fiction perpetrated by those looking for cleanup shortcuts. 

Where are the Phase 1 and 2 Environmental Assessments? Who did those assessments? Was a Risk Assessment completed allegedly to determine exactly how much cleanup was required? Were monitoring wells ever installed in both shallow and deeper aquifers to determine how far from the source the TCE (and other)  contamination has spread? Was any testing of nearby homes ever undertaken to determine if TCE had penetrated into them via vapour intrusion? How many cancers, lung and heart diseases may have been caused or exacerbated by TCE and other contaminants?

Sorry K-W Record but this article is simply a puff piece to help re-elect Berry Vrbanovic in October. Yes "The Shanley" probably makes the neighbourhood look better now but where was the cleanup 25 to 50 years ago when it was most needed?  As a society are we going to continue letting toxic contamination sit in residential areas for decades and pretend that no harm has been done?

LUISA DAMATO HITS IT OUT OF THE PARK - ALL WHO SIGNED NON-DISCLOSURE AGREEMENTS NEED TO BE VOTED OUT OF OFFICE

 

Today's K-W Record has a large Opinion article by Luisa D'Amato on page A3 titled " Something big is happening at Wilmot's industrial megasite. Why are we in the dark?" Personally I find the timing very telling. Remember the haste to prematurely cut the corn crop in one of the fields a year or two ago? That seemed to be sending a message to critics which was we the Region bought the field and we'll do with it as we please. Now just two months before municipal elections I have to wonder if the increase in activity including removing buildings, hiring security guards to patrol access roads and archeologists on site doing research is to defeat any negative response by citizens at the upcoming polls. Are regional councillors afraid that the election might actually reverse the process if citizens kick all the bums out of office?

As Luisa D'Amato indicates, a non-disclosure agreement prior to the bulk of the land being assembled might be justified on the basis of land costs being affected, but after the fact seems unreasonable. It is unreasonable because the public who are actually footing the bills have a right to know how this project "...will affect our environment, our food security, our water supply and our road and sewer infrastructure."  To date all requests for studies such as traffic, wildlife,  declining farmland capacity, electrical usage and water supply needs and capabilities have all been ignored. That is grossly unacceptable and exactly why those buggars need to be fired by their employers (i.e. us). 

Add to all that is the recent recognition of the frailty of our water system in Waterloo Region. This proposed megasite is close to the Wilmot Centre Wellfield which is already under enormous pumping pressure plus hampered by high Nitrates contamination. Ms. D'Amato mentions the concerns around a chemical spill. This is why subsurface stratigraphic conditions directly beneath the megasite need to be publicly published as well as the overlying soil/clay/sand/gravel above the wellscreens for the Wilmot Centre Wellfield. My recollection is that there are parts of the Waterloo Moraine in Wilmot Township with minimal to no clay aquitards between the ground surface and the predominate two aquifers beneath. Those areas are extremely vulnerable to chemical spills and could quickly finish off any hope of continued groundwater usage in large parts of Waterloo Region.

REGION'S COMPLAINTS PROCESS SURVEY - LIKELY JUST MORE OF THE SAME

 

You know I'd like to fill out a survey that I had some confidence was actually honest and above board. One that for example I could see my survey responses at some later date had not only been received but kept as part of the documentation on file. Do I really believe that my or anybody else's comments have actually been taken to heart by regional staff or politicians? Not a hope. 

The survey I filled out today was advertised in the K-W Record and is the second that I have completed. It makes me wonder what the results of the first survey were. Is the Region hoping to come off looking better simply by their proposed new procedure that was in yesterday's newspaper and probably introduced at regional council the day before? If their ratings have already risen does that mean that they can then backtrack by the five councillors of the appeal group deciding to automatically torpedo 95% of all appeals coming their way?

Surveys and dog and pony shows such as past regional games playing and likely the latest "public information and consultation session"  scheduled for August 20/26 are not true public consultation. Public consultation is less scripted and more public. Citizens ask questions from a microphone so that all present can hear their questions and then also hear the responses back from whomever is representing the government or industry behind the public meeting. Something like that would be worth attending. Private one on one discussions with staff are a waste of time and do nothing.

WATERLOO REGION: "WE NEED TO BUILD TRUST AND ACCOUNTABILITY" " ESPECIALLY AS THEY DON'T DESERVE IT.

