CPAC MEMBERS ARE STEPPING UP & SHOWING SUPPORT

My initial post here in the Advocate regarding the last very disappointing (virtual) TAG meeting was on Friday July 31/20. Since then I have posted a couple of times more with other details regarding that TAG meeting. At that meeting Ramin Ansari incredibly, boastfully?, stupidly? (highly unlikely) suggested either that the Lanxess site tour in April 2019 "put the issue to rest" or "put it to bed" in regards to off-site flow from Uniroyal Chemical south and eastwards into and past the Stroh Drain . My God the arrogance of the man. It did absolutely no such thing. Clearly he has been peddling that drivel and wishful thinking to listeners for a while. ......................................................................................................... What has become more and more obvious is that discussions whether so called "technical experts meetings", private in person meetings, or even private virtual meetings are now the norm. There was a lot going on behind CPAC's back when Susan Bryant and Pat McLean were running the show (2000-2010) but it's just as bad or worse now. TAG are being kept in the dark as are local citizen stakeholders and the public. Our local media have been almost useless in either attending or reporting on Lanxess, TAG, RAC, "public" meetings or otherwise. ........................................................................................................... Besides my posts here I have sent a lengthy e-mail to the TAG (Technical Advisory Group) Chair expressing my strong discontent with the obvious private, behind the scenes decision making going on. I have made it clear that no member of the public, whether an extremely well informed, lomg time stakeholder such as myself or any other community resident will tolerate following the extremely undemocratic, public consultation sham of only being permitted written Delegations to TAG and then having their written Delegation bluntly, factually denied in its entirety without so much as the courtesy of a reason, a rationale or an explanation. The basis of my written Delegation which encompassed detailed maps, including from Conestoga Rovers & Assoc. showing ground surface elevation contour lines, was that massive volumes (175,000 gallons) of liquid wastes discharged daily then GRAVITY flowed from the east pits past the current Stroh Drain and settled to the immediate east of it in an even lower elevation area. Hence the simple basis of my Delegation was that "water" (i.e. toxic liquid wastes) flow downhill. ............................................................................................................. Apparently Lanxess, Ramin, GHD, the Ministry of Environment and even TAG do not accept that. I see three options here. One all parties are CORRUPT and beyond any hope of redemption. For self-serving reasons ($$$$$) they will look you in the eye and even deny gravity.Two some of these parties (TAG?) simply are either stupid or uninformed. Discussion and debate has been private and likely all TAG members were not present but don't want to rock the boat. Three, there is some sort of reasonable explanation but all parties don't want to share it with either well informed stakeholders or the general public. This option seems the least likely to me. ............................................................................................................. CPAC (Citizens Public Advisory Committee) members have been phoning and e-mailing me their congratulations and support for my lengthy e-mail sent to the TAG Chair. I await her response.

FIFTY YEARS LATER- OTTAWA ST. LANDFILL

Oh for the good old days when politicians could site municipal landfills just about anywhere they wanted. Well those shortsighted decisions live on for many decades. A mere $13 million dollars in cleanup costs did it for the property across Ottawa St. from the former (but still leaking ) landfill. The city of Kitchener had a holding provision on the property until the developer could obtain a Record of Site Condition from the Ontario Ministry of Environment. 1,334 cubic metres of contaminated soil was removed and replaced with clean fill. Also a clay barrier wall was built "...to seal off wastes coming from the former landfill on the other side of Ottawa St.". Presumably these are liquid wastes which have been moving in the groundwater for a very long time. ............................................................................................................ The title of the story in today's Waterloo Region Record is "Construction could soon start on major development near Mclennan Park". In the old days no consideration was given to either methane production and transport in the subsurface nor to chemicals getting into the groundwater and moving off site. The biggest apparent problems were odours and paper s being blown around and off-site. Oh our politicians were so naive. Do you really think that all these landfill problems had not been experienced and overcome in Europe long before they became problems here? ...................................................................................................... The site is now being redeveloped for combined residential-commercial purposes.

CONSERVATIVES DO WHAT CONSERVATIVES DO

Yesterday's K-W Record carries the following story titled "Environmental protection degraded as ominous omnibus bill passes". It is written by Susan Koswan and describes two omnibus bills just passed in the Ontario legislature by the majority Conservative government. They are bills 195 and 197 and they continue the cuts to democratic oversight that omnibus bills in the past have done. Multiple environmental organizations commented about the severity and failures of the environmental aspects of these bills. Ecojustice, the Canadian Environmental Law Assoc., Ontario Nature and the Grand River Environmrnatl Network all submitted their concerns about the changes to environmental assessments. They were ignored by our Conservative provincial government. .................................................................................................................... Ms. Koswan suggests that perhaps legal action and the courts are the way to go. Wow..well I guess if you are desperate and don't mind burning money then have at it. Just don't forget who appoints those judges in the first place (yup-politicians). I wish them luck but the cards are and always have been stacked against environmental justice and they've been that way intentionally. Politicians are both funded and then lobbied, less for radical change and more to maintain the status quo, because that is exactly how the wealthy and powerful like it. Tyrannies are maintained by fear whereas democracies are maintained by the ignorance of their citizens.

