END OF YEAR MUSINGS & THOUGHTS
1) You can't write a damn thing whether opinion or fact without offending someone.
Just over twenty-one years have passed since we found our drinking wells were contaminated. For years I've believed that the first major and significant error in judgement by Elmira citizens (specifically APTE of which I was a member at the time) was the refusal by the APTE coordinators to take a stand, any stand on the M.O.E.'s Dec. 10/93 letter essentially accepting Conestoga Rovers (CRA) latest DNAPL report. I was both right and wrong. This was a huge error , which I knew in my gut to be huge but I failed to convince the coordinators over the counter position of Sylvia Berg, vice-president of APTE. When I say I was wrong in fact it was the second major error. The first was much less dramatic, more of a whimper than a bang. This was the failure of Elmira citizens including myself to go to the wall on the M.O.E.'s reversal regarding deep monitoring wells at Varnicolor Chemical. Hindsight being 20/20 I now realize this was done by the M.O.E. in order to deflect and avoid further evidence that there could be multiple sources of contamination to the Elmira drinking water aquifer, exactly as Uniroyal/Chemtura claimed.
These two failures have both haunted and doomed the cleanup ever since. In my gut I do not believe that the M.O.E. had the courage in the very early 90's to unilaterally defy APT Environment. We had them on the ropes, credibility wise especially with the ongoing revelations of both incompetence and corruption surrounding Varnicolor Chemical. Yet we let it all slip away. How did this happen? Personally I believe that the M.O.E. sucessfully found two APTE members who were willing to deal with them privately as long ago as late 91 or early 1992. Since that time I have found private dealings with the M.O.E., outside of the public CPAC meetings by a different pair, who would both negotiate and finalize environmental positions and then sell them to the rest of CPAC. Or not. The three issues that mysteriously fell from the table are a) hydraulic containment in all aquifers b) removal of DNAPL as a contaminant source c) full aerial and VERTICAL investigation of the Varnicolor Chemical property.
Regardless of the motivations, good , bad or indifferent; regardless of the quality of the deal, good , bad or indifferent any and all of these "deals', written or verbal are bogus and non binding. No decisions whether unilateral or bilateral are binding on either all of APTE or most certainly on the citizens of Elmira. I challenge anyone , anywhere to produce any written agreement between the Ontario Ministry of the Environment (M.O.E.) and either APTE as a whole, Woolwich Council or any other representatives of our citizens which pertains to the alleged "cleanup" of the Elmira Aquifer.
Friday, December 31, 2010
Thursday, December 30, 2010
WOOLWICH POLITICS
Huh! Isn't this a website focused on Woolwich environmental issues? Yes it is and therein lies the rub. Both for better and worse, politics and the environment are inextricably linked. Here is some history. Back in the 50's, 60's and 70's Uniroyal Chemical had a number of employees on Woolwich Council. Keep in mind when Uniroyal first came to town in the early 40's they were seen as the saviour as they reopened and expanded the abandoned factory on the banks of the Canagagigue.
APT Environment burst on the scene in 1989 originally in response to the proposed Uniroyal incinerator. They switched gears and focused on ground and surface water after the drinking wells were shut down in November 1989 allegedly due to some never heard of before chemical, namely NDMA. In the early 90's Sylvia Berg (APTE V.P.) ran unsucessfully for Mayor with the support of former Mayor Bob Waters. Most recently, the long time Chair of CPAC, Pat McLean also ran unsucessfully for Mayor. Also in the early 90's, Regional Chair Ken Seiling used to drop by for coffee and a chat at the home of Susan Bryant (APTE Pres.). Are we beginning to see some evidence of linkages between local politics and the environment?
Former Mayor Bill Strauss and Pat Mclean were buddies and fellow supporters on Woolwich Council for many years. Former Councillor Sandy Shantz who did not run in the last election sat on CPAC for four years as Council's representative. She should have been Chair of their Committee of Council, however former Mayor Strauss, former Councillor Murray Martin and Councillor Mark Bauman all supported keeping Pat McLean on as Chair despite her losing her Council seat. This could have been out of sympathy or perhaps they were merely confident and happy with where she was taking CPAC.
Meanwhile back at CPAC a certain allegedly independent Hydrogeologist (Wilf Ruland) at least twice took an active lobbying role in regards to CPAC membership. He was always vigorously supported by both Pat McLean and Susan Bryant, allegedly due to his technical expertise. In reality he was consulted on "Optimization issues, DNAPLS, Site Specific Remediation (SSRA) and only a few other issues. His specific technical knowledge of the entire Uniroyal/Chemtura site was limited by his extremely hit and miss, drop in and drop out participation over the years. Nevertheless he apparently felt no compunctions against advising CPAC on overall strategies and on behind the scenes lobbying with Pat and Susan for both their continued presence at CPAC and for the removal of yours truly. He once rather cattily referred to me as an ankle biter. This is in my opinion, extremely weird behaviour for an allegedly independent consultant, hired by Woolwich Council ostensibly to give hydrogeological advice to Council nominated representatives at CPAC, including yours truly. Who the heck told him to get involved politically? What was his real motivation?
