BETTER EXPLAINING THE MAP FROM LAST FRIDAY

I included a picture of my large 2 1/2 foot by nearly 3 foot map in last Friday's posting about the Stroh Drain, Ditch, and Berm (SDDB). This map originally produced by me in October 2014 is a very detailed map of Uniroyal/Lanxess's property on the east side of the Canagagigue Creek primarily. One can see four of the ponds on the west (left) side of the Creek namely RPW 5,6,7, & 8. RPW stands for retention pond west. On the east (right) side one can see from the top right corner and downwards (south) part of IR-2, then all of RPE-1,2,3,4,5 . IR-2 stands for Iron oxides 2 and RPE stands for Retention Pit East.

Anything outlined in red represents higher elevation ground and lines in blue represent the lowest ground elevation and hence include the Canagagigue Creek and the smaller Stroh Drain (SDDB) in the bottom right hand corner (i.e. south-east)

On the top left corner of the map there are both photographs of the Stroh Drain taken in 2014 as well as topographical maps of the entire site. The topographical maps are produced by the Ontario Ministry of Environment as well as the Grand River Conservation Authority (GRCA). The bottom half of my map is actually taken from a Conestoga Rovers (CRA) May 2013 report regarding GP-1 & 2 (gravel pits 1 & 2) and is titled "Existing Conditions". CRA helpfully included topographical contour lines and unhelpfully left a few short gaps in the contour lines as they crossed the property line between Chemtura/Lanxess and the Stroh farm. In conjunction with multiple other sources these ground contour lines are quite clear and abvious.

One recent addition to my map is not as yet on this computer image and that is the new red line representing the "Berm" in SDDB. The "Berm" is on the immediate east (right) side of the most northern end of the Stroh Drain and may extend close to 165 to 200 metres. I have previously described here in the Elmira Advocate as it likely being so positioned in order to prevent Canagagigue floodwaters from more readily eroding heavily contaminated soils in the very low lying area immediately east of the Stroh Drain that have been deposited via overland gravity flow from RPE 1-5. The flooding creek to the west breaches its channel and flows south-eastwards across the entire south-east corner except for the high diagonal (north-west to south-east) ridge of land outlined in red on the map.

While the ground contour lines on the computer image are not clear they are very clear on my actual map and their direction of ground surface flow is obvious to any honest, unbiased parties. Of course those parties are in very short supply in Elmira, Ontario, Woolwich Township.

P.S. Also likely not visible on the computer image map is the names of the property owners to the immediate south ( i.e. below) namely Martin and to the east (right) of course is Stroh.




This above map shows the 100 year floodline in yellow. Note the long narrow "finger" hanging down on the right side near the Stroh Drain. This represents the high ground produced by the Berm consisting of the soil excavated from the Stroh Drain.

ARE OUR MUNICIPAL COUNCILLORS A LITTLE TOO FULL OF THEMSELVES?

In The Alternative Are They a Little Too Willing To Impose Sanctions That They Do Not Have The Authority To Do?


Today`s Waterloo Region Record carries the following article tiled `Fake snake gets Cambridge man banned`. Allan Dettweiler, a man in his 70s using a walker has been banned from Cambridge city hall and all municipal premises for a year for attending a council meeting last month with a wooden snake wrapped around his neck. On the face of it that seems to be an extreme reaction to what appears to be a simple non-violent, non audible protest. That being said yes Mr. Dettweiler has protested before including a brief verbal outburst from the gallery last January which earned him a three month ban. Prior to that he placed ``Ditch Donna"cards on chairs in council chambers urging voters to unseat incumbent councillor Donna Reid. That got him a one month ban. I would suggest that perhaps Mr. Dettweiler`s failure was in obeying the first two bans which has emboldened council.

That however may also be part of the problem. Did Cambridge council actually agree and vote as a group to ban Mr. Dettweiler or is this as stated in the article a decision made by city clerk Michael Di Lullo and mayor Katherine McGarry? While limits on the public`s behaviour may be necessary I really don`t think any of these actions by Mr. Dettweiler cry out for anything even close to a one year ban and certainly not one imposed by the dubious authority of a municipal council or less.

