Chemtura says its computer model now shows something a concerned citizens’ group has long claimed – that it won’t meet its target date for cleaning up Elmira’s drinking water.

Elmira has received its drinking water via a pipe from Waterloo ever since the 1990s, when its own wells were shut down due to contamination from toxic waste associated with the manufacturing of Agent Orange at what is now the Chemtura plant.

The company agreed to rehabilitate the drinking water, and a deadline was set of having the water safe for consumption by 2028.

According to the latest computerized forecasts ordered by Chemtura, meeting that target is no longer the most likely scenario.

“The most recent modeling showed that while we had removed 99.7 per cent of the NDMA contaminant, there was still some remaining plume off our site in 2028,” said Jeff Merriman, the company’s environmental remediation manager.

Elmira resident Sebastian Siebel-Achenbach is part of a citizens’ committee set up by Woolwich Township to monitor the situation.

He says he’s not surprised to hear that NDMA residue will still be contaminating the water supply in 12 years’ time.

“We’ve had an inclination of this for a while, but at least it was confirmed by the experts,” he said.

Mayor Sandy Shantz similarly says that she’s heard for some time that the 2028 deadline will be difficult for Chemtura to meet.

She hopes new technologies will be developed before then to speed up the process.

“I haven’t given up on 2028,” she said.

 “We need to make some changes in how we’re going at the remediation.”

Siebel-Achenbach argues that either the 2028 deadline was “optimistic” from the beginning, or Chemtura hasn’t done enough since 1998 to clean up the water.

“Had they done some remedial work earlier … the 2028 deadline could be met,” he said.

Merriman says Chemtura is planning on “aggressively moving forward” with cleanup efforts, even if they extend past 2028.

“We remain committed to doing the very best we can to get this aquafer cleaned up,” he said.

With reporting by Abigail Bimman