STROH COVERUP BECOMING CLEARER TO TAG: LANXESS/MECP CONTINUE THE DELAY GAME

Three TAG members in particular spoke truth to power last evening. They were Sebastian Seibel-Achenbach, Dustin Martin and finally Susan Bryant who set Ramin Ansari (Lanxess) straight as to how many decades the environment, Woolwich citizens and downstream residents have been waiting for a cleanup of the downstream Canagagigue Creek. Lanxess is in no hurry as each day, week, month and year that goes by means more Uniroyal Chemical contaminants have left their property and while some become entrenched and entrained en route, others flow far enough downstream during high water flows especially that they can no longer be attributed to Uniroyal/Lanxess. The delays of the last thirty years have likely saved the corporate owners of the former Uniroyal Chemical, hundreds of millions of dollars in cleanup costs all under the lacklustre watch of the Ontario Ministry of Environment (MOE/MECP). ........................................................................................................... Last night's TAG meeting was far better than the previous one. First of all both Lanxess (Ramin) and the MECP (Jason Rice) were present to both listen and learn as well as to add information. Their repeated absences have helped make a joke out of public consultation which is exactly what Woolwich Township, the Region (likely) and the province (Ontario) want. A number of issues from the MECP responses to Lanxess were raised such as the limited sediment data supposedly particularly in Reaches three and four (nearest the Lanxess site). Some of this undoubtedly is due to the ridiculously high Method Detection Limits (MDL) which can show concentrations of DDT and dioxins/furans at above the provincial or federal criteria as being Non-Detect (ND) which is outrageous. So called Background readings from Bolender Park Landfill were publicly stated by TAG members to be inappropriate due to Uniroyal Chemical waste and others being deposited there in the 1960s. I was smiling sweetly at pretend mayor Sandy Shantz during those exchanges as she and her council have publicly lied and minimized problems about that in-town landfill. Two other issues include the MECP's insistence that the Magnitude of contaminant Exceedances must be seriously considered as part of the criteria for designating Contaminants of Potential Concern (COPC). The other is a phony reference to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regarding a supposed 5% frequency rule which Lanxess now admit was in error. This "error" again, as always, favoured consultant GHD's client, Lanxess Canada. ................................................................................................................................... There was one other issue. I and others have known that Uniroyal/Lanxess's vaunted on-site hydraulic containment has never complied with the 1991 MOE Control Order which demanded 100% hydraulic containment in ALL ALL ALL aquifers. That stated I was surprised to hear the following statement go unchallenged namely that 500,000 litres of uncontained (but contaminated) Upper Aquifer water flow into the Canagagigue Creek every day. WOW! TAG by the way supports the numerous comments and criticms regarding the COPC and Conceptual Site Model (CSM) reports done by Lanxess Canada ........................................................................................................................... The next report discussed concerned the East Side Off-site Groundwater Evaluation. This was supposed to be a comprehensive study of groundwater, both shallow and deep, on the Stroh farm to the immediate east of the Lanxess property. Fundamentally it was no such thing and both Sebastian and Dustin Martin made that very clear. Sebastian asked why the report gave exactly zero answers as to why and how NDMA for example was found 240 metres east of Uniroyal/Lanxess even in one instance above the Ontario Drinking Water Standards (ODWS). There was no response or answer from Lanxess or the MECP. Keep in mind that the Stroh farm is allegedly cross-gradient if not up-gradient from the groundwater flow direction at Lanxess. Sebastian also pointedly indicated that just like the past soil samples, there is a huge gap in groundwater monitoring wells and hence results in the southern 300 metres of the Stroh property being uninvestigated and unknown. In other words: "YOU WILL NEVER FIND WHAT YOU REFUSE TO TEST FOR". Ramin made an interesting comment to the fact that normally they do soil sampling first to see if there is an issue prior to installing monitoring wells and then sampling them. Well soil samples are exactly what I and CPAC (and Sebastian) have been asking/yelling for for the last SEVEN YEARS. Dustin Martin made it clear that the Lanxess/GHD report only half accomplished it's goal. It did not answer the important questions nor did it fully delineate the groundwater either shallow or deep. He also interestingly advised that aquitards (i.e. less permeable clay & silt) usually have higher vertical flow than horizontal flow of groundwater. There is high contamination levels in some aquitards and he referenced well OW7-29 in the north and OW8 much further south which intersected the Municipal Aquifer (MU) yet the MU was shown as not continuing further north. Dustin actually used the word "deceiving" to decribe that on the map provided by GHD. .............................................................................................................................. Tiffany Svensson (TAG Chair) advised that a couple of results (soil/sediments) from somewhere along the Stroh Drain were not yet available. HA! She also suggested some kind of a further "Technical Meeting" to discuss these problems with GHD & Lanxess. Those discussions need to be public but forget that as much as Lanxess and the MECP are concerned. TAG haven't learned yet about the ability to abuse private meetings via numerous methods including keeping some results/conclusions "confidential". .................................................................................................................................. Be still my heart but Ramin is claiming that this Risk Assessment (RA) of the Canagagigue Creek is voluntary. PLEASE! Such utter bulls.it which thankfully Jason Rice later clarified. The MECP asked Lanxess to do this RA a while back and if they did not do it the MECP would issue a Control Order demanding they do so or if they abort it prior to doing necessary cleanup, the MECP will do the same. Ramin also publicly promised that if intrusive action such as excavation, dredging or armoring (creek banks?) is necessary that Lanxess will do so. Unfortunately there are a thousand weasel words and weasel steps between here and there. Allegedly "conservative values are used regarding toxicity values. Bulls.it again! There are no scientifically defensible values for simultaneous multiple exposures to toxins. It's all about one value per toxic compound regardless of how many there are. Secondly it's all about "acceptable" risks. This is a mathematical calculation in which one wealthy and informed party tells another one living in and around the risk that it's an acceptable risk by pretending that an individual only has a one in a hundred thousand or one in a million risk of coming down with cancer. Beyond supreme bulls.it. .............................................................................................................. Katharina Richter reported well on the 2020 Annual Monitoring Report (AMR). Covid excuses abound as to why I and presumably others who have received hard copies of this report for decades did not get one this year. Katarina expounded upon pumping wells both on and off site that are currently not working properly and why. Regardless it just pushes the final cleanup of the Elmira Aquifers further and further down the road. I believe that Dr. Richard Jackson suggested that 2050 or 2060 might finish the job. Linda Dickson also spoke to the February Progress Report. Linda also advised as to the ongoing problems with pumping wells both on and off the Lanxess site. ......................................................................................................................... My memory from last night's meeting is nagging at me about some comments regarding "redefining" the goals of the cleanup of the Elmira Aquifers. This is par for the course when after decades of promises otherwise, the guilty parties can't/won't fulfill their promises. Hence as they are in charge of the "cleanup", they simply redefine the goal or endpoint. Talk about unaccountable. Talk about shameless.

