CREEK: RAC meeting hears that concerns linger

wider group of interested stakeholders who advise and keep informed on the chemical contamination in Elmira.

Lau says these questions will be included in the committee’s comments on the draft risk assessment to Lanxess.

At previous meetings, Lau expressed concern about the assumptions made regarding the use of the land by the Mennonite families who live along the creek. This includes eating food produced directly from the land like garden produce, eggs, poultry or livestock.

“We are in the process of preparing the Technical Advisory Group’s comments that will request some additional analysis of the existing data to ensure our concerns are comprehensively addressed,” said TAG chair Tiffany Svensson in an email, adding the group will be submitting these comments to Lanxess in the next four to eight weeks.

Ministry of Environment staff are expected to submit comments to Lanxess by the end of May.

The next steps Lanxess will take include waiting for the comments from the Ministry of Environment and the Technical Advisory Group, and incorporating this feedback into the next version of the risk assessment.

As well, further samples and tests of the chemicals will be done in the soil and in the area’s invertebrates (such as worms, slugs, etc.) to further understand the risk.

Lanxess owns and operates a chemical plant in Elmira. For decades, previous owners had improperly stored and dumped toxic chemical waste, including directly into the creek. This resulted in deposits of toxic and bioaccumulative chemicals in the creek. Other toxic chemicals seeped into the aquifer below Elmira, which supplied drinking water to the town until they were detected in high quantities in 1989.