Over the years, CPAC has been a bit of a revolving door. In regards to Fred Hager, his absence due to health issues has been both unfortunate and understandable. More perplexing have been the sudden comings and goings of John Dehoodge, Shannon Holton, Tricia Brubacher and Richard Petrone. Richard was the most technically experienced and yet I doubt he attended more than one or two meetings in the last year. Tricia was very good but I believe she was the only member whose absence was formally noted by CPAC and we were advised she had resigned. Shannon we and the public have never been told a thing as to her non attendance. The two remaining newcomers, Sandra Bair and Ken Driedger have been regular attendees and have clearly shown their interest with timely and pointed questions to both the M.O.E. and Chemtura. It is my understanding that similar to her Council seat, Sandy Shantz has not reapplied to be on CPAC. Hindsight is always clearer and in hindsight I suggest that both Council and CPAC have lost an honest, decent human being.
Former Mayor Bill Strauss personally has and had environmental challenges. These included a gas station in Heidelburg as well as the former Strauss Fuels across from Martin/Heintz Pet Foods on Arthur St. in Elmira. The latter site was remediated three summers ago by Esso via Quantum Environmental whom I worked for that season. Regional Chair Ken Seiling has some past involvement with the proposed Hawk Ridge Homes development across from Varnicolor, Sulco and Chemtura. The main issue here is the potential proximity to major chemical companies although there certainly is some groundwater contamination.
It is my conclusion that Elmira has gone nowhere fast environmentally in the past twenty years. It is also my conclusion that this is because of the politics here over that time frame. Too many local politicians and or wanna bees have quite possibly honest biases in favour of local industries and thus were more concerned with appearances than actual cleanups. Both Chemtura and the M.O.E. have seemed very pleased with the alleged "progress" over the decades. I am not and never have been. I believe that our new Mayor and Council are also not pleased. I further believe that they are going to take the steps necessary to obtain real improvement.
Huh! Isn't this a website focused on Woolwich environmental issues? Yes it is and therein lies the rub. Both for better and worse, politics and the environment are inextricably linked. Here is some history. Back in the 50's, 60's and 70's Uniroyal Chemical had a number of employees on Woolwich Council. Keep in mind when Uniroyal first came to town in the early 40's they were seen as the saviour as they reopened and expanded the abandoned factory on the banks of the Canagagigue.
APT Environment burst on the scene in 1989 originally in response to the proposed Uniroyal incinerator. They switched gears and focused on ground and surface water after the drinking wells were shut down in November 1989 allegedly due to some never heard of before chemical, namely NDMA. In the early 90's Sylvia Berg (APTE V.P.) ran unsucessfully for Mayor with the support of former Mayor Bob Waters. Most recently, the long time Chair of CPAC, Pat McLean also ran unsucessfully for Mayor. Also in the early 90's, Regional Chair Ken Seiling used to drop by for coffee and a chat at the home of Susan Bryant (APTE Pres.). Are we beginning to see some evidence of linkages between local politics and the environment?
Former Mayor Bill Strauss and Pat Mclean were buddies and fellow supporters on Woolwich Council for many years. Former Councillor Sandy Shantz who did not run in the last election sat on CPAC for four years as Council's representative. She should have been Chair of their Committee of Council, however former Mayor Strauss, former Councillor Murray Martin and Councillor Mark Bauman all supported keeping Pat McLean on as Chair despite her losing her Council seat. This could have been out of sympathy or perhaps they were merely confident and happy with where she was taking CPAC.
Meanwhile back at CPAC a certain allegedly independent Hydrogeologist (Wilf Ruland) at least twice took an active lobbying role in regards to CPAC membership. He was always vigorously supported by both Pat McLean and Susan Bryant, allegedly due to his technical expertise. In reality he was consulted on "Optimization issues, DNAPLS, Site Specific Remediation (SSRA) and only a few other issues. His specific technical knowledge of the entire Uniroyal/Chemtura site was limited by his extremely hit and miss, drop in and drop out participation over the years. Nevertheless he apparently felt no compunctions against advising CPAC on overall strategies and on behind the scenes lobbying with Pat and Susan for both their continued presence at CPAC and for the removal of yours truly. He once rather cattily referred to me as an ankle biter. This is in my opinion, extremely weird behaviour for an allegedly independent consultant, hired by Woolwich Council ostensibly to give hydrogeological advice to Council nominated representatives at CPAC, including yours truly. Who the heck told him to get involved politically? What was his real motivation?