WELL IT APPEARS AS IF AT LEAST SOME OF OUR COURTS ARE LEGITIMATE

The following article appeared in the Waterloo Region Record eight days ago titled "Inmates $30M segregation lawsuit will stand, court rules". It was written by Colin Perkel. What I also find interesting is that it was the Ontario Court of Appeal upholding a decision by Superior Court Justice Paul Perell. I believe that this was Superior Court in Toronto, not in Kitchener. I am wondering if there is a pattern here. To date my experience both first and second hand has been extremely bad with our local (Kitchener) Superior Court. Ridiculous decisions seem to be no problem for them on occasion. .................................................................................................................................... In this case a former inmate was incarcerated for two years at the Toronto South Detention Centre. He was charged with bank-robbery but acquitted at trial. During his incarceration he was placed in isolation on two occasions for refusing to take medication he said had nasty side-effects. His mental health worsened to the point that he had suicidal thoughts and auditory hallucinations. Superior Court agreed that Ontario had mistreated its inmates with their solitary confinement protocols and ordered a $30 million class-action award. The province of Ontario appealed to the Ontario Court of Appeal who upheld the class-action award. ................................................................................................................................... Imagine that! The Rule of Law extends to the Ontario government. Superior Court Justice Paul Perell found that "...segregation violated principles of fundamental justice" and "The province had been "systemically and routinely" negligent in running the solitary confinement regieme, he ruled." Well it's about time that the provincial (& hopefully federal) correctional service got smacked for their cruel and unnecessary solitary confinement procedures. Cruel and unnecessary and condoned by our idiot politicians and governments.

