WOOLWICH COUNCIL ARE RECONSIDERING UNDERGROUND FUEL TANKS NEAR FORMER SOUTH WELLFIELD

Yesterday's Elmira Independent has both a story and an Editorial in regards to installing more underground fuel tanks near the former south wellfield (E7/E9) along Arthur St., beside Voisin Motors. Our former Councils had no problem with both Voisin Motors being located there as well as the 24 hour nearby truck gas bar. Keep in mind the mess that Voisin had left behind for cleanup at their old location on Arthur St. and Church St..

The title of the Editorial is "A wise approach" and the title of the article is "Underground storage tanks pose concern". The key concern is that these two nearby wells are being used as pump and treat wells to assist in the cleanup of the Elmira Aquifers. It really makes no sense to continue burying gas and diesel tanks underground regardless of the so called technological advances available. Just because it's safer to kill an elephant with a grenade launcher than a rifle; does that make killing the elephant any better of an idea? An above ground tank that leaks will both be seen and smelled by anyone nearby and hopefully steps taken immediately. Solvent tanks at local industries are all stored above ground and vandalism and or vehicle impacts etc. are not an issue. If one is worried about vandals or even stray bullets during hunting season than a concrete block wall will do just fine .

Propane tanks are also stored above ground. Putting fuel tanks below ground may be as much about aesthetics as anything else. It's also about needing less space as you can pave above them for parking or roadway use. If we believe that our groundwater is the highest priority then it should be a no brainer to end underground fuel tanks.

WOOLWICH BIO-EN CITIZENS LIASON COMMITTEE

The public meeting was held last evening in the Dodie Hummel Room at the Woolwich Township Building. Future public meetings will most likely be held at the Woolwich memorial Arena on Snyder Ave.. There was a small Agenda with the usual housekeeping items such as dealing with the Minutes of the last meeting and scheduling the next one (January 7/14).

The CLC and public were given construction updates. They are a little behind schedule partly from a late start (permits) as well as due to all the rain through September, October and now into November. Nevertheless they are still hoping for a January completion date. Even after their startup there will probably be a six to nine month period before methane production is at full capacity.

Michael Purves-Smith presented a document he had done in collaboration with two others on the CLC. This document when cleaned up slightly will go to Woolwich Council as a request for matching funds that Woolwich Bio-En have on the table. The funds of course will be for any necessary peer reviews if there are for example odour problems down the road.

Some time after construction is completed there will be a tour for the CLC members. Somewhat to my surprise there will not be a Grand Opening per se.

As a long time participant in the Chemtura Public Advisory Committee (CPAC) I am pleasantly astounded at the cooperative and respectful atmosphere at these Woolwich Bio-En meetings. While obviously there was heated debate and citizen concerns prior to this business getting the go ahead, it appears as if all parties are determined to make the very best of having a Citizens Liason Committee. To date I have seen nothing but honest attempts to answer all questions and two way cooperation throughout. This committee could be an excellent example to CPAC and when I say that I am referring to the company representatives in particular.

WOOLWICH COUNCIL LUKEWARM ON SMALL SCALE GENERATOR PROJECT

Last Saturday's Woolwich Observer carried this story "Green energy process still a sore spot in Woolwich". The proposed project was on Kenning Place which is immediately north of and hence slightly further out of town than the Woolwich Bio-En location which is currently under construction. As I understand it from the article, the proponents want to install a 100 kilowatt generator which will run on methane gas produced by their neighbour, Woolwich Bio-En. At least some of this electricity generated will then be sold back into our hydro grid. To date there have been three other nearby applications to the Ontario Power Authority (OPA) of which only the one with municipal (township) approval was accepted.

Woolwich Township have a point that this municipal approval is their only control over these projects although frankly maybe I'm missing something here but I see extremely little to no impact on Elmira citizens from these tiny projects. That being said there is a meeting of the Woolwich Bio-En Citizens Panel this evening in the Municipal building on Church St. at 7 pm.. Perhaps further clarification will be forthcoming at that time. By the way Council did approve the project by a 3-2 vote with Bonnie Bryant and Mark Bauman opposed.

ELMIRA, ONTARIO'S CONNECTION WITH THE LOVE CANAL

Yesterday's Waterloo Region Record carrys this story "New Love Canal lawsuits emerge". Named in the lawsuits is Occidental Petroleum Corp. who bought Hooker Chemical Co. the original source of 21,800 tons of industrial hazardous wastes. Further defendants include the city of Niagara Falls (U.S.A.) and "...contractors enlisted by Occidental to maintain and test the site today.". It is my understanding based upon Wikipedia and other sources that one of those contractors is none other than Conestoga Rovers (CRA), Chemtura's longtime lead consultant here in Elmira. Also keep in mind that CRA who were the architect of hydraulic containment at the Love Canal are also the architect of the seriously flawed and discredited hydraulic containment aka pump and treat here in Elmira, Ontario. The current Chemtura Public Advisory Committee (CPAC), based upon their understanding as well as the insights brought by Dr. Gail Krantzberg in a formal report to them; as well as by I would like to think yours truly and others; unanimously passed a Resolution in the spring of 2012 which categorically stated that the past and current hydraulic containment "cleanup" was inadequate. The Township of Woolwich also endorsed this CPAC Resolution unanimously. Without intentionally being inflammatory or defamatory; nevertheless this Resolution was a blunt repudiation of two decades of work by Uniroyal/Chemtura, Conestoga Rovers and the Ontario Ministry of the Environment (M.O.E.). Further fellow travellors who had gone along with the pretend cleanup via hydraulic containment included past Woolwich Township Councils and the Region of Waterloo.