 

Hypocrisy, puffery and obfuscation, the three building blocks of politics. The quote about trust and accountability in the title above came from Amy Shaw of the Region of Waterloo.  Amy who? Is that the same Amy Shaw who worked for our grossly corrupt and dishonest Ontario Ministry of Environment for decades? Or was it only for many years? Either way I think she knows where she can put your trust and the Region's accountability and that is along with everybody else's trust and that is deep on the back shelf beside the non existent regional accountability. God the overwhelming nerve! I'll just bet that she and Hadley are buddies too. 

Meanwhile Wilmot Mayor Salonen has got to go in the upcoming election if as stated in today's K-W Record article "I'm really happy with where we are".  Longtime Wilmot resident Martha Bricker however referred to the all councillor appeals committee thusly: "If it's just councillors, it's just going to be the same old, same old." With age comes both wisdom and honesty provided you're not a politician.

Some of the terms of the new water interference process have been improved but not all. The one concerning an independent third party or professional doing the investigating can be easily monkied with as so many allegedly private and independent hydrogeologists and firms have long term financial interests with either the Ministry of Environment or the Region of Waterloo. Both sketchy parties sub contract studies and hydrogeological investigations to many different private consulting firms who once on the approved list want to stay there. Actually being independent and coming up with results that either the Region or the MECP don't want can end their government work.

Of course the real stinker is that after the investigation is completed and results submitted a resident told that their well has not been interfered with can appeal to a committee of five regional councillors. This is where the rubber meets the road and simply is not acceptable. The Region have showed that they do not play fair including ignoring written agreements with Wilmot Township as well as denying obvious interference claims in the past  while drastically increasing their water pumping from Wilmot wellfields.

DO NOT DRINK WATERLOO REGION TAP WATER AS IS

 

Have I got the name correct? Was it the O'Connor Commission which looked into the Walkerton mass bacteria poisoning with E. Coli back around 2000?  Among a number of key recommendations was the multi barrier approach to water protection.  The plan was to isolate and protect each and every step of water withdrawal, water treatment, water storage, water distribution from its' source to your kitchen sink. This is where the Region of Waterloo have failed horribly. They may claim to have the finest, most up to date water treatment available but that is merely one step in a multi step process. Hence a single breakdown whether mechanical, electrical or human failure at a treatment plant could be catastrophic. Now in Walkerton there were multiple failures mostly human albeit they affected the raw water entering the system as well as the treatment efforts further along as human beings actually fudged some of the treatment data and reports to make things look better on paper than they were.

Here in Waterloo Region we have serious issues with at least two of the four steps mentioned earlier. Water withdrawal from contaminated aquifers is far worse than problematic. Water distribution is also a problem as far too many water pipes still in the ground are made of lead and possibly even some asbestos pipe is still in existence. Some of these pipes astoundingly include ones going to our public and elementary schools. The third step overall namely treatment might be reasonably good but it fails to totally remove trichloroethylene (TCE), glyphosate (Round Up) and others from the treated water sent to our homes and businesses. The Middleton Wellfield in Cambridge even has greater treatment (Advanced Oxidation Process) than all the other groundwater sources but still can't eliminate it completely from the water supply. Similar issues but with less treatment occur at the William St. Wellfield in Waterloo as well as the Parkway Wellfield in Kitchener. 

There are also issues, mostly totally ignored, with synergy between toxic contaminants. It is what we don't know that can hurt us. If TCE is at 2 parts per billion (ppb) in our tap water and glyphosate is at 6 ppb plus a dash of lead from the pipes as well then what is the true health criteria? Nobody knows!! Science is wonderful but to date there have been no published drinking water standards for more than one contaminant at a time in our water.

Following is a partial list of known contaminants throughout Waterloo Region groundwater and drinking water wells:  NDMA, chlorobenzene, ammonia, TCE, nitrates, glyphosate, xylenes, toluene, benzene, sodium, chlorides and more. Most groundwater has multiple contaminants. Surface water drinking sources (Grand River) have more bacteria, viruses and pathogens such as coliforms, E.Coli, cryptosporidium and many others.

There are expensive fixes such as reverse osmosis systems and ultraviolet light systems that can be put in homes and or much less expensive and maybe much less efficient systems including Brita filters (activated carbon filters). Regardless demanding safer and cleaner drinking water from our elected representatives is the first step. It may even be necessary to delay other hobby priorities of our politicians if we as citizens believe that drinking water for ourselves and families is a bigger priority. 

