LAST THURSDAY'S CPAC MEETING

Graham Chevreau did a presentation showing CPAC, SWAT and the public the extremely high concentrations od DDT on the Chemtura site as well as downstream in the Canagagigue. The data goes back to 1996-97 as well as two more recent sets of data in 2012 and 2013. The data from 2014 is astonishingly not yet available from the M.O.E. which I interpret as them desperately trying to rejigger it into some less horrifying and inflammatory scenario. Good luck with that.

Graham also clearly showed that the 2012 and 2013 data taken from Station 21 is downstream from where the Stroh Drain discharges into the "Gig". All data seems to clearly indicate that DDT (& Dioxins) have been diverted/discharged from the east side of Chemtura onto the neighbour's property and from there via the Stroh Drain into the creek (Gig).

There was also discussion as to why the recent Conestoga Rovers proposed east side "investigation" is inadequate. Things like composite samples, too shallow soil testing and even the number and locations of sample points all indicate a pretend investigation only.

M.O.E. "malfeasance" was briefly discussed. Dr. Henry Regier brought up the "phantom mound" and how after it was discovered to be a facade neither Chemtura nor the M.O.E. advised CPAC. Yours truly had to do that. This off-site (CH 44) "mound" had been the excuse for years as to why Chemtura weren't increasing their pumping at PW4 in the heart of the most heavily contaminated on-site area.

I during questions from CPAC after my Delegation was able to explain and show how the doubling of soil removal from GP1 occurred precisely where a very small amount of overland flow was able to stickhandle through the high ground almost completely isolating Chemtura's alleged location of GP 1. This low funnel area allowed only a very small proportion of Chemtura's 173,000 gallons of liquid production waste per day into the supposed GP 1 area. In reality it seems far more probable that the bulk of their liquid wastes ran into the wetland north and east of their GP 1 into the GP 1 that is on the east side of the high ridge as per the M.O.E.'s 1983 map. From the east side of the ridge the liquids via gravity would have flowed south and mostly east into the Stroh Drain to be carried directly into the Canagagigue Creek.

This again is why Chemtura and the M.O.E. have run for help to the recently re-elected Woolwich Councillors. This is a scandal and may yet be the cause of a Public Inquiry into M.O.E. corruption.

CPAC MEETING LAST EVENING IN WOOLWICH COUNCIL CHAMBERS

Instead of six o'clock the public CPAC meeting started at 5:30 pm. in the Woolwich Council Chambers. This was a last minute decision in order for CPAC to discuss an invitation to join a vaguely described meeting between Chemtura, the Ontario Ministry of the Environment and some but not all members of Woolwich Council. I'm assuming there would not have been a quorum of Councillors because that would have required the meeting to be public. If held otherwise as an in camera meeting, Council knows that I would have added that meeting to the list that the Ontario Ombudsman is currently investigating. Similarily if as appropriate all six voting CPAC members were invited that too would have required a public meeting otherwise the same thing.

All five present CPAC members (Mark Bauman is on holidays again) were in favour on principle that the appropriate forum for Chemtura, M.O.E. CPAC and the Township to meet would be at the public, monthly CPAC meetings. Afterall allegedly the meeting was to discuss things like the 2028 groundwater remediation deadline and or possible other Woolwich environmental issues although as earlier stated the written request to only Dr. Dan Holt was extremely vague. An unworthy thought just crossed my wee mind. Mayor Shantz has just recently ordered the CPAC Chair to no longer recognize either SWAT or members of the public from the floor during discussions. How awkward that would have been for Mayor Shantz to have insisted that CPAC go back to their sucessful process they've had for the last four years in order for her and her council colleagues to be able to speak during the discussions.

There were comments from Ron Campbell, Sebastian Seibel-Achenbach, Vivienne Delaney, Graham Chevreau and Richard Clausi. Sebastian mentioned the twenty-four year precedent of public CPAC meetings. Ron Campbell suggested that there was zero transparency to date as to why Chemtura/M.O.E. are not present at CPAC. Richard was the bluntest in stating that the proposed private, by invitation only meeting to discuss public matters allegedly, failed the smell test. Ron further related numerous failures by Chemtura and the M.O.E. to respond to important questions or requests for information and yet they are apparently and allegedly boycotting CPAC. Then they want a single CPAC representative only to attend some ill defined private meeting without a written agenda, list of participants and a rationale for why it must be done out of the public eye. As Richard stated this fails the smell test Sandy. A hell of a way to run a Township and you are just getting started. Hopefully your goal is not to further embarass an already embarassed Woolwich Township due to the behaviour of your predecessor.

