A VERY SHORT WHILE AGO: (4 1/2 Years )

The Waterloo Region Record of March 24, 2016 had an interesting article titled "Woolwich mayor's charges tossed". This of course was in regards to alleged mayor Sandy Shantz's multiple violations of the Municipal Elections Act (MEA). The mayor and a number of her colleagues on Woolwich Council had apparently felt that the legislation was intended for others but not for themselves. Myself, Dr. Dan Holt and Richard Clausi decided otherwise. .................................................................................................................... The Crown prosecutor, Fraser Kelly, stated that it was not in the public interest to proceed with the ten charges laid against mayor Shantz. These charges first had to face the scrutiny of a Justice of the Peace for their approval and then also were examined over a period of months by two different Prosecutors. Eventually Fraser Kelly also suggested that the charges were not laid properly. Horse .... in the extreme. They were laid exactly as directed by the Superior Court and their staff. Any errors were totally and completely due to either professional incompetence, intent or a failure of the process set in place by the courts in the first place. ..................................................................................................... Regarding not in the public interest to prosecute I was quoted in this article as saying: "If the Crown advises that the specific laws broken by Mayor Shantz are minor or trivial then...clearly I missed that part of the (Municipal Elections Act) which specifically stated that the following sections are trivial or minor, therefore merely suggestions to be followed by election candidates, if they feel like it". .............................................................................................................. Overall this entire process convinced me that our judicial system is badly compromised. It plays favourites with charged police officers, politicians and other sensitive individuals. Judges are appointed and the system is very cliqueish and internalized. Worse it is neither transparent nor accountable other than to those who benefit from its' largesse and bias.

WELLINGTON WATER WATCHERS QUIZ PROVINCIAL ENVIRONMENT LEADERS

The article in today's Record is titled "Provincial party environment leaders in the hot seat on water issues". The Record reporter is Leah Gerber and she has indicated that the Wellington Water Watchers hosted a live virtual convention. In attendance on the panel later answering questions from the public was Jeff Yurek, Ontario Environment Minister as well as the Environment critics from the Liberals, NDP and Green Party. Discussions included drinking water issues in First Nations communities as well as the Conservative government's proposed changes to the Environmental Assessment Act. Our Environment Minister also pledged to extend the moratorium on water bottling permits until at least April 2021. ................................................................................................... Kudos to the Wellington Water Watchers (out of Guelph) for their ongoing activism and advocacy for our drinking water here in Ontario. They have been very active regarding bottled water issues courtesy of Nestle's Canada and have advocated for much stricter controls on the water bottling industry. This includes issues with the Middleton Wellfield purchased by Nestle's while the nearby town of Elora was also looking for additional water sources.

SHORTAGES OF CLEAN WATER -YES, NO SHORTAGES HOWEVER OF STUDIES, REPORTS, HORSE MANURE & WORSE

I've been recently reviewing the CH2M HILL March 1991 report titled "Elmira/St. Jacobs Water Supply Project Volume I". I have long understood that the "surprise" discovery of NDMA in the south wellfield was staged both as a face saving device for the Ontario Ministry of Environment (MOE) as well as a manufactured for the public, "crisis", that would assist our authorities in pushing Uniroyal Chemical into even greater cleanup mode. Now make no mistake, cleanup had been underway throughout the 1980s as all our political authorities began to realize what a mess they (Region, Township, Province) had made in Elmira, Ontario. They had at the very least condoned idiotic toxic waste disposal for fourty years in and around not only a wonderful natural resource, the Elmira Aquifers, but had also allowed the Canagagigue Creek to be used as a sewer in order to spread Uniroyal's toxins downstream, far and wide. ............................................................................................................. Even the federal government through the Department of Supply & Services (DSS) were involved in a remediation study that included Environment Canada, MOE, and Uniroyal Chemical in Elmira. This March 1991 report by CH2M HILL also included a hydrogeolofical evaluation of the Elmira aquifer System. Now after the "Elmira Water Crisis" struck in November 1989, the feds up and took off. Could this have been part of the manufactured crisis to allow all the political guilty parties (Township, Region, MOE) to control the narrative? Afterall as far as politicians are concerned the story or narrative going out to the public is every bit as important (or more so) than actual health crisis itself. Afterall this is a decades long poisoned water story at its heart. That surely had to be spun to avoid public outrage and public demands that heads roll or even that criminal prosecution should occur. When you think about it, imagine if one individual was caught poisoning one neighbour's food or water. That individual would end up doing quality jail time. Not so in Elmira for Uniroyal Chemical, the MOE, Woolwich Township or the Region of Waterloo.

