Muggah Creek Watershed
PUBLICATION: The Daily News (Halifax)
DATE: Sun 30 May 1999
BYLINE Parker Barss Donham
Ooze control: Government finally trying to do the right
thing
It's not hard to understand the anger that greeted Friday's
announcement of a federal-provincial program to clean up the
Sydney Steel Coke Ovens and buy out nearby residents.
The history of the coke ovens and the Sydney Tar Pond is riddled
with government mistakes, misjudgments, incompetence, negligence,
and cover-up. The surprise would be if residents trusted anything
government did or said about the problem.
Still, having followed this story for almost 20 years, I can find
nothing wrong with the actions taken by the federal and provincial
governments over the last two weeks. From this vantage point, the
two governments seem to be doing the right thing, for the right
reason, in the right way.
Two issues sparked most of the community's anger: government's
insistence it was acting not out of any belief affected residents
face any immediate health threat but out of compassion; and the
arbitrary drawing of boundaries as to which homeowners would be
offered buyouts.
First the health risk. The toxic mess centring on the coke ovens
and the tar ponds is the product of 100 years of environmental
recklessness. For the first 70 or so, people didn't know or care
much about environmental hazards. For the last 30, the community
and its politicians were too desperate for jobs to squawk about
pollution. Until the mid-80s, government was happy to ignore the
problem.
There is no doubt the soil underlying the coke ovens site and the
petrochemical sludge lining the tar ponds pose a serious health
** hazard. Both are severely contaminated with PAH, a potent
** carcinogen, as well as an ominous list of heavy metals and organic
poisons.
** An underground plume of these highly dangerous pollutants has been
growing for decades, migrating toward the tar ponds and the
** harbour beyond.
There's also clear evidence residents of Sydney experience
higher-than-average rates of environmentally sensitive illnesses
like cancer, birth defects, and heart disease.
What's not clear is how much of Sydney's poorer health outcomes
can be traced to the toxic waste dump at the city's heart, and how
much to the community's higher smoking rates, poorer eating
habits, and higher rates of industrial employment -- all of which
have likewise been clearly documented.
Nor is there any clear evidence the worst pollutants at the coke
ovens have migrated into nearby residential neighbourhoods in
significant quantities.
Yes, the orange goo seeping into basements along Frederick Street
contains a percentage of arsenic far above recommended limits. It
has, in fact, a level of arsenic typical of that found in Nova
Scotia coal, piles of which can be found in many basements.
Arsenic is a common problem in Nova Scotia. The soil in many
residential neighbourhoods in Nova Scotia has several times the
arsenic level of the Frederick Street ooze. Shall we buy out all
those homes, too?
** Ground water samples in residential neighbourhoods surrounding the
coke ovens show levels of PAH well below what's deemed acceptable
for a remediated site.
Trouble is, bloodless reassurances like these cut no ice with
affected householders. Why should they? Who wants to risk the
health of their families by continuing to live next to an
acknowledged health hazard whose illness-generating components
might be acting or moving in ways not yet discovered, appreciated,
or acknowledged by the authorities. No prudent person would buy a
house in this area.
So the government has decided not to hide behind the opinion of
its scientific advisors. It decided to respond to the real
problems faced by Frederick Street residents, without worrying too
much about whether the risks behind those problems are real or
perceived.
It was an expensive decision, but it was the right one.
Next, the boundary issue. The government isn't going to buy out
every home-owner in Cape Breton. Somewhere there will come a line
between homeowners who were bought out, and those who weren't.
Residents of nearby Tupper Street argued, passionately and
movingly, that they need to move too. And maybe they do. Since the
decision to move residents of Frederick Street and Curry's Lane
was based, not on irrefutable scientific proof of risk but
rational apprehension of risk, it might become necessary to
broaden the area to be evacuated.
The politicians I heard discussing this all emphasized their
flexibility on this point. Friday's announcement was couched as a
first step.
This is in sharp contrast to the announced closing of Devco, at
which federal officials signalled clearly that the pension
packages were non-negotiable. They have not budged from that
position since.
Federal Environment Minister Christine Stewart and provincial
Environment Minister Michel Samson signalled no such inflexibility
Friday.
That flexibility could likewise prove expensive. But it is the
right approach.
Governments have made many bad mistakes in dealing with the Coke
Ovens disaster. Friday's announcement isn't one of them.
Copyright 1999 by Parker Barss Donham. All rights reserved.
(pdonham@fox.nstn.ca)