During the formal 6 pm. CPAC meeting Sebastian suggested that Dwight Este's e-mail declining attendance last evening was highly contemptuous in its' tone. Others suggested that the M.O.E.'s again last minute cancellation was in full alignment with Chemtura's unprofessional behaviour. I would suggest that both parties are confident that Mayor Mom is in their corner. This has been the reality for most of the last twenty-five years with only a couple of exceptions. Both times Uniroyal/Chemtura have run for their mommies to escape appropriate condemnation for their behaviour. The last time was in 1999 due to the nightime air fumigations of the Duke St. residents.

It was decided that due to Chemtura's and the M.O.E.s continued non-attendance that CPAC would regretfully schedule the next public meeting for April 30 and skip the March meeting. That said it was suggested by Vivienne that members attempt to keep the March 26 date available in case the other two parties decide to return soon.

There were two major discussions regarding technical issues both on-site (GP-1) and downstream at Station 21 with its' extraordinay DDT sediment concentrations. I was involved in the first via questions from the floor after my Delegation and Graham led the second. I will elaborate on these discussions in tomorrow's post.

TRUE PUBLIC CONSULTATION IS MIGRATING SOUTH - THANK YOU WOOLWICH COUNCIL

Quote of the day from February 24/15 in the Waterloo Region Record: "Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it everywhere, diagnosing it incorrectly and applying the wrong remedies." This pretty much applies to the new Woolwich Council members whereas it is very difficult to believe that the old ones don't know exactly what they are doing. Simply put they are and have been for a very long time in bed with Chemtura Canada. Shame on the three of them.

This evening CPAC most likely will be bending to two new conditions being forced upon them by Mayor Mom Shantz. Allegedly these two conditions will improve communications, shorten meetings, make Chemtura & the M.O.E. happy, yatta, yatta and more yatta. In fact they are to remove a major irritant to Chemtura and their corrupt regulator, namely moi. While I have great confidence in CPAC, the fact is they are stronger with my and SWAT's presence. It is simple math and simple commonsense. We have all worked together as a team. By removing Henry, Richard, myself and the public from discussion (through the chair) during the body of the meeting, it allows the professional liars present to get away with more. While CPAC most likely will know when they are being bullshitted they may not have the ammunition immediately at hand to call Chemtura/M.O.E. on it.

To date Chemtura have chickened out again similar to November/14 and January /15. They really aren't much loss. The Ontario M.O.E. as of late yesterday at least, hadn't e-mailed their non-presence for tonite at 6 pm... Again while useless as tits on a bull, nevertheless their absence is disgusting, disrespectful and without any honest justification.

LYING & DECEPTION: CHEMTURA'S BEST FRIENDS

Yesterday I referred to the December 2014 CRA Report on the excavation and capping of GP 1 & 2 . Among many interesting facets is Figure 4 which purports to show us the various depths to which they excavated GP1 in 2013. I have recently transferred that extended depth excavation onto my two foot by four foot map of primarily Chemtura's east side. The location was carefully transferred by taking a number of measurements from Figure 4 and then appropriately locating the outline of the deeper areas onto my map. I also added the three "supplemental" areas to the map that were allegedly excavated last fall (2014). I say allegedly because the entire remediation system is predicated upon the word of truth challenged individuals. In an honest process CPAC in full would be invited on site for all major remediation work being done as a form of audit and first hand observation.

Here is the interesting part. The deeper excavation area of GP1 starts almost from the very north end of GP1 and goes south right into the lowest elevation areas ie. the semi-permanent groundwater wetland area. Now to make this more difficult to immediately recognize, Figure 4 shows the deepest excavation starting at about 25 metres south of the northern end. However if you look at Figure 5 you will see that at the 5 metre mark the excavation begins to go deeper than the loudly and dogmatically proclaimed .3 metres albeit it doesn't get really deep until the 25 metre mark.

