LOOKING AT TEQ (Dioxins) CONCENTRATIONS IN BOTH SEDIMENTS & SOILS IN AND AROUND UNIROYAL/LANXESS THE "GIG" AND OTHER CREEKS

Today I'm comparing results from both the 2017 Canagagigue (the "Gig") Investigation as well as the recently released (5 weeks ago) 2020 Canagagigue Creek Investigation. Please note that I am currently focused on Dioxin (i.e. TEQ) results. This is because it is harder for Lanxess/GHD and other professional intellectual prostitutes to pretend that 2,3,7,8 TCDD (tetrachlorodibenzodioxin) came from sources other than themselves and because the DDT and metabolyte (DDD, DDE) results have been so badly buggerred by incredibly high Method Detection Limits which effectively hide positive detections of these toxic chemicals. ............................................................................................................................. The recent 2020 report had a total of seven locations up and down the Canagagigue Creek starting from Larch's Creek, a third of a mile upriver, to Reach 2 in the Canagagigue Creek wuich is almost but not quite all the way downstream to the Grand River nearly five miles away. A total of 51 sediment samples were taken with only four exceeding the Stroh Drain sediment result of 24.4 parts per trillion (ppt. or pg/g). Therefore the Stroh Drain TEQ sediment result equals or exceeds 90% of all the sediment samples taken in this report with only four locations on the Uniroyal/Lanxess site exceeding it. That speaks loudly to the Stroh Drain being significantly contaminated with dioxins. ................................................................................................................................................. The 2017 report was much more extensive with a total of five locations with however a total of 327 sediment samples taken and analysed for dioxins (TEQ). Of those 327 a grand total of 19 of them exceeded the 2020 Stroh Drain sediment concentration of dioxins namely 24.4 ppt. Therefore the concentration of dioxins in sediment at the Stroh Drain in 2020 exceeded 94% of all the dioxin concentrations found in this report. Again this speaks very loudly as to the significance of the dioxin findings found in the Stroh Drain recently. This in fact negates the heavy duty horse manure that has been peddled by (Uniroyal), Chemtura, Lanxess and GHD since the public (CPAC) discovered the Stroh Drain in May 2014. They (and the MOE/MECP) have been in loud denial that the overflowing east side toxic waste pits crossed over further south onto the Stroh property. They do admit encroachment onto the Stroh property further north directly beside their waste pits but have bluntly, blatantly and incomprehensibly denied encroachment further south which has allowed liquid toxic wastes to enter the Stroh Drain and from there flow into the Canagagigue Creek downstream. .......................................................................................................................... Tomorrow I may give a report here regarding dioxin concentrations in Soil from both the 2017 and 2020 reports. The purpose is to give readers an overview as to the majority of dioxin concentrations found in either creekbank or floodplain soils. This will also give readers a point of comparison with any future, potential soil readings that are ever taken in and around the Stroh Drain which I usually refer to as the Stroh Drain, Ditch & Berm (i.e. SDDB).

SCAMMING DATA: GHD ARE NO SLOUCHES

TEQ SEDIMENT COMPARISONS ..................................................................................................................... I have already mentioned that the dioxin (TEQ) concentrations found in the Stroh Drain sediments in GHD's 2020 Canagagigue Creek Sediment and Soil Investigation are quite remarkable. This is because I compared them with seven other locations that were also sampled in this latest report for dioxin concentrations in creek sediments and the 24.4 parts per trillion found in the southern end of the Stroh Drain exceeded six of those seven other locations. The only sediment location that exceeded it was at one of the locations sampled on the Lanxess property which of course is the source of the dioxins. ................................................................................................................................ I have also now compared the Stroh Drain sediment concentrations with the earlier report "2017 Canagagigue Creek Sediment and Floodplain Soil Investigation" also done badly by GHD for a number of previously posted reasons including shovel versus core sampling, ridiculously high Method Detection Limits etc. Now again the 24.4 ppt. TEQ in the Stroh Drain exceeds the vast majority of TEQ sediment concentrations found both on site (Uniroyal/Lanxess) as well as downriver. However there are four results, one on site and three downriver albeit very close to Lanxess, which dwarf the first, only, and likely last result from in or around the Stroh Drain, if Lanxess/MECP have their way. ........................................................................................................................................ The one downriver result is at what is known as Station #20 located downstream of lanxess but upstream of the first road crossing namely the New Jerusalem Rd. It is followed by Station #21 which just like Station #20 is also part of Reach 3 (of the creek) but slightly further downstream. To add further confusion some of these samples are referred to as being located at the New Jerusalem Rd. even though they are on both sides of the road (i.e. upstream & downstream side of the road) hence three different designations for their location can be used (STn. #21, Reach 3, New Jerusalem Rd.). I do not belive that this unecessary confusion by the authors is unintentional but hey judging intent versus incompetence can be a tricky business. ......................................................................................................................... Speaking of tricky as well as "scamming" in the title above, it is child's play to sway the impression of the extent of contamination simply by manipulating the number of samples taken or not taken. For the last seven years Lanxess/GHD have sucessfully pretended that the Stroh Drain is uncontaminated simply by refusing to sample in and around it at all. Historically they have been able to focus attention on a couple of hot spots near their site (Stn #20 & 21, New Jerusalem Rd. etc.) again by simply constantly and regularly sampling those areas. Yes they are heavily contaminated. That said if you sample known contaminated areas with ten times as many discrete samples as anywhere else downstream then guess what? You now have the data you want which points to high concentrations where it's more convenient for you to access the creek. No nasty begging or inducing landowners for access when lo and behold you've been sampling for years and decades along the creek where you have easy access such as New Jerusalem Rd. And your own data now easily persuades part time volunteers to go along with remediating exactly where it's easier/cheaper for you. ..................................................................................................................................... It's a long game and the game winners, as usual, are the game players. The rest of us citizens and members of the public don't even know it's a game untill it's almost over.