Up here in Woolwich Township I`ve seen far worse behaviour by elected councillors far in contravention of their own written policies and nothing ever happens to them. Perhaps Cambridge council might want to have a serious talk with the Waterloo Regional Police in regards to the legality of their banning a citizen from public municipal buildings and functions. Short of a court conviction on some sort of disturbing the peace charge or something similar I really doubt that municipal councils can unilaterally ban anyone. They of course can call the police after threats or violence but simple minor protest is not only the right of citizens I believe it is their duty as well.

FOLLOWUP FROM TWO DAYS AGO RE: SDDB

So exactly how hard is it to determine exactly where overflowing waste waters from Uniroyal Chemical ended up? Based upon decades of detections of dioxins/furans and DDT in the Canagagigue Creek, clearly that Creek has been the respository for massive amounts of these chemicals over time. We have been advised that contaminated sediments on the bottom of the creek begin as suspended sediments, eroded from either contaminated creek banks on the Uniroyal site or mobilized by heavy rains or even floodwaters further away from the creek banks. Once one begins to understand the extent of overland flow of creek water on the Uniroyal site, either from first hand observation or from 100 year floodplain maps, one can more readily comprehend the ability of this overland flow to scour and erode surface soils and carry them back into the creek. As I have previously stated the Canagagigue Creek in flood goes across the entire south-east corner of their property scraping and scouring everything in its path. When I say "across the entire south-east corner" that is with the exception of the elevated north-west to south-east ridge of land. I believe that Uniroyal Chemical tacitly has admitted this by the highly unlikely to be coincidental Berm on the Stroh property that is part of the Stroh Drain, Ditch and Berm (SDDB). This Berm in conjunction with the Ditch immediately beside it is a somewhat effective physical barrier protecting and reducing erosion of the "sink" of POPs (Persistent Organic Pollutants) that migrated from the Uniroyal property and were deposited in this lowest lying area.

Hence it is simply an exercise in topographical study. In other words follow the ground surface contour lines from the north-east part of Uniroyal where their toxic waste pits overflowed. Just like groundwater flow direction, one simply puts flow direction arrows perpendicular to descending contour lines to see the direction of flow of either ground or surface water. It really is that easy, yet to date, Lanxess continue to pretend that it isn't. Any citizen with the time and interest can draw these flow direction arrows on the various topographical maps and see for themselves that a very large component of the east side waste pits overflow ended up on the Stroh property on its eventual way southwards into the Creek.

TAXPAYERS DOLLARS PROTECTING A GUILTY POLICE FORCE

Last April 3 I posted here about statements made by James Bennett, lawyer for the WRPS. Those statements as quoted from the Waterloo Region Record were a frank admission that the facts stated in a class action lawsuit against the police service were essentially correct but that the Ontario Court of Appeal was not the appropriate venue to be discussing/debating them. The allegations by several female police officers as well as one male officer are both shocking, disappointing and miles beneath the level of conduct we should both expect and demand from our regional police force. These allegations have also been substantiated via the public statements and book written by former Waterloo Region Police officer, Kelly Donovan, titled "Systemic Misfeasance in Ontario Policing and the Coordinated Suppression of Whistleblowers."

My blunt and personal opinion, bottom line of the whole sordid history of opening up traditionally male jobs to women is as follows. Our politicians and other members of the power structure decided that they were tired of hearing as to how only large, rough and tough males could possibly be effective police officers. In other words the possible pool of labour capable of handling front line police work was incredibly limited. I would suggest that indeed it is. Not very many men or women are capable of handling the mental and emotional stress and anguish much less the physical efforts occasionally required.

That said the recruiting requirements historically demanded seemed to focus on the physical requirements and much less on all the rest. That was an error. Hiring six foot tall white men, with or without a bad attitude, certainly didn't reflect all of society. By opening up the police force to women, racial minorities, and persons of smaller stature our politicians and authorities pretended that they were being egalitarian. In fact they were simply shifting the physical requirements further down the list and getting in on the leading edge of recognizing women as being mentally and emotionally equal to men. They were also simultaneously by expanding the potential labour force for police officers probably thinking economically that expanding the supply of labour would keep downward pressure on the costs (i.e. wages).

Now here's where it gets nasty. These expanded recruiting scenarios were forced upon both the rank and file officers as well as the senior management. No one on the current police forces, soldiers, firemen etc., who had all been recruited based primarily upon their size and strength, were the least bit amenable to hiring people based on qualifications that many of them did not have. I'm not suggesting that skills like empathy, intelligence, common sense, deescalation techniques, note taking, public speaking, were totally foreign to current police officers etc. but as these officers were not hired for those skills in the first place then it is likely that many current officers did not have them in abundance.

