MORE ON CHEMTURA's (LANXESS) LATEST CREEK INVESTIGATION

Well I've seen worse and more blatantly bad Work Plans from them. This one as mentioned yesterday may turn up data that isn't helpful to their and the M.O.E. interests but rest assured that's been happening for decades with few repercussions to their credibility or pocketbooks.

They will be testing shallow sediments up and downstream of the New Jerusalem Rd.. Downstream is long overdue. Sediment sampling downstream of Northfield Dr. is also long overdue. Have these buggers actually been paying attention to criticism both here and as Delegations to RAC over the last year? Amazing!

They are also collecting one surficial soil sample each from approximately four floodplain areas both up and downstream of Northfield Dr. (Reg. Rd. #22). As their text numbering doesn't match their Figure numbering it's hard to say exactly where. Regardless these samples and more are also long overdue.

We have the Work Plan. Par for the course will be talk all summer followed by actual sampling next year. Winter you know. They've been playing that card forever. Urgency died with both the Settlement Agreement in 1991 followed by the pipeline up from Waterloo a couple of years later.

ALTERNATIVE FACTS

We have a new Chemtura Work Plan for Canagagigue Creek. It is unnecessary and essentially useless because whatever the results from either sediment or soil testing they will not affect the already predetermined "cleanup" of the creek. That plan has been discussed, debated and negotiated behind closed doors with only Chemtura, GHD and the Ontario Ministry of Environment present. Everything else is for appearances. It is whitewash or in this case greenwash. Chemtura and the Ontario M.O.E. sincerely do want to hear from the "stakeholders". Of course they do so that down the road they can yet again say we consulted, we compromised and here is the result.

The M.O.E. have been testing sediments and soils in the Canagagigue Creek between 2012 and 2015. They have also tested forage fish and so called game fish in the creek for tissue accumulation of toxic chemicals. Their testing has not been scientifically rigorous. Why should it be? They have no intention of properly cleaning up the creek to meet any of the provincial or national criteria or guidelines in any case. That having already been decided why would they do a good job or spend any more than is necessary to say we looked, we tested, we found this.

In the early 2000's a few contaminated creekbanks and low lying areas along the Canagagigue were either removed or stabilized with rip rap, rocks etc.. Undoubtedly the soils in these areas had been eroding into the creek and enriching it with Chemtura's usual DDT, Dioxins and other chemicals which preferentially adhere to soils. These areas were all of course on the west side of the creek because don't you know the east side of the creek doesn't really exist. It's a figment of everybody's imagination. The inconvenient fact that massive quantities of 2,4-d, 2,4,5-t, Dioxins, DDT, DDE, DDD, solvents, NDMA other pesticides etc. were all pumped across the creek into the east side pits has been carefully ignored and their transportaion and resting place covered up.

While they're back. Half of Uniroyal's historic waste legacy and indiscriminate dumping was hidden from sight because the east side didn't directly dump its' toxic contents into the Canagagigue Creek. No those contents have been field filtered. They've been filtered by corn fields and soybean fields. They've been filtered by grass, trees, shrubs all along the way. Yes they've slowly made their way both downwards into our drinking water aquifers but they've also followed swales, ditches, furrows and the Stroh Drain all back to the creek albeit further downstream mostly out of sight, into Mennonite country.

Those toxins have adversely affected, wildlife in and around the creek. They've adversely affected human beings living along the creek. All of that is exactly of zero concern to those responsible then or now. It is of no concern to our authorities and politicians currently. What concerns them is the here and now. Chemtura Canada (now Lanxess) are a big player in Woolwich Township and further. They are playing nice (sort of) right now including providing jobs and paying taxes. Laws and rules on the books are for the little people, certainly not for the wealthy and powerful. All the facts, proof and laws in the world are of no real consequence to the elite. They are in charge and everything can be massaged, manipulated, covered up and explained away. Afterall who is powerful enough to really challenge them? The public? The media? Simply ignore them and wait them out. It's been working for decades.