ELMIRA ENVIRONMENTAL DISASTER A METAPHOR & A MICROCOSM OF THE FAILURE OF DEMOCRACY

Bluntly put our authorities have way too much (authority). You've heard the jokes about the most important job in the world coming with no qualifications i.e. parenthood. Well guess what, the second most important (politicians) comes with even less. Good looks and money are just about it. Yes there are the exceptions to the rule. Yes there are some very smart people in politics. Yes there are complete idiots (Hmm Doug Ford-former silver spoon druggie & Mike Harris the third, current local M.P.P.). And yet they succeed and we the public pay the price. ............................................................................................................... Our authorities literally lie to us day in and day out. Is it any wonder that currently in the start of the third Covid wave that people are demonstrating against masks in Kitchener? How do we know when these same idjits in charge are telling the truth and when they are lying? Our judicial systems are also retarded (oops not politically correct- how about "hopeless"). At one time justice systems around the world jailed, whipped and chemically castrated homosexuals. Marijuana use started the "War on Drugs" in the United States which led to criminal records and the largest percentage of citizens incarcerated in the world. Pharmaceutical companies-the very same who currently may be saving us all now with vaccinations have been found responsible for overprescribing and promoting opoids and powerful painkillers for their own profit enhancement with full knowledge that they were extremely addictive. This they denied as they promoted opiod use to citizens via their family doctors. ........................................................................................................................ Our environmental laws currently are under attack from that bastian of mediocrity and non-intellectual ability: Doug Ford. Hell in the U.S. they elected Donald Trump whose stupidity included misogony, sexual assault and he even bragged publicly about grabbing womens' privates. Oh and Mr. Trump was also a racist. Yet he got elected to the highest, most powerful position in the world. Is it any wonder that the coverup of the facts, the human health implications and the culpability of the Ontaio government via the Ministry of Environment has been so sucessful? The environmental implications are also horrific and equally ignored by our authorities with impunity. The United States sprayed dioxins (Agent Orange) on civilian populations, crops and roadways. U.S. troops and the next two generations of their children/grandchildren have also paid the price. As have Canadians exposed to Agent Orange produced both in Canada (Elmira-Uniroyal Chemical) and the U.S.

SOME ITEMS OF CONCERN IN THE TAG MINUTES OF FEBRUARY 25/21

The Minutes start off with my report/Delegation to TAG being "discussed". Ha! It stated "...all members received and reviewed the written submission from Alan Marshall." This was followed by "There were no questions or discussion." Hunh! My report referenced details in TAG member Sebastian Seibel-Achenbach's November 26/20 "Appeal to the Technical Advisory Committee". My report was in support of Sebastian's strong difference in opinion regarding the Stroh property and contamination on it from the former Uniroyal Chemical. This is a potentially major stumbling block to proper cleanup of both Uniroyal's off-site pollution as well as of the Canagagigue Creek and it's current Risk Assessment to determine what and how much cleanup are required. ......................................................................................................... DNAPLS were somewhat discussed on page 3 by Ramin Ansari of Lanxess Canada. DNAPLS are one other of the main coverups that have occurred post 1989 on this site. Among other omissions or errors by Mr. Ansari was his claim that (free phase) DNAPL had not been found on the east side of the former Uniroyal site. Or according to the Minutes allegedly Lanxess have not found DNAPL in the groundwater. This is nonsense. DNAPL compounds (eg. chlorinated solvents) are found in the groundwater of all aquifers throughout the site, north, south, east and west. If Ramin actually stated that free phase DNAPL has not been found on the east side he is also wrong because it was found at RPE-3 in 2009. .......................................................................................................................................... We are supposed to be flattered that Lanxess chose to "voluntarily" advise TAG about a proposed amended Environmental Compliance Approval (ECA) that they didn't have to. Excuse me but the last "voluntary" action that Uniroyal/Chemtura undertook was the $3.5 million cleanup of GP-1 and GP-2. That was bulls.it then (i.e. voluntary) just as it's bulls.it now. That was far more likely a closed doors, private agreement with the Ontario Ministry of Environment (MECP) along the lines of throwing Chemtura a bone after demanding a cleanup of GP-1 & 2 rather than they do a proper Investigation of the Stroh property. .......................................................................................................................... Lastly I have to comment on the following statement namely: "...focus the monitoring program on those parameters consistently found through decades of monitoring." With the majority of the monitoring for decades being NDMA, chlorobenzene and ammonia is it any wonder that those three are always found and everything else not tested is not? It's a self-fulfilling phrophecy.

