TRAC IS ON ITS' WAY TO COUNCIL

 I've been advised that some (all?) of the reforms of RAC & TAG will be introduced this Tuesday at the Committee of the Whole meeting (7 pm.) in Woolwich Council Chambers.  TRAC or the so called Technical & Remediation Advisory Committee is supposed to replace it. I expect some pretty heavy duty bullsh*t will be required in order to gracefully throw out Sandy's baby (RAC & TAG) and replace it with TRAC. Two weeks later it would be likely that Woolwich Council will then give the go ahead for this latest public relations foray.

Earlier this week in writing (e-mail) I did advise all Woolwich councillors that I had not been fully briefed on the changes. In fact it was a case of one councillor (Nathan) showing up at my door uninvited and giving me only a partial glimpse into the new committee. No mention of who will be on the committee only that there will be improved interactions with the public. This upon questioning was advised to be members of the public will be allowed during meetings to ask questions as well as make comments. Of course the proof is in the pudding as promises in Elmira are like the wind. They blow hot and cold and often reverse direction.

Knowing so very little as to what is being proposed ahead of time it's difficult to know what to be a Delegate about. Perhaps after I hear some more substantive information I will decide to be a Delegate at the March 19/24 Council meeting. We shall see as obviously after 35 years of ongoing deception, manipulation and lying why exactly should I expect anything else from Woolwich Township? I expect that this is the primary way that they get rid of opposition i.e. just keep on lying and ignoring facts and truth.

THE BEAT GOES ON - DISHONEST MUNICIPAL GOVERNANCE IS INEVITABLE

 The simplest definition of "dishonest governance" in the title above is either staff or councillors lying to their residents and citizens. Unfortunately no politicians yet have had the courage or stupidity to attempt to make lying to the electorate illegal. If they did we'd have the Russian equivalent of jailed politicians. 

Nathan Cadeau stated that I called him slimy and a polluter apologist somewhere recently. Hmm must have been an off day for me going so easy on him. Now again as per the title above why do I feel that dishonest governance is inevitable? Easy! If a municipality has made the decision to participate in a coverup of almost any kind then bingo it's full speed ahead with the lying. Now there is lying by both omission and commission. My long held opinion is that Woolwich Township are up to their necks in both.

Poor old Nathan I believe has been appointed the dedicated whipping boy. Now he does have unusual skills in that his confidence to knowledge ratio is so very high. He also has a very thick skin which is good. Finally he has the knack of reading an e-mail sent to him and totally ignoring and not even acknowledging its' contents in his response. O.K. I'll admit that I don't like that . It's really quite ignorant but may be helpful to him when he has no honest response. 

I am gaining confidence that Sandy has also been chosen many years ago to be the political sacrificial lamb. When the rats start leaving the ship somebody is always left holding the bag and my prediction is that Sandy and Nathan are the designated duo. They are silly enough.to think that the power base behind them will support them to the end as long as they don't lose faith. Ha ! We will see.    

MY SPEECH AT LAST WEDNESDAY'S ELMIRA ENVIRONMENTAL AWARENESS EVENT

 

Following is the speech I presented publicly last week at the Rural Roots venue following the showing of the Documentary "Toxic Time Bomb" by Sheba Films. Again kudos to the owner Roger Jutzi, organizer Sadi Goertz, Master of Ceremonies Rich Clausi.

                                                                                                       FEB. 21/24

Elmira's Environmental Awareness Event

One company has been in full charge and full control of the failed Elmira cleanup. That is the polluters themselves namely Uniroyal Chemical and then their corporate successors which currently is Lanxess Canada. The Ontario Ministry of Environment are the alleged regulators. They have proven to be pathetic and wholly incapable of protecting Elmira's environment and citizens.

Since 2012 local residents known as the Citizens Public Advisory Committee (CPAC) have advised both Woolwich Township and the public that the 2028 mandated deadline for clean groundwater in Elmira was not going to happen. Uniroyal/Chemtura, at the time, along with the Ministry of Environment denied that. Chemtura six months later advised that in order to meet the deadline they would have to TRIPLE the amount of groundwater pumping and treatment in Elmira. This of course never happened, or even close. Somewhere around 2017 the new owners Lanxess began to suggest that the 2028 deadline could not be met.

