VARIOUS ERRORS, LIKELY ERRORS AND OR EVEN MINOR MISUNDERSTANDINGS IN RECENT LETTERS TO THE EDITOR REGARDING ELMIRA'S WATER CRISIS

 

A writer living in Listowel  stated that her husband hauled toxic sludge from Uniroyal Chemical's waste ponds in Elmira to the United States for disposal at the start of the cleanup. I am aware of most if not all of the alleged cleanups done but have no knowledge of toxic wastes being taken to the U.S.  I can not categorically claim that she is incorrect but am very curious about the location where they went.

A couple of letter writers jumped on the Susan Bryant bandwagon and praised her efforts.  It makes a good story but is not accurate. Susan Bryant and Sylvia Berg  made a private deal outside the purvue of the other APTE coordinators with Uniroyal Chemical. In exchange for APTE dropping their opposition to Conestoga Rovers pathetic DNAPL investigation around 1992-93 followed by the Ministry of Environment's letter of December 10, 1993 letter accepting this report, the two ladies received promises of future efforts to clean the Canagagigue Creek as well as promised lifetime invitations to all public meetings regarding cleanup plans etc.  In other words permanent seats at the table.  For this and the expected public accolades they sold out both their souls and their citizen colleagues. To date there is no cleanup whatsoever in the downstream Canagagigue Creek.

Dr. Richard Jackson wrote an excellent Letter To The Editor describing the need for and purpose of the warning signs along the Creek. He stated "However these contaminated sediments were subsequently flushed downstream and dispersed into the Grand River watershed." This statement very well may be accurate however without further statements it could be misconstrued as suggesting that the contaminated sediments are all gone. Sediments are constantly being deposited as well as being eroded in creeks especially during spring floods and other high flow times. The history of data from the Canagagigue Creek shows concentrations and locations to a certain extent changing over time. This is normal and most observers understand that the toxic chemicals such as DDT and dioxins (and others) continue to erode from both the former Uniroyal site as well as from downgradient and downstream areas impacted by Uniroyal's decades of operation and pollution migration. 

KUDOS TO LUISA D'AMATO AND TO CITIZENS SENDING LETTERS TO THE EDITOR REGARDING THE FAILED ELMIRA WATER CLEANUP

 

Firstly despite the title above these are two different but serious issues. Today's K-W Record has an excellent Opinion piece by Luisa describing the abhorrent behaviour of the Waterloo Region District School Board in improperly punishing an elected trustee for vigorously doing his job.  They banned trustee Mike Ramsay from attending either public or private trustee meetings for three months because he publicly criticized the Board's stupidity in the Caroline Burjowski matter

The second matter is in regards to a four page long, overall very good article by Record reporter, Terry Pender.  Mr. Pender interviewed Lanxess Canada staff and many of their friends and fellow travellors.  I do not blame him for not knowing that everybody he interviewed were all on the same team as he did not have a program so indicating. Partly because of that but as well do to the simple fact that most of the participants are newbies such as Hadley Stamm and Nathan Cadeau and a few older ones may well have simply forgotten basic facts from twenty and thirty years ago plus. 

The Letters To The Editor included a woman from Listowel whose husband died as a result of taking toxic sludge from the former Uniroyal Chemical to off-site disposal. Another woman wrote that there was an "...utter lack of responsibility from industry and all levels of government.". She also appropriately puts Lanxess Canada mouthpiece Hadley Stamm in her place. A former Record reporter also sent in a Letter in which he mentioned Varnicolor Chemical, another serious polluter in Elmira. Only this year have we been advised what I have known for many years that Varnicolor added at least a half dozen chlorinated solvents to the Elmira drinking water aquifers. Finally Dr. Richard Jackson, the first Chair of the Technical Advisory Group (TAG) explained clearly why the warning signs along the Canagagigue Creek were placed there by Woolwich Township against the wishes of our corrupt Ontario Ministry of Environment. Yes Woolwich's mayor was playing politics but also she was correct in doing so. The Creek is badly contaminated and so are the fish despite five minute wonder, councillor Nathan Cadeau's claim otherwise. Another gentleman from Cambridge also contributed a Letter and as well congratulated both Terry Pender and the Record for their efforts.

MAY WE RENAME THE WRDSB KKK STANDING FOR KANGAROO KOURT OF KANADA?

 

Such a pack of total rectums.  O.K. I have just now read the 42 page report by the Integrity Commissioner (ADR Chambers-B. Bresner) . After 3 1/2 years the Waterloo Region District School Board have finally released it . It concerns trustee Mike Ramsay's behaviour and it is on-line at the WRDSB website albeit only thanks to a determined citizen who went through the Freedom of Information Act in order to get it released. It would be an exposure of my past contempt for the WRDSB's behaviour to suggest that they maliciously, intentionally and strategically refused to release it for so long purely for selfish, self-serving purposes. Therefore also looking at the WRDSB's penchant for spending taxpayers money taking citizens and parents to court when their misbehaviour is challenged I won't suggest such a thing. By the way today's Woolwich Observer newspaper has a large story on this three year plus belated report from the Integrity Commissioner.

