THE SHAM OF PROFESSIONAL PLANNING ???

Sure enough the Hawk Ridge proposal is back for yet another kick at the can. Sure enough the first time around Woolwich Council were against this proposed subdivision in the centre of Uniroyal/Chemtura's "kill zone" in the case of their "Worst Case Scenario" which happened to be a major spill of Anhydrous Ammonia. This time around Woolwich's planning department are recommending that Council approve this subdivision, still located across Union street from Uniroyal/Lanxess Canada and Sulco (Canada Colours). .................................................................................................. What has changed? Perhaps better noise insulation in walls facing Union St. and or fewer windows also facing Union St. This may be combined with better sound reducing barrier walls erected again to reduce noise pollution from the late night trains at both Lanxess and Sulco. There has also been further actions similar to rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic prior to disaster be it striking an iceberg or toxic fugitive emissions from either company. These other "actions" include warning clauses on the property deeds or rental agreements. Warning clauses not about possible life long injuries or death but about noise and odours including odours from the nearby Sewage Treatment Plant at the bottom (east end) of First St. Yes we are told (by Lanxess) that Anhydrous Ammonia is no longer present but where are the specifics and details regarding their latest "Worst Case Scenario"? Without that Woolwich Councillors are as usual being kept in the dark. .............................................................................................. There are supposedly Ministry of Environment Minimum Setbacks from Class III Heavy Industries. These setbacks are 300 metres. As well there are calculated Potential Areas of Influence as in potential negative consequences which are 1,000 metres from heavy industry such as Lanxess Canada. The Hawk Ridge proposal is within Sulco's Area of Influence although it is not within their Minimum Setback distance. Interestingly there are only two companies within BOTH the Minimum Setback distance as well as within the potential Area of Influence. Those two companies are Uniroyal/Lanxess and the former Varnicolor Chemical at the corner of First and Union St. Euphemistically that property is referred to as a "Storage Yard". Hence this proposed new residential subdivision is basically surrounded by problems especially when you add in noise, dust, and odours from Lanxess, Sulco and the Sewage Treatment Plant. Warning clauses will do little or nothing once the already having happened disasters strike again whether chlorine releases, toxic smoke from fires, sulpher type emissions from Sulco or whatever mechanical or human error occurs yet again most likely from the Lanxess property. Oh and by the way, the Ministry of Environment's Minimum Setbacks, just like more of their rules and regulations, can and will be be circumvented via mitigating actions such as additional reports being required dealing with noise and odours. Or in the alternative, as the toxic plume is approaching, all the residents can frantically wave their copies of these reports at the approaching death and injury, in the hope of blowing it away. Personally I would suggest particular local politicians give a speech in the direction of the approaching death cloud, again hoping that their hot air will save the day. ................................................................................................................... Long live hot air, planning departments and provincial planning legislation. Perhaps it protects our governments from lawsuits after readily forseeable disasters strike. Or perhaps planning departments and legislation are simply tools to permit otherwise ridiculous and incompatible use development where common sense clearly dictates it should not go.

LATE HALLOWEEN HORROR- LIKE DRACULA THE HAWK RIDGE PROPOSAL NEVER DIES

Well I've received a Notice from Woolwich Township in regards to the clearly immortal Hawk Ridge Homes Draft Plan of Subdivision. This incredibly stupid to the point of negligence proposed subdivision is to be located beside the former Varnicolor Chemical and across Union St. from Sulco (Canada Colours) and Lanxess Canada (formerly Uniroyal). When first proposed the idea was an abomination. Afterall there was a documented kill zone radiating westwards from Uniroyal (Chemtura) that encompassed the proposed residential subdivision. This kill zone was based upon the worst case scenario at Uniroyal/Chemtura in the event of a spill or release of toxic compounds. At the time we were advised that Anhydrous Ammonia was the potentially most lethal compound that could be released and travel in the air across Union St. and possibly up to approximately 700 metres away from the chemical plant. .......................................................................................................... So where are we today? Good question. I haven't the foggiest and I've been carefully watching, listening and reading everything I can get my hands on regarding that chemical plant. We the public have been advised that the plant no longer handles Anhydrous Ammonia. Assuming we are being told the truth, and there are lots of reasons to take everything they say with a grain of salt, the new question is : What is now the Worst Case Scenario?". Well golly gee I sure as heck have seen absolutely nothing. Why? Is our Conservative Provincial government telling Ontario chemical plants to relax and don't lose any sleep about the Worst Case Scenario requirements put in place from a previous government? If so then I would love to see young Dougie Ford move up here and be the first in line to buy (AND LIVE IN) a house in that proposed subdivision.