OH MY, OH MY IS IT POSSIBLE THAT THE PROVINCE OF ONTARIO HAVE ALSO SEEN ENOUGH NONSENSE FROM WATERLOO REGION ?

 

O.K. I will admit that my political biases don't exactly match my hopes for either a regional house cleaning at the polls or a provincially initiated housecleaning by removing the regional Chair and replacing her with a better provincial appointee. Now I have made my concerns with our current regional councillors abundantly clear even as recently as my Blog post of yesterday. A third issue I have is with our Police Services Board as well as with our regional police. My issues aren't in regards to individual police officers, they are in regards to the decision makers at the top. This includes being far too influenced by other organizational idiots such as at the school board (WRDSB) as well as how they (mis)handled the serious concerns and lawsuits of their female officers. I suppose this also includes the appropriate focus on drunk driving and the total ignoring and failure to enforce all other driving safety issues except speeding. Speeding and drinking & driving laws are enforced whereas distracted driving is not nor are mandatory turn signals, driving in the right lane on the Xpressway unless passing, tailgating and believe it or not driving well below the speed limit under ideal driving conditions. Is there some kind of insurance bonus given to pick up truck drivers who appear to be intentionally delaying all traffic behind them just because they can?

So yes I'd love to see the province swoop in and kick political butt here in Waterloo Region. The one itsy bitsy problem I have is an almost total lack of faith in your hero and mine, Doug Ford. I am not a Conservative and even if I was I think he would trouble me. Yes Mr. Ford has properly given Donald Trump  the stink eye as well as banned U.S. alcohol sales in our LCBO. Other than that he has given too many concessions to developers and too few to environmentalists. There is my conundrum. Sure come in Mr. Ford and clean house here because unfortunately our voting public aren't paying enough attention and simply vote for the pretty face who talks nicely and tells all the right lies. Sometimes though inviting a predator in to solve one problem only leads to other, maybe worse problems.  

AN ELECTORAL REGIONAL HOUSECLEANING IS DESPERATELY NEEDED; MUNICIPALLY YES AND NO

 

First and foremost thank goodness we are finally ridding ourselves of the too popular by half Sandy Shantz. She has delivered bad governance with a smile, speaks softly and tries to offend no one. Unfortunately the public have lapped that crap up. Maybe in her private life she really is the good person I thought she was over a dozen years ago but her positions and decisions in office have harmed the public interest. Most likely they have assisted her husband's and family's business interests but if so that too appears to have flown under the radar. Maybe it's all been scrupulously according to the rules; I really don't know for sure.

Her positions on both the east side expansion and by-pass onto contaminated properties combined with her heavily pro polluter/corporate biases regarding Chemtura and Lanxess will be her eventual reputational downfall. She has bent over backwards to accommodate corporate self-interests that have resulted in her and their gross failures to either restore Elmira's drinking water or to so much as clean up a single shovel full of downstream dioxins, DDT, mercury and PCBs in the Canagagigue Creek. Wildlife, the environment and human beings have suffered because of those failures. 

My comments on a regional housecleaning are due to both the Wilmot Land Grab (770 acres) democratic failures of transparency and communications as well as the still ongoing regional water crisis that they now claim is "solved".  We are in big, long lasting water trouble and that is all due to past negligence and incompetence combined with the similar mentioned above municipal "pro polluter/corporate biases". Slamming gates shut after the livestock have all left rarely is an effective strategy.    

Regarding our municipal councillors I am conflicted. Yes I will have no regrets if Nathan Cadeau is unelected based upon multiple early interactions with him over Lanxess that I found distasteful. Other than that I do not have strong feelings for or against the other councillors mostly based upon really not knowing them at all. That said I do kind of grudgingly like Eric Schwindt despite believing that he is considerably more right wing and pro business than myself. Somehow he has conveyed to me a willingness at least to listen with an open mind. Time will confirm or deny that. Evan Burgess appears to be more mature than his chronological age and with seasoning I can hope that he too will expand and flourish. Maybe that comment is based more on my age than on his. Again time will tell. Bonnie and Kayla have shown commonsense on various issues and I wish them well.

