TRAC AGENDA ITEMS HAVE NEVER BEEN VIGOROUSLY DISCUSSED OR DEBATED

Why would they start now? The best case scenario is that Sebastian humbly requests the consideration of his fellow colleagues on TRAC and they as usual ignore him. He and Susan might also however advise that enough Woolwich citizens understand and are aware of the downstream "hotspots" (Agenda Item  8.2  ). Agenda Item 7. is very unlikely to receive much intelligent discussion although it should. I posted here about the last four months of utterly pathetic non-pumping both on and off site last week  (Tues. April 16/24). This Item  7. is allegedly going to seriously discuss just the last three months namely January, February and March. Item 6. is the 2023 Annual Monitoring Report which is just another cheerleading exercise in which Lanxess and friends brag about how much the plume has shrunk and how many kilograms of NDMA they have removed (or not).  They will studiously avoid how high above drinking water criteria concentrations continue to be throughout large areas of Elmira.

It's all for show folks. I have attended in the past in order to keep up to date on basically what they are not doing that they should be and to hear first hand any new lies or deceptions they are selling to the public. Woolwich Township are miles and decades past any semblance of honesty or transparency. All politicians at all levels are on board with the scam. 

    

FIRST TRAC (Totally Rotten & Corrupt) MEETING THIS COMING THURSDAY

 

Just to be clear my acronym above for Sandy and Lanxess's tame committee refers to those in charge namely the Chair, the mayor and the lair (lair is misspelled in order to rhyme with chair and mayor). Lanxess may be better ethically than Uniroyal Chemical or they may simply be better in public awareness and public relations. There are likely some decent, honest and informed persons on TRAC but rest assured they will never be in the majority even with the self-serving, biased setup leaving the mayor and Lanxess fully in charge.

The meeting will be held in Council Chambers at 6 pm. April 25, 2024. TRAC are literally an amalgamation of the well trained, well disciplined and totally deferential wimps, wimpettes and in over their heads fellow travellors who have made up RAC and TAG for the last few years. Also co-optees are welcomed along with conflict of interest queens (Pat is gone). Missing are the very best locally informed CPAC members who have more sense than to join this abomination of Lanxess cheerleaders and sycophants. Also missing are what should be the majority of honest, local citizens on this committee.

Interestingly even at this late date Sandy, Ramin, David, Jason, Esther and others in charge are still afraid of the public. Boy did they stay the hell away from the Elmira Environmental Awareness Event back in February. The only other access the public have to speak  and ask questions is at this grossly contrived,  proven public consultation failure even publicly stated by one of their own members (Sebastian). It's in the TAG Minutes possibly of February 2024 (Woolwich Township website) although I expect the Township to move it around or make it disappear eventually.  Honesty is never the best policy for professional liars and their supporters. 

POLITICS IS LIKE SEWAGE: THE YOU KNOW WHAT FLOATS TO THE TOP

 Today's Record advises us that "Kitchener development a threat to drinking water supply: report". Well news flash folks, pretty much all development threatens the drinking water supply.  Just the same as all population increases threaten our surface water (Grand River etc.) as larger and larger discharges of partially treated human sewage get discharged into them.

The major damage has been done long ago by industry throughout Waterloo Region. Most of our pollution laws are toothless tigers and those that aren't are rarely if ever enforced whether provincially (Min. of Environment-MECP) or by our local municipalities via by-laws or by complaints to the MECP. Salt on our roads has not helped nor excess fertilizers on our farm fields. 

The article in today's Record suggests that development in the south-west part of Kitchener will cover much of the Waterloo Moraine's recharge area. That is not a good thing although ensuring rain water from residential and industrial roofs goes into the ground versus into roadways and storm sewers can be improved. The repeated mention of a Lake Erie Pipeline is interesting. I view that as more of an excuse for the inevitable than as a threat that will only occur if development is situated on recharge areas. My belief is that regional politicians know that they have been  incompetent and complacent regarding groundwater protection despite their words to the contrary. 

Similar to the mess in Elmira they are looking for an exit strategy that will leave them untarnished and unblamed for the groundwater damage that has been done in Waterloo Region. See my two posts earlier this week regarding groundwater contamination (Mon. & Wed.).