ONTARIO CONSERVATIVE PARTY CONTINUE THEIR ASSAULT ON THE ENVIRONMENT IN ORDER TO LINE MORE POCKETS

Well is it just me or am I seeing considerably more articles about the environment in the Waterloo Region Record over the last numerous months? Yesterday's Record carried one Opinion and one Editorial from the Record themselves. It was titled "Don't give free rein to Ontario's developers" and the Opinion piece was titled "Rush to be "open for business" puts environment on back burner". It was written by Susan Koswan. ........................................................................................................... Both of these articles are regarding Doug Ford (P.C.) and his ongoing underhanded attack on the environment. This time he has used an omnibus budget bill to slide in his reductions of authority and responsibility of our Conservation Authorities. It is simply a way to concentrate power both at the Cabinet level where he is in charge and with the very reliable Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry. You remember them as the gravel pit proponent's best friend in Ontario. ................................................................................................................ Now don't get me wrong. Despite the Record Editorial suggesting that "they've (Conservation Authorities) done a suberb job, too.", I beg to differ. In fact Susan Koswan mentions in her Opinion piece that as of 2011 "...southern Ontario had lost "more than 70 percent of its wetland habitats, 98 percent of its grasslands, and 89 percent of its forests." If that statistic is accurate then shame on each and every municipal, regional and provincial authority for their share of that failure. I do agree however that these latest proposed changes will only make things worse.

NOT A SMOKING GUN BUT WORRISOME NEVERTHELESS - WOOLWICH OBSERVER

There are two very worthwhile articles in yesterday's Woolwich Observer. I might add that I read the Observer week in and week out. I particularly enjoy the Editorial opinions of Steve Kannon as he pulls no punches regarding the sad state of democracy both in Canada and around the world. I have worked very hard for many years to get along with everybody at the Observer with varying levels of success at varying times. Pre-Covid, Joe Merlihan was usually quite willing to have a chat in his office unannounced and I have on a number of occasions complimented Pat Merlihan for stances he's taken at Woolwich Council. I have also kept to myself a single moment of perhaps a too candid comment by Patrick at his request. Steve I have complimented here many times. I also know and respect their father through a mutual friend when Marty was a teacher at Elmira District Secondary School. .................................................................................................... Way back in 1995 it was suggested to me that the brand new Woolwich Observer was owned/funded ? by Donny Martin (Martin Feed Mills) and other Elmira industrialists who were very upset with Bob Verdun and the Elmira Independent. While I don't recall Uniroyal Chemical's name being explicitly stated, I had that impression and considering that Bob was routinely suggesting jail as an option or perhaps not tarring and feathering of senior Uniroyal staff; the impression in his paper was that the most extreme actions would have been completely appropriate under the circumstances. So as to leave no wrong impression, I felt then and even more in hindsight that he was right. ...................................................................................................... The one article yesterday was the Observer's Editorial titled "Elmira bypass a key part of revitalizing the core". The other was titled "Biogas plant operator expects little impact from approved changes". The Editorial suggests that "A bypass route that would take through traffic, particulaly trucks, off of Arthur St. and through, say, an industrial area on the east side of town would do wonders." Very few Elmirians would dispute the need for a bypass to get heavy trucks along with their noise and toxic diesel fumes out of the downtown. Also in fairness the Observer did mention that the Township "...has looked at options on the west side of Elmira.". They did not mention however that those options have been rejected by the Township. The other article primarily described an expansion of Woolwich Bio-Gas in Elmira's north end (Martin Lane area) but also described the east side bypass running from the south end of Union St. (near Arthur St.) and running northwards on the east side of town through the Martin and Stroh farms among others, then rejoining Arthur St. north via Kenning Place. Interestingly this Observer article mentioned that this east side bypass would be "...perhaps as part of a future expansion of the north-side industrial lands.". ...................................................................................................... The problem for me arises if indeed there are shareholders (or outright owners) of the Observer with skin in this game and the Observer are not advising their readers about that. An unbiased reader certainly would want to know if their local paper was in any fashion promoting local planning and development decisions that favoured shareholders etc. of that same newspaper. Besides my recollection from 25 years ago there has been the very recent Comment on Wednesday October 21 in this Blog from a reader with a long, local history in town. That commenter clearly accuses local, well known industrialists and developers of being shareholders of the Observer and hence the Observer are pushing their agenda in their newspaper. Personally I would like to know if that opinion is accurate or not. If so it would explain a mostly hands off policy regarding Uniroyal/Crompton/Chemtura and Lanxess especially say in the last fifteen years. If not I am still perplexed as to why the Observer have not stepped up and done their duty in keeping the public informed over the last five and a half years since the Elmira Independent shut their doors leaving the Woolwich and Elmira public in the dark regarding Chemtura/Lanxess and the RAC and TAG committees. There have been huge developments and public scandals exposed at TAG (Technical Advisory Group) that have NOT seen the light of day due to zero media coverage.

