HOW MUCH DID WOOLWICH COUNCIL & FRIENDS LEARN THROUGH 2015 and 2016?

 

Well they certainly learned that they are not bulletproof. They learned that their disgusting and unethical and even illegal behaviours have consequences. They were investigated by the Ombudsman, the Integrity Commissioner, MECAC, provincial and Superior Courts in Kitchener and the media. Likely the media hurt the worst. Notice that councillors Scot Hahn and Mark Bauman never ran again for council and Mr. Hahn even resigned in mid term.  Mayor Sandy Shantz generally skated through all the investigations of bad behaviour and poor decision making although enough of you know what stuck to her during the process. As it should. Her hands were dirty.

From improperly held in camera council meetings to attempts to deny citizens their right to speak to Council and right on up to ridiculously stupid and lazy attempts to bypass the Municipal Elections Act regarding campaign expenses; councillors behaved like third world, bush league little despots. And got caught! Over and over again.

Woolwich Council back then were way too big for their britches. They through manipulation and lying along with Chemtura and the Ministry of Environment got rid of the best CPAC (Chemtura Public Advisory Committee) there ever was.  They did this to protect and enable Chemtura's (later Lanxess's) cleanup failures in Elmira. CPAC on a monthly basis was roasting the the Ministry (MOE) and Chemtura for their lying, deceit and manipulation in avoiding proper ground and surface water cleanup. The Woolwich Observer as well as the K-W Record not to mention CKCO-TV plus radio stations may have been light on pollution coverage but they just ripped dogpatch (Woolwich Twn.) over and over again for their myriad of political and ethical failures as mentioned above.

LANXESS, MECP & WOOLWICH DEFRAUDED THE PUBLIC?

 Hmm is defrauded above  the proper term? Certainly they have lied, deceived and generally treated the public with contempt. Does any of that pass whatever legal test is required to make such a claim? How would I know, I'm neither a lawyer nor a flakking politician appointed judge. 

Back in 2014 CPAC asked me what single issue was so serious and blatant that they should focus upon it. After careful consideration I told them that there were two issues of huge but significantly different importance and in my opinion either one was worthy of CPAC's focus. The two issues were DNAPLS still on site (& off) as well as the entire east side properties namely the Stroh and Martin farms. We ended up pursuing the east side contaminated properties which both infuriated and terrorized Chemtura/Lanxess, the MECP  and Woolwich Township big shots. 

To this day there has NOT been anything even vaguely resembling a serious investigation of the levels of contamination on those two properties courtesy of Uniroyal Chemical. The pathways are there, are obvious and clear. Dioxins, DDT, NDMA and likely the whole suite of Uniroyal toxic liquid wastes flowed both above and below ground surface onto the Stroh and Martin properties. I expect that the Stroh property is the worst of the two.

Not to worry though. Don't you know that all technical problems merely require political efforts to be resolved? This resolution of course favours the well connected, the well off and their friends. It does nothing for the environment, the majority of local citizens or the wildlife. As usual they are sacrificed for the benefit of the few.  The Elmira By-Pass will go up the east side combined with commercial development. The whole idea is to bury as much as possible and hope that erosion, flooding and natural contaminant migration will be limited. Afterall our authorities, with greed and malice aforethought, have been doing that for decades without a care in the world.  So far no one has gone to jail and as long as developers, politicians, their polluter friends and other assorted riff raff play by their personal rules versus the law, all will continue unbothered by the damage and harms they inflict upon the rest of us.   

TWO UPCOMING TRAC DATES ALTHOUGH THE FIRST MAY BE CANCELLED

 The two original dates were October 10 and November 14 of this year. Now I do recall some discussion of October 10 being too early and the alleged public consultation body are awaiting  on (as always) some report from the MECP. So please pay attention say in next week's Woolwich Observer and if there isn't a Notice for the Thursday October 10/24 meeting then likely it's been cancelled.

The primary Agenda items these days are Lanxess and the Ontario MECP putting lipstick on their pig. Their pig is of course the utter and complete failure of RAC, TAG and belatedly TRAC to achieve drinking water standards by 2028 in the Elmira Aquifers. Obviously the prime responsibility rests with Lanxess and the MECP but Sandy Shantz is the major architect of the removal of the best CPAC there ever was back in September 2015. Hence the last nine years have been a total waste of time as RAC, TAG and now TRAC continue to express their love and devotion for corporate polluters, and corrupt regulators with only occasional mews of concern combined with Sebastian's recent couple of body blows to these three groups. Calling them deferential and Lanxess's consultants the equivalent of client driven as Sebastian did should happen at each and every meeting thus letting the public know that the rosy propaganda is not shared by all. 

Further lipstick on a pig includes a new Control Order from the MECP which heaven forbid likely will be no more enforceable or serious than the last ones. Control Orders are introduced with fanfare and then watered down to the polluter's convenience when their is less public outrage and supervision ongoing.

Further lipstick will include definitions of what drinking water standards in the Municipal Upper and Municipal Lower Aquifers actually will mean.  Maybe they will even allow allegedly "treated" water to be reinjected back into the aquifers.  Perhaps select wells in the Elmira North and South Wellfields will be put back into operation and as the Region of Waterloo do in Cambridge they can play musical wells by shutting down those nearest contaminant plumes and pump water for use from others. As the plume slowly shifts towards the pumping wells then they can be shut down and others started up.

I have reason to believe that new remediation is at the least being discussed. While I have no reason to doubt that proper groundwater remediation exists I have strong doubts that Lanxess or the MECP have any serious will to actually spend money and do the required work.

