Sobeys manager mum on reason for environmental service trucks at store
By Erin Pottie
Cape Breton Post
Tues., July 22, 2008
Sydney - A Sydney resident who witnessed environmental
service trucks parked at the Sobeys
store on Prince Street with hoses leading inside
says she detected a bad smell when she walked by.
Debbie Ouellette arrived at the store after
being told by friends that there were two trucks,
including a vacuum-type tanker, parked outside
on Sunday afternoon.
"We went by there and it really smelled like —
almost like sewer," she said.
Ouellette said a male friend approached the
store security guard and asked what was going
on, though he wasn’t allowed inside. Customers
were shopping in the store while the work was in
progress, however.
"The security guard said there was water —
under — the floor in the produce department,"
Ouellette said.
Ouellette took pictures of the front entrance
area when she arrived at about 1:45 p.m. The
photos show a vacuum truck with a Millcreek
Environmental Services logo, and a thick black
hose leading from the vacuum truck to the inside
of the store.
"As the store manager I don’t have to disclose
that information to you," said Sobeys store manager
Kevin Rogers, when asked to comment
Monday. "However, we do have grease traps in
our store that have to be cleaned out so I’ll leave
it at that. The store was closed for 20 minutes due
to water; slips and falls cost us money."
Asked how often the grease traps are cleaned
out, Rogers said he didn’t have to give that information
and abruptly ended the phone call.
The Sydney store underwent a 4,000-squaremetre
expansion, completed in 1999, by Atlantic
Shopping Centres, a division of Sobeys. The site
is adjacent to Muggah Creek, within a few hundred
metres of the tar ponds, which are part of a
$400 million multi-year cleanup program.
Soil tests at the Sobeys site at the time of construction
revealed elevated levels of polyaromatic
hydrocarbons and petroleum hydrocarbons.
Sobeys said an engineered floor, including a
vapour barrier and venting system, would prevent
any contaminants from entering the building.
epottie@cbpost.com
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