LANXESS CANADA CONTINUES THE TRADITION STARTED BY CHEMTURA: RUN & HIDE FROM THE REAL STAKEHOLDERS

2015 was the watershed moment when Sandy and Mark B. talked their new council into once again giving Uniroyal/Chemtura the keys to the "city". Now of course some of the "new" council included old, tried and true and dyed in the wool Uniroyal sympathizers like Murray Martin. Other"new" council members included Larry Shantz, Pat Merlihan and Scott Hahn. Yes the council before them were generally inexperienced but with "experience" like Mr. Flip Flop (Mark) who tailored his comments to the current audience of the moment, sometimes experience is overated. .............................................................................................. Chemtura and the Ontario Ministry of Environment (MOE) certainly were under pressure. The 2010 (2011) to 2014 (2015) Citizens Public Advisory Committee (CPAC) brooked no bull.... from those two parties. Lord knows the polluter and their regulator tried their best and they'd been allowed to bafflegab and bullfritter the time away for the previous incarnations of UPAC and CPAC without pushback for many, many years. By the way the second dates in brackets two lines above reflect the actual dates that the incompetent Woolwich Council managed to get the committee up and running. Truly hypocritical of Sandy and Mark, Chemtura and the MOE to whine and pretend how inexperienced and incompetent the previous council were when it took them even LONGER to get the CPAC show on the road. Further hypocrisy shines in their asking the current CPAC to please continue on until they were finally ready to go on September 15, 2015. Todd Cowan's council got CPAC up and going by May 2011 whereas Sandy and mark needed an additional four months. Mind you manufacturing a phony CPAC "crisis" takes time and that's exactly what they did in order to justify their contemptible behaviour which included kissing the butts of the most responsible and guilty for the destruction of both the Elmira aquifers and of the Canagagigue Creek. ....................................................................................... The new protocol does not even require the attendance of the guilty parties at the Technical Advisory Committee (TAG) which is the group of citizens appointed by council. Hence opportunities even by the council chosen few to ask questions of Chemtura/Lanxess and the MOE/MECP are few and far between. Both guilty parties sincerely thank Sandy and Mark for their nasty and disgusting interventions to allow even less transparency and accountability. The Chair of TAG is paid (well) by Council (directly-Lanxess indirectly?) and they are much happier with their second Chair than their first who routinely took Chemtura/Lanxess, MOE/MECP and Conestoga Rovers (CRA) to task for their failures and miscues.

HORRIFIC GROUNDWATER CONCENTRATIONS ON THE UNIROYAL ELMIRA SITE (90-91)