MOE/MECP HAVE LOTS OF SERIOUS CRITICISMS OF LANXESS/GHD COPC & CSM BUT NO WHERE ENOUGH BACKBONE TO TELL THEM THEY'RE DONE AND IT'S OVER

CSM - Conceptual Site Model. COPC - Contaminants of Poterntial Concern. ...................................................................................................................... The 24 page report of back and forth Comments and Responses while highly illuminating is not however confidence building. Clearly all the errors, omissions and lack of clarity by GHD as expressed in this report indicates a consulting company and client who are going throught the motions and are expecting little to no pushback. In fact there are a couple of responses by GHD/Lanxess that indicate some frustration with the MOE/MECP trying to hold them accountable for their work. Poor babies. ........................................................................................................ Criticisms include using the shovel method versus a proper core sampler to collect sediment samples, insufficient background data sets to determine COPCs as well as suspect background locations such as Bolender Park Landfill being used. This landfill accepted Uniroyal Chemical as well as other local industrial/chemical wastes during the 1960s and should not be used as an alleged upstream background sampling point. Also one of my biggest complaints was the elevated Method Detection Limits (MDL) used in analysing sediment samples. When the MDL exceeds health criteria then far too many samples are listed as Non-Detect (ND) when in fact they may very likely exceed the health criteria for either aquatic organisms or human health exposure. The MOE/MECP also repeatedly emphasized and argued with Lanxess etc. that the Magnitude of Exceedance of a sampled compund needs to be considered as part of the frequency of exceeding a standard. In other words the criteria for accepting a compound as a Contaminant of Potential Concern should not rely on solely the frequency of detection but also on high high the magnitude of the exceedance is. Lanxess/GHD did not appear terribly happy with that idea or frankly any ideas/opinions that might increase their scoping/reducing of the eventual cleanup of the creek. ...................................................................................................................... The MECP also took Lanxess to task for their "typographical" error in claiming attribution to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for a 5% frequency of detection as a screening limit to eliminate toxic compounds for further investigation. In my opinion Lanxess and their predecessors have never made "typographical" or other "errors" to their detriment only to their advantage over the decades. Also using part of the Shirt Factory Creek where it exists on the Uniroyal/Lanxess property as a Background reading was appropriately criticized. Real typos existed regarding GHD inaccurately quoting Table C.3 repeatedly rather than Tables C.1 and C.2. Polyaromatic Hydrocarbon (PAH) results appear not to have been properly considered by Lanxess/GHD. ............................................................................................................................ One huge discussion etc. revolved around on-site failures of hydraulic containment allowing toxic discharge into the Canagagigue Creek. Lanxess and friends have proposed what I view to be as a ridiculous and outrageous claim namely that Toluene for example needs to be at a concentration of 100,000 parts per million or higher in order to work as a co-solvent for other organic compounds (DDT, dioxins, PCBs etc.). While I'd like to see some scientific literature to back that up, it also likely is a phony argument in the first place. Toluene has been floating as a free phase LNAPL on top of the water table for decades at Uniroyal. The LNAPL stands for Light Non Aqueous Phase Liquid and certainly exceeds 100,00 ppm. THis LNAPL 9Toluene) was discharged for decades directly into the creek via groundwater prior to any on-site containment (1997). ...................................................................................................................... These comments go on and on yet there seems to be no final straw, no conclusion that this report is fatally flawed. This is the problem with all these reports, "investigations" etc. They presuppose being accepted no matter what errors, falsehoods or omissions they contain. Everyone involved assumes the bulls.it the reports contain will never result in it being refused acceptance. And they never are. What a pathetic joke.