LOTS OF TURNOVER ON RAC, TAG, AND THE RAGTAG TRAC

 RAC - Rotten And Corrupt

TAG - Totally Asinine Garbage

TRAC - Totally Rotten And Corrupt  

MECP - Ministry of Expanded Corporate Pollution

These acronyms will help you identify the players and their motivations. Wilson Lau has departed which I find peculiar. His expertise in Risk Assessment seemed apparent yet dare I think, hint or suggest that maybe, just maybe he found his expertise being used to support an unlikely supposition namely that there are no unacceptable risks in the downstream Canagagigue Creek? I do not know for sure but I feel better about him thinking this.

TAG lost Bill Barr, Joe Kelly and Katarina Richter over the years. Also Pat McLean departed but that was no loss whatsoever. Sebastian has stated his desire to resign numerous times over the years but to date still hasn't done it. Hydrogeologist Dustin Martin also walked a while back. I think others have also departed but I can't recall their names at the moment. Susan Bryant is neither a Canadian citizen nor a Woolwich Township resident but has brought credibility to TAG etc. to the point that she has received appropriate compensation for her long complicity. Eric Hodgins (former RMOW) is back after a long absence and seems intent upon maintaining the status quo.

I may not live long enough to see it but nevertheless am confident that eventually history will get it right. The above groups including mayor Sandy Shantz and CAO Brenneman will not be regarded well in long term hindsight. Their collegiality with the MECP, Lanxess, Chemtura, Crompton and Uniroyal Chemical will eventually be their undoing. The failures to protect the health of all Elmira and Woolwich residents and citizens as well that of the natural environment will be exposed and obvious. 

CLOSING THE GATE AFTER THE HORSE HAS BOLTED

 

In this case it's after the contaminated groundwater has left the property.  Yes it is the solvent contaminated groundwater including trichloroethylene, vinyl chloride , 1,4 dioxane and more beneath the Erb St. Landfill in Waterloo.  This contamination has been in the ground and groundwater literally for many decades.  It has also been denied for most of that time so what has changed? Politics and our population keeps skyrocketing mostly from students and immigrants hence the need for more drinking water. The Region of Waterloo have a well deserved reputation as leaders in groundwater protection. May I just add a small addendum to that? They are leaders in groundwater protection "after the horse has bolted".

Two problems. There are many known "windows" beneath the Erb St. Landfill allowing  both municipal leachate as well as industrial solvents to flow downwards past the natural clay barrier into our regional drinking water aquifer. There are also likely more unknown "windows".

Secondly "management practices" required to stickhandle, delay and minimize the negative effects are already being used by the Region to protect the St. Agatha Wellfield just west of the Landfill. They are being used and strongly being recommended to keep on using them which includes limiting the volume of pumping at the nearby St. Agatha Wellfield in order to reduce the water flow from beneath the landfill towards the wellfield. 

The three solvents listed above have all been found in Elmira's groundwater courtesy of both Uniroyal Chemical and Varnicolor Chemical. Back in the day both these companies and others used each and every landfill they could to dispose of their toxic wastes. 1,4 dioxane was unknown to me back in 1990 when it was identified in shallow soils on the Varnicolor site along with perhaps 100 other chemicals.  It has since been identified beneath the Ottawa St. Landfill and necessitated improved treatment at the Greenbrook Wellfield after it migrated to there.

Good news however. Many of the players involved in the decades long cleanup failure in Elmira, Ontario are also involved in protecting the Erb St. Landfill's reputation (& the Region's?). This would include the Region themselves, consultants CRA, GHD, Wilf Ruland, and Stantec. Now keep in mind Stantec's efforts have primarily been in regards to their very problematic claim that there are no unacceptable risks in the downstream Canagagigue Creek. Oh and of course our very own and highly unesteemed Ontario Ministry of Environment clearly have some jurisdiction and interest in protecting the provincial government from more bad publicity.

Maybe the guilty parties have decided it's almost soon enough to break the bad news to Waterloo Region residents that a Lake Erie Pipeline is about to be moved to the front burner.        

SO DIFFICULT TO UNDERSTAND THE FAILURE TO ACHIEVE GROUNDWATER CLEANUP IN ELMIRA, ONTARIO

 

NOT!