This is typical cosmetic nonsense of the last three and a half decades. It's all about managing the media, the citizen opposition and the truth. Propaganda is lying to the public and our authorities have had decades of practice.

THREE SPEAKING ENGAGEMENTS ABOUT ELMIRA'S NON-CLEANUP THIS YEAR

 I view this as a very positive sign that the message is getting out there despite the best (perverted) efforts of Lanxess, the MECP and their fellow travellors.  Last spring of course we had the public meeting held here in Elmira that was attended by 70 people.  Rich Clausi was our Master of Ceremonies and Sadi did all the work around organizing both the venue (Rural Roots) and bringing out Elmira citizens. There were two guest speakers of which I was one. Then this summer I spoke to the retired wing (Kit.) of the OSSTF (Ont. Secondary School Teachers Federation.). That also went very well . Finally my third speaking engagement is about a month away and it too is quite local.

I have been pleasantly amazed at how understanding and unfortunately resigned citizens are in regards to governmental corruption. Citizens know that they are being lied to on a myriad of topics every day of the week by our politicians at every level. Convincing them has not been a problem as they've already come to this conclusion on their own. 

CREATING YOUR OWN REALITY

 One perfect, well known example is that of Donald Trump. He and the Republican Party haven't just created a hero, a bigger than life, fictional politician who admires Mussolini, Putin, Orban, Erdogan and other world leaders (?)  o.k. world despots but an actual myth around Mr. Trump. He allegedly is the only one who can unite America and make it great again. Or some such bull#@*%. 

Uniroyal/Crompton/Chemtura and now Lanxess have created a similar myth. Their myth is that the cleanup of Elmira's air, waters and soils are and always have been  in good hands and under control. This false myth is obvious when 35 years after the November 1989 Elmira Water Crisis our contaminated aquifers aren't even close to being drinkable  (NDMA  MU  .091 ug/l     ML  1.61 ug/l) average concentrations and chlorobenzene average concentrations are    MU  123 ug/l   and ML   173 ug/l . Now keep in mind these are all in ug/l which equals parts per billion (ppb)  and the drinking water standards are .009 ppb for NDMA and 80 ppb for chlorobenzene.   (MU = Municipal Upper   ML = Municipal Lower.)

Hence NDMA's currently on average concentration is between TEN and  SIXTEEN HUNDRED times greater than the Ontario Drinking Water Standards depending on which drinking aquifer is examined.

Chlorobenzene's currently on average concentration is between ONE & A HALF and TWICE times greater than the Ontario Drinking Water Standards depending on which drinking aquifer is examined. 

Of course the professional liars haven't mentioned the other hundred or more toxic chemicals also in our drinking water aquifers. Not to worry they say, those too will eventually be removed.  Sure they will along with NDMA and chlorobenzene in another 30 to 60years depending on the quality of the lying between now and then.

BAD ADVICE?

Recently it's been suggested to me that I focus my attention and wit more upon the Ontario Ministry of Environment (MECP) and less upon Woolwich Township. Basically the answer is no. The MECP certainly are corrupt by various definitions of that word. They are also cowardly and have no backbone for a fight with any multi-national corporations who are big enough to hit back, hard. They trounced Varnicolor Chemical in Elmira only after they realized that myself, Rich Clausi, Susan Rupert and Ted Oldfield were taking no prisoners. We kicked Varnicolor's butt as well as the then Ministry of Environment (MOE)  publicly and regularly. We humiliated the MOE over and over again and with the media's help had some calling for a Public Inquiry into the Ontario MOE.

I believe that I focused on Uniroyal/Crompton/Chemtura and the MOE for almost twenty years. Only later on did I actually realize how corrupt and back stabbing the Township was. They were aiding and abetting the polluter throughout including elevating co-opted individuals and undermining those (moi) who opposed the polluter and the MOE. I recall a private meeting with Woolwich Council in the spring of 2008 when I asked councillor Sandy Shantz, who attended CPAC meetings, straight up in front of her colleagues if she had EVER seen or heard me criticize a fellow CPAC member ?  The liar hummed and hawed until she finally mumbled something to the effect of gosh she wasn't sure. I knew then that the fix was in. I had sat beside Sandy at CPAC and yes I was hell on wheels with Chemtura and MOE liars and deceivers but I had NEVER publicly at CPAC criticized or insulted a fellow CPAC member. 

After that Sandy and other corrupt councillors were fair game and still are. They have long enabled the lies and deception fed to the public by the polluter and their fellow travellors. 

 

THE LACK OF MORALS AND ETHICS INVOLVED WITH CORPORATE GAMESMANSHIP

 Uniroyal, Crompton, Chemtura and Lanxess are the corporate names of the immoral corporations polluting Elmira, Ontario.  Is there actually a morally good corporation out there that puts the public interest before their own? If so their CEO and staff would soon be out of a job. Shareholder profits, long or short term are their motivation, not moral goodness.

Gamesmanship isn't so much about playing with the rules or by the rules. It's about manipulating people. It's about carefully determining who potential friends are who can be enticed in your direction and also who the serious opposition will be. It's all about uplifting "friends" and cutting down those who oppose your contrary to the public interest, behaviour. Uniroyal knew that once Susant Rupert had left Elmira that they might be able to make some quiet inroads into APT Environment . Boy that has saved them hundreds of millions of dollars in cleanup costs. 

They have continued co-opting politicians and others. They have consolidated since September 2015 their control of the hilariously designated public consultation bodies from RAC/TAG to TRAC. They have attempted to infiltrate persons past and present into the real opposition. Their gamesmanship is disgusting. But then so is their pollution and their lies around it.