Also the exact location of this northern tip of deeper soil removal lines up astoundingly well with the small funnel of lowlying land that permits any overland flow of toxic liquid wastes into GP 1 at all. This small "funnel" is the 346 metre above sea level contour (and lower) that barely squeezes between two 346.5 contour lines which indicate the start of higher ground north of GP 1. This higher ground is also visually demonstrated in a couple of different reports including this one in Appendix A "Chemtura Property - 100 Year Floodplain Mapping".

So basically the deeper excavation of GP 1 is further evidence of exactly where a tiny part of the massive quantities of toxic liquid wastes averaging 173,000 Imperial gallons per day were able to squeeze through the high ground protecting Chemtura's and CRA's alleged location of GP 1. I'm not saying they lied about the bulk of liquid wastes going into GP 1. I'm saying that if the true location of GP 1 is on the east side of the high ground (ridge) rather than the west side; it makes a lot more sense as to where gravity flowing DDT, Dioxins and so much more ended up. That would be in the wetland that was subsequently sucessfully drained by the Stroh Drain into the Canagagigue Creek, well downstream of the monthly monitoring done to "prove" how much better the creek's water was becoming.

CONESTOGA ROVERS & ASSOC. PLAN: CRAP FOR SHORT

The title of this December 2014 report is "Remediation and Capping of Former Gravel Pit Areas (GP1 and GP2). The first issue is whether or not they actually excavated GP1 at all. Maps and text have been presented both at Woolwich Council and at the January 2015 CPAC meeting which cast considerable doubt on the location of the real GP1. The evidence suggests that a more likely location which cooresponds to a 1983 M.O.E. map is on the east side of a high gravel ridge that runs diagonally from NW to SE. This GP1 would also gravity drain into the Stroh Drain and then run further south eventually discharging into the Canagagigue Creek.

There are a number of problems with this report. Page 15 is particularily obnoxious as it misinterprets and mistates facts with reckless abandon. Comments such as suggesting that their much deeper excavations than planned were "near the central portion of GP-1." are inaccurate. This much deeper excavation starts at the extreme north end of GP1. Further they state that "These locations corresponded approximately to where the greatest concentrations of DDT and the greatest dioxins and furans TEQs had been identified..." is also inaccurate. Finally they suggest that Tervita subsequently excavated additional soil to an approximate maximun depth of 1.0 m bgs (below ground surface) in some areas.". Wrong again unless you feel 1.0 metre bgs is approximately the same as 2 metres bgs.

I have learned over the years not to expect much from CRA reports and I am rarely disappointed. Their Figures # 6 and 8 are inconsistent with each other in regards to the soil sample depths used in determining that supplemental excavations in 2014 were required. Figure # 9 shows a picture of the exact depths of the contaminated areas excavated as part of the supplemental work done in 2014. The depths in Figure # 9 do not match the text discription of the depths given on page 19. And on it goes.

The only thing worse than these nonsensical, unprofessional and semi literate CRA reports is that our corrupt M.O.E. constantly find these reports as acceptable. CRA are so used to their nonsense being rubberstamped by the M.O.E. that they can't even be bothered to edit them and clean up the most obvious of their errors.

FAKE CONSULTATION & FAKE PROBLEM SOLVING IN WOOLWICH

My education over the last twenty-five years hasn't just been about the technical aspects of contamination, groundwater and or remediation. Unfortunately it has also been about how politicians lie to the public. Most learn early on how to set up their deceptions. In our society there are endless choices between the public good and private benefit. Politicians soon learn that their job is to constantly assist the private benefit while convincing the public it's really for their good. Appearances are everything whether formation of committees, fact-finding panels or what have you.

Next the politicians must control important meetings. This includes allegedly public meetings as well as public advisory committees. The easiest way for the latter is simply by having the members appointed by the politcal body, in this case the local Council. Sometimes this isn't enough. When it comes down to allegedly solving a problem through a meeting, care must be taken. All parties probably already know what needs doing but simply are unwilling. It's too expensive or it's too embarassing to admit how out of control the problem is. Therefore having the appropriate knowledgable and competent people present could lead to problems. Afterall they might insist on speaking truthfully towards the problem hence embarassing the guilty parties and or advising the public as to the only proper course of action.

