Thursday, March 28, 2024

PROPOSED FIRST AGENDA ITEMS FOR THE NEW WOOLWICH TRAC COMMITTEE

 

1.  Awards and plaques for all citizen members whether from Woolwich or not

2.  Awards and plaques for Lanxess Canada and the Ontario Min. of Environment (MECP)

3. Awards and plaques for the GRCA, Region of Waterloo, Woolwich Township

4.  Awards and plaques for Conestoga Rovers, GHD and Stantec for their efforts

5.  A special participation award from the federal government to be presented to all by Prime Minister Trudeau

6.  A single group plaque for all those who have died from cancer in and around Elmira

7.  A single group plaque for all adversely affected wildlife in and around the downstream Canagagigue Creek

8.  Purchase of opaque glasses, nose and ear plugs for all TRAC members

9.  A national holiday celebrating the victory of private profits over public health

10.  An individual award each year for the polluter who best represents "The Triumph of Corruption, Deceit and Citizen Betrayal" in Elmira, Ontario 

Wednesday, March 27, 2024

HAS THERE EVER BEEN A 100% HONEST & ACCURATE TECHNICAL REPORT PRESENTED TO UPAC, CPAC, RAC/ TAG & THE PUBLIC?

 The answer is that I honestly don't know.  By the way yes I am specifically referring to technical reports presented by CRA, GHD, and a number of other consultants over the decades regarding the Elmira Water Crisis caused primarily albeit not solely by Uniroyal Chemical. Based upon the number of trees turned into paper one would almost assume that sometime in the last 32 years (Jan. 1992- March 2024) there has to be at least one completely honest report. By the way I'm not even counting typographical errors or honest mistakes merely the intentionally dishonest ones. 

The only way for me to be confident that there is one such report out there would be for me to start at the beginning and reread everything. Nope not going to happen. I did a tremendous amount of reading and review prior to writing my book:  " Elmira's Water Woes:  The Triumph of Corruption, Deceit and Citizen Betrayal".  I'm currently not prepared to either do that over again or to update my book right now. 

Certainly there are items about Elmira's grotesque contamination that I read outside of the public advisory committees. Hmm... yes that might be the place to start looking for full transparency.  I am skeptical that anything specifically written for UPAC, CPAC, RAC /TAG would be allowed into the public venue without some "editing".  Without some careful and judicious "softening" of the bad news and less careful and more injudicious beefing up of the good news. Gilding the lily if you will. After all what is the point of being completely in charge of the entire program if you can't make a few self-serving tweaks along the way? We all know that corporations can't lie. You have to be a human being to lie and boy has our species ever gotten "good" at that.   

Tuesday, March 26, 2024

THIRD IN THE RECENT TRILOGY SENT TO WOOLWICH COUNCIL: STROH DRAIN, DITCH & BERM


STROH DRAIN, DITCH & BERM (SDDB)


How many Woolwich councillors know what the Stroh Drain, Ditch & Berm is? What it means? How many of them have ever seen any part of it? The SDDB is a manmade ditch, dug by backhoe or excavator, that joins from further north with the natural spring that comes to the surface as groundwater and becomes what may be known locally as Martin's Creek and which discharges into the Canagagigue Creek very close to the in-ground, dug swimming pond known as Martin's Pond. 

What is/was the purpose of the SDDB? It was designed to drain the chemical swamp on the Stroh property that was the collection point for overflowing toxic waste pits on the Uniroyal side of the property line between Uniroyal and the Stroh farm. It was also possibly designed (i.e. the Berm) to minimize erosion of the soils in the low lying "sink" area of the Stroh farm. These soils were saturated for decades with Uniroyal Chemical dioxins/furans, DDT and so much more.  Prior to the SDDB this "sink" area could be readily flooded and scrubbed by the Canagagigue Creek and the surface soils and persistent organic pollutants (POPs) attached to them mobilized both in the spring floods as well as other large precipitation events. I wouldn't be much surprised if the Region of Waterloo, and the province of Ontario decided the lesser of the evils was to keep as much of the dioxins and more on the Stroh property rather than either remove them ($$$) or to allow them to be eroded into the Canagagigue, the Grand and further downstream through Waterloo, Kitchener, Cambridge, Brantford etc. That plan clearly has failed.

