Frederick
Street residents have continuing concerns about their health after encountering
a black, bubbling, tar-like substance near their property Tuesday. Juanita Mckenzie,
spokesperson for people living on the street, said the black goo is located
outside the perimeter of a fence constructed by Devco in June to block
children and animals from an embankment reported to have high arsenic levels. The newest
unknown substance runs 30 feet in length and, in some places, is two feet
wide. McKenzie said
the black goo "smells really bad." Residents who investigated the
area left with their eyes burning. They immediately called Wayne
Pierce, a representative for Environment Canada and chairperson for the
Frederick Street Monitoring Committee. Pierce said
he visited the site Tuesday but could not determine what the source was.
He believed the black goo was pointed out by a representative from the
Nova Scotia Department of the Environment when a group of provincial, federal
and municipal government employees visited Frederick Street and area June
10. When Pierce
arrived on the street Tuesday, he said the goo wasn't bubbling at that
time and it was too hard to determine a depth. The length
of time it will take to locate the source of the substance is not known
at this time. Pierce said he will be contacting members of the monitoring
committee to determine a plan of action. In the meantime,
residents are waiting to hear back from the Department of Health about
whether they and their properties are being poisoned by nearby toxic waste
sites. One of the
toxic waste sites - the railway embankment fenced off by Devco - was reported
to have arsenic levels 18.5 times higher than acceptable limits established
by the Canadian Council of Ministers of the Environment (CCME). Frederick
Street borders the northside of the former coke ovens site which is part
of the . The area is now fenced in with signs
warning of a human health hazard. The most toxic
part of the watershed are the tar ponds. They contain 700,000 tonnes
of highly toxic sludge left behind after nearly a century of steel making.
Return
to Muggah Creek
