A WHERE THE RUBBER MEETS THE ROAD MOMENT - WOOLWICH TOWNSHIP CORRUPTION?

Corruption if done properly in this day and age, tries mightly to avoid brown paper bags full of cash. We leave that sort of thing to third world countries and politicians as much as possible. Canadians prefer their corruption to be much more subtle if at all possible. The last TAG meeting was held on Thursday, October 22, 2020. Item 3.2 on the Agenda was a Bibliography from TAG member Sebastian Seibel-Achenbach listing approximately five technical reports produced by the Ontario Ministry of Environment, GRCA, Conestoga Rovers and perhaps Brian Beatty (former Uniroyal consultant) prior to his being "consolidated" by David Ash and Uniroyal. ................................................................................................. The Minutes of the September 10, 2020 TAG meeting reflect that Sebastian would make a list of reports, as mentioned in the above paragraph. This he did and verbally at the October 22 meeting both Lisa Schaefer and Tiffany Svensson, currently in the employ of Woolwich Township, promised TAG members that one they had already requested these reports be provided by the Township (Lisa) and secondly (Tiffany) further added that she would do everything possible to get copies to the TAG members. ................................................................................................... Well that was eighteen days ago and guess what? Nada, nothing! The next virtual TAG meeting is now only seventeen days away. This matter has been under discussion and supposedly being worked on since September 10, 2020. Sebastian has done his part and provided the requested list. He is preparing his presentation for the November 26/20 meeting. TAG member and hydrogeologist Dustin Martin had promised to read reports referring to east side (Stroh property) issues after he learned exactly how close some of the waste pits including GP-1 were to the Stroh farm. He can't do that without the reports. .................................................................................................................. I have made my knowledge and opinion of various contemptible, not in the public interest, actions of Woolwich Township over the decades very clear. They under numerous different councils have run interference on behalf of Uniroyal/Crompton/Chemtura and now Lanxess Canada in order to limit their environmental liability and to cloak their self-serving behaviours under the guise of pretend public consultation. On occasion they have been publicly exposed. I hope that the honest TAG members are paying close attention to this matter and to which if any reports are delivered to them from Sebastian's list of well known and extremely relevant reports.

IS THIS WHY CITIZENS OBJECT TO NEW NOISY, SMELLY ENTERPRISES IN THE FIRST PLACE?

You know it's almost like the old metaphor about putting a frog in hot water and slowly raising the temperature until the frog boils to death. In a sense this is also what climate change is all about. Incremental permits given to more and more industries to discharge more and more carbon into the air, hence warming the planet. Downtown Elmira often stinks of diesel fumes especially around Church and Arthur St. Odd to me is that the same folks who were recently alleged here to be pushing for the east side Elmira by-pass and industrial development are involved with this doubling of truck traffic, noise, odours and health issues. Could one suspect they are building the case to get the by-pass sooner than later? ................................................................................................... Today's Waterloo Region Record has a story by Leah Gerber titled "Province allows Elmira biogas plant to boost capacity". The approval from the Ministry of Environment allows for 80 trucks per day from the original 40. Clearly the deal signed by Elmira Bio-Gas with a citizens' group a number of years ago regarding the maximum number of trucks permitted has been dramatically expanded. I have seen this tactic before whereby a contentious issue (say a gravel pit) pleads for a very small, short duration, above the water table permit, only five or ten years later to apply for a larger below water table pit. Again this is why local residents may tend to dig in their heels early. Once established it's close to impossible to ever end these problems. ................................................................................................................. This area of Elmira has been a problem for a very long time. The toll on human health from gas and diesel fumes is obvious. Funny again how our local politicians can ignore problems not related to themselves until they are. Then they seem to jump right on things. Also strange to me is that the Woolwich Observer are located just a block or two away. Where have they been on this issue and why have they not been interviewing local residents?

CLIMATE CHANGE, COVID-19 & THE U.S. PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION - WHAT A YEAR!

Climate change has brought the world floods, droughts, heat waves, crop failures, displacement and death and more. Astoundingly it's not been THE Story of 2020. That dubious honour of course goes to Covid-19 with the ongoing election counting and increasing hysteria of an apparent five year old President only temporarily taking centre stage. Humankind has shown an uncanny ability to destroy and only in some crises has he/she been able to step up for the good of all and turn around very bad situations. When both Covid-19 and President Trump are gone the world will go back to THE real crisis of our century namely climate change. .................................................................................................... This is not to say that the next big virus isn't waiting around the corner. That big virus could be another similar to Covid-19 or speaking metaphorically it could be yet another U.S. demamgogue. Are Americans particularly prone to tin pot dictators and the Cult of the Personality? Probably not. Think of Stalin, Mussolini, Hitler and you can see literally hundreds of millions of human beings desperately reaching out blindly for saviours. Americans aren't any dumber intrinsically than other people around the world. Unfortunately as a group they aren't any smarter either. ............................................................................................................... Humanity continue to destroy the environment on earth and that will be the eventual end of us. My only hope is that when we go we don't take the rest of life on earth with us. Plants, trees, animals, fish, insects do not deserve extinction because of our behaviors. Someday, somewhere intelligent life may actually have records of humankinds short span on earth and it will be an object lesson for other species to observe, learn from and avoid.