The pumping Target Rates have been in front of our eyes since 1998. These off-site Target Rates were to achieve BOTH hydraulic containment of the contaminant plumes hence preventing them from spreading in area as well as to slowly reduce the concentrations of the various toxic chemicals to below Ontario Drinking Water Standards. The on the Uniroyal site Target Rates were intended solely to contain the contaminant plumes on site. 

Consistency and reliability in pumping and treatment were required to achieve these goals. Uniroyal, Crompton, Chemtura , Lanxess, CRA and GHD have been totally incapable of keeping the systems up and running to their own Target Rates over the last 26 years hence the failure. The Ontario Ministry of Environment have rarely and barely even said "Tsk Tsk".  RAC, TAG and now TRAC will also do their best to ignore these failures and point their fingers elsewhere. TRAC members (i.e. RAC & TAG) rebranded  will go about business as usual begging for cleanup scraps along the Creek and  justifying the aquifer cleanup failure with a new "deadline" plus lots of rah, rah look how many kilograms of chemicals we removed from the aquifers last year. There will be no word as to how much new contamination has leaked off the former Uniroyal site into the aquifers beneath Elmira. 

Off-site Target pumping Rates  were approximately 53 litres per second in 2012. Currently they are  at 63.8  l/sec.  The total off-site pumping for the last four months (Dec.2023, Jan., Feb., March 2024) has been a ridiculous 42.4, 37.4, 28.5 and 44.9 litres per second.  GHD recommends in writing that actual pumping rates equal or exceed  their Target Rates.  

Hydraulic Containment also known as Pump & Treat or Pump & Dump is the cheapest and least effective remediation possible for contaminated sites.  These never ending pumping failures have been going on since the beginning. I no longer believe that they are unintentional. Lanxess are saving money every month that this crap goes on.  Woolwich Township and TRAC will serve as their cheerleaders.  

IS THE REGION'S PUBLIC DISHONESTY ABOUT OUR GROUNDWATER GOING TO CHANGE ?

 "Source water protection" has a nice ring to it. As does "Country side line".  Also "aquifer recharge areas" and the provincially mandated, several years old now, long term planning to protect the Region of Waterloo's groundwater. I suggest that just as the "Country side line" has been exposed as a fraud in Wilmot Township, the other terms are also mostly smoke and mirrors.

The Region of Waterloo have been playing musical chairs with our drinking water wells for decades now. Cambridge in particular has a number of  industrially contaminated sites that have adversely affected their groundwater. Hence drinking water wells when pumping draw in groundwater from great distances away including changing the natural groundwater flow direction. This "management practice" of operating pumping wells for short periods of time (eg. six months) and then shutting them down and restarting another well has even been admitted to at public CPAC meetings in the past.

  In other words our regional authorities have been knowingly pumping from industrially contaminated aquifers for decades. Early on (late 70s & early 1980s) there was concern in Elmira when it was admitted that yes the regional aquifer supplying drinking water from the north and south wellfields was located directly under the Uniroyal Chemical plant. Now of course all our politicians and fellow travellors jumped in to Uniroyal's defence  with a myriad of lies and falsehoods such as there is an impenetrable clay layer between the aquifer and the ground surface as well as well the south wellfield is far too distant from Uniroyal for any contaminants to travel that far.

Thirty-four years ago there was a public scandal regarding liquid chemical wastes as well as semi solid wastes being sent to the regional landfill in K-W from Varnicolor Chemical via fraudulent lab reports showing that they were non-hazardous. Yours truly had tipped off both the Region as well as the media. So embarrassing  for the Region. That is the reality likely of all our former landfills as industries paid both above and below the table including bottles of whiskey to MOE officers as well as landfill supervisors. 

Right now as we speak the Erb St. Landfill is leaking leachate into the regional aquifer right beneath them that supplies drinking water to the St. Agatha wells as well as to downgradient wells in Waterloo and Kitchener at various wellfields. The Region of Waterloo are also using "management" practices to attempt to mitigate the extent of contamination in our drinking water wells caused by the Erb St. Landfill. Claims that nobody knew better than to locate that landfill directly above the regional aquifer in 1972 are ludicrous. Further claims that nobody knew anything about leachate collection in 1972 are also ludicrous.  Our municipal and regional politicians have always cheaped out on the important stuff such as sewage treatment and clean drinking water in favour of grandiose projects to attach their names and reputations to such as the LRT.