WHY I BELIEVE SANDY SHANTZ IS HOLDING OFFICE ILLEGITIMATELY

Our current Mayor in my opinion is not holding office legitimately. Now keep in mind professional liars and weasel worders just love to twist words and definitions to attack citizens who are speaking the plain truth. I am not a lawyer therefore as I also am not a professional (or amateur) liar it is quite possible that my understanding of legal terms and definitions is only slightly better than that of the general public who understandably avoid courts and lawyers as much as humanly possible. I have dabbled in them and overall found them worthy of the contempt that most honest citizens have for them. Yes there have been a couple of lawyers who have impressed me with their personal integrity and straightforwardness and literally dozens of others who haven't the foggiest notion of morals, ethics or integrity. For them it's all about how they can interpret and or twist law to their client's immediate advantage and their longterm advantage.

Sandy Shantz was stripped of her Mayor's position by the Municipal Elections Act 1996. It's quite black and white. She failed to include an Auditor's Report with her Financial Statements as required by law. Coincidentally this Auditor's report is only required if the candidate's expenses exceed $10,000 and the one she submitted by the deadline did not. The previous one may have however that one seemed to disappear into the ether. Turns out that a little creative bookeeping by our then Mayor had reduced her expenses below $10,000. Interestingly she was the only candidate who even came close to the magic $10,000 mark. I have speculated that she was a little embarassed by this fact and wished to hide it for fear of people realizing that money counts in an election, even at the municipal level. Also coincidentally I'm sure, Sandy had decades of book keeping experience (allegedly) in her husband's planning/semi-architect firm.

Justice David Broad in July 2015 reinstated her to the Mayor's Chair CONDITIONALLY ! The conditions were reasonably simple yet she violated them. Among them was that her next Financial Statements were to include ALL her election expenses. This includes freebies/donations/gifts of services. They must be included at their normal professional rates as expenses. Her violation of this CONDITIONAL reinstatement is why I believe she is not holding office legitmately. Perhaps the proper term is legally versus legitimately. Perhaps there is a better wording or terminology. I do not know but my meaning is very clear.

I provided strong evidence to the Crown, when I went to court trying to prosecute Sandy Shantz for her Election Act contraventions, that she had not included all her expenses at her victory party held at the Elmira Curling Club. The costs of this party are subject to inclusion in her Election Act expenses. I provided the Crown with a photograph of the professional band plus their name and members while they were performing at that party. Oddly not a nickel for the band or some other expenses were ever included in Sandy's Financial Statements. These expenses did not take Sandy's total above the ultimate top value allowed for mayoralty candidates. That maximum limit is ridiculously high when you look at the totals the other three mayoralty candidates spent. Again I have to think that Sandy simply obfuscated throughout the entire process, including court, in order to falsely reduce the total money she spent to win the election. Regardless she is holding office contrary to the Conditions set by Justice David Broad in Kitchener's Superior Court. In plain English she is holding office improperly, illegitimately, illegally or whatever term is most appropriate.

LANXESS BULLSHIT & PUFFERY ARE WORLD CLASS - LET'S SEE HOW THEY DELIVER

The title above is based upon both their Website and the article in last Saturday's Waterloo Region Record titled "Lanxess pledges to carry on cleanup at Chemtura site". Their website was mentioned in the Record article as supposedly containing "...links to the community outreach and environmental remediation projects underway in Elmira.". Well I've just spent 1/2 an hour on their website and I can find no such thing.

We hope that Lanxess have done their due diligence in regards to Chemtura's cleanup liabilities and responsibilities. That said who am I kidding? Companies don't take risks when they've got politicians at their beck and call. Both our Region and the Ontario Ministry of Environment love to hand out free environmental passes better known as Indemnities. Uniroyal Chemical, Phillips Environmental (Varnicolor site), Safety-Kleen (Breslube site) and others have all been beneficiaries of politicians largesse, mostly at the expense of the public interest.

According to the Record article "We are committed to pursue the environmental projects going on at (the) Elmira site and to ensuring that work is carried out to the highest possible standards, so that future contamination is avoided,". Really? Gee isn't that nice. The current ongoing environmental projects are delayed, overdue and second rate so far. Regarding future contamination God help us. How about cleaning up the past contamination before giving us even more? If Lanxess are going to have an employment housecleaning in Elmira then maybe I might hold out some hope for a change in attitude. Otherwise it's business (monkey), deception, manipulation and obfuscation as usual in collaboration with the Ontario M.O.E. plus a pair of co-opted citizens.

