JUXTAPOSITION OF TWO RESOURCE/ENVIRONMENTAL ARTICLES IS HILARIOUS

Today's Waterloo Region Record has a story on page A3 titled "CN Rail chief calls for tighter regulation after latest incident". They also have an opinion piece by Gwyn Morgan in the same section titled "Investment in resources being stymied by vocal minority". The opinion piece by a self professed business leader and director of five global corporations is filled with exaggerated right-wing rhetoric including "environmental zealots", "strident knee jerk opposition" and my favourite "Canadian environmental standards rank among the world's best". Sorry Gwyn but I've been dealing with federal and provincial environmental standards and regulatory bodies for almost a quarter of a century and they rank with the world's most hypocritical and incompetent.

The first article decribes yet another train derailment, this one in New Brunswick. Yes it also involves crude oil and it is on fire. There will be nasty air pollution and most likely nasty groundwater pollution unless things are frozen enough that they can clean it up before it soaks into the ground. Interestingly the rail companies, politicians and other stakeholders are all clamoring for both U.S. and Canadian regulators to step up and demand improvements to rail cars being used to transport hazardous chemicals including crude oil. These regulators of course include those that supposedly are enforcing some of the world's best environmental standards. Maybe not so much afterall Gwyn.

WOOLWICH BIO-EN CLC MEETING

Last evening in the Woolwich Recreation Centre the Citizens Liason Committee meeting took place. Earl Brubacher, as usual chaired, and there was considerable discussion around construction and ongoing inspections. There is some remaining work to be done with painting, piping, electrical work, the water tower and the gas dome. That said nevertheless things are primarily on schedule. There was a long listing of all the various bodies involved in inspecting the new building and processes including the TSSA, CSA, the Township, MOE, Hydro 1, Waterloo North Hydro, Ontario Power Authority, and even the CFIA among more.

There was discussion in regards to the two operators who will be doing the bulk of the work when things are up and running. Their training has been quite extensive including expert instruction by other skilled operators. January 10 will be the formal commissioning day for the plant. While the digester takes two or three days to fill and fifteen days to heat it probably won't be until May that the methane content is high enough to actually begin burning it to produce electricity.

There was some discussion surrounding the committee's unsucessful attempt to get funds from the township for future possible peer reviews or other technical reviews. Chuck Martin interpreted Council's negative response as them requiring more specific dollar values for specific clearly stated technical projects. Chuck will make inquirys as well as to the mechanics of setting up a Letter of Credit. Bob (Gray?) asked about berming or trees between Woolwich Bio-En and the neighbours. Apparently our recent storms took a significant number of trees down that were assisting in that capacity. Earl suggested that there are some berms and possibly trees already included in the final grading/landscaping plans for the site.

Hindsight being 20-20 when they were discussing costs for consultants for technical reviews I should have suggested they contact Dwight Este or Jeff Merriman of Chemtura for some ballpark figures. Chemtura over the years have funded CPAC to hire the odd consultant here and there such as RWDI, air experts out of Guelph, and most recently Dr. Gail Krantzberg from McMaster University.

The next public CLC meeting is on Tuesday March 4, 2014 at 7 pm. I presume it will be back in the new (& recently repaired) Rec Centre.

PUBLIC MEETING OF WOOLWICH BIO-EN THIS EVENING

The venue for this evening's meeting will be the Woolwich Rec Centre and the time is 7 pm.. Bob Jonkman's Stop The Stink website has the Agenda for this evening. Back in November we had been advised that late January was their proposed startup but whether that has been affected by the incredible weather of the last few weeks I don't know. This meeting is part of the negotiated settlement with the Environmental Review Tribunal and involves the Citizens liason Committee and the company meeting on a regular basis. The list of citizen participants is again on Bob's website.

I personally have attended several meetings and have been very impressed with the willingness of all participants to be straightforward and honest. This bodes well if there are any operating problems in the future as the good will being currently generated should assist in helping to amicably resolve any future issues. As a veteran of the Chemtura/CPAC wars I can advise that the Bio-En meetings are night and day different. The company appears genuinely responsive and responsible and unlike their Chemtura counterparts, Woolwich Bio-En give every impression of not trying to hide awkward or difficult news. Kudos to them.