Over the years, CPAC has been a bit of a revolving door. In regards to Fred Hager, his absence due to health issues has been both unfortunate and understandable. More perplexing have been the sudden comings and goings of John Dehoodge, Shannon Holton, Tricia Brubacher and Richard Petrone. Richard was the most technically experienced and yet I doubt he attended more than one or two meetings in the last year. Tricia was very good but I believe she was the only member whose absence was formally noted by CPAC and we were advised she had resigned. Shannon we and the public have never been told a thing as to her non attendance. The two remaining newcomers, Sandra Bair and Ken Driedger have been regular attendees and have clearly shown their interest with timely and pointed questions to both the M.O.E. and Chemtura. It is my understanding that similar to her Council seat, Sandy Shantz has not reapplied to be on CPAC. Hindsight is always clearer and in hindsight I suggest that both Council and CPAC have lost an honest, decent human being.
Former Mayor Bill Strauss personally has and had environmental challenges. These included a gas station in Heidelburg as well as the former Strauss Fuels across from Martin/Heintz Pet Foods on Arthur St. in Elmira. The latter site was remediated three summers ago by Esso via Quantum Environmental whom I worked for that season. Regional Chair Ken Seiling has some past involvement with the proposed Hawk Ridge Homes development across from Varnicolor, Sulco and Chemtura. The main issue here is the potential proximity to major chemical companies although there certainly is some groundwater contamination.
It is my conclusion that Elmira has gone nowhere fast environmentally in the past twenty years. It is also my conclusion that this is because of the politics here over that time frame. Too many local politicians and or wanna bees have quite possibly honest biases in favour of local industries and thus were more concerned with appearances than actual cleanups. Both Chemtura and the M.O.E. have seemed very pleased with the alleged "progress" over the decades. I am not and never have been. I believe that our new Mayor and Council are also not pleased. I further believe that they are going to take the steps necessary to obtain real improvement.
Wednesday, December 29, 2010
IMPROVEMENTS IN WASTEWATER TREATMENT
Janet Baine, a communications specialist with the Grand River Conservation Authority, has written this article in today's Elmira Independent. Essentially the program brings all the operators, from 30 wastewater treatment plants up and down the Grand River, together to compare notes and operating strategies. While using the well overused term "optimized" what they are really doing is communicating with each other to help improve their efforts to clean wastewater, which is then being discharged into the Grand River. Clearly this program should also be used at the drinking water treatment plants up and down the Grand River and throughout Ontario. If it had been done ten years ago, perhaps the pathetic operational practices of the Walkerton P.U.C. could have been remedied in time. I agree with the following quote although it does concern me: "It is a cost-effective compliment to wastewater upgrades, which are very costly.". As long as this program is to compliment infrastructure upgrades rather than replace them, then it is a win-win scenario.
Janet Baine, a communications specialist with the Grand River Conservation Authority, has written this article in today's Elmira Independent. Essentially the program brings all the operators, from 30 wastewater treatment plants up and down the Grand River, together to compare notes and operating strategies. While using the well overused term "optimized" what they are really doing is communicating with each other to help improve their efforts to clean wastewater, which is then being discharged into the Grand River. Clearly this program should also be used at the drinking water treatment plants up and down the Grand River and throughout Ontario. If it had been done ten years ago, perhaps the pathetic operational practices of the Walkerton P.U.C. could have been remedied in time. I agree with the following quote although it does concern me: "It is a cost-effective compliment to wastewater upgrades, which are very costly.". As long as this program is to compliment infrastructure upgrades rather than replace them, then it is a win-win scenario.
Tuesday, December 28, 2010
WHY CHANGE IS NECESSARY
During the Municipal election campaign one and only one candidate said the unthinkable. "After twenty years what has CPAC accomplished?" Is the drinking water aquifer restored? Is it close to being potable? Is it as bad or worse than it was twenty years ago? What has been determined and learned, through no credit to CPAC, is that Uniroyal/Chemtura was not/is not the only cause and secondly that due to little or no source removal, while pumping deep aquifers, we have sucessfully managed to spread the contamination vertically down into the Bedrock Aquifer.
