Losing their patience on tar ponds
Chronicle Herald, November 23, 1998
NO ONE IS ADVOCATING a sloppy hurry-up approach to cleaning the tar ponds
and coke ovens site in Sydney. But is it too much to ask that the powers responsible for
the project attach at least some sense of urgency to the process?
Representatives of Sydney's business community are clearly fed up with what they see
as unnecessary foot-dragging on the tar ponds cleanup. Unfortunately, a press
conference staged by the Industrial Cape Breton Board of Trade Thursday deteriorated
into an unpleasant shouting match when members of the Joint Action Group on
Environmental Cleanup seated in the audience began challenging the hosts.
John Morrison, president of the Downtown Business Development Association, says
it's time to get rolling on the cleanup.
"This community is very stigmatized by the tar ponds," he said at the press conference,
calling faster action for the sake of people's health, the environment, business and
tourism.
Board of trade president Avvie Druker went one step further, saying the site is a "blight
on our community."
The two gentlemen are certainly correct on a number of levels: the health and safety of
residents in the Sydney area should be of paramount concern to officials from all levels
of government.
Recent studies have confirmed the presence of toxins at the site, and other research has
shown high cancer incidences in Sydney, as compared with other parts of the region.
All of this has led to more studies, apparently in an attempt to more firmly pin down
whether the tar ponds and coke ovens toxins are responsible.
And JAG is also in the process of considering submissions from more than 100
companies with proposals to clean up the site. The review of these proposals will take
another two years, says JAG chairman Carl Buchanan.
But the board of trade, the business association and the Cape Breton local of the
United Steelworkers of America don't want to wait that long. The three groups have
called for a tar ponds proposal devised three years ago by Jacques Whitford
Environmental of Dartmouth and International Technologies Ltd. of Georgia to proceed
instead.
That $120-million plan involves cleaning up the tar ponds with the controversial twin
fluidized-bed incinerators already in place on the site.
The consortium has "cleaned up more toxic sites in North America than all the other
firms combined," says Mr. Morrison.
That solution does have its shortcomings. Mr. Buchanan points out that JAG's mandate
calls for the cleanup of not just the tar ponds, but also the coke ovens, landfill and 30
sewer outfalls that flow into the tar ponds.
Mr. Buchanan has criticized the board for staging the news conference without even
consulting JAG, the community-driven group established to provide a more grassroots,
consultative approach to the project. "There is no quick fix here, folks."
That may be so, but surely his two-year timeframe for evaluating potential proposals is
excessively generous. It does nothing to mitigate against criticism by some area
residents that JAG has evolved into a make-work project of its own.
Last week Premier Russell MacLellan established a committee of three senior deputy
ministers to try to find new ways to jumpstart the Cape Breton economy. When it
comes to attracting new investment, this committee will be working against problems
such as the tar ponds site, with no sense of urgency placed on the cleanup.
Even if JAG members disagree with the position of the business leaders, they can see
the need to get moving on the cleanup.
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