Multi national, multi billion dollar corporations do not like to admit failure, especially publicly. Currently they along with other parties such as the Ministry of Environment and Woolwich Township are in CYA mode. This Cover Your Astuteness includes suggestions for a new source of drinking water as well as a new Order from the Ministry of Environment. It's not as if any of the old Orders have done much good to date.

The parties have recently been trotting out various excuses for trial runs. One of these is to blame a chemical process known as Diffusion. Essentially as the groundwater concentrations of at least 100 different chemicals such as NDMA, chlorobenzene, ammonia, toluene, xylene, styrene, benzene got higher and higher in the groundwater some of the chemicals began to “diffuse” i.e. move into the clay and silt aquitards and bond with the soils. Decades later after 26 years of up and down, erratic groundwater pumping as groundwater concentrations of contaminants began to decrease those bonded chemicals in the soils are starting to be released back into the groundwater. Sometimes this process is also referred to as “rebound”. All of this is common knowledge among hydrogeologists yet the guilty parties pretend it's a surprise to them.

Another excuse being used today is that NDMA is so toxic that its' health criteria is measured in parts per trillion. The majority of toxic chemicals have criteria in the parts per billion which is a thousand times larger than parts per trillion. Hence 35 years after NDMA was allegedly discovered in Elmira's groundwater the parties are now advising that contrary to what they told us back in the 1990s up until recently, that gosh nobody can successfully remediate groundwater via pumping & treating down to that tiny concentration. Again a complete reversal of what they told us for 25 years plus.

Here are a few specific examples of “adjusting the science according to your needs”. In order to pretend that contaminated groundwater is hydraulically contained, a polluter requires an observation well or two that have their well screens able to draw in water from two different aquifers simultaneously. This is best accomplished by having your observation well located very close to a “window” between the two aquifers. This “window” is actually an area where the clay or silt aquitard, which slows groundwater flow vertically between aquifers, is thin or even totally absent allowing the higher and lower aquifer to be in direct contact. Then an alleged lower water elevation reading will give a much higher reading based upon the water elevation of the connected upper aquifer. This higher reading can then be intentionally misinterpreted as showing the direction of groundwater flow being the opposite of what it truly is.

More specific to the Canagagigue Creek is the following. Dioxins, DDT compounds and PCBs tend to migrate within living bodies to the fattiest areas. This is true for wildlife as well as human beings. In the case of fish the highest concentrations of these contaminants are found in both the liver (which attempts to filter them) and in the belly or other fatty areas. So guess exactly where the Ontario Ministry of Environment sample fish they have collected for analysis? Skinless, lean dorsal fillets are preferred.. Absolutely no fatty areas or livers.

Next we have one of my favourites. Normally core samplers, which are hollow tubes, are pushed into the bottom of creeks and the sediment samples are then held inside the core sampler as it is lifted clear of the water and set down on a table. The core sampler is opened up and there is the sediment sample in one long piece representing various depths below the bottom of the creek bed. Not so here in Elmira. It appears that Lanxess Canada and their consultants have again “adjusted the science according to their needs.” They have replaced core samplers with ordinary shovels. According to the Ministry of Environment's recent December critiques of the Draft Risk Assessment, this has occurred with most of the sediment samples taken in the Canagagigue Creek and presented in their Soil & Sediment Investigations. Therefore keep in mind that outside of living bodies DDT and dioxins tend to bond with soil fines. Hence fine sediments are the normal location to find these chemicals. Shovels however are used allegedly to break through “armouring” on the bottom of the Creek. Certain areas have stones and cobble on the bottom versus fine sediments. Regardless when you draw a shovel up from the bottom of the Creek through the water column the fines are washed away and only the stones, cobbles and coarse sediments are left. A polluter's paradise yet again.