Decisions like this of course would take local Council's support and would not have been run by a highly skeptical local Elmira population. Lying and deception are politicians' first recourse when making sketchy environmental and other decisions that likely would not pass the transparency test much less the smell test. To this day the Ontario Ministry of Environment, Lanxess and Woolwich Township have refused proper soil testing in specific areas on the Stroh property. You will never find what you refuse to look for. Or quoting Saul Bellow again "A great deal of intelligence can be invested in ignorance when the need for illusion is deep."


Monday, March 25, 2024

HAVE RAC OR TAG EVER DISCUSSED DOWNSTREAM UNIROYAL CONTAMINATED FISH?

 Maybe just a little early on over the last 8  1/2 years. I mean really no one wants to embarrass anybody. It's all friends gathering together and no one wants to be the bad penny who raises awkward matters. Remember when your young cousin once asked her parents at a family gathering how come she was born only four months after they got married? Nobody wants that. Everyone appointed by Sandy goodie two shoes have to agree to be "nice". No intentionally rubbing a polluter's face for example with pictures of deformed fish much less children deformed by 2,3,7,8 TCDD (dioxin), the same toxin distributed throughout the Grand River watershed by Uniroyal Chemical initially and still leaking and migrating under Lanxess supervision. Fifty-four years since the ending of the blatant chemical discharges to open pits and ponds and despite annual floods and more we still have DDT, dioxins, mercury, PCBs exceeding all criteria in all media (sediments, soils, fish tissues etc.) the length of the downstream Canagagigue Creek all the way to the Grand River and beyond. 

No it's best to let sleeping dogs and dying fish be. Uniroyal/Lanxess have paid the Township enough (taxes, employment??) to demand an amnesty. Just because they haven't yet cleaned up their mess is no reason for Woolwich Township to dig in their heels and beg even for crumbs in the Creek cleanup. Be nice Woolwich residents. Your mayor has ordered it.

  

Saturday, March 23, 2024

SHAMELESS WOOLWICH INVITE CONTEMPT AS WELL AS WILMOT

 Maybe it's a truism that the worst of people are still human beings. Does that mean that despicable behaviour should be tolerated much less rewarded ? I think not. Perhaps gratuitous insults are not necessary each and every time one meets such offensive people including politicians. Fact is it's neither comfortable nor helpful to anyone to have a hate on 100% of the time.  It's probably not even healthy for the accuser no matter how blatant the misbehaviour of the politician, authority figure or other bullying individuals. Make no mistake those behaviours that I'm talking about are indeed bullying behaviours.

Look at the latest crap coming from both Wilmot Council and Region of Waterloo councillors. Oh we can't talk to you about expropriating your property because we've been told not to. Councillors allegedly are not allowed to speak to their own constituents about expropriating their homes and farms. BULLSH*T ! This is extreme bullying behaviour by non-transparent and unaccountable politicians. Lying to one's constituents is insulting, disrespectful and bullying behaviour by people hiding behind the power (including police) and authority of the state. 

Give these ignorant politicians the rest of the weekend to give their own heads a shake. This is neither Russia nor Haiti, it is Canada. After that if they won't talk to you then the rules of a civil, democratic country either apply to both the governed and the governing or to neither. If it's the latter then the aforementioned politicians may just as well pin a "Kick Me" sign on their backs. 

Friday, March 22, 2024

THE "NEW" TRAC IS REARRANGING THE DECK CHAIRS ON THE TITANIC WHILE DISPLAYING LIPSTICK ON A PIG

 TRAC is also sleight of hand. Woolwich, Lanxess and the MECP (Min. of Environment) are waving TRAC around with their right hand while they are furiously refusing to debate the facade that the pump & treat system has become. 

The on-site municipal aquifer pumping wells (PW4 & 5) have not made their Target pumping rates in over TWO YEARS!