TAG DISCUSSION OF STROH FARM CONTAMINATION IS COMING

This will be of course against the wishes of Lanxess Canada, GHD their consultants, the Ministry of Environment (MECP), possibly/probably Woolwich Council. Delay on the matter has been ongoing of course since the fall of 2014 when CPAC brought the issue to the forefront after I "discovered" the Stroh Drain in May 2014. That evening Viv Delaney and Dr. Dan Holt and I all toured the SDDB (Stroh Drain, Ditch & Berm) from the pipe coming out of the ground at its' extreme north end down to its' discharge into the Canagagigue Creek from the Martin property. There have been some extraordinarily limited, last minute "discussions" at the end of formal TAG meetings with myself and Sebastian Seibel-Achenbach. Some TAG members may have hung around, others did not. ........................................................................................................................... DDD, a metabolyte of DDT, was found in sediments in the Stroh Drain at approximately ten times the criteria for them. Dioxins (TEQ) were found in the deeper sediments in the SDDB at approximately 30 times the federal criteria. Keep in mind that two samples were taken at all of two locations along the Drain (SDDB). Furthermore the two samples were taken at both 0-10 cm. depth and 10-30 cm. depth. Hence this was an extraordinarily limited sampling, one could almost say tokenism in order for Lanxess to pretend to have done a good job in examining the pathway from the former Uniroyal site (now Lanxess) over to the Stroh and Martin properties and then into the Canagagigue Creek. ................................................................................................................................... What needs to be done is a comparison of contaminant concentrations in the sediments of the SDDB with contaminant concentrations in sediment in other locations around the Uniroyal/Lanxess site. These locations include the Bolender Park Landfill Creek, Larch's Creek, Shirt Factory Creek, Landfill Creek, Reach 4, 3 and 2 in the Canagagigue Creek which runs from the Lanxess site down to the Grand River just south of West Montrose. This I have done and the contaminant concentrations in the Stroh Drain (SDDB), with the exception of Reach 4 which is part of the Uniroyal/Lanxess site, are generally higher than in all the other locations. ............................................................................................................................. Now I would very much like to be able to compare soil concentrations in and around the Stroh Drain (especially to the immediate east of it) with soil concentrations at the other locations around the Lanxess property as already listed. Oops I forgot. Lanxess/MECP/GHD refused to take any soil samples from the area near the Stroh Drain. These other locations all had both soil and sediment samples taken and hence an examination will help us determine if they might still be adding to the contamination in the Canagagigue. Of course the guilty parties have and continue to refuse any and all suggestions to do serious soil sampling in and around the Stroh Drain. Afterall you will never find that which you refuse to test for.

POLITICAL FAILURES DURING COVID LESS DISASTEROUS THAN SUGGESTED?