Finally we have the use and misuse of Method Detection Limits (MDL). Basically laboratories have a lower limit concentration that they are able to consistently and accurately measure with the equipment at their disposal as well as other factors. The key is to always be able to measure at least as low as the health criteria of a contaminant. For example if benzene in water has a MDL of 4 parts per billion (ppb) and the Ontario health criteria is 5 ppb then any and all exceedances in water samples of the 5 ppb criteria will be detected. However if the MDL at the lab for whatever reason is 7 ppb. then any exceedances in the water sample of the health criteria from 5 to 7 ppb. will be shown as Non-Detect @7 ppb. Therefore what a wonderful method to both decrease the number of exceedances as well as of detections of a contaminant. I mentioned that the lowest limit that a lab can accurately and consistently measure is a factor of the equipment they are using as well as other factors. Those other factors can be “matrix interference” which simply means that the more other contaminants are mixed in the sample the more difficult it is for the lab to measure at it's lowest possible concentration. Or another factor is simply cost. The lab will charge a higher fee per sample if the customer wants to measure the absolute smallest concentrations possible. Think about that. If Lanxess want to save money they simply ask the lab for a higher number MDL . This costs them less plus produces more Non-detects and less exceedances of criteria.

These higher than necessary MDLs are enormously detrimental as they distort the data presented in the report. The MDL issues effect Sediments much more than they effect Soil samples. Basically Sediment criteria are much smaller than Soil criteria and hence detections and exceedances can be covered up much easier when the Method Detection Limits are for example .02 parts per million (ppm) which is considerably higher than the criteria for Lindane, DDD, DDE, DDT. In other words those contaminants in Sediments are the ones whose detections are most negatively affected by much too large MDLs.

There are two more significant matters which I would like to bring to your attention. The first is the fact that despite numerous requests decades ago there has never been any health studies done of either Elmira residents or of downstream Canagagigue Creek residents. My understanding is that there are 22 families living along the downstream Creek from Uniroyal/Lanxess as far as the Grand River over five miles away. I am shocked that a third party can produce an alleged scientific document assessing health risks to these residents while studiously ignoring health data that exists and is in the possession of our medical authorities. Our Old Order Mennonite neighbours also use the same health system that we do involving doctors, nurses and hospitals and I do not believe that their opting out of OHIP and paying cash instead, somehow makes their health records invisible to the appropriate authorities especially in light of the risks to their health from exposure to dioxins, DDT, mercury and PCBs.

The second significant matter is in regards to the fact that even honest science versus the quite frankly junk science, that Lanxess and their consultants have passed off on us, is unable to give us all the answers we would like. To date science has not been able to determine health criteria for either multiple contaminants simultaneously or for multiple routes of exposure simultaneously.

The multiple contaminants simultaneously refers to not just the four contaminants I listed in the previous paragraph but also literally the hundreds of others that Uniroyal/Lanxess have discharged over the decades. The multiple routes of exposure means exposure by breathing and inhalation combined with skin exposure to soils and sediments as well as ingestion of contaminants whether through milk or beef consumption from cattle grazing on contaminated Floodplain soils.

Now to get really serious think carefully about what our local downstream residents have lived through for the last 75 years and longer. They and their children and grandchildren have been exposed to the prevailing winds bringing solvents, dioxins, DDT and much more to them from Uniroyal/Lanxess as well as being exposed to more than 75 years of eating contaminated food from their own chickens and cattle combined with skin contact with chemicals attached to soils that end up in their gardens and childrens' sandboxes. I repeat there is absolutely no way for science to be able to determine health criteria for multiple simultaneous chemical exposures nor is there any way for science to determine health criteria for multiple simultaneous routes of exposure such as dioxin fumes in the air combined with handling dioxin contaminated soils combined with eating dioxin contaminated beef, chickens or fish. Then add in breathing benzene fumes, handling dioxin contaminated soils and eating DDT contaminated beef, chicken, eggs, milk and fish. And now for the final insult to our downstream neighbours, some non-medical, very well paid by Lanxess, folks in three piece suits are telling them that there are no unacceptable risks to their health.