Now without a doubt there are competing priorities between the WRDSB's Code of Conduct and the Charter of Rights and Freedoms as well as with the Education Act and perhaps even with the Canadian Constitution. The Integrity Commissioner also advised the Board of Trustees that individual Integrity Commissioners from different districts and educational areas were quite likely to interpret those priorities between various pieces of legislation differently although it would seem to me that the law of the land should far precede stupid Codes of Conduct written by trustees of varying degrees of  intelligence much less ethics. This comment about "stupid" Codes of Conduct was simply to avoid me referring to "stupid" trustees which would have been rude and possibly invoked the legal wrath of some unnamed hypothetical School Board whose last name starts with B (as in ...Board). 

Further weirdness about this entire process is that the Integrity Commissioner merely restates the facts and does not render a Recommendation. Wow! Hence he's relayed the facts which for example I find to be some serious criticisms and or allegations by trustee Mike Ramsay that should have been investigated versus the investigation of Mr. Ramsay's right as a trustee to state them in the first place. Also it is my experience that Codes of Conduct are routinely weaponized for the mere purpose of intimidating and shutting down proper and appropriate disagreement and dissent. 

So if the Integrity Commissioner doesn't make Recommendations then who does? Simple that goes back to the alleged majority of potentially idiot trustees who may have screwed up big time in the first place and simply want a token "third party" to review their stupidity but leave them in control to pretend that the Integrity Commissioner backs their alleged stupidity. Especially leaves them in control by not making any Recommendations.

My final Recommendations: Throw out Codes of Conduct  Throw out Integrity Commissioners   Throw out most of the WRDSB trustees at the next election if not sooner   Tell our fat assed courts to GD do their jobs and render a decision regarding Caroline Burjowski and her mistreatment by the Board and their Chair      Oops I should have added the word alleged in there. It's way too easy for alleged professional liars and their fellow travellors to get the courts involved when honest citizens speak truth to power. These alleged professional liars behave that way because they have lots of taxpayers money at their disposal which allegedly they can spend as they see fit.

  

ARE THE CHICKENS COMING HOME TO ROOST FOR BAD GOVERNANCE THROUGHOUT WATERLOO REGION ?

 

Well at first blush it sure seems so. Todays Waterloo Region Record advises us that the provincial Conservative government under Doug Ford is about to lower the boom locally. The front page story is written by Luisa D'Amato and is titled "There's much chatter about Ford changing local government model". Luisa suggests that some of this has already started with local school boards on notice that trustees positions may be drastically changed or eliminated.  Thank God for that as the public board (WRDSB) have been making asses of themselves for years now including attacking their own trustees (Mike Ramsay & others) as well as attacking their own teachers (Caroline Burjowski) for following the Board's own rules by speaking to them as a formal Delegate.  The province have also announced that local and regional Conservation Authorities are in the cross hairs as they may all be removed in favour of one overarching Conservation Authority. While I have less ammunition as to the current state being pathetic I at least do know that their membership is primarily made up of municipal councillors who don't know sh*t from shinola. Also their (Grand River Conservation Authority) local nickname has long been the Grand River Construction Authority. The GRCA among other stupidities actually approved Severin Argenton's (of Varnicolor Chemical infamy) application  to build a solvent tank farm on Lot 91 in Elmira on the Canagagigue Creek floodplain. 

Now Ford and the Conservatives are strongly suggesting that the combination of three cities (Kitchener, Waterloo, Cambridge) and their separate municipal governments are wasteful, overlapping and redundant. At least they are wasteful when you have a Regional government above all three doing its' thing. Well again Regional government certainly have not endeared themselves over the last three years with their gross failures in both accountability and transparency regarding the 700 acres land collection going on in Wilmot Township. Personally I've been appalled at regional government for their abandonment of honesty and transparency regarding the Elmira Water Crisis over the last three and a half decades. Basically they've let Dogpatch (Woolwich Twn.) run the show which they have done by delegating all authority and responsibility to the polluter (Uniroyal & successors) and the the province (Min. of Environment).

Hmm interesting how both this provincial government (Conservative) and all the rest (i.e. Liberal ) have done little or nothing environmentally or human health appropriate for local Elmira citizens.  Maybe the current provincial government criticizing lower tier governments and agencies is simply a classic case of the kettle calling the pot black.

HERE WE GO AGAIN BACK TO THE NATIONAL MEDIA ADVISORY COUNCIL

 

Hoping I've got the correct full name above. If not then the K-W Record can come after me for the mistake if for example it is just National Media Council for example. So I guess I want my cake and to eat it too. I'm very glad that the Record wrote that prodigious article on November 15/25 but am disappointed in the number of unnecessary factual inaccuracies involved as I've listed here over the last couple of weeks. I'm happy because the Record have informed the public that this environmental crisis still has not been resolved after 36 years! That lack of resolution is pathetic and every tier of our political governance should be ashamed from municipal, regional, provincial and federal. 