INTERESTING TIMING FOR REGION TO BEGIN TO ADMIT TO THEIR "MANAGEMENT'" TECHNIQUES FOR DRINKING WATER

Quoting environmentalist Pat Potter's T-shirt years ago "They all lie". They also all back each other up. Business, industry, governmental environmental agencies, and local and provincial politicians. Sometimes politicians have to step back from their support for polluters publicly, but behind the scenes they reassure their industrial constituents that they've got their backs and they surely do. Each and every strict Control Order issued by the Ontario Ministry of Environment (MOE/MECP) against Uniroyal Chemical in Elmira, Ontario has eventually been rescinded, amended or replaced. By the MOE/MECP. ................................................................................................................ The August 1/20 Waterloo Region Record published the following story titled "New modelling expands groundwater protection areas". Ostensibly the article is about an expansion of the area from which regional wells draw their water. This is based allegedly upon improved modelling. Maybe that's true and maybe it isn't. What I find most interesting is 1) an admission as to how serious the salt problem is in our drinking water and 2) how inadequate and pathetic to date the Region's actions have been to mitigate it. ..................................................................................................................... What's next? Will the Region begin to admit to residents that their "solution to pollution is dilution" and has been exactly that for decades? This article admits that thusly: "The Region's current solution is to mix water from saltier wells with less salty well water to provide drinkable water." That is followed with "But that's not a long-term solution...". Dunh do you think? The Region of Waterloo have also been doing this for decades with toxic chemicals in our drinking water such as trichloroethylene (TCE) mostly but not solely in Cambridge and in Waterloo. At what point will all the "management" actions surrounding our drinking water be made public? I expect that will happen simultaneously with the announcement of the next big "legacy" project of our regional politicians. A long while back, the proposed water pipeline to Lake Erie was shelved. Notice I say "shelved" not scrapped. Undoubtedly we the unwashed masses will be solemnly advised that our groundwater is no longer the best (cost-effecient) source for drinking water. Decades of industrial contamination has not been adequately cleaned up by "natural attenuation" as some of the more naive, uninformed and just plain dumb politicians had hoped. Treating contaminated ground and surface water is hugely expensive. Look out for a pipeline near you.

ODE TO THE DUMBASSES - YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE

Lanxess shut down a wonderful effort by Michael Heitmann and Bonita Wagler to distribute a Documentary that they had woked on for years. The problem with their Documentary was that they produced a balanced film giving equal opportunity to both sides in the dispute to have their say. Chemtura (Lanxess's predecessor) had Jeff Merriman as their spokesperson and he did a superb job of spinning facts to make the company if not look good at least to look half way reasonable. Not good enough for Lanxess Canada. They had also given Michael and Bonita permission to film on their property as well as interview Jeff Merriman. After the film was done Lanxess rescinded their permission and threatened legal action if Michael and Bonita went ahead and distributed their film. ....................................................................................................................... Well now I have exactly zero sympathy for Lanxess, the MOE/MECP, GHD and as well local Woolwich councillors. You have all played a game for the last thirty years and maybe, just maybe the chickens are coming home to roost. The newest Documentary is titled Toxic Time Bomb and it has been prepared without an iota of input from the polluter/corporate successors, the MOE/MECP, local politicians or other well known bed fellows of the company. ...................................................................................................................... I am pleased to say that this film will be distributed in Europe starting next week. It does not put either Lanxess or Elmira (environmentally) in a good light. It is an appropriate condemnation of the horrors of Agent Orange and its production in Elmira, Ontario and elsewhere as well as of its use in Vietnam and elsewhere. It is a long overdue slap in the face to those who put corporate sales and profits ahead of human beings. .......................................................................................................................... Maybe next time Lanxess and friends might consider honesty and ethics as being part of the equation when they pretend to clean up their messes.