CONCEPTUAL SITE MODEL (CSM)

I indicated yesterday that Dr. Thomson from the University of Waterloo referred to CRA's picture of the CSM as a cartoon. It is very possible that Dr. Thomson was not being derogatory or critical with that statement. In fact while I have long been aware of errors in CRA's "cartoon" in fact it has nevertheless been helpful to me in my understanding of the stratigraphy of the Elmira area.

My understanding from the meeting was that Dr. Thomson is looking for comments and feedback from both TAG members and the general public regarding his CSM. Hence I have this morning sent him an e-mail with a few small corrections regarding statements in his text .

These corrections most likely are due to certain reports that Dr. Thomson had not been provided with by either Chemtura/GHD or the Ontario M.O.E.. There have been over the decades some really shabby data and reports and occasionally there have been some real gems that have assisted in understanding exactly what has happened at Uniroyal/Chemtura and throughout the Elmira Aquifers.

As a general indication I will advise that past DNAPL investigations while disgusting in their attempts to exclude informed and non co-opted citizens have produced some good maps showing things like "windows" through various aquitards. I am doubtful that this specific information was provided to Dr. Thomson.

I will also comment that the statement on page 12 of his report indicating that the source of the extra 1,900 kilograms of chlorobenzene released into the natural environment is unknown is probably hooey. It very likely is unknown to Dr. Thomson but both Uniroyal/Chemtura and the M.O.E. have known exactly who's responsible from the get go. The so called 5 man Investigation Team sent to Elmira in early 1990 by Jim Bradley, then provincial Environment Minister was a sham. Their "investigation" was superficial and they did not want to get conclusive evidence of other sources. I was an employee of Varnicolor Chemical at the time and believe me neither I nor other knowledgable employees were ever interviewed nor questioned. Furthermore the M.O.E. already had three years of groundwater testing telling them that Varnicolor were spilling and or dumping yet it was all glossed over.

Then of course there were our local textile industries of which Borg were known to have been sending high strength toxic wastes to the Elmira Sewage Treatment Plant. Not to mention chlorobenzene found in the Howard St. storm sewers heading for the creek in the early 80s. Thank you Dave Brenneman (Woolwich CAO) for your lack of cooperation a few years back when I was investigating that.

Sanyo Canada is still a mystery to me. NDMA concentrations in groundwater spike right beside them. Coincidence or not? The fact is that Sanyo deserve a decent, real investigation if they are innocent, just to so prove that.

MORE ON LAST THURSDAY'S TAG MEETING

TAG stands for Technical Advisory Group and it is composed of citizen volunteers, some of whom were handpicked by our illegitimate Mayor. Nevertheless it and they are a mile ahead of her on the scale of ethics and character.

There were a couple of takeaway ideas and understandings from last Thursday evening's meeting held in Woolwich Council Chambers. Firstly it was stated and repeated a number of times that sediments in the creek are dynamic and constantly moving. There are suspended sediments, deposited sediments and then eroded sediments which start off as deposited, erode and become suspended until they find a temporary home as deposited sediments again. You get the picture.

Susan Bryant stated that Chemtura and the M.O.E. are focusing on only two sites upstream. This is both true and is self-serving for them. She also oddly stated that there is a former pond with a channel allegedly that could drain the pond back into the creek just upstream of Station # 21. Actually that area was tested and the conclusion was that the pond was not the source of DDT or Dioxins to the creek sediments. Pat Mclean accurately stated that unknown and undiscovered areas to date downstream could be just as badly contaminated as the upstream Station # 20 and #21 areas. David Hofbauer also commented that the sediments are always moving. Again this indicates both an ongoing upstream source as well as the ridiculousness of cleaning up only one or two upstream sediment areas and pretending that you've solved anything.

As stated in an earlier post the highlight was the presentation by Dr. Neil Thompson of his Conceptual Site Model (CSM). He actually referred to Conestoga Rovers & GHD's CSMs as cartoons. Interesting discription! I am still reading his report and finding it very enlightening.