MORE ABOUT THE GHD REPORT DISCUSSED HERE TWO DAYS AGO

Well first of all in order to fully appreciate the volume of last minute data/reports dumped on TAG members plus myself the following has been added since I received the 93 page "2021 Comprehensive East Side Groundwater Report": namely 24 pages of a MOE/MECP Response and Comments to Lanxess regarding Contaminants of Potential Concern in the Canagagigue Creek as well as the Conceptual Site Model and 15 pages of Agenda (April 7/21) plus Minutes of the February TAG meeting. To further complicate getting this all read by next Thursday let me add that the 24 page MECP Report literally are MOE/MECP comments on prior Lanxess comments about MECP comments regarding an original Lanxess document from a year ago. I sh.t you not. That's what this so called "cleanup" is all about. Talk, talk, more talk and then the owner of the polluted site yet again privately throws down the blackmail gauntlet of sweetheart deals and MOE culpability for the Elmira disaster. The MOE/MECP long ago should have been removed as the alleged representative of the people. Their dirty hands have comprimised any flimsy chance of their ever being able to enforce the environmental laws of the province of Ontario. ...................................................................................................................... To date I have read the text of the 93 page "...Groundwater Report". Just more of the same bulls.it we've been treated to for the last thirty-two years while the company and their consultants hide behind the political shield provided by Woolwich Council and the Ontario Ministry of Environment, Conservation blah, blah, blah. A manure pile by any other name smells just as foul. First off groundwater is not the MAJOR issue anymore on the east, somewhat cross gradient, somewhat up gradient and even partially downgradient property known as 6770 Line #86 (Stroh farm). The odd groundwater flow is partially due to radial flow caused by the very high ground (topography) in the extreme north-east corner of Uniroyal/Lanxess. If you have for example a mountain being rained upon, both the surface flow as well as groundwater flow will likely be from all sides of the mountain (or hill). The raw liquid wastes stopped being deposited into Uniroyal Chemical's east side waste pits approximately fifty-one years ago. Most (not all) of the highly contaminated groundwater has long ago flowed off-site onto neighbours' properties as well as into the Cangagigue Creek. .................................................................................................................. The current, real problem is Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) which are hydrophobic and which readily drop out of solvent contaminated waters and attach to soil particles. These hydrophobic compounds include DDT, dioxins/furans, PCBs and certain pesticides and herbicides. Unfortunately these soil particles can be and are mobilized via flooding, heavy rains etc. and in this case leave the low lying areas immediately east of the Stroh Drain, Ditch & Berm (SDDB) and are flushed via the Stroh Drain into the Canagagigue Creek where to this day they continue to be shared with wildlife (and humans) both in and out of the creek. Lanxess Canada and the MOE/MECP know this perfectly well which is EXACTLY why they have refused to do serious (any) soil sampling where I and others have requested. This groundwater report does not address the problem which is a metaphor for the entire Elmira "cleanup". It's all about money, face saving and political power and influence.

THE LATEST GHD REPORT ON CONTAMINATED (by UNIROYAL) GROUNDWATER ON THE EAST SIDE STROH FARM

Page 1... Let's see now: "...on the property located at 6770 Line 86, Township of Woolwich, Ontario, henceforth referred to as the Property." And that folks is typical consultant doublespeak, garbage and misdirection intended to assure that future researchers, locals, honest citizens or authorities have no idea of where exactly these dishonest, slippery smooth consultants (GHD), their client (Lanxess Canada) and the allegedly responsible authorities (MOE/MECP) are referring to. For everyone living in or around Elmira over the last seventy-five or eighty years, they are referring to the Stroh farm (originally Earl & Eileen? Stroh now Ron Stroh). That's right, an active farm producing crops (corn, soybean etc.) on the lands immediately bordering some of the very worst toxic waste pits in North America. Oops that is so politically incorrect. It might upset people who eat local food produced either for direct human consumption or via cattle consumption. ..................................................................................................... 93 pages in length consisting of 32 pages of text plus cover pages and Table of Contents, 19 pages of Figures and 42 pages of Tables. No problem for someone like myself to read in a timely manner GHD's "2021 Comprehensive East Side Groundwater Report" dated March 21, 2021, received this morning by electronic transmission (e-mail). Hence of course as always at my expense to download and print off. (Thank you Dr. Henry Regier for your assistance). Oh did I mention that this report was promised to be on the TAG Agenda one week from today (April 8/21)? For someone with my background knowledge plus thirty years of reading literally hundreds of reports about Uniroyal Chemical, Crompton, Chemtura and now Lanxess Canada this is possible albeit laborious and difficult. For the more technically experienced and trained TAG members it will be very difficult. For the rest on TAG it simply isn't remotely possible for them to read, think, analyse and understand this much data all within a week. Not if they have full time jobs, families and other commitments than this part time volunteer work. ...................................................................................................................... These procedural battles (i.e. timeliness of reports for meetings) were fought and won decades ago here in Elmira. Over and over again they were fought and won only to have each new iteration of a disgusting chemical company continue to pretend to be interested in public consultation while doing everything possible to remove, replace, eliminate, marginalize and frustrate the honest citizens initially involved (since 1989). This means constantly fighting the same battles and lies over and over again. The TAG meeting on April 8/21 can only be attended virtually via lschafer@woolwich.ca or by phoning 519 6691647 (Woolwich Twn.).