THE DEVIL IS IN THE DETAILS - WHETHER A PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION OR NDMA IN DRINKING WELLS

Well once again I've been digging in my files looking for specific information that I know I have. Sure enough I found it and it's relevant to yesterday's post here in which I suggested an error in the published concentrations of NDMA in Elmira's groundwater. In hindsight it may well be that the number published (1,200 - 2,900 parts per trillion (ppt) wasn't so much inaccurate as was the accompanying text. In other words it's all about comparing apples to oranges versus comparing apples to apples. Put more simply there are literally dozens to hundreds of different concentrations of NDMA in various waters. For example there are NDMA concentrations in the municipal aquifers beneth the town of Elmira. This could depending upon your definition even include the ridiculously high NDMA concentrations in the Municipal Upper and Lower Aquifers on the former Uniroyal Chemical property. They range from as high as 1,000 parts per billion (ppb) which equals 1,000,000 parts per trillion (ppt) up to three and four thousand ppb (or 4,000,000 ppt). .......................................................................................................... Now if you want to exclude the Uniroyal property from the definition of the Elmira Aquifers you would "only" have concentrations from between 100 ppb and say 800 to 900 ppb. or 900,000 parts per trillion (ppt). Then you have the concentrations of NDMA in the Elmira Distribution System back in 1989-1990. Those are considerably smaller yet again as the south wellfield in particular is at least a mile away from the Uniroyal property. Some of those NDMA concentrations were measured as "low" as 1 to 3 parts per billion (40 ppb concentrations were also found in one of the drinking wells at least once). Unfortunately the 1-3 ppb. concentration is still 1,000 to 3,000 parts per trillion (ppt) with an Ontario Drinking Water Standard of 9 ppt. Hence that drinking water NDMA concentration was 100 to 300 times higher than the eventual human health standard. ................................................................................................... So here we are on Thirsday morning with some folks firmly believeing that Joe Biden has won the Presidential election (he's very close) and other idiots screaming that Donald Trump won the election on Tuesday evening (not so close then). Just as the truth of NDMA concentrations was all over the map so is the truth as to has won the Presidential election south of the border. Presumably the appropriate election authorities will make a determination shortly but even that may or may not be subject to some sort of legal review. Truth needs to be patient sometimes albeit not thirty years patient as it has been in Elmira, Ontario.

HOPE SPRINGS ETERNAL - REVIVING MEDIA INTEREST?

I sent an e-mail on to the Waterloo Region Record in regards to the small error regarding NDMA concentrations in the Elmira Aquifers that I described here in the Advocate yesterday. Basically I provided them with the title, author, date etc. of a 1991 report which indicated that groundwater concentrations in the Elmira Aquifers, whether on or off the Uniroyal site were much, much higher than 1,200 -2,900 parts per trillion quoted in the Record. While on-site (i.e. Uniroyal) NDMA concentrations actually are in the thousands of parts per BILLION (ppb) the Record article had quoted 1,200 to 2,900 parts per Trillion (ppt). Now parts per trillion are actually a thousand times smaller than parts per billion. Therefore 1,200 ppt equals 1.2 ppb and 2,900 ppt equals 2.9 ppb. Hence when you have even a lowly 40 ppb found at the private well in 1990 of Harry Soehner on Arthur St. not too far from the south wellfield (E7/E9); that concentration equals 40,000 parts per trillion (ppt) of NDMA which currently has an Ontario Drinking Water Standard of 9 ppt. ........................................................................................................ I have been reading with interest for some time now the environmental stories in the Record authored by Leah Gerber. They have covered a multitude of issues including gravel pits and salt in our regional drinking water aquifers. While right now the public's focus is undoubtedly on Covid-19 AND the U.S. federal election, I am hoping that the public have not forgotten climate change and all its' accompanying issues. Whether droughts or flooding, good quality drinking water will only become more scarce over time. That includes right here in Waterloo Region where it is impacted by industrial practices, road salting and pesticide application.