EVERY POSSIBLE ADVANTAGE & BREAK TO CHEMTURA CANADA

Last Thursday I mentioned that our local municipal politicians give every possible advantage and break to Chemtura in regards to the process and procedures surrounding TAG and RAC meetings. Well Thursday night was no exception. Two reports were presented, discussed and debated. The one was Chemtura's Stream Investigation Work Plan and the other was a report actually presented by Dr. Neil Thompson of the University of Waterloo. His presentation regarding a new, updated and professional Conceptual Site Model was excellent.

Firstly the good news. Lisa Schaefer, Woolwich Township Staff, was not present last evening. She was ably replaced by Julie Forth. After the presentation I requested a copy of the Chemtura report from Julie. The next morning (Friday) I sent her a reminder e-mail asking for copies of both reports. Turns out that Julie was away yesterday so she then arranged for another staffer, Adelina, to assist me. Long story short I was sent electronic copies of both reports before the day was out. That is both very good service and frankly what I would hope all citizens would receive in service rendered from our Township staff who work for us. Thank you Julie and Adelina.

Now the bad news. This particular battle has been fought and won fifteen years ago, ten years ago and even five years ago. I'll even go so far as to give some credit to that manipulative, dishonest, back stabbing, former politician Pat McLean. When she was CPAC Chair she set down the law to M.O.E. and Chemtura about supplying their reports and documentation ahead of time to the Chemtura Public Advisory Committee (CPAC) membership. Think about it. In those days Chemtura and the Ontario Ministry of Environment showed up at each public advisory committee meeting, unlike today when they show up four times per year to RAC meetings. As usual no sign of those professional liars last Thursday evening at TAG.

If Chemtura wished to introduce a Work Plan or a completed report whether eight pages or 300 pages; it was expected that they would get the report out ahead of time to CPAC members so that they could read it and have some questions ready. Springing thick, technical reports on citizens with literally zero opportunity to inform themselves at least a little bit ahead of time was exactly what Chemtura and the M.O.E. wanted. Afterall they could make their presentations, ask for questions from a bafflegabbed audience, claim they'd participated in public consultation and run for the door.

I have attended UPAC, CPAC, RAC and TAG meetings faithfully for twenty-five years plus. There were times I even had to lose a mornings wages to attend CPAC meetings. Thank you Pat and Susan for that in the early 2000s. Everybody involved knows that I'm the only citizen who both reads all technical documents cover to cover and understands the vast majority of what I'm reading. Susan Bryant would be second but it is a far distanced second to me. No brag just fact. Even the professional liars have been burned enough times over the past quarter century plus to rarely challenge my recollection of facts. Again as much as it hurts to compliment Jeff Merriman of Chemtura, he has often stated at CPAC meetings that he recognizes that my memory and recollection of facts is second to none.

So guess what. I was advised by a TAG member Thursday night that they had not received at least one of the two reports prior to the meeting. Yours truly received exactly zero of them in advance. TAG were asked whether they had any comments or questions on either one. The public gallery of citizens are of course excluded from asking questions courtesy of our current illegitimate mayor, Sandy Shantz. Regardless no one picked up on the usual amateurish mistakes CRA (now GHD) had in the text and in Figure 3. This has to do with various Floodplain Soil Sample locations. I have to date now read Chemtura's Stream Investigation Work Plan. Dr. Thompson's multipage report is next and I'm looking forward to it as I expect to learn a few things from him. Similar to Dr. Richard Jackson, the former TAG Chair, Dr. Thompson is a leader in his field. I was quite impressed favourably with him Thursday evening.

Even with myself, CPAC members and the public disgustingly excluded from asking questions we could still assist TAG if we had the reports ahead of time to study. Oh no we can't offend the thrice convicted polluter hence keep the unwashed masses away from these reports ahead of time. Afterall CPAC have learned that there are many honest members on TAG who with open minds want any heads up that honest citizens can provide them. Again every possible advantage and break is being given to Chemtura and the M.O.E.. Thank you Sandy and Mark Bauman for your continued support of this rogue company and their captured, partner in pollution, the M.O.E..