Today's Waterloo Region Record carries an opinion piece by Dr. Jillian Horton of Winnipeg titled "The moral authority of our institutions is broken". The sub-title is "I thought our leaders would protect us from COVID: I was wrong". While Dr. Horton certainly has some legitimate evidence and facts to back her position I would suggest that she is looking at the glass half empty while I'm taking the position that the glass is half full. I know: me complimenting either Canadian or other politicians; that is bizarre. Well here it is. .................................................................................................................................. First of all no matter how well I might think some politicians have done regarding vaccinating Canadians and giving appropriate advice and direction; nothing can obliterate decades if not centuries of bad governance right here in Canada from municipal to provincial and federal politics. Whether we are talking residential school programs, environmental disasters (Walkerton, Elmira, Cambridge, Grassy Narrows), failures in worker health and safety (mining, rubber industries in Kitchener, G.E in Peterborough) or a hundred other gross failures, yes I would agree that the moral authority of our institutions is broken and has been for a very long time. I would also suggest that Dr. Horton's metaphor of a broken drink machine is really very good. ................................................................................................. The question for me is where are our governments when an issue is either of world wide significance or close to it. What comes to mind at the moment is Covid-19, the Second World War and Climate Change. Obviously there were failures after the First World War that resulted in a yet a second one. Hence governments, politicians and human beings in general aren't very bright. Climate Change is an entirely manmade catastrophe and as long as the end is even a decade or so down the road procrastination will continue. Covid on the other hand has mobilized governments and politicians at all levels. Yes there are American political idiots in power in various states just as we in Canada have Jason Kenny (Alberta) and others. But overall vaccines were developed rapidly and have so far in the developed countries been distributed widely. Yes Dr. Horton is correct in that citizens have generally followed the directions given and despite that are still threatened by Covid. That said please look at the statistics. Right now Covid is a disease of the unvaccinated; in other words of those who have not followed pretty clear directions. Yes the variants could catch up to even the vaccinated eventually if precautions are not still taken. ............................................................................................................................... Our institutions have a lot to answer for yes but the individuals in them are not all dumb. The smarter ones know that at crunch time those institutions had better step up because governments can hide a lot of sins happening to the few but not so much when it is world wide problems.

MARYHILL (i.e. Capitol Paving) GRAVEL PIT GOING TO LPAT/OLT

The age of acronyms never ends. First it was the OMB or Ontario Municipal Board. Then it morphed into the LPAT or Local Planning Area Tribunal and now it seems to be being referred to as the OLT or Ontario Land Tribunal. Regardless of the name it is a pro-development, pro-business, anti-citizens rights, provincially appointed group whose job is to give the general public the appearance of fairness and consideration while backing the government's (Liberal or Conservative) strongly pro-monied, pro-business, pro-development bias in order to stay in the good graces of their various financial donors. By the way this most certainly includes the aggregate industry. Yes Dorothy this is a conflict of interest albeit all done smoothly in the Canadian way. No need generally for police or violence when the system has been so long perverted from the top down. ......................................................................................................................... Today's Woolwich Observer carries the following story written by Steve Kannon titled "Decision on Maryhill gravel pit to be made at provincial tribunal". First of all I'm seeing some incredible politics and more unfolding here. Woolwich staff clearly have recommended that Council approve the zoning change and Application by Capitol Paving. I felt early on that that was going to be Council's out in favour of approval. But something funny has happened here. The citizen protest, outrage and opposition has as expected been very strong but less expected has been Woolwich Council's hesitancy. Are Council actually listening to the Maryhill and area citizens, business owners and local residents? .............................................................................................................................. In the alternative there are two other issues going on. The first is that next year (2022) is a municipal election year. Wow nothing like a mandated election to focus one's political eye and other senses. The second may be that the leader of the local opposition is one Bonnie Bryant who has municipal council experience in her own right. In fact as the then Mayor at the time (Todd Cowan), despite being the incumbent, was stumbling towards coming in fourth in the mayoralty race, Bonnie Bryant actually ran against him. They both lost to, at the time, almost squeeky clean Sandy Shantz. Is there any possibility that Bonnie might be seriously considering getting back into local politics? I would suggest that many would hope so including myself. I wonder if current pretend mayor, Sandy might be looking over her shoulder at the moment. Hmm it's sad if that is how decisions are made versus on their merits but hey that's politics.