So what is "nasty" about normal human reaction to change that may negatively affect one's future career? Well male politicians themselves were beginning to feel competition from female political candidates and they didn't like it. What was the old boys' club going to do? Easy! While the politicians would order integration of both genders they would privately assure the old boys' management that there would be limited to no oversight as to how female candidates were treated or accepted within the rank and file. Yes politicians of both genders would give lip service to proper, decent, normal human behaviour but it was left entirely up to the hugely male dominated senior police management to insist upon fair treatment of women police officers or not, as they chose. Well as the rank and file were dead against women in policing, police management in order to keep the respect and support of the rank and file determined that it was in their best interests to look the other way as much as possible.Very nasty behaviour by male co-workers may leave no visible scars but it certainly would discourage new female recruits from joining and also discourage current ones from staying. Throughout this, male and female politicians have happily looked the other way while continuing to spout platitudes to the public as they have always done.

Kelly Donovan has recently released a report indicating that our Waterloo Region Police Service has spent over $200,000 dollars on legal council in the last two years fighting and harassing her before the courts. This is yet another way to silence women in policing and to discourage further participation by them. Our regional politicians, male and female, are supporting this behaviour. The police, police services board and regional council are abusing both female police officers, past and present, as well as regional taxpayers by continuing to legally harass those who speak out. Taxpayers of both genders do not support these misogynistic attitudes and behaviours. When will our politicians get this through their skulls and act accordingly?

MORE ON THE SDDB

Generally speaking, water flows downhill. In other words gravity is the normal, usual, and natural force determining the direction of flow from overflowing pits and ponds on the former Uniroyal Chemical property. Why is this relevant now you ask? It is relevant because neither Uniroyal, their successors, nor the Ontario Ministry of Environment ever cleaned up the toxic mess left behind. Granted an awful lot of their mess has flowed from pits RPE 1-5 (i.e. Retention Pits East) southwards and eastwards into the Canagagigue Creek. It in turn via gravity flow has unceremoniously dumped those toxins into the Grand River approximately seven or eight kilometres south-eats from the Uniroyal site.

For thirty years testing in and around both Uniroyal Chemical and Elmira has focused on water testing, whether groundwater or surface water. The number of soil samples that UPAC, CPAC,and the public ever saw was a miniscule proportion of the total number of water samples taken, analysed and published. With the recent focus on the Creek; RAC, TAG, and the public are seeing many more soil and sediment samples than ever before. This is a good thing albeit decades overdue.

As production on the former Uniroyal site of both DDT and metabolites as well as the precursers to dioxins/furans, namely 2,4-D and 2,4,5-T, has long been ended; one might have expected that detections of DDT and dioxins/furans in the Creek would also have ended. Unfortunately not so. These chemicals are Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) which both preferentially adhere to soil particles and only break down very slowly in the natural environment. The biggest shock apparently to some has been the fact that DDT rather than its breakdown components DDD and DDE is still prevalent in soils and sediments in and around the Canagagigue Creek. This appears to speak of long buried DDT slowly being eroded by wind, rain, snow melt, and flooding of the Creek and being mobilized and transported into the Creek. This is precisely why disposal of toxic compounds, especially liquid toxic compounds, into pits, ponds, lagoons, or whatever fancy name for land disposal there is; is such a stupid idea.

TAG members along with CPAC (Citizens Public Advisory Committee) members have walked the extreme east side and south-east corner of the former Uniroyal (now Lanxess) property. We know which way the water flows. Also there are a number of topographical maps available which clearly show where overflowing Uniroyal Chemical waste waters flowed. We have admissions both verbal and in writing of these overflows from Uniroyal, CRA, and the MOE (MECP). These topograpical maps have been produced and published over the decades from CRA, MTE Consulting, MOE, and others. There are even topographical maps of the site on-line. All these maps are consistent with each other as well as with the first hand, birds eye view of citizens who have walked the area.