The on-site Upper Aquifer Containment & Treatment System (UACTS) has been decreasing over the last five years. Normal pumping rates were from .9  l/sec to 1.2  l/sec for many years. Starting in July 2019 they began to slowly and consistently decrease with no intelligent explanation being given either to the public or at RAC & TAG. They have since been as low as .2, .3, .4   l/sec. Hence one can expect the leakage that they admit to plus more going from the extremely contaminated south-west corner of the Uniroyal/Lanxess site  into the Canagagigue Creek. 

The off-site containment & treatment system (OSCTS) consisting of W3R, W5A/B, W6A/B, W8, W9, E7 has also been hugely problematic. Their pumping rates are up and down like a toilet seat and have been for decades. 2019 wasn't a bad year for consistent pumping (not perfect) and 2015 - 2017 were very good. Keep in mind these "good" years however were at the Target Rate set prior to 2012 when in November of that year Conestoga Rovers and Chemtura publicly promised to TRIPLE the off-site pumping rates in order to achieve drinking water standards in the Elmira Aquifers by 2028.

They were as good as their word (sort of) in that they never Doubled much less TRIPLED their pumping rates and they have NOT achieved drinking water standards nor will they by 2028, 2050, 2060 ???

Woolwich Council has clearly embraced failure so just like RAC, TAG and now TRAC they won't talk about their failed pump & treat system.  Who knows, without source removal maybe adequate and consistent pump & treat might have worked.  Personally I doubt it but we will never know because we have allowed the polluter to under pump, by their own Target Rates,  for so very long. They will again allow garrulous, deferential bureaucrats, "experts", consultants, councillors and others to set the Agenda and determine who talks about what and when.  Do you actually believe you will accomplish anything in the public interest? Nobody can be that naive for this long . Or as Saul Bellow stated "A great deal of intelligence can be invested in ignorance when the need for illusion is deep." 

Thursday, March 21, 2024

FULL, DIRTY TRUTH OF TRAC REVEALED

 

O.K. I have seriously crapped on councillor Nathan Cadeau for his involvement and dare I say leadership  in the never ending Woolwich Township saga of pretend public consultation.  Seriously Nathan what do you expect when you are playing for the wrong team? Let me be clear ...by wrong team I mean the corrupt team and I don't use that term loosely. Despite the non-clarification Tuesday evening at the Woolwich  Council meeting, all was clarified late yesterday and in fact Nathan assisted in that clarification. At the moment the new TRAC (Totally Rotten & Corrupt) committee consists solely of all the old RAC and TAG apologists, twits, upwardly mobile professional or semi-pro consultants, bureaucrats, butt kissers and highly deferential and even more accomplished butt kissers. Oops I was advised that one of them, Wilson Lau (risk assessment expertise) has said no thank you to the TRAC invitation.

Here's where it gets hilarious. Yes the one CPAC member who has been on TAG for years and who did step up and declare in writing how "deficient" and overly "deferential" his TAG colleagues were to the Lanxess hired "experts" on RAC/TAG, is now back on TRAC. I view that as lipstick on a pig with TRAC being the pig. Meanwhile the other CPAC member who declared his wishes to be on TRAC has been told "no" (by Nathan) because "TRAC is not in a position to recruit beyond former TAG/RAC members at this time, as we are focused on the transition process."  The third CPAC member who had incorrectly been alleged to likely join TRAC responded in writing with "What a surprise! Transition process yah right!" It was clear to me early on that this individual was made of sterner stuff and less easily led down the garden path.

So what is the dirty truth of TRAC? They are NOT a new improved, more honest, less deferential group of individuals.  They are the very same folks over the last many years and they have done nothing but give credibility and support to the intentional poor cleanup, false promises and smooth talkers from Lanxess and the Ministry of Environment (MECP) as well as their client driven consultants. The whole "Review" of RAC & TAG was just one more smokescreen and pack of lies by Woolwich Township. Keep up the good work Nathan, Sandy and David B..