I'M NOT BUYING WHAT THE WATERLOO REGION POLICE ARE SELLING

So we are to believe that a particular WRPS officer is a malicious bully but that he is not racist into the bargain. Sure I'm just peachy with that although the behaviour that he has been found guilty of namely excessive force and wrongful arrest should be a firing offence many times over. Oh but wait these weren't criminal charges. They were charges at a misconduct hearing held under the Police Services Act. What a lucky break for Officer Foster. So if I were to decide to physically attack one of my neighbours, knock them to the ground, restrain them and keep them restrained for close to an hour I sure hope that I could avoid criminal charges. Like police officers can. Oh my gosh "...he could be demoted for his actions.". Demoted not sentenced to jail as you or I would be for doing even less harm. ....................................................................................................................... The victim was a Black 44 year old woman and mother whose offence was driving her son to his job very early in the morning. She dropped him off at work and returned to her home where after parking her car in her driveway and while attempting to enter her home she was accosted by the police officer. He started barking orders including demands for identification while she stood on her front porch in her pajamas and while he had computer access in his cruiser to confirm that the car was registered to that address. She also had no connection whatsoever to a male suspect that police were investigating. She had not committed any crimes or offences but did resist unlawful and unreasonable demands from the officer. He then attacked her and restrained her. ................................................................................................................ The officer then after she was released issued her four traffic tickets for refusing to show identification and permits. Prosecuters wisely later withdrew those tickets. The hearing adjudicator stated that "There is an air of maliciousness with respect to the tickets". Duh do you think? As has often happened in blatant police misconduct towards citizens, the Waterloo Regional Police Service were sucessfully sued over the unlawful arrest and detention and the taxpayers again picked up the tab. Par for the course. As to whether the police officer is biased as in would he have attacked a white woman in the same circumstances, I think that his overall nasty, white police entitled behaviour says that is unlikely. He may be a very bad police officer but that doesn't mean that like all bullies he doesn't carefully pick and choose his victims. This time he picked the wrong one. ............................................................................................................................................ Today's Waterloo Region Record carries this story titled "White police officer cleared of racial bias".

DOG DAYS OF SUMMER

Today's Waterloo Region Record carries an article by Leah Gerber regarding tornadoes and their frequency in southern Ontario. It's a very interesting article describing local experts and storm chasers with direct severe weather experience. Of interest to me is the home turf of one of those storm chasers, namely Glen Allan, Ontario. That village is very close to Conestoga Lake and in fact my wife and I were married in the Glen Allen Mennonite Church 38 years ago. Of course there is concern, speculation and research trying to answer the question as to whether or not climate change/global warming have already affected the numbers and severity of local weather events. ................................................................................................................. Here is a little news/event update. The next TAG (Technical Advisory Group) is set for August 26/21 at 6:30 pm. These meetings have been on Zoom for a long time now but whether it will be going back to live meetings by the end of the month I really don't know. I can certainly say that they are not heavily attended when live and in fact if there were five attendees other than the members of TAG, I would consider that well attended. In my opinion this upcoming meeting will be a watershed meeting. ..................................................................................................................................... TAG, in my opinion, while having quality members, are still generally inexperienced with the local environmental history, power network, dirty politics and overall influence of the owners of the biggest polluter (Uniroyal Chemical/Lanxess) by far in Waterloo Region. This includes some dandies who have permanently affected our water supplies, Grand River, air and soils. They have made understandable mistakes in the last five plus years which quite frankly they were intended, by our authorities, to make. Recently they and their Chair especially have not been terribly receptive to experienced citizens and CPAC (Citizens Public Advisory Committee) members concerns about a "sink" of Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) located on the Stroh farm on the east side of Uniroyal/Lanxess. It of course has not helped that the local power structure, Woolwich & Regional Council, have rezoned and included both the Stroh and Martin farms into proposed new commercial/light industrial development area. These proposals include the long awaited Elmira By-Pass as a sweetener to reduce public opposition. .................................................................................................. These POPs include dioxins/furans, DDT, Polyaromatic Hydrocarbons, possibly PCBs and so much more. Uniroyal/Lanxess have refused to acknowledge or even engage in proper debate with local stakeholders such as CPAC. Evidence produced by Uniroyal, Conestoga Rovers and the Ministry of Environment (MOE/MECP) pointing to this area having received substantial overflow of toxic liquid wastes is being minimized and downplayed, mostly in private to their recognized stakeholders only. TAG have however indicated that they are awaiting the results of some sediment samples taken in the Stroh Drain nearly a year ago. Those limited sample results are available and are highly indicative that indeed Uniroyal Chemical liquid wastes were deposited in this area as both DDD (DDT metabolyte) and dioxins are in excess of the federal criteria for sediments. One TAG member (Sebastian) will continue his push for proper, full and complete soil testing to the immediate east of the north end (and slightly southwards) of the Stroh Drain. This is TAG's chance to prove that they are representing the public's interests, not Woolwich Council's or their handpicked Chair and certainly not Lanxess Canada's interests. Lastly the Ontario Ministry of Environment have long been in a serious conflict of interest position in their dealings with this grossly contaminated site.