CHEMICAL COMPANIES DECEIVE AND GOVERNMENT OVERSIGHT IS WEAK

I'm currently reading "Toms River" by Dan Fagin. This book chronicles the horrors of chemical pollution that occurred in Toms River, New Jersey from 1952 onwards. The leading polluter was Ciba-Geigy with only honourable mention to Union Carbide who allowed their toxic waste in drums to be removed by a small entrepreneur whose idea of hazardous waste disposal was to surrepticiously bury drums illegally at the back of a local farm. Yes this is the same Union Carbide who were responsible for 8,000 or more deaths in Bhopal, India in 1984. Yes this is the same Ciba-Geigy now known as Novartis who falsely claimed that they'd had but a single spill of Dinoseb on their property in Cambridge, Ontario back in the 90's. They also claimed a year or two prior to their chemicals being found in the deeper municipal aquifer that it would take a hundred years for their chemicals to reach that deep due to a wonderful clay aquitard inbetween. Not surprisingly both municipal and regional governments did not dispute this nonsense. Nor of course did the Ontario Ministry of the Environment. Yours truly estimated ten years was a more likely scenario and I overestimated by about eight years. Shame on me.

I have previously read books such as Chemical Nightmare (Jackson & Weiler), A Civil Trial (TCE in Woburn, Massachutsets), Silent Spring (Rachel Carson) and far too many hydrogeological reports for the Northstar Aerospace contamination in the Bishop St. community in Cambridge, Ontario. The rest of the list here in Waterloo Region is far too long to enumerate now. There are however so very many commonalities. Firstly polluters lie like dogs. Secondly they have ingratiated themselves into the community both with jobs, charitable donations and political involvement. Thirdly they are invariably insulated, supported and protected from legitimate criticism by the local power structure. Afterall they pay taxes and employ locals. Fourthly the provincial/state environmental authorities lack serious enforcement capabilities. Again they are the creation of these same political bodies who are very long on appearance and very short on seriousness. This lack of seriousness includes intentional inadequate budgets as well as managers who do as they are told by the heads of their agencies and their political masters.

Pollution is simply a form of corporations externalizing their costs. In other words a corporation has a competitive advantage when they can either minimize their waste disposal costs or even essentially reduce them to zero. They do this by inflicting their relatively initial small waste disposal costs upon society who end up paying much greater costs through remediation, health and environmental damage. This infliction upon society is usually done with typical CIA "plausible deniability". We (the polluter) didn't know. We didn't intend to hurt anybody/anything. Generally speaking these claims aren't even good enough to be called wishful thinking. They knew even back in the 60's because some of them have pollution histories going back to the turn of the 20th century. Companies like Ciba polluted in Switzerland, Germany and other European countries before coming here. There is a pattern of geographical industrial/chemical pollution starting in Europe progressing to North america and then moving on to Asia and third world countries around the world. It's all about lower labour costs as well as much lower or zero environmental costs. The chemical industries sins have caught up with them wherever they operate. They however and their supporters think that they can reinvent the wheel each and every time they relocate. They feel they somehow deserve the benefit of the doubt simply because they have moved. And the whole disgusting, lieing, deceiving mess starts anew.

There are companies who adhere honestly to the tenets of the Chemical Industry Association of Canada (CIAC). There are many who do not and they are members nevertheless. For them it's essentially nothing more than public relations. The CIAC allow recalcitrants in their midst on the hope that being "under the tent" is better than not. They hope that the likes of Chemtura for example will improve simply by rubbing shoulders with more ethical and honest companies.

Last but not least is the effect of support from the local power structure here in Elmira, Ontario. This includes the likes of former Woolwich councillors sitting on Sulco's (CCC) citizens liason committee. Ruby Weber and Pat McLean sucessfully lobbied to remove comparisons with Chemtura in a *Responsible Care study written by a Mcmaster University graduate student. His draft report for the CIAC basically pointed out how superior Sulco (CCC) were to their neighbour Chemtura as far as following the rules and spirit of *Responsible Care. His final report sadly dropped that comparison.