Therefore control of attendance at such a meeting is necessary. Either only invite people with limited knowledge or make certain that those invited are loyalists to your cause and know what the game is. Hence by eliminating the most truly knowledgable you have greatly weakened the opposition to your pretend solutions. If they aren't present they can't gum up the works with inconvenient facts and truths.

The other huge item is the Agenda. Be in charge of the agenda and have a Chair who will quickly change the direction of arguments that you don't care for. If the Agenda is brief and limited and discussion strays into sensitive, embarassing areas the Chair can simply say sorry but that's not on today's agenda. Perhaps tomorrow. In other words meetings need to be managed if not outright choreographed. That cannot be done if too many well informed, independent strong personalities are present who insist upon speaking directly to the main problem regardless of your printed agenda.

We were advised by Mayor Shantz at the public January 29/15 CPAC meeting that there would be a sitdown with all the parties and stakeholders to discuss bringing Chemtura and the M.O.E. back to public CPAC meetings. While a meeting may occur let's see exactly how many stakeholders are invited, how public the meeting is and how honest the Agenda is. I'm not holding my breathe on this one folks. Will Gail Martin and the Independent be invited? Will SWAT be invited? Will I be invited? Will it be held in a public place with access for the public? Ha! Chemtura have made it obvious they would rather parade naked down Arthur St. than speak publicly about east side contamination, Dioxins and DDT, 2028 cleanup deadline, the Stroh Drain, collector trenches, the MTE Report and on and on.

LIARS CAN FIGURE & FIGURES CAN LIE - WEST MONTROSE YOUR WATER IS STILL KILLING YOU

Yesterday I phoned Woolwich Township Staff as the ad in the local paper suggested in order to obtain copies of the eight Woolwich Township Drinking Water Annual Reports. Staff were all courteous and professional and in no time at all I was rephoned and advised that as requested my copies were available for pickup. So far so good. I picked up the eight reports and within 60 seconds knew that what I had was garbage. Yes I said garbage.

For example of the five pages presented as the West Montrose drinking water system; two and a half pages have no data. Yes they have the parameters allegedly being reported on, but no data presented. Advising me and others that this data is available on the Region's website does not cut it. Are these mickey mouse "drinking water reports " going to be presented to Council? if so then the plausible deniability is built in. They tell you essentially nothing. Even the fuller reports for the eight systems in Woolwich Township that are on the Region's website are inadequate but nothing compared to the garbage the Township are handing out.

I went through this entire exercise a year ago with Councillors Bauman and B. Bryant. They sent a letter off to the Region with a list of questions. Those questions were not honestly or accurately responded to. The two worst areas in Woolwich according to what information is available on these inadequate reports is West Montrose by far, followed by one of the water systems in Maryhill. I have grave concerns with Heidelburg due to former mayor Bill Strauss's former gas station but much more data needs to be released to the public.

The longterm issue in West Montrose was supposed to have been remedied by running a pipeline from Conestogo over to West Montrose. When the hell is that happening? West Montrose has the most bacterial contaminated raw water in the Region of Waterloo due to both the nearby Grand River but also due to the location of their septic systems. That's right folks you've got both Total coliforms and E.-Coli in your raw water. This is totally contrary to the recommendations of the Justice O'Connor Report into the Walkerton tragedy.

The Region to avoid people dying from E.-Coli in West Montrose have been hammering the raw water with chlorine to the point that chlorine by-products such as NDMA (possibly), Tri Halo Methanes (THMs) absolutely and excessive Chloramines routinely are threatening the health of residents. West Montrose you are one human error away from lifelong illness or death and to date those errors have occurred but been apparently caught in time. What I also don't understand is how your water can be so heavily chlorinated when so much of it last year was brought in by tanker truck to fill up your reservoir and presumably reduce the quantity of contaminated raw water requiring treatment.

This is a disgrace and needs to be addressed before Woolwich has yet another water disaster. I will be sending this post to each and every Woolwich Councillor immediately.