C A R C E N O G E N I C
P O L L U T I O N
Toxic legacy haunts
N.S. neighborhood
GRAEME HAMILTON
Calgary Herald, Halifax, July 10, 1998
Ron McDonald remembers the long hours his son and
neighborhood children spent playing by the stream near his Sydney, N.S.
home.
"From the time they were two, they always played
down there with their Tonka trucks -- day in, day out," McDonald said.
"Kids from all over came and played in that brook. It's like a magnet
to a kid."
These days, nobody is splashing in the Frederick
Street Brook.
Environmental test results on the water released
this week found concentrations of arsenic, the carcinogen benzo(a)pyrene
and other toxins as high as 13 times the level deemed safe. Backyards
nearby were also found to be laced with high levels of pollutants.
Frederick Street homes back on to the former location
of the Sydney Steel coke ovens, the country's worst toxic site.
The extent of pollution in the tar ponds and on
the coke ovens site is nothing new, but residents in the adjacent working
class neighborhood say nobody told them their health could be at risk.
Maria Dober, an Environment Canada engineer, said
she wasn't surprised contaminants in the residential area exceeded the
norms set by the Canadian Council of Ministers of the Environment.
She suggested residents shocked by the findings haven't been paying attention.
"Some people just don't take as much notice of what's
going on around them as others," she said. "It's an industrial area
and it has been for years. It really should be no surprise."
Nova Scotia Public Works Minister Clifford huskilson
was at a loss to explain why residents weren't alerted to the danger earlier.
"You would think that they would have tested a long
time ago," he said.
Residents became concerned this spring when they
noticed a yellowish substance oozing from the brook. Tests by officials
found elevated levels of toxins and provincial health authorities will
begin testing residents for contamination next week.
Four provincial cabinet ministers met Thursday to
address the situation. "We're going to do whatever we can to see
that everything will be worked out for the residents on Frederick Street,"
Huskilson said after the meeting.
McDonald and other residents say the solution is
simple: move them. "I like where I live. I was quite
content here," he said.
"But now that the health risks have surfaced, I
don't want to be here anymore."
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