"WHY YOU STILL CAN'T DRINK THE LOCAL WATER IN ELMIRA"

Yesterday's excellent article in the Waterloo Region Record (title above) unfortunately does not answer that question. While Ramin, Tiffany and others friendly to polluters think that the question of the day should be how do we proceed, in fact the question of the day should be how did we fail or rephrased similar to the title above namely "WHY CAN WE STILL NOT DRINK THE LOCAL WATER IN ELMIRA?" ....................................................... ..................................................................................................... .............ROADBLOCKS TO PROGRESS....................................... ..................................................................................................... - past local politicians more concerned with getting along with powerful industrial interests............................................................. - current local politicians more concerned with getting along with powerful industrial interests.............................................................. .........................- a polluter with zero ethics or morals ....................................................................................... ............- past regional politicians more concerned with getting along with powerful industrial interests................................................... - current regional politicians more concerned with getting along with powerful industrial interests....................................................... - past & present provincial governments more interested in getting along with powerful industrial interests.............................................. .............................................- past & present local, regional and provincial politicians with zero ethics or morals....................................................... .......................................- Ontario Ministry of Environment needs to be dismantled. It by design has little positive influence or authority over polluters.......... - ...................................................................................................... - weak environmental laws enhanced by even weaker enforcement of those weak laws - see above as to the why..................................................... ........................................................- Pat, Susan, Ramin, Dwighte, Helder, Sandy, Mark, Steve, Lou, Ken, and oh so many more

WELL DONE WATERLOO REGION RECORD - FRONT PAGE STORY ON THE ELMIRA WATER FAILURE

Reporter Leah Gerber and the Waterloo Region Record have stepped up and informed the public that the much vaunted and bragged about Elmira cleanup isn't working. Wow! Where is the local newspaper, The Woolwich Observer, in all this? They are MIA, over and over again. Their presence has been desperately needed during the last five plus years since TAG & RAC began in September 2015 and most dramatically since the other local newspaper closed their doors in July 2015. The Independent had consistently covered UPAC (Uniroyal Public Advisory Committee) and CPAC (Chemtura Public advisory Committees) for decades. With their closing the Observer had the opportunity to single handedly cover this ground breaking environmental drama. It seems clear that Uniroyal/Chemtura and friends had other plans. I expect that eventually that story will come out. .......................................................................................................... The biggest story that the public has never heard was the Dr. Richard Jackson story. He was the first TAG Chair from September 2015 until the end of December 2016 when he resigned. New and inexperienced TAG members were not willing to go to the wall with him and demand better through the media when it became clear that the Ontario Ministry of Environment, Woolwich Township, Chemtura, and Conestoga Rovers were perfectly satisfied with the go slow, status quo, inadequate cleanup methods that had been ongoing since January 1992. Dr. Jackson publicly pummelled Chemtura, their consultants (CRA), and the Ministry of Environment over and over again for their past and present technical cleanup failures. And other than this Blog there was no one publicly recording those glorious months. .................................................................................................................... Leah Gerber has done a wonderful job despite only talking to Lanxess personnel and the current TAG Chair, Tiffany Svensson. Unfortunately after giving Ms. Svensson more than three and a half years to do the right thing, she finally revealed her true colours this past spring and summer. It was agonizingly difficult to understand that she was part and parcel of the problem as she made a private deal with Lanxess outside of the public TAG meetings that would remove the last chance for a real investigation of the Stroh (& Martin) farms for Uniroyal Chemical contamination that gravity flowed to them. TAG and CPAC (Citizens Public Advisory Committee) member Dr. Sebastian Seibel-Achenbach will be pushing for an honest investigation at the upcoming public (i.e. virtual) TAG meeting on November 26, 2020 at 6:30 pm. Some of us believe that Covid-19 concerns while deadly serious nevertheless are being used to greatly diminish public input and consultation via no live citizens being present at these meetings and virtual admittance controlled by Woolwich Township. ................................................................................................................ A couple of minor corrections are needed in today's Record story. The concentration of NDMA in Elmira's groundwater in 1989 was not 1,200 to 2,900 parts per trillion (ppt). It was closer to 1,200 to 2,900 parts per billion (ppb) which is 1,000 times higher. Secondly the discriptions of the membership of TAG and RAC were inaccurate. TAG are not a group of experts. There is one hydrogeologist and two other "experts" in different fields with other honest and intelligent citizens. RAC are not everyday citizens, they are made up of bureaucrats and government employees from the GRCA, RMOW, Woolwich Township, Ministry of Environment, Lanxess and GHD (consultants). It is still an excellent article and thank you Leah Gerber and the Waterloo Region Record.