OTHER SIGNIFICANT FACTS FOUND IN THE JULY 2003 CPAC REQUEST FOR ACTION

There are some reminders of facts which Uniroyal and successors have traditionally attempted to either deny or underplay. For example Action 3. is to excavate RPW-1 and RPW-2. These letters stand for Retention Pit 1 & 2. At the top of page 2 we are advised that there is evidence of DDT in groundwater samples. Polluters like to claim that certain chemicals are hydrophobic and do not readily dissolve in water. Well they are in the groundwater on the Uniroyal site. Also DDT as well as dioxins are in Ontario's list of legislated maximum concentrations allowed in drinking water. This list is the Ontario Drinking Water Standards or ODWS. If these compounds had zero solubility in water then they would not need to be on this drinking water list in the first place. ........................................................................................................................ Also on page 2 under 5. which is to excavate entire dry channel and island we are advised that Light Non Aqueous Phase Liquid (LNAPL) mobilizes dioxins. In fact a 1996 LNAPL sample showed 209,070 parts per trillion (ppt) dioxin. Just recently Lanxess (GHD) have advised TAG that toluene, a LNAPL chemical and the major component of the on-site LNAPL plume, can not dissolve or mobilize dioxins unless it is at a ridiculously high concentration in groundwater. Well guess what? That is exactly what LNAPL is. There is too much of the chemical (toluene) present to fully dissolve in groundwater hence the chemical floats on the surface of the groundwater and is called LNAPL. ............................................................................................................... CPAC made very clear that hydraulic containment alone of the Uniroyal (Lanxess) site was not adequate. They also strongly believed that "Eliminating hot spots on a reasonable schedule, starting with the worst spots will speed the clean-up of the off-site aquifer as well as the downstream sediments." Today and for the last few years all parties, the guilty ones and others, now admit that hydraulic containment alone will fail to meet the mandated 2028 deadline. Citizens and CPAC were correct but the process in Ontario allows the polluter to run the show up to and including riding roughshod over an anemic, impotent Ministry of Environment. Why do we allow this perverted process in Ontario? The answer is power and $$$$$$$$$$$$$ defeats truth, facts, environmental and human health.