The reason for all the errors is fairly simple. The reporter Terry Pender doesn't know the good guys from the excrement. Is that a little harsh perhaps? No not at all. The excrement literally have destroyed health and lives over the decades by hiding behind the lack of a health study plus the shared culpability of  Uniroyal Chemical, their successors, the Ontario Ministry of Environment,  Woolwich Council and Regional Council. I'm giving the Feds a pass on culpability regarding Uniroyal's actions through the 50s, 60s,  70s,  80s and 90s. I think that since then they should have stepped in whether they think so or not.

The National Media group found in my favour regarding the last complaint I sent them about a Uniroyal Chemical story dealing with Agent Orange. This one has far more errors and inaccuracies and while several errors are relatively minor they nevertheless are unnecessary. Hopefully the Record will realize that there is not unanimity here in Elmira regarding Uniroyal/Lanxess Canada behaviour and decision making and will interview the dissenters as well.       

POLITICIANS ARE LINING UP TO PROTECT CITIZENS FROM DIOXIN CONTAMINATED MILK, BEEF & MAPLE SYRUP

 

Hmm is that title what they call clickbait? Let me clarify. Politicians are lining up at the doorways and exits to get out of town. They are lining up behind bigger and badder politicians for protection. They are lining up at lawyers' offices to see if they can declare lawfare upon myself for speaking out against their ongoing environmental and political coverups in Elmira, Ontario. Hence yes I am guilty just now of producing a clickbait headline above. Sorry and before FatBerry from Guelph continues his kindergarten trolling comments let me advise him that just like the last time I have a list of his ongoing written bullsh*t going back months.  If the police and your wife were unimpressed with you last time how do you think they will be this time? 

Back on topic and past housekeeping matters I can advise how many municipal councillors, regional councillors, TRAC members, MECP staff, Lanxess staff & consultants, Mike Harris M.P.P. and media have responded to date. That would be exactly zero. There have been local citizens however phoning and e-mailing which is helpful.

Apparently the likelihood of DDT, Dioxins and more still poisoning our food supply is of little interest to the guilty parties. Call it a conspiracy of silence if you wish. Yes by the way each of those groups listed above have been e-mailed with a copy of that days Elmira Advocate posting. Clearly they are all obedient little boys and girls refusing to engage with me because they've been ordered not to.  In my lifetime I have witnessed the slow death of democracy.  Today's Record even describes the results of so called "Strong Mayor" legislation put out by Premier Doug Ford. One person on municipal council (mayor) can over rule four, five or six councillors depending on the size of council.

Smart councillors locally are already planning their exit strategies. Poor governance can go a long way until it hits a crisis beyond their best liars ability to manage.

WHAT ABOUT LOCALLY PRODUCED MAPLE SYRUP?

 

Frankly it was a chemist who recently described the Elmira Maple Syrup Festival as the elephant in the room. His description suggested that the tree sap is magnified in concentration by about fourty times during the sap to syrup process and hence possibly so would any toxic contaminants present.  I only vaguely recall discussions around the Maple Syrup Festival decades ago . My recollection is that the concerns were that tourists and visitors might stay away based more upon fear and confusion than any real health concerns.

That being said was there ever any serious study or determination that concluded that locally produced Maple Syrup for sale at the Festival was safe and free of Uniroyal toxic chemicals? Well I know that if there was I sure never saw it and I've never turned down reading any kind of technical reports regarding Uniroyal and Elmira issues. I can also state confidently that various local authorities seemed far more concerned with subjective items such as real estate prices than with objective or scientific matters pertaining to health. Former Mayor Bob Waters certainly did his best to dispel fear and instill confidence in Woolwich and Elmira even at the height of the NDMA fear.

Similarly the Region of Waterloo and Ken Seiling seemed intent upon avoiding panic or public expressions of anger towards Uniroyal or the Ontario Ministry of Environment. Various excuses were floated very early on some of which turned out to be ridiculous such as the grease in the pumps for the drinking wells was the source of the NDMA. Wally Ruck of Uniroyal Chemical will remain famous for his statement that NDMA was not in Uniroyal's vocabulary thus falsely it turned out suggesting that just like the Ont. M.O.E., they had never heard of it before.

There was a lot of lying and bulls*it going around . Uniroyal Chemical did publicly and repeatedly state that they weren't the only source of contaminants to the Elmira drinking water aquifers. They then turned around later and accepted full responsibility for all the drinking water contamination. This likely was a major part of their sweetheart deal with the Min. of Environment who sure as hell didn't want to admit their negligence and failures to properly monitor Elmira manufacturers, chemical or otherwise. Eventually Nutrite (Yara) accepted blame for adding ammonia to the drinking aquifers and Varnicolor Chemical was just named this year, 36 years after the fact as a contributor of six chlorinated solvents to the drinking aquifers.  

So is it possible that trees were and are tapped for sap in groundwater contaminated areas around Elmira.? Possible for sure  but who's ever going to admit to it?