Post reporter moving on to tar ponds agency

Cape Breton Post
Sat., June 9, 2007

SYDNEY - After more than a decade of reporting on the cleanup of the tar ponds, a Cape Breton Post reporter has decided to join the Sydney Tar Ponds Agency as a communications officer.

Tanya Collier MacDonald, 35, of Howie Centre, is expected to officially assume her new job June 25. "I was looking for a career change and this opportunity was the most exciting and challenging," said Mac- Donald, who was the Post’s lead reporter on the tar ponds file.

The $400-million project is expected to take seven years and clean up the mess left behind after nearly a century of steelmaking. The project will employ solidification and stabilization technologies.

"I think one of the more exciting parts of the job will be balancing the needs of the federal and provincial governments while engaging the community in the project. Very few jobs offer such a challenge," said Collier MacDonald, a mother of two sons.

She said one of her goals is to provide the public easier access to information on how the project is progressing