Saturday, August 7, 1998
Cape Breton Post
Comments misguided, says Sierra Club director
BY WES STEWART
Cape Breton Post
The Sierra
Club of Canada won't support a large collector sewer proposal to remove
sewage outfalls from Sydney's Muggah Creek estuary.
It's executive
director Elizabeth May supported comments in a recent Letter to the Editor
by A. Bruce McDonald opposing the current collector proposal. But
she said his remarks on the whole concept of toxic remediation is misguided.
She said a
plan to spend $8 million on a collector pipe to pump untreated sewage into
Sydney harbor is an example of poor planning if it does not include treatment.
But it is
not necessary to downplay the real risks emanating from the tar ponds and
adjacent areas in order to argue for conventional sewage treatment.
A cleaner harbor anda safer environment demand both be cleaned up, she
said.
She called
into question McDonald's statement the lobster fishery was not closed because
of effluent from the tar ponds.
The Department
of Fisheries and Oceans closed the fishery in the early 1980s when detectable
levels of PAHs were detected in lobster in that part of the harbor and
it has remained closed.
He also claims
that there is no documented evidence that effluent from the tar ponds has
contaminated the harbor, nor any apparent ill effects suffered by people
who have eaten fish caught there.
May pointed
out there has been no studies done.
McDonald in
his letter said funds were committed to eliminating the tar ponds because
the area was unsightly, not that the site was a dangerous "toxic waste"
site.
She was a
senior policy adviser to the federal minister of the environment in the
mid-80s.
"I can assure
readers, no federal cabinet would put $40 million forward to deal with
a problem of unsightliness."
She said it
would be nice to wish away the toxic nightmare in the middle of Sydney.
it would be great to pretend there were no health hazards.
Children have
to be educated about the risks, to stay away from the estuary and respect
the fencing around the coke ovens site.
And if backyards
are unsafe, then families who want to move should be relocated, she said.
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