Funny how AFTER the south and north wellfields were admitted to be contaminated with NDMA in late 1989 (E7, E9 -south) and in 1990 (E2, E8 -north) that then some of the beyond belief groundwater contamination on the site came to light. This massive groundwater contamination was on both the west side of the site (and the creek) as well as on the east side of both. Undoubtedly after nearly thirty years of on-site hydraulic containment (i.e. pump & treat) these numbers representing dissolved contamination will have been reduced however the lack of source removal is why even today Uniroyal senior staff (Ramin Ansari) advise that on-site pump and treat will continue forever. If the pumping were to stop in the future the still buried wastes would again begin to increase the contaminant load in the on-site groundwater. Following are some of the awful groundwater readings: ................................................................................................ ........Location (well #, East or West)....Concentration (parts per billion (ppb)) ................................................................................................ dichloroethylene (DCE) ....OW62-17 .W ........300,000 ....................................OW50-15 .W ..........330,000 ....................................OW16-d .E ............320,000 ....................................OW18-d .W ..........139,000 ................................................................................................. phenols....................OW37-5A .E ........75,000 ................................................................................................. vinyl chloride ............OW10-14.W .........121,000 ..............................OW88-8 .W ..........50,000 ................................................................................................. toluene ...................OW10-6 .W .........178,000 ...........................OW51-6 .W ..........43,000 ...........................OW88-8 .W .........110,000 ................................................................................................. chlorobenzene............... OW10-6 .W ..........13,000 ......................................OW88-8 .W .........200,000 ......................................OW18-d .W ..........44,000 ................................................................................................. ethyl benzene ....................OW37-5A .E ..........3,300 ................................................................................................. 2-chlorophenol ...................OW37-5A .E ........100,000 ................................................................................................. aniline ...........................OW10-6 .W .........78,000 ................................................................................................. carboxin ..........................OW10-6 .W .........19,000 .....................................OW69-13 .E .........9,700 ................................................................................................. ................................................................................................. The above is a tiny, TINY listing of all the chemicals found in groundwater on the Uniroyal Chemical site. It is a tiny, TINY listing of all the different momitoring wells on site with ridiculously high concentrations of contaminants. Notice I didn't even bother with listings of NDMA which has concentrations hundreds, thousands and tens of thousands of times greater than the Ontario Drinking Water Standards (ODWS). Honest citizen activists wanted serious contaminant source removal on that property because leaving it to nothing more than pump and treat for the next three hundred years or more is NOT acceptable, practical or likely. At some point much sooner the unethical, immoral sons of ....... will call a halt to even the minimal pump & treat.

PIECE BY PIECE THE EXTENT OF UNIROYAL CONTAMINATION THAT FLOWED TO THE STROH FARM (Eastwards) IS BEING REVEALED

On Tuesday here I pointed out Figures 7.7 and 7.8 in the CH2M HILL Report Volume II (Feb. 1991) which clearly indicated that CH2M HILL recognized that phenols from Uniroyal had spread over to the Stroh farm. Now from the same report we have NDMA doing the exact same thing as per Figures 5.1 and 5.3 . These two Figures represent NDMA in both the Upper Aquifer as well as in the Municipal Aquifer. This is hardly unexpected as NDMA is considered one of if not the fastest moving contaminant in groundwater from Uniroyal Chemical. Again similar to phenols, the NDMA concentration contours for both aquifers have crossed the invisible (from below) line/fence on the surface as they've migrated from the source areas (RPE 1-5) along and immediately beside the Uniroyal/Stroh property boundary over to the Stroh property itself. ........................................................................................... Interestingly to me I see a fairly clear bias by CH2MHILL in regards to their drawing of contaminant concentration contour lines. This goes for pretty much all their contaminants including benzene, chlorobenzene etc. This has occurred in both shallow and deeper aquifers as they have seemed to want to hammer the point home that the major source areas on the Uniroyal site are the west side operating lagoons. They have done this by showing the west side only as being source areas while including contaminated wells on the east side of their property within plumes originating from the operating ponds. This is simply inaccurate. Whether or not the west side has higher concentrations is irrelevant when all parties acknowledge the volumes of solids, sludges, tars and liquid wastewaters deposited into the east side pits over the decades. If nothing else this bias also shows how Conestoga Rovers were able to draw contaminant concentration contour lines to the liking of Uniroyal Chemical using subjectivity and "professional" interpretation. Ha! ................................................................................................................... One last point. This report clearly points out (pg. 57) that NDMA concentrations in many locations are far higher at depth than they are in shallow aquifers, even on the Uniroyal site. This is counterintuitive as usually contaminant concentrations are reduced as they migrate away from the source. This phenomenon may be relevant regarding second and third sources of NDMA in the Elmira Aquifers. The two additional sources that I'm thinking of are Varnicolor Chemical and Nutrite. Both have low level concentrations of NDMA in their shallow aquifers, while the much higher NDMA levels deeper beneath their sites are all attributed to Uniroyal. Of interest also is that CH2M Hill acknowledge right up to the final conclusion that Nutrite and Varnicolor are the two leading contenders (out of many) to be additional source areas. Also interesting is that it took over a decade for the public announcement that indeed Nutrite contributed ammonia to the Municipal Aquifer whereas allegedly not NDMA. That bizarre belated announcement was never properly explained. Afterall the sweetheart deal between the MOE and Uniroyal in October 1991 attributed everything to Uniroyal in exchange for a very limited cleanup ($$$$) plus the Region and Township got their alternate water supply paid for (provided they didn't let the cat out of the bag to the public regarding multiple other sources).