 

RECENT WOOLWICH HAPPENINGS & REPORTS CONCERNING WATER ISSUES & MORE

 

Perhaps the " & MORE " would be the addition of a third candidate for the Mayor's position. Chane Ballantyne is the candidate and I guess I'm a little surprised at the relative lack of public experience of all three candidates. Having said that I am remembering how Todd Cowan with absolutely zero municipal experience walked in and got himself elected primarily due to his personal door to door campaigning. Unfortunately despite some good work Todd managed to self-destruct and implode before his first term ended. Bonnie Bryant has the most actual municipal experience with two terms as councillor but to date she has not thrown her hat in the ring for the mayor's job. I guess I would view Eric Schwindt as the most experienced of the current three mayoral candidates.

TRAC, Lanxess, MECP and the Region are all spinning their wheels regarding both aquifer remediation and Creek rehabilitation. The best they've come up with are two recent, fundamentally flawed reports pretending to support the status quo while absolutely not doing so. In fact careful examination of the Jen Lyndal (Integral Inc.) report proves the immense amount of downstream contamination still there fifty-six years after mass dumping on-site and into the Canagagigue Creek ended. The tied for most bizarre aspect of this report was Hadley Stamm's relationship with the author Jen Lyndal, as if that was somehow supposed to be a positive reinforcement of the honesty of the report. 

The second recent weird report was Lanxess/GHD's partial shutdown of Elmira pumping wells which was to somehow indicate again that their pumping regimens had merit and were appropriate. That horse has long bolted as neither NDMA nor chlorobenzene concentrations are at or below the Ontario Drinking Water Standards (ODWS) as they are supposed to be almost literally within spitting distance of them, and are not. Also rest assured there are many more solvents still not removed from our drinking water aquifers although I would recommend much greater focus on DDT and Dioxin/Furans possibly in coordination with greater focus on all the DNAPL chlorinated solvents.

Lanxess and the MECP have been trying to get rid of off-site (i.e. under Elmira) DNAPLS for decades without admitting their existence, using pump & treat technology. Pump & treat was never solely appropriate on its' own and the proof is in the pudding as all parties now admit failure to achieve the 2028 mandated deadline. This citizens and politicians is the result when you leave the fox in charge of the henhouse and you blind and cripple citizen watchdogs.

BAD TIMING FOR WOOLWICH TWN.: WATERLOO REGION STILL IN A WATER CRISIS

 

Maybe just maybe other parts of Waterloo Region may finally take a look at Woolwich Township and learn a thing or two. Lying and dissembling are not the sole prerogative of politicians anywhere. They all participate in targeted truth polishing when the occasion demands. Right now just before a municipal election that includes regional government, the occasion to lie doesn't just demand it; it screams it. Can you imagine the shock, the consternation, the relief and the sheer joy if we threw all the bums out this October?

Waterloo Region claims that the water crisis is passed. Bullfroghooey to say the least. Above and beyond all the contaminated aquifers already listed here over the last few weeks you can add St. Agatha and Wilmot Centre. I'm basing both on the permitted volumes of pumping available versus the tiny amounts of water actually pumped back in the early 2000s. Added to this is the known high concentrations of Nitrates in the Wilmot Centre Wellfield. Seriously folks anybody who thinks that Wilmot Township are going to bail out the rest of Waterloo Region waterwise, are smoking way too much wacky tobaccy. 

Getting back to Woolwich Township mostly what the rest of Waterloo Region should have learned is that talk and puffery are a poor substitute for unbiased science, action and money carefully spent. Right now the rest of Waterloo Region need water from Woolwich Township, not to be continuing to supply them water from shrinking sources. Both the three major cities and the other Townships have a right to know why the promised return to water production in Elmira less than two years away just isn't going to happen and if it does it will require mass introduction of substandard water quality. The other municipal jurisdictions kept their noses out of Woolwich's water woes only on the understanding that the 25 years of Uniroyal/Crompton/Chemtura  and the MOE/MECP promises of full remediation meant something. In hindsight they meant nothing. They were BULLS**T and the Region themselves kept awfully quiet about   the shortcomings in the remediation, public consultation, lack of cleanup on and off site etc. 

Well Woolwich you've made your bed now lie in it. You, the Region and the Province (MECP) certainly know how to lie so get to it. 