HYPOTHETICALLY SPEAKING

Here in Elmira, Ontario I have a list of my ten favourite lies that the public have been told about our groundwater contamination caused by Uniroyal/Chemtura (& others). These lies are from the partners in pollution namely Chemtura and the Ontario Ministry of the Environment. Perhaps an honourable mention should go to Chemtura's devoutly client driven consultants, Conestoga Rovers, as well. In a sense CRA could be viewed as more of the bad guy as they are often the spokespersons for Chemtura on either contamination or "cleanup" issues. Or one could argue conversely they are merely doing their duty to their client, Chemtura.

Regardless of the varying culpability in matters incredible; what can be confidently stated is that from time to time over the last twenty-four years, here in Elmira, we've repeatedly been fed a diet of farm animal manure. These expressions of unlikely truths have destroyed our naivite and forever obliterated our blind trust in government or corporate ethics. Therefore on that basis I am prepared without guilt, remorse or further thought to present a possible nasty or even downright horrible scenario for the contemplation of Elmira Advocate readers. I emphasize at this point in time the evidence for this scenario is thin and circumstantial at best. Nevertheless here goes.

My recollection is that the north wellfield in Elmira was drilled in the 1940's and 50's with possibly one well as early as the 1930's. The south wellfield in contrast was drilled in the early to mid 1970's. The south wellfield was shut down in November 1989 allegedly upon the discovery of a highly carcinogenic compound, NDMA, in wells E7 & E9. What received spectacularily short shrift were the other toxic industrial compounds already known in these two wells namely cyclohexylamine, xylene, styrene and perhaps even a dash of toluene. NDMA was the biggie and the alleged thunderbolt requiring emergency shutdown. Again my recollection is that the north wellfield (E2, E5, E5A, E8) kept on supplying water until it too became contaminated with NDMA, allegedly. The interesting point is that after the south wellfield, one mile away and hydraulically downgradient from Chemtura was shut down; it only took approximately a year for the plume to be drawn into the north wellfield thus shutting it down as well. Keep in mind that the north wellfield while technically upgradient from Chemtura is only a few hundred yards/metres away.

So the north wellfield was pumping water for the drinking pleasure of Elmira citizens from Uniroyal Chemical's start in Elmira during the second World War until it was shut down in the very early 90's. The multiple contaminant plumes were shifted southwards after 1970 once the south wellfield was pumping and drawing these plumes towards themselves. All it took was between fourteen and nineteen years to royally bugger the further away south wellfield, thank you very much Uniroyal Chemical. All it took was approximately a year of the south wellfield shut down to royally bugger the north wellfield, thank you very much Uniroyal Chemical.

So here's the question. 1940's until 1991 the north wellfield was pumping. Half a century of pumping with only fourteen to nineteen years of the south wellfield drawing contaminated groundwater away from the north. Shut down the south in 1989 and in a year or so the north is contaminated with NDMA. DOES ANYBODY SERIOUSLY BELIEVE THAT THE NORTH WELLFIELD WASN"T CONTAMINATED LONG BEFORE 1991 ???? Do Elmira citizens believe they were drinking clean water during the 50's, 60's and 70's??? Do Elmira citizens remember the taste and odours in their drinking water in the late 70's and 80's???

In Tom's River New Jersey, Ciba-Geigy contaminated the drinking wells in the mid 60's. The public did not find out the truth about that for a quarter of a century. Are Canadian corporations and governments inherently more forthright and honest than American ones? Call me skeptical.

WOOLWICH TOP NEWS STORIES IN 2013

O.K. to clarify the title I'm actually only going to refer to local environmental news stories in Woolwich Township. Also I'm going to focus on those presented in the Elmira Independent versus those in the Woolwich Observer. The reason is that to my consternation the Woolwich Observer almost completely ignore any Chemtura or CPAC news. The exception is when either of these subjects occur publicly at Council meetings. Therefore while there are several references to Chemtura newsworthy items in the Independent, there are zero in this year's Observer. Do not get me wrong. I read both papers religiously every week and have great respect for Steve Kannon's opinions/editorials. It goes without saying that the Independent's commitment past and present to informing the community on Chemtura/CPAC issues has been nothing short of fantastic.

