July 30, 1998
Downe may OK relocation
Sierra Club's May wants Sydney residents moved now
By DAVID JACKSON  *with Tera Camus, Cape Breton Bureau 

Staff reporter
    Sydney residents living near Canada's "largest industrial slum" will be moved if scientific tests show their health is at risk, Environment Minister Don Downe said Wednesday.
    "When it's proven that there's a problem here and the safety of the people is at risk, then we'll deal with it immediately," he said at a state-of the environment news conference in Halifax.
    "We won't need to be hit in the head 14 times to move the people."
    Residents of Frederick Street discovered in June an arsenic-laced yellow ooze seeping out of a rail bed into a brook, part of the that runs through some of their backyards.
    They live only about 50 metres from Sysco's old coke ovens and Muggah Creek's toxic tar ponds.
    Environment Canada tests have confirmed unacceptable levels of several toxins, including arsenic, in the area.
    But Dr. Jeff Scott, the chief medical officer for the province, said the residents weren't at risk based on those results.
    More tests are underway.  Dr. Scott is examining residents' hair samples for arsenic and blood samples for iron.
    The federal and provincial health departments are doing more tests, and Nova Scotia's Department of Transportation and public Works is analyzing its tests of soil, water and air quality in the area.
    Mr. Downe said he wants to have hard scientific facts in front of him before acting.  He said he expects the test results in the next few weeks and that will decide whether residents will be relocated.
    Elizabeth May of the Sierra Club, an environmental group, commended the minister for saying moving people is distinctly possible.
    But she said she didn't understand why he needed more tests.
    "Here we have a whole neighborhood that has 13 times to 18.5 times the legally set guidelines for arsenic.  I really don't think there's a real big issue here," she said in an interview in Sydney.
    Mr. Downe said the tar ponds pollution is a national, not just provincial issue, and the federal government should take the lead in finding a solution.
Science to decide if residents move
Environment minister awaiting test results from Frederick Street
BY LISA MANNINGER 

Cape Breton Post & CP
    HALIFAX - Residents of Frederick Street will be moved if tests indicate their health is at risk, Nova Scotia's environment minister said Wednesday.
    "We won't need to be hit in the head 14 times to move the people," Don Downe said, adding the decision will be based on science rather than emotion.
    Downe made the comment when he unveiled the province's first ever State of the Environment Report at the Nova Scotia Museum of Natural History.
    Residents of the Whitney Pier street discovered in June an arsenic-laced yellow ooze seeping out of a rail bed into a brook, part of the that runs through some of their backyards.
    They live only about 50 metres from Sydney Steel's old coke ovens and Muggah Creek's toxic tar ponds.
    Environment Canada tests have confirmed unacceptable levels of several toxins, including arsenic, in the area.
    Down said he wants to have hard scientific facts before acting.
    The federal and provincial Health Departments are doing more tests, and Nova Scotia's Department of Transportation and Public Works is analyzing its tests of soil, water and air quality.
    He said he expects the test results in the next few weeks.
    Downe told his audience the province has made progress in the areas of air quality, water resources and solid waste management but has work to do in several key areas.
    The most obvious problem area is the Sydney tar ponds.  He called the tar ponds "the nation's largest industrial slum" but said the process set up to deal with the most toxic contaminated site in eastern Canada is promising.
    The State of the Environment Report calls the tar ponds "the largest chemical waste site in the nation," containing 700,000 cubic meters of sediment contaminated with polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and about 45,000 tonnes or sediment contaminated with polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs).
    "The tar ponds are also the site of numerous untreated residential and industrial sewer outfalls," the report states.
    Downe said sewage collection and site clean up are two of the preliminary steps in the remediation process that have already begun.
    He stressed the tar ponds are a national issue and the federal government has taken the lead in the process to consult the community and find a solution to the environmental problem that is economically viable.
    Downe called the State of the Environment report a milestone because it is "a fundamental first step in assessing where we are in the province from an environmental stand point."
    The report was the first in a series of planned reports to provide a picture of the environmental health of Nova Scotia
    Downe would not say whether or not the province received a passing grade in the report but did say Nova Scotia is "moving in the right direction" and "better today than it was."
    As evidence of the province's improving environmental lot the report states: "Air quality for common air pollutants has consistently been within the 'Acceptable' range and frequently achieves the 'Desirable' range in most regions..."
    Port Hawkesbury is the only area of the province where local emissions periodically cause air quality exceedence.
    "There pulp and paper processing and electrical generation at Point Tupper occasionally contribute to levels above acceptable standards for sulfur dioxide," the report states.
    All other air quality problems in Nova Scotia are caused by ground level ozone generated primarily outside of the region.  Downe said more work needs to be done to forge stronger air quality agreements with industrial centres in the US and central Canada.
    Nova Scotia seems to have made the greatest environmental strides in the area of waste resource management.  In 1989 the province was among the highest per capita producers of garbage anywhere in teh world.  The province now diverts 28 or 29 percent of its solid waste from landfills and aims to divert 50 percent of all solid waste by the year 2000.
    "We will be, I understand, the only province in all of Canada which will be able to meet that target by the year 2000," Downe explained.
    The number of landfill sites in Nova Scotia has been reduced to 19, down from 44 in 1995, and by 2005 the number of disposal sites will be further reduced to between seven and 10.
    Downe said the quality of water in Nova Scotia has shown marked improvement and regular tests show drinking water is free from bacteria more than 90 percent of the time.
    Sewage treatment however, is a future challenge that faces the government, even though the costs will be staggering.
    "We know that continuing the discharge untreated sewage into marine water can no longer be acceptable in the 1990s," Downe explained.
    The State of the Environment report is billed as a snapshot of the environment that will establish a baseline to measure future trends against.
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