Prior to giving you some “Where do we go from here?” suggestions I would like to briefly summarize. Uniroyal Chemical's on-site cleanup did not follow the Ministry of Environment's Control Order. DNAPLS or Dense Non Aqueous Phase Liquids in particular were covered up using grotesque manipulation and deception by the company with the Ministry enabling the coverup. On -site pumping and treating has generally failed over the years to achieve the company and their consultants Target pumping rates although they've now changed their story and state that gosh they were only suggestions and actually pumping at those Target Rates is optional.

So where do we go from here and what needs to be done? Dishonest brokers can no longer be in charge of the cleanup of Elmira and the Creek. This includes Lanxess Canada, the Ministry of Environment and Woolwich Township. The RAC & TAG committees are being shut down in favour of a committee called TRAC. Unfortunately while a rose by any other name can smell as sweet, nevertheless a horse apple by any other name still stinks. Changing names is the equivalent of rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. Other cleanup technologies in particular those involving source removal need to be seriously considered versus the usual lip service they get..Take the current biased and dishonest Risk Assessment of the Creek and throw it in the garbage. That's all it is worth. Real cleanup of the Creek needs to be done. Finally citizens be skeptical. You've been lied to for decades regarding the Elmira Water Crisis and that won't change over night. Ask for evidence and independent proof from Council and others. If our local media write stories about this meeting, TRAC or cleanup, please read those stories carefully!

Thank You for your attention.

Alan Marshall

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THE ELMIRA CLEAN UP IS STILL A SCAM

 Way, way back in the 1990s I put a large sign on the roof of my car and parked outside the municipal arena on Snyder Ave. The sign read "The Cleanup Is A Scam".  At the time I was referring to the current scam that was ongoing at the public UPAC (Uniroyal Public Advisory Committees) meetings. Most likely that would have been what eventually ended up being a decades long coverup of DNAPLS (dense non aqueous phase liquids) on the Uniroyal Chemical site. From time to time over the years I wondered if anybody thought that I was actually calling out the entire process and extensive, complicated coverup as no more than a public relations campaign.

Flash forward thirty years and here we are today. The groundwater is decades or more away from cleanup and the company are spending a small fortune however it's still on public relations, scamming the public, obfuscating everybody and pretending to actually care about the environment and all its' inhabitants. Last month's Monthly Progress Report is out and it's more of the same crap. Both on and off site pumping are way down from even the normal off-site 53 litres/second (all off-site wells) back in 2012. On-site wells (mostly PW5) is also way down and has been for TWO YEARS now! Upper Aquifer on-site wells continue to have very low pumping rates although I believe after years of this they have rebuilt a few of them. Hence January 2024's off-site pumping from all wells is an alarming 37 litres per second. That was grossly inadequate back in 2012 and at that time Chemtura publicly promised to TRIPLE the off-site pumping. Later they lowered that to DOUBLING the pumping rates. It's never happened. Don't hold your breathe expecting RAC, TAG or TRAC to raise a peep about this. Nobody wants to rock the boat and or embarrass the guilty parties. That's un Canadian don't you know!

It seems pretty clear to me that they were simply buying time. The polluter and all their fellow travellors whether governmental or not have enabled this gross deception and environmental failures. It is way past time to kick all the lying bastards out. 

WHAT WILL BE THE NEXT BIG LIE INFLICTED UPON ELMIREANS?

 I mean really it's time. Will they back Susan's slip about no cleanup of the groundwater and of the Creek? Or will they flat out "clarify" it by saying "Of course we will cleanup the groundwater and maybe the Creek if we are feeling good, given proper respect and encouragement and overall have our expensive butts placed on pedestals. Oh and we also require an award or two for our diligence in cleaning up this mess in due course. Maybe the next Big Lie will simply be more innovative excuses such as "The damn contaminants are hiding from us." or my favorite "We are doing the environment a favour by not disturbing the contaminants in the sediments and creekbank soils."

The good news for the liars is that they will have lots of support from their fellow travellors. Woolwich Township, the GRCA and the Region of Waterloo are highly unlikely to discover their backbones and put their feet down. After all they can and have hidden behind the Ontario Ministry of Environment (MECP) for decades and will wish to continue. It's one thing screwing the public who have relatively short memories but screwing each other, namely fellow government groups also most likely guilty of perfidious behaviour and obfuscation from time to time, is something altogether dangerous.