Gail Martin of the Independent reminds us of the controversy surrounding Chemtura's receipt of their *Responsible Care verification back in the spring. Also she advises us in May of the rediscovery of DDT (& Dioxins) downstream in the Canagagigue Creek. In June residents were told of Chemtura's plans for off-site source removal via In-Situ Chemical Oxidation (ISCO). In July Gail reported that the hydrogeologist for the Ontario Ministry of the Environment (M.O.E.) had serious concerns as to whether Chemtura's more aggressive cleanup plans couls do the job by the 2028 deadline. In October (2013) we again saw M.O.E. tests indicating higher than expected DDT levels in the downstream (from Chemtura) Canagagigue Creek. At the end of the month the Independent reported the problems that Chemtura were having with ISCO "...after two potential test sites fell through.". Finally in December 2013 the public learned that the cleanup target of Elmira's groundwater by 2028 is very vague. There are no hard numbers, no lists of chemicals and especially worrying not even a clear definition as to which aquifers must meet the drinking water standards mandated for 2028. Or are they mandated by today's standards? Who knows?

In passing, the Independent's (& Observer's) Year in Review also includes other local environmental issues such as the Woolwich Bio-En gas plant as well as local gravel pits; including West Montrose, Jigs Hollow (Winterbourne) and the Hunder Pit (Conestogo).

A BRIEF OVERVIEW

The east side of Elmira along Union St. used to be called the mini chemical valley. This was a reference to the much larger petrochemical valley in and around Sarnia, Ontario. Every five or ten years there will be a media update on how things are going in that area. Overall there is only one direction and it is a negative one. The air is bad, the groundwater is bad and local residents have a plethora of varying health issues. One of the most recent is in regards to the imbalance in gender of newborn babies.

The companies along Union St. at one time included Uniroyal (Chemtura), Nutrite (Yara), Sulco, Varnicolor Chemical, Borg Textiles. Procast (Linkbelt) was located just a block or two to the west of Union St. All that is left of those would be Sulco and Chemtura. Apart possibly from zoning the question might be why were they all located on the east side of town. The answer has to do with air and water. The prevailing winds here are from west to east hence any smelly industries on the west side of town would share their odours constantly with the rest of town. Secondly companies discharging coloured air emissions would be all too easily seen by the whole town if they did so from the west side. This of course can be mitigated with night time emissions which has been used by both former foundrys further south (Bonnie Cresent) as well as those which harassed the "Duke St. rowdies" in the late 90's, courtesy of Uniroyal (Chemtura).

The other reason for location on Elmira's east side has to do with the presence of Canagagigue Creek. Keep in mind summertime flows used to be extremely low hence the building of the Floradale (Woolwich) Dam in 1974. This provided a steady flow of water helping to dilute Uniroyal's (Chemtura) contaminated groundwater emissions. Also quite obviously the building of the Elmira Sewage Treatment Plant in 1965 was on the east side, also for odours as well as for treated effluent discharge to the creek. I do not know whether Sulco or Nutrite used the creek for toxic discharges although certainly Nutrite's ammonia shallow groundwater contamination must have discharged there. Similarily Varnicolor Chemical had both a sophisticated as well as a blatant dumping operation going on, on their former Lot 91 at the extreme east end of Oriole Parkway. Finally there is Borg Textiles. My suspicion is that they got away with environmental murder without ever getting caught. These suspicions are based upon documentation from the Grand River Conservation Authority back in the 80's identifying them as having knocked out the bacteria in the Sewage Treatment Plant with their toxic discharges. Finally jugs of Hoescht Dyes have been found in an unusual dumping location in Woolwich Township. Last but not least is the inherent nature of the textile and dye industry. Dyes are synthetically manufactured from various coal tar components. I would very much like to hear from former Borg Textile employees in regards to any on-site liquid waste water treatment etc..

And there it is. Small town Elmira was at one time a virtual hub of chemical manufacturing and useage. By the way there were other textile industries besides Borg in town. They have been long gone for a very long time. It is my belief that some of these industries along with leaking gas stations have added to Uniroyal's permanent "enrichment" of our soil and groundwater.