NDMA PRODUCTION

In its most basic, NDMA can be formed by the chemical interaction of dimethylamine ((CH3)2 NH2) and nitrites (N02) forming N-nitrosodimethylamine or (CH3)2NNO with the C being carbon, the H being hydrogen, the N being nitrogen and the O being oxygen. Therefore the two most important precursers are dimethylamine and sodium nitrite (NaNo2). Both nitrites (NO2) and nitrates (NO4) are very common in the natural environment especially in rural, agricultural areas. They can be found in fertilizers as well as in septic tanks and animal feedlots. Dimethylamine can also be found in urine and feces as well as in sewage treatment plants and the leather, rubber and pesticide production industries. One can certainly see how Elmira and Uniroyal Chemical (rubber additives, pesticde prod'n) ticked all the boxes when our authorities were looking for the source of NDMA in Elmira's drinking water in 1989. ............................................................................................................ There are other factors involved in NDMA production. An acidic environment is one of them. Production wastewaters filled with various acids such as both 2,4-D and 2,4,5-T (2,4 dichlorophenoxyaceticACID and 2,4,5-trichlorophenoxyaceticACID) are an example. .................................................................................................. Soil moisture is yet another factor. Drier soils will produce more NDMA than wetter soils as one would find say on both sides of the Canagagigue Creek where Uniroyal Chemical was located. ...................................................................................................... A high carbon source in soils increases the production of NDMA as long as the two precursers are available (i.e. dimethylamine and nitrite). I suspect one high carbon source would be sugars perhaps such as automotive antifreeze. Any chance that pig feedlots would feed stale doughnuts or pastries to pigs? ...................................................................................................................... So besides Uniroyal Chemical in Elmira were there any other local industries that ticked all the boxes? The answer I believe is yes and that would be Varnicolor Chemical, just down the road (Union St.). They handled and used dimethylamine, antifreeze, acids (H2SO4), and had drier soils as they were at a higher elevation on Union St. than Uniroyal. They also were located on the site of a former pig farm plus they had a septic tank in their backyard that while formerly enriching the soils with nitrites (same as the pig farm) also discharged both sulphuric acid after a spill from a tankertruck inside the building connected to the septic tank and a buried road tanker and discharged dimethylamine that was used in a can coating process. Lastly this same underground discharge from inside their building on Union St. also discharged antifreeze (carbon source). ......................................................................................................... Perhaps if our authorities (MOE/MECP, Region & Township) had honestly provided this information in 1989 to 1991 then I might have at least a little confidence in their excluding Varnicolor Chemical from consideration of even contributing to the NDMA in our Elmira Aquifers. Keep in mind that the very same municipal aquifer that runs below Uniroyal Chemical also runs below Varnicolor Chemical. Keep in mind that the Ministry of Environment reneged on their promise to investigate and examine the "...full aereal and vertical extent of contamination on the Varnicolor site.". They waited for twenty-five years to release anything about the deeper subsurface contamination on the site. They also lied like dogs and were caught so doing multiple times by citizens in those early days (1989-1992). ................................................................................................................... Citizens have learned the hard way. Our authorities lie to us routinely. You can call it a coverup, a conspiracy or whatever you want. I look at it this way: Once I've caught you lying to me more than once, than your word is meaningless and you deserve both my contempt and my disbelief of whatever other misinformation you are trying to sell. Fool me once shame on you. Fool me twice and shame on me.