JULY 2003 CPAC REQUEST FOR ACTION - ANOTHER REVIEW

Yesterday I posted here about the benefits and need for constant review when one is dealing with an issue (Elmira Water Crisis) that is over thirty years old. That so much knowledge and hard work has been forgotten, lost, and intentionally ignored is shameful and unnecessary. The full title of this report is "CPAC Request for Action Response to SSRA Human Health Assessment, Crompton July 2003". There is also a three paragraph Introduction which explains the rationale and the stimulus for CPAC's efforts. I might add that it was CPAC's Soil & Water sub-committee consisting of myself, Henry, Susan and Fred who produced this report which was accepted by the rest of the CPAC membership and then formally given to Crompton, CRA, and the Ontario Ministry of Environment (MOE). As indicated in the title the SSRA or Site Specific Risk Assessment from Crompton/CRA was a significant stimulus as was also the alleged CLRP or Comprehensive Long Range Plan for the site. In reality the CLERP was merely one more delaying and energy wasting tactic by the company and supporters (i.e. MOE). ................................................................................................................. The report from CPAC consisted of eight proposed actions most of which were for excavation of highly contaminated and well known hot spots on the Uniroyal/Crompton property. Yours truly did most of the reading and digging through historical reports which to this day are still being ignored and possibly kept hidden from current TAG members. We are still waiting to see how late and how few of the requested reports get into the TAG members hands prior to the November 26, 2020 virtual public TAG meeting. It is one of those cases in which I hope to be wrong although I will say that time is rapidly running out for meaningful time for TAG members to read any of the reports. ..................................................................................................... Five of the eight proposed action areas have not been done despite proposed flexible Timelines such as 2003-2005, 2006-2007, 2008-2009 and 2009-2010. Three others were done only partially such as the supposed downstream fencing off and revegetating a buffer strip along the Canagagigue Creek. In fact personal observation by myself a few years after it was allegedly done showed that cattle were not fenced off from the creek and still were routinely crossing through it to and from their barns. Item 5. regarding excavating the entire dry channel and island was probably the best done of the lot. Item 2. excavating of GP-1 and GP-2 was partially done although it wins the award for deception. GP-2 was merely capped with soil and in hindsight we learned that GP-1 very likely was NOT the original location of Gravel Pit 1 (GP-1) and in fact may very well have been used as a substitute for the real GP-1. Of course all the guilty parties including the MOE have refused to even look at the evidence or give any rationale or explanation to the public for the huge discrepancy. This is shades of Tiffany Svensson (TAG Chair) this past summer refusing to give me any logical, rationale, fact or evidence based reasons for her and TAG flatly dismissing my (and numerous recognized experts) February 2020 written Delegation to TAG which consisted of maps, text and data mostly from those same recognized experts. ................................................................................................................. The data and evidence exists for the truth about the failures of the Elmira cleanup. What hasn't existed to date is an honest, real and ongoing public consultation process. The few times when various public advisory committees have been making progress they've either been shut down, ignored or undermined with private, guilty party deal making.

CONSTANT REVIEW IS VERY HELPFUL

Sometimes the review consists of rereading Blog postings, TAG Agendas and Minutes, recent important newspaper articles and coorespondence with CPAC members, media and or Lisa (Woolwich Twn.), literally all of which are only days to recent weeks old. Other times review can encompass looking at reports that are decades old, newspaper articles that are years to decades old and even my Blog posts going back years. I have worked very hard to record the Minutes of CPAC and TAG public meetings even when the Elmira Independent and Gail Martin were doing a good job at it. Obviously this last five years plus my recording of TAG and RAC Minutes has been crucial as the only other effort has been that of Lisa Schaefer usually weeks to months AFTER the meeting. My efforts are 99% of the time from my notes and memory, literally the morning after the previous late afternoon or evening meeting. Obviously of course during the research stage of my book "Elmira Water Woes: The Triumph of Corruption, Deceit and Citizen Betrayal", available on-line both at the Cambridge Advocate (www.cambridgeadvocate.com) and the Waterloo Region Advocate (www.waterlooregionadvocate.blogspot.com), I spent well over a year reviewing everything from before 1989 to the then present (2019). .................................................................................................................... Constant review is helpful if not absolutely mandatory one due to just the astounding bulk of data, facts, meetings, individuals involved etc. over the past almost 32 years. The other reason is in order to counter what I refer to as the "Trump effect". This is the willingness of various guilty parties in Elmira to make up facts to suit themselves and their position and or their newest initiative. It is just too easy when you have constantly new members on public advisory committees for the unscrupulous to draw upon proven past "facts" to be able to sell those members on your latest direction, reversal or issue that you wish to promote. ..................................................................................................... One example of this is the committee that TAG Chair Tiffany Svensson has suggested in order to determine allegedly what the Elmira community would like to see going forward in regards to new efforts and goals to remediate the Elmira Aquifers. It has been said about history that those who choose to ignore it are condemned to repeat it endlessly. In other words if you don't know about and learn from the past you will inevitably just keep on making the same mistakes over and over again. That is exactly what will happen with this plan if honest and knowledgable of the past indiviuals are not on this proposed committee. That by the way is exactly what Lanxess, GHD and the Ontario Ministry of Conservation & Parks (MECP) would like. The last thing they want is knowledgable citizens saying something like "The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result this time.". Here are the errors you've made over the last thirty years plus. Let's not repeat them!