THE COUNTDOWN HAS BEGUN: FORMAL FAILURE LOOMS. THANK YOU MAYOR SHANTZ, WOOLWICH COUNCIL, LANXESS, MECP etc. FOR REMOVING ME FROM THE FAST SINKING SHIP IN SEPT. 2015

 

Am I being too generous thanking all the twits, liars, politicians, self-serving bureaucrats and local influencers for effectively isolating my knowledge and input from the problem at hand, namely restoring both our aquifers and our Creek? Of course I am. I wonder how the long departed from active duty APTE members feel these days. They sat back and let Susan Bryant carry the torch with assistance first from Sylvia Berg and later Pat Mclean. Those two ladies were her "wingmen" and they and Susan did their  job well which was to appear to be the voice of the people while constantly greasing the skids for Uniroyal, Crompton, Chemtura, Lanxess and the corrupt Ministry of Environment. 

2028 is the mandated deadline for restoring our drinking water aquifers. While that date is only sixteen months away, of course as the MOE/MECP set it they can and will define it and or redefine it as they please. The master manipulaters have never rested. They know that public perception and opinion can be lost with but one major screwup, fire, explosion or even revelation that contradicts their carefully crafted narrative. Despite all this I would rather be at arm's length distance from the train wreck that is RAC/TAG, and TRAC. I personally want no part of a train wreck that I warned against for decades despite my confidence that those in charge are working very hard for a soft landing. Selling their lies to the public has been easy as long as all authorities were on board. Furthermore the precarious state of the media, particularly newspapers, has made their jobs much easier. The last thing newspapers want to do right now is to alienate corporate Canada or U.S.

Fantastic claims will be made by Lanxess and fellow travellers. The Region of Waterloo will go along depending upon the support they receive in kind from the other parties as the Region's water failures further are exposed. Same with the Ministry of Environment (MECP). Show them some love and they will respond in kind by agreeing with all kinds of corporate nonsense about slowing groundwater pumping to protect the environment to using the water in the Elmira Aquifers for socially positive effects. Maybe with enough treatment and dilution they can add our aquifers to the Region's overall water system, the IUS (Integrated Urban System). Rest assured the polluter, the regulator, the politicians and the media will all join in lockstep to declare victory. I declare this the reverse Richard Nixon as they snatch victory from the very jaws of grotesque failure and defeat.

EVEN MORE DNAPLS FOUND IN WATERLOO REGION DRINKING WATER WELLS

 

This would be the long contaminated Parkway Wellfield located near Fairway Rd. and Manitou Dr. There are three wells there named K31, K32 and K33. Allegedly the DNAPL chemical (TCE) is found in only one of the wells namely K32. That does not make much sense to me as they are all located close together and what is one should certainly be drawn into the others. Further examination has shed some light on this anomaly. In fact TCE (trichloroethylene) has been detected in all three wells however the text in the July 29, 2025 Grand River Source Protection Area  Assessment Report states " Trichloroethylene is generally not detected (< 0.5 ug/l) at wells K31 and K33". In fact it is detected regularly at low levels and occasionally especially in K33 at higher levels. 

Other health problems include sodium and chloride concentrations being too high. While some of this may be due to road salt it is also common for higher chloride levels in solvent contaminated groundwaters especially chlorinated solvent contaminated groundwater. 

TCE (trichloroethylene) is highly toxic. It both kills and causes extreme health effects from neurological symptoms to various cancers including leukemia. This solvent once was commonly used and abused throughout Waterloo Region industries as a degreaser for metal parts. Workers suffered the brunt of the health damages although the Bishop St. community in Cambridge suffered greatly from Northstar Aerospace mishandling of it as well as at least one other company across the road from Northstar.

Waterloo Region advises in this same Grand River Protection Area report that "...the source of the TCE to well K32 is unknown." I believe that that statement is false as my understanding for years is that there was formerly an Electrohome site also known as Deilcraft located nearby. Also oddly I recollect years after the fact a remediation attempt being done to clean up TCE from that industrial site. Obviously they didn't get all the TCE DNAPL which is unsurprising considering how DNAPL can disperse in the subsurface. The proof of course all these decades later is the dissolved TCE still in the groundwater. Take note Elmira with your ongoing chlorobenzene (DNAPL) contamination.

Happy drinking when this contaminated wellfield rejoins its' fellow retreaded wells into the drinking water regimen. Hey folks we have to keep our well healed developers, builders and politicians happy and if it requires personal sacrifice, so be it. 

WHY DO OUR GOVERNMENTS LIE TO US SO CONSTANTLY?

