INCESTUOUS GOVERNMENT/POLLUTER RELATIONSHIPS

Like two peas in a pod, Occidental Petroleum Corp. and the state environmental agency claim that the Love Canal wastes are contained. They claim that the groundwater is routinely monitored and that nothing is leaking. Maybe that's true and maybe not. What is true is that the authorities are flying by the seat of their pants. Science and engineering do not and never have had full knowledge of the full range of chemicals released nor do they even begin to test for all of them. If you test for twenty of them and everything is good you can't categorically say that something else isn't present whether in the groundwater or the soil. Today's Waterloo Region Record carrys this story "New Love Canal lawsuits emerge".

New health issues are arising from residents who were drawn back by below market prices on homes. These issues may be from direct or indirect contact with chemicals dumped by Hooker Chemical decades ago. The indirect contact could even be similar to the Bishop St. disaster in Cambridge, Ontario where vapour intrusion from Trichloroethylene contaminated groundwater caused illnesses and deaths. Regardless the politicians, government agencies, polluting companies and their consultants all closed ranks decades ago in Love Canal and proclaimed everything fixed. In a pig's eye it's fixed. Perhaps it's fixed the same way as Elmira is fixed after NDMA and oh so much more got into our groundwater. Funny thing it's the same consultants who developed pump & treat (hydraulic containment) at the Love Canal who were hired by Uniroyal/Chemtura to do an equally inadequate job here in Elmira. Go figure.