Therefore why have Lanxess and their consultants, GHD, not presented to TAG and the public a clear map showing the exact low lying location that Uniroyal's waste waters ended up in? Why do they continue verbally to deny that there is a "sink" of DDT and dioxin/furans on the Stroh property to the immediate east of their property? The answer is the same as always. Money. A real cleanup of these POPs is going to cost them money not to mention bad public relations. The MOE are in the same boat. Lanxess may very well ask for a financial contribution although based upon the 1991 Control Order this would be "new" contamination, unknown at the time. The MOE (MECP) of course will also lose face over this as citizens (CPAC) made the discovery and brought it to public attention not them.

GROUNDWATER, SURFACE WATER, AND INDOOR AIR ALL IMPACTED BY TCE DISCHARGES TO THE GROUND IN CAMBRIDGE

Trichloroethylene (TCE) stalked its victims in the Bishop St. community of Cambridge for decades. The TCE as well as other solvents including trichloroethane (TCA) were discharged improperly and most likely illegally at two industrial operations (Northstar Aerospace & Rozell) on Bishop St. TCE is a liquid however it does not fully dissolve in groundwater. Rather it is known as a Dense Non Aqueous Phase Liquid (DNAPL). It tends to sink below the water table (i.e. it is dense) until it hits a lower permeability area of either the sand and gravel aquifer or the clay and silt aquitard. It then often pools on the surface of the lower permeability zone where it slowly dissolves into the groundwater over decades and possibly even centuries based upon the volume of the DNAPL chemical and other factors. Nevertheless this slow dissolution of the DNAPL (such as TCE) will elevate groundwater concentrations of TCE above drinking water standards.

In Cambridge the TCE impacted the indoor air via vapour intrusion through basement walls and floors. It also contaminated the local groundwater and although the MOE (MECP) and the Region of Waterloo refused to admit it, strangely both nearby regional drinking wells have been closed down. P7 was closed prior to the public discovery of TCE and P6 several years after. The nearby Grand River was impacted with seeps of TCE entering the river directly along its banks.

TCE has a long and sordid history of causing human illnesses and deaths. This includes the famous Woburn, Massachusetts case that was portrayed in the movie "A Civil Trial" starring John Travolta. Typically, two local businesses (Beatrice Foods, Riley Tannery) disposed of their waste TCE irresponsibly. The Tom's River case outside New Jersey was another well known case involving TCE. My recollection is that possibly the culprit was Ciba-Geigy, coincidentally who also contaminated groundwater at the north end of Cambridge in the early 1990s.

There has been negligence and coverups both private and governmental at far too many contaminated sites in North America. This includes Elmira (Uniroyal & Varnicolor), Kitchener, and Cambridge. It is decades past time for our authorities, municipal and provincial, to stop protecting polluters and covering up the health risks to nearby residents. Full disclosure, transparency, and accountability need to be practiced not just be platitudes spilling from the mouths of the professional liars we call politicians.

THE HISTORY OF MANUFACTURING ON SHANLEY ST. IN KITCHENER

Frankly I was shocked. While not a large industrial site by any means, the length, variety, and duration of manufacturing in the midst of a residential area was very surprising to me. Rych Mills, historian, wrote an article titled "100 years of manufacturing on Shanley Street". It was published in the Waterloo Region Record two days ago. We the public have been advised that the main contaminant on the site is trichloroethylene (TCE) but to me that is like suggesting that the main risk from an atom bomb is the initial shock wave. Not mentioning fire, heat, or radiation is just plain ridiculous. This site has manufactured furniture with multiple different companies. It has also manufactured store counters, wall bins, floor racks and display units. Lastly Morval Durofoam, ending in 1991, produced plastic and foam components for cars as well as specialty packaging products.

Each and every one of these manufacturers may have added their own particular varnishes, paints, solvents, metal cleaning agents, acids, and plastics to the mix of whatever is below the ground surface on that site. The article does mention "migrating pollutants" although no specifics are made as to how far they've gone or their toxicity.

This I can tell you. Based upon my thirty years of observing, interacting, and dealing with the Ontario Ministry of Environment I would find it astonishing if they have any more than a rudimentary understanding of the sub-surface contaminant hydrogeology or the current health risks associated with that property. That this kind of manufacturing enterprise could be allowed in a residential neighbourhood decades to a century ago is beyond belief. That it has not been studied carefully and the technical results released to the neighbours and public is shocking. No good ever comes from keeping problem areas hidden. This could end up being another Bishop St. community in Cambridge where hundreds of homes were impacted by TCE from Northstar Aerospace and Rozell Mfg. Clearly our authorities have learned nothing from past environmental disasters and crises.