MORE DRIBS & DRABS FROM LAST THURSDAY"S TAG MEETING

The MOE/MECP will be collecting and sampling fish tissues again this fall. My experienced take on that is that the last fish tissue results were much too high and they are hoping to get lower results this time. They might do this via sampling in different locations, or different species or possibly even by sampling at a different time of year. Rest assurred that if Lanxess didn't want it to happen, it probably wouldn't. As with the last sampling the tissues sampled will not be the fattier areas that more readily accumulate toxins including the liver. .............................................................................................................. Many excuses were given regarding the delay of years in getting off-site pumping well W9 up an running hopefully by either the end of this year or no later than January/February 2021. Ramin Ansari did to his credit at one point suggest that in hindsight they should not have gone down the peroxide treatment route as they are now going back to the tried and true activated carbon route. What a total and complete shmozzle. ........................................................................................................................ Lanxess and Ramin stated that the original 30 year Remediation Target was a mistake. Yes it was albeit a very self-serving one. He also stated regarding the 2028 date that "...we're not going to meet that." He also astoundingly claimed that the Elmia Aquifers are "actually drinkable today." My response is go ahead. We've been drinking contzaminated water for decades so have at it. ....................................................................................................... One piece of good news is that thirty years later Lanxess and the MOE/MECP are actually discussing a bond or financial assurance to guarantee further cleanup if Lanxess depart the properrty. Hmm? ........................................................................................................ Sandy Shantz and Scott McMillan both publicly promised "community discussion" regarding the proposed crap known as "Flux Based Approach" to clean up of the Elmira Aquifers. Mr. McMillan also sugested that it would be a "generational" decision. Hmm again. We'll see if that happens and in what form. ............................................................................................................ Regarding the recent Supplemental East Side Groundwater Report, TAG member Dustin Martin critiqued it. He felt that the claim by Lanxess's consultants (GHD) that there is no risk from the Stroh property is not well supported by their own report. Also their claim that there is significant attenuation of NDMA is "just not true.". He even referred to the natural attenuation discussion within the report as being "misleading". Finally Dustin suggested that while lateral delineation of contaminants on the Stroh property is O.K., vertical delibneation absolutely is not. Also decommissioning of all wells on the Stroh property is `premature`according to Dustin. This is just one more unacceptable technical report by Lanxess`s consultants amidst thirty years of unacceptable, misleading reports in my well informed opinion. .......................................................................................................... Sebastian pushed hard for more sampling and wells further south on the Stroh property. He pointed out that the highly contaminated GP-1 actually ran eastwards all the way to the Stroh property which surprised Dustin and had him reconsidering further sampling southwards. ............................................................................................................... Thus ended a very disappointing TAG meeting with only a couple of exceptions. TAG members need to notice carefully the poor science and exaggerated self-serving conclusions constantly put forth by Lanxess and their consultants. TAG are not dealing with honest brokers.

OUR INHERENTLY CORRUPT POLITICAL SYSTEM CONTINUES NOT TO PROTECT OUR ENVIRONMENT AND THE ELMIRA AQUIFERS

Truly astounding chutzpah! Brass balls beyond all belief. For thirty years Uniroyal/Crompton/Chemtura and Lanxess have fought tooth and nail to minimize, minimize and minimize the extent of the contamination, their liability, their guilt, and most importantly their costs. They have sacrificed their honour, their credibility, their humanity in so doing. They have hidden behind their corporate veil while spouting blatant "factual inaccuracies" and cheerfully having their consultants produce junk science to back it up. ..................................................................................................... Now thirty years later, after they have ignored, minimized, obfuscated, deflected the advice and hard work of appointed citizens to the various public advisory committees (UPAC, CPAC etc.) and the general public, they should be reaping the results of their dirty deeds. Their hostility to persistent and informed questioning was shameful. Their refusal to even acknowledge the legitimate and accurate statements of their critics and expert opinions presented at public meetings was beyond dogmatic. Their solicitation of citizens on the advisory committees and their planting or removal of others was Machiaevellian. All of this they could not have achieved without the assistance of corrupt people in positions of authority. ............................................................................................ Against all independent advice from citizens, academics, environmental experts, and activists they refused to open mindedly consider anything but PUMP & DUMP. Oops that in their terminolgy is PUMP & TREAT. Way back in the early 1990's a hydrogeologist (Belanger) on behalf of the Region of Waterloo referred to the proposed partial hydraulic containment of the Upper Aquifer as the least expensive and least effective "solution". Citizens and experts together advised that Source Removal of "hot spots" both on and off the Uniroyal site could speed up the cleanup process. Mostly they were ignored with some exceptions. ........................................................................ Uniroyal/Crompton/Chemtura/Lanxess fully own the failure to clean up the Elmira Aquifers to drinking water standards. They fully own the DDT, PAHs, herbicides, dioxin & furans, mercury and PCBs in the Canagagigue Creek ("Gig"), its fish and other lifeforms. They own any and all damages to terrestial wildlife caused by their still ongoing leakage of contamination to the creek. They own human environmental damages within the farm communities downstream in the "Gig". And neither they nor our local and provincial politicians give a damn about any of that. They just want this public embarassment to go away. They want to be able to declare a victory. ...................................................................................................... Lanxess are proposing a "Flux Based Approach". This approach drastically lessens their financial input into cleaning the Elmira Aquifers. Our local authorities will pretend to require public input on the idea while lobbying for it behind the scenes. Various "experts" and "personalities" will be recruited to bolster the plan. A Flux based approach is the natural extension to a thirty year failed cleanup plan. Our favourite local polluter and its syncophants are both trying to save face and to prematurely end their cleanup of the Elmira Aquifers. The Region of waterloo have been drawing drinking water from contaminated aquifers in Kitchener, Waterloo and Cambridge for decades. The "Flux Based Approach is simply an attempt to make a virtue out of a sin. It is contrary to the principles espoused at the Walkerton Inquiry and should not be permitted. Lanxess and various politicians are relying on the public's apathy and lack of attention to pull this off.