CPAC made it clear that the only way to eventually guarantee a restoration of the Elmira Aquifers to drinking water standards was by source removal of buried wastes on the Uniroyal/Chemtura site. These subsurface wastes included DNAPLS, LNAPLS, petroleum hydrocarbons, Dioxins, DDT and much more. While by far the bulk of buried wastes are on Chemtura's site there are also other off-site areas within the Elmira Aquifers that also require source removal. Two of them have at long last been tentatively identified/confirmed as CRA /Chemtura advised CPAC a year ago that they were investigating/ remediating them via In-Situ Chemical Oxidation. That plan is now on the back burner.

This is the lesson being brought home today in the Love Canal. Companies and governments love to find inexpensive magic bullet "cleanups". They don't exist. You get what you pay for and if CRA or any other consulting firm tell you that they can more cheaply make your toxic waste headaches disappear, then be very careful. If it's too good to be true then it probably isn't true.

UNDERGROUND FUEL STORAGE TANKS IN ELMIRA

For the very few people with a memory, the towns of Elmira and Walkerton are the ground zero for irresponsible behaviour regarding groundwater and drinking water. Last Saturday's Woolwich Observer carrys this story "Well concerns delay council decision on Elmira gas bar". It should seem apparent that many current Woolwich staff weren't on board when the water crisis hit Elmira. Similarily none of the council from that era are still with us although Councillor Mark Bauman did sit on Council and look the other way while the CPAC of the day did little or nothing.

The issue is storing diesel and gasoline underground. Allegedly there are greater spill and leakage engineered solutions than there were with older tanks. Are we supposed to wait another one or two decades to find out that those solutions are not 100% effective or do we avoid the inherent stupidity of storing highly toxic liquids underground altogether? To a certain extent past councils have already sold the farm with development including underground tanks having occurred over the years near the south wellfield (E7/E9). Again that would include our friend Mr. Bauman. This council can compound the problem and add more underground tanks or they can take a sober second look and reconsider. They have deferred their decision. Past councils decisions were shortsighted and ignorant. Let's see what this council does.

SURPRISES (NOT) DURING CHEMTURA'S GP1 & 2 "CLEANUP"

Last Thursday's Elmira Independent also carried this story "Remediation program complete on former waste pits". This story described extra contamination that was found in the south-east corner of Chemtura as they went about their "scraping" of surface contamination. Chemtura had advised CPAC that they were only going to remove the top .3 (1 foot) metre of contamination but this story indicates that they noticed several "stringers" of markedly darker soil one metre below ground surface. These "stringers" according to Gail Martin's story suggested "...threads of contamination that went deeper into the ground.". These "stringers" sound similar to terminology I've read describing NAPLS (non aqueous phase liquids) as "disconnected blobs or ganglia"). Therefore based on the decades these "stringers" have had to dissolve via infiltrating rainwater as well as by the very high water table in this area; the fact that they are still present decades later strongly indicates that they are very slow dissolving NAPLS whether LNAPL or DNAPL. One can almost bet money that Chemtura/CRA either didn't test them to discover their chemical makeup or in the alternative will simply advise CPAC that they didn't test them. While the removal of these "stringers" is a good thing the missed opportunity to determine if they are NAPLS and or if they contain DDT/Dioxins is unconscionable.

George Karlos, assistant director with the West Central Region of the M.O.E. also discussed further testing both upstream and downstream of Chemtura, in the Canagagigue Creek in regards to DDT. The even deadlier Dioxins seem to have fallen off the M.O.E.'s radar. While to date the sketchy and inadequate testing have found higher exceedances of DDT than Dioxins; nevertheless ignoring Dioxins is at everyone's peril. Is the plan to rediscover their importance after the next round of DDT testing and then go back yet another year later looking for them? Is it possible to drag this program out even longer and if so for what purpose? These questions and comments are what truly upset the M.O.E. and their partners in pollution, Chemtura; not my choice of words in so doing. People who focus on specific wording only are desperately trying to avoid the big picture ie. the message the author is sending regarding honesty, credibility, right and wrong.

MORE ON CHEMTURA'S TREATMENT "SNAGS"

Yesterday's Elmira Independent has two articles dealing with Chemtura Canada, Elmira, Ontario. The first story is titled
"Chemtura runs into treatment snags" and the second is "Remediation program complete on former waste pits".

Editor Gail Martin has written the story undoubtedly as it was publicly presented to CPAC a week ago Thursday by Chemtura. There is the problem. Chemtura attempted initially to only present their so called issues with ISCO (in-situ chemical oxidation) at a handpicked private get together of their friends and fellow travellors. They also sent out a thick "letter" of approximately 65 pages describing their "snag" but to only two CPAC members and zero SWAT team members. Nice attempt CRA/Chemtura at controlling the information.

I have to be blunt here. There are only a very few private citizens in Elmira capable of reading and fully understanding these documents. I am one of the very few and I am now retired and have time available. There are certainly two others on the current CPAC with the technical abilities and background but neither one of them are retired. In fact far from it. The bottom line is I'm the only one reading and fully comprehending CRA/Chemtura's technical reports who isn't bought and paid for. My interpretation of this ISCO snag is that CRA's report is grossly inadequate. It is conceivable that they have a real issue but based upon their history of junk science and factually ficticious technical gibberish, it's equally possible that they are simply reneging on their commitment of off-site source removal made a year ago.