 

There are many reasons. Contempt and disrespect are right up there. Politicians were once ordinary people just generally a little lazier and a little more bent. This of course is a significant generalization as you will find occasional doctors and lawyers sitting in both provincial and federal governments. Both had to have money and ambition presumably along with hard work to get their degrees etc. Of course you will also get golf pros, their sons, drug dealers and all the rest sitting as M.P.s and M.P.P.s. Hence many of the lazy, unprepared for honest work politicians see others just like themselves sitting in legislatures and parliaments as well as on municipal councils and realize that citizens themselves are lazy enough and dumb enough to vote in riff raff. Hard to respect the public based upon the choices they make to represent themselves in government.

The public are occupied with keeping their jobs and hence salaries and wages. Non union work especially requires constant vigilance and watching which way the wind is blowing. More jobs are lost due to personality clashes than to inability to do the job. Citizens know that constantly toeing the line also means in non work matters and opinions that do not match your supervisor's or bosses. Political complacency by the public results from feeling detached from all decisions and having zero say in them. Again expressing strong political opinions at work can eventually lead to your head on the chopping block albeit employers are smart enough to dredge up some kind of pathetic work related excuse prior to dropping the axe. 

Politicians have learned that voters have short memories and long loyalties. Most first time voters follow their parents footsteps. Voters only vote about every four years and in between it's all about keeping their jobs , raising families and if they are fortunate at today's prices, buying homes. Then there are school issues, bills, social lives and so many important, in your face matters on a daily basis.

Politicians do learn on the job. They learn how to lie via using weasel words and phrases that allow them to backtrack when necessary.  Phrases like "when necessary" or "under the circumstances" gives them an out when their statements become ridiculous down the road. Quoting made up statistics that can never be checked such as "Canadians are fearful of gun violence" is a good example to justify whatever stupidity is the flavour of the day. Inventing crises is also a tool for ethically challenged politicians. So is using a legitimate crisis such as Tumblur Ridge in British Columbia. Odd how we learned that a disturbed individual committed firearms murders but we still have no knowledge as to why the authorities had returned those previously seized firearms to the family. Nor do we know if the "guilty" firearms used are on the government's banned list or not. All very strange how we the public are kept in the dark on important matters strongly related to current and ongoing highly criticized government initiatives and activities.     

Politicians are masters at deflecting appropriate criticism. That unfortunately is their greatest strength. 

GOOD NEWS & BAD NEWS : YES WE HAVE DNAPLS IN OUR ELMIRA BEDROCK AQUIFER BUT NOT TO WORRY BECAUSE SO DOES WATERLOO AND CAMBRIDGE

Isn't that great! Here we are already having the precedent of long term DNAPLS (TCE) in our drinking water aquifers hence we should be able to live with them up here in Dogpatch (Elmira) just as folks have for many decades in Waterloo and Cambridge. The ones in Waterloo are in the William St. Wellfield located at the corner of Regina St. and William St.. The Cambridge ones are at the very well known and most expensive ground water treatment location in Waterloo Region namely the Middleton Wellfield. This is located at the south end of Cambridge literally beside the Grand River. Despite a local hydrogeological consultant advising me that the source of the TCE there is NOT Canadian General Tower (CGT) perhaps a hundred metres away I am very skeptical. Yes there are dry cleaners also in the vicinity however so maybe they contributed or not.

Other good news is this. TCE or trichloroethylene is much more toxic than the chlorobenzene that we have here in Elmira courtesy of Uniroyal Chemical and maybe others. So if the good folks in Cambridge especially can both breathe TCE in the Bishop St. community and drink a little from their taps and not die immediately then we are looking good! 

The sources in Waterloo may include Canbar and Sunar and even possibly the old Seagram's plant but keep in mind our authorities truly enjoy muddying those waters and not being forthcoming.  The proof of course is the long term and ongoing detections of TCE in those drinking wells over a period of decades. Normally dissolved TCE should have all been pumped out by now but that is the joy and excitement of DNAPLS. They can exist in the subsurface, most especially in fractured Bedrock, sometimes for centuries and only very slowly dissolve into the groundwater and get pumped to surface. Now of course our chlorobenzene has been with us here in Elmira, just like NDMA, for far more than the 36 or 37 years since it was allegedly discovered in November 1989. 

If it is still in our groundwater, even in low concentrations, in ten or twenty more years then I think even the most professional liars are going to be looking for a hole to crawl into. But hey by then the few remaining honest and knowledgeable citizens should be long gone.  Liars are mostly simply buying time for themselves.