2 3/4 years ago, Woolwich Council voted to remove me from CPAC. This they did after hard core lobbying by Ron Ormson, Susan Bryant, Pat McLean and with the assistance of allegedly independent hydrogeologist, Wilf Ruland. Their weak and false claim was that they could not work with me and this was far too readily and easily accepted by the former Council. It was accepted because they wanted me off CPAC due to my increasing pressure and demands for action on the DNAPL issues. For over a year (spring 2008 to summer 2009) I reviewed the Uniroyal/Chemtura file in it's entirety. I did not understand what either CPAC or the Council had done and most importantly why. I did not begin to publicly, both verbally and in writing criticize CPAC as a whole or individual members until after the facts and data began to make sense. These conclusions regarding sweetheart agreements and individual motivations have been written about in the Elmira Advocate as well as in my "delegations" to CPAC since June 2009. Most significantly I behaved as a team player and 100% focused my criticism on Uniroyal/Chemtura and the M.O.E. while sitting as a voting CPAC member from Jan. 2000 until March 2008.
Since that time and after serious reflection and reexamination I have seriously criticized both the lack of action and followup by CPAC as well as the ongoing concessions to Chemtura that they endorse. This is the background to the upcoming new CPAC that both the public and the Ministry of the Environment and Chemtura will see in the New Year.
During the Municipal election campaign one and only one candidate said the unthinkable. "After twenty years what has CPAC accomplished?" Is the drinking water aquifer restored? Is it close to being potable? Is it as bad or worse than it was twenty years ago? What has been determined and learned, through no credit to CPAC, is that Uniroyal/Chemtura was not/is not the only cause and secondly that due to little or no source removal, while pumping deep aquifers, we have sucessfully managed to spread the contamination vertically down into the Bedrock Aquifer.
2 3/4 years ago, Woolwich Council voted to remove me from CPAC. This they did after hard core lobbying by Ron Ormson, Susan Bryant, Pat McLean and with the assistance of allegedly independent hydrogeologist, Wilf Ruland. Their weak and false claim was that they could not work with me and this was far too readily and easily accepted by the former Council. It was accepted because they wanted me off CPAC due to my increasing pressure and demands for action on the DNAPL issues. For over a year (spring 2008 to summer 2009) I reviewed the Uniroyal/Chemtura file in it's entirety. I did not understand what either CPAC or the Council had done and most importantly why. I did not begin to publicly, both verbally and in writing criticize CPAC as a whole or individual members until after the facts and data began to make sense. These conclusions regarding sweetheart agreements and individual motivations have been written about in the Elmira Advocate as well as in my "delegations" to CPAC since June 2009. Most significantly I behaved as a team player and 100% focused my criticism on Uniroyal/Chemtura and the M.O.E. while sitting as a voting CPAC member from Jan. 2000 until March 2008.
Since that time and after serious reflection and reexamination I have seriously criticized both the lack of action and followup by CPAC as well as the ongoing concessions to Chemtura that they endorse. This is the background to the upcoming new CPAC that both the public and the Ministry of the Environment and Chemtura will see in the New Year.
Monday, December 27, 2010
UPCOMING DATES
January 6/11 There is a Mediation meeting at 10:30 am being held by the Ontario Municipal Board in the Woolwich Township Hall. I'm putting this here for information purposes only as I assume that it isn't open to the public as it is a without prejudice meeting between myself and Safety-Kleen in regards to their proposed expansion onto contaminated lands behind their current property in Breslau.
Tues. Jan. 11/11 there is a Committee of the Whole meeting in Woolwich Council Chambers. This I would expect is a normally public meeting and although I would expect a number of Agenda items I will probably attend simply to hear any news of the upcoming new CPAC Committee.
January 31/11 we have another O.M.B. sponsered Mediation meeting at 10:30 am. this one in regards to the Hawkridge Development being proposed by Union & First St. in Elmira. Again my guess is that this on e will be for the parties only hence I include it here merely as an information update to others interested in this horribly located proposed residential development.
Tues. January 18/11 I would expect to be a regular public Woolwich Council meeting. I may attend for the same reason as I will attend the one week earlier Committee of the Whole meeting.
January 6/11 There is a Mediation meeting at 10:30 am being held by the Ontario Municipal Board in the Woolwich Township Hall. I'm putting this here for information purposes only as I assume that it isn't open to the public as it is a without prejudice meeting between myself and Safety-Kleen in regards to their proposed expansion onto contaminated lands behind their current property in Breslau.
Tues. Jan. 11/11 there is a Committee of the Whole meeting in Woolwich Council Chambers. This I would expect is a normally public meeting and although I would expect a number of Agenda items I will probably attend simply to hear any news of the upcoming new CPAC Committee.
January 31/11 we have another O.M.B. sponsered Mediation meeting at 10:30 am. this one in regards to the Hawkridge Development being proposed by Union & First St. in Elmira. Again my guess is that this on e will be for the parties only hence I include it here merely as an information update to others interested in this horribly located proposed residential development.
Tues. January 18/11 I would expect to be a regular public Woolwich Council meeting. I may attend for the same reason as I will attend the one week earlier Committee of the Whole meeting.
Saturday, December 25, 2010
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