SILLY ME I THOUGHT THAT THEY"D BE MAKING A HARD PUSH THE LAST COUPLE OF YEARS TRYING TO ACHIEVE CLEANUP IN ELMIRA

 

Well I'm wrong. Just like I mentioned here on Thursday that I'm apparently not Presidential material it also seems that I'm neither polluter material nor fit to work for the Ontario Ministry of Environment. Decades ago shortly after I lost my job with that pillar of the community and self-professed protector of the environment, Severin Argenton, owner of Varnicolor Chemical, I thought that I would like to work with the Min. of Environment (M.O.E.) preferably in their enforcement section. I had visions of myself stepping in either undercover or in uniform and enforcing pollution laws prohibiting illegal dumping, discharges and so forth. Instead I slowly realized that the job of their inspectors was to coach, whine, beg and plead recalcitrant, dirty pigs into seeing the light. If that failed then they were to make friends with them such that they would only have good things to say about our impoverished, impotent and incompetent M.O.E..

So what do I mean by expecting to see a "push" from Lanxess and the now named MECP? They've been bragging and touting their pump & treat system for decades now so silly me I expected that they'd up significantly both their off-site pumping and as we've been often told over the decades also their on-site pumping to ensure hydraulic containment of their gross contamination was maintained on their site. Not a chance. Yes their total off-site pumping here in Elmira has the last several years risen from around 53 litres per second to closer to 60 or 63 litres per second. At the same time however they've reduced their on-site pumping both in the Municipal drinking water aquifers as well as in their shallow Upper Aquifer that is supposed to stop contaminated discharge to the Canagagigue Creek. What the hell are they doing?

It appears to me that they've either thrown in the towel or they've gotten permission from our corrupt MECP to go ahead and increase the slow leakage from their site into the rest of Elmira. Can it be as blatant as it appears? Are Lanxess trying to speed up the cleanup of their property via letting their crap accelerate its' off-site mobilization? Meanwhile I never hear a word from TRAC at the public meetings four or five times a year asking any of these questions. Not a peep from them about reduced pumping in the Municipal Upper Aquifer (MU) on-site from pumping wells PW4 and now PW6 compared to the past pumping by PW4 and PW5. Similarly the number of wells allegedly containing the Upper Aquifer (UA) discharge to the "Gig" has been reduced and more importantly the volumes of water.   

Sandy's intervention in public consultation in 2015 has done exactly what was expected of it and  Lanxess and the corrupt MECP thank her for it. Expect laurels and awards down the line rewarding her for her corporate homage and obedience although it will be worded grandly as "Environmental warrior of the decade" or some such drivel.