Smelly tar ponds upsetting residents
By Tanya Collier Macdonald
Cape Breton Post - Front Page
Fri., June 25, 2004
An unbearable stench rising
from the tar ponds has people
gasping for fresh air as they
make their way past the toxic
site.
"I breathe through my
mouth so I can't smell it," said
Chris MacNeil, as he walked
along Prince Street near the
Sydney Shopping Centre,
Thursday.
"On really hot days it smells
like rotting food."
MacNeil said he's ashamed
and embarrassed when he sees
cruise ship visitors walking
through the area.
"I wouldn't want people
going home thinking this is
what Cape Breton is all about."
Crystal Brown moved to the
Ashby area a little more than a
year ago. She was surprised
that the smell travelled as far as
her home.
"Sometimes you open the
windows to air the house out
but the smell coming in is
worse," said Brown. "It smells
likerotteneggs.It'sgross."
Will Delaney, a homeowner
living just a few blocks from the
tar ponds, has a 'for sale' sign on
his lawn.
"I've only had one viewing in
the past eight weeks," he said.
He's lived in the home for several
years and has lived on the
street since he was a young boy.
"There are nights when
there is no breeze and it's
warm, you'll sometimes get the
smell of the sewer and you have
to go in the house and close
your windows," added Delaney.
However, he said the lack of
interest in his home is not simply
because of the smell: it's the
concern some people have of
living next to Canada's worst
toxic waste site.
"It's the tar ponds issue as a
whole," he said.
Donna O'Connell, manager
at Terry's Consignment Shop on
Prince Street, said customers
complain about the smell but it
doesn't deter them from shopping there.
"It burns the nostrils," she
said. "When the doors open you
can smell it."
Frank Potter, director of
operations at the Sydney Tar
Ponds Agency, said residents
and tourists will have to endure
the smell until at least next summer.
At that time, it's planned that
a sewage treatment plant will be
constructed at the tip of Battery
Point and will be handling
sewage currently being dumped
into the ponds.
Potter said the agency is
reviewing ways to flush the
ponds once the sewage is redirected
to the treatment plant.
Although Coke Ovens Brook
will continue to supply clean
water to the site, there will be
sediment left behind, he said.
In the meantime, a heavy
rainfall will alleviate some of
the smell, said Potter.
tcmacdonald@cbpost.com
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