The last thing politicians and bureaucrats ever want is widespread disbelief and contempt towards the status quo, which maintaining is their raison d' etre. When citizens wake up and realize the extent of the misdirection and lying that goes on they will rebel. Let me say that currently the Waterloo Region District School Board (WRDSB) have so expertly shot themselves in the foot (Caroline Burjoski/Mike Ramsay) that it is unlikely they will even be asked to publicly join our local polluter apologists.     

COULD SUSAN"S BIZARRE WORDS HAVE BEEN A SLIP OF THE TONGUE???

I believe that a total of three people (including me) to date have confirmed that Susan Bryant stated that the Elmira Aquifers and the Canagagigue Creek will never be remediated or cleaned up. This is in reference to yesterday's post as well as to the Wednesday evening "Elmira Environmental Awareness Event".  But... it was suggested to me this morning that maybe Susan was actually trying to say that they'd never be cleaned up to the point of either being pristine or restored to their former glory. Well I don't know. Anything's possible I guess including that an old person like Susan made a verbal slip. I'd like to suggest that she's really old and over the hill except I think that she's the same age as myself! Oops!

I had forgotten how strong and powerful the Documentary (Sheba Films) was. Between Sebastian Seibel-Achenbach, Susan Rupert, Susan Bryant and myself we really put it to Uniroyal/Chemtura.  It is ironic that five Lanxess employees walked out of the evening early on in the Documentary showing, which was first. If they stayed they would have heard my harsh criticisms of what passes for "scientific" evidence and protocols by Lanxess and their consultants. Susan's comments would not have offended anybody. Interpret that as you wish.

Only one councillor attended the event namely Evan Burgess. I shook his hand both at the start and at the end and I give him credit for appearing.  I believe that he is trying very hard. There was also a former local Conservative candidate who  attended and I give her credit as well. My apologies for forgetting her name (Carline, Caroline ???). Thank goodness the local M.P.P. Mike Harris wasn't there. I'd have been hard pressed not to make a snotty comment. There I just made it!

 

SUSAN BRYANT PUBLICLY STATES THAT ELMIRA AQUIFERS & CANAGAGIGUE CREEK WILL NEVER BE CLEANED UP

 After the showing of the Documentary "Toxic Time Bomb" and after speeches from myself and Susan Bryant a question from the audience was sent my way namely "What is your gauge for success regarding the remediation in Elmira?" My response was NDMA and all chemicals in the Elmira Aquifers be reduced to below the drinking water criteria and the chemicals in the fish in the Creek also be reduced to below the Tissue Residue Guidelines. At that point Susan asked for the microphone and advised both myself and the audience that "The Elmira Aquifers will never be restored to drinking water standards nor will the Creek ever be properly remediated."  My response was that proper cleanup of both was possible and necessary but simply had not been seriously attempted to date.

The Rural Roots restaurant & beer hall (?) was packed last night! Congratulations to owner Roger Lichti as he and staff did a wonderful job in setting up the facilities and assisting in the success of the meeting. Further congratulations to Sadi Goertz for organizing the event and to Richard Clausi for working as the Master of Ceremonies (MC). I would be remiss not to also thank Ms. Bryant for her anecdotes and historical references to various attempts to inform downstream residents along the Canagagigue Creek.

I did not see any reporters or media present to all their shame. The Woolwich Observer happily took our money to advertise the event but then couldn't seem able to cover the public event. About five employees of Lanxess walked out during the early part of the showing of the Documentary "Toxic Time Bomb". Obviously the portrayal of their employer Lanxess Canada was not satisfactory to them. MC Rich Clausi I felt was extremely balanced and unbiased as he early on advised that Lanxess Canada were not directly guilty of the past dumping and spilling of toxic wastes into the ground and the Creek however they were liable and responsible for the cleanup as the current owners.

The public awareness event was a success and I personally enjoyed it all with the greatest enjoyment coming during the question and answer session at the end. Citizens were attentive and keen to learn and have their questions answered.