Cleanup protective measures still insufficient

Letter By Kay Sampson
Cape Breton Post
Tues., Sept. 1, 2009

In reference to the Aug. 18 letter by Marlene Kane (Monitors Don’t Show What the Nose Knows), we, the area residents to whom she was referring, thank her for her well-researched piece. The symptoms she experienced on Aug. 11 are the same the residents have complained about daily since the Sydney Tar Ponds Agency started disturbing the site.

Many of us did attend the environmental assessment panel hearings in Sydney but we strongly feel that if the STPA is going to continue on the road of a cover-up instead of a cleanup, it must protect public health by following proper procedures and doing the work within enclosures, under negative pressure with air filtration.

This is especially critical now after STPA requested that the Cape Breton Regional Municipality delay development of a playground on Intercolonial Street because of possible health risks.

It is baffling that the STPA would take this drastic position on the park but has yet to move the French school on the opposite side of the pond out of harm’s way and has not moved the residents who are just across the street from the park.

If this project is to proceed in any fashion, we expect residents’ health to be the No. 1 priority and any precautions to protect the public health to be put in place before the project commences, regardless of cost or timelines.

People have died from the accumulation of toxic waste; they should not die from the cover-up of the same toxic waste! For area residents:

Kay Sampson
Sydney