Argentia officials to brief JAG
By Tanya Collier, CB Post, November 27, 1998
The Joint Action Group (JAG) held its monthly roundtable
at Centre 200 in Sydney Wednesday. Following is a brief
overview of some of the items discussed during the
five-hour session:
- Representatives from an ex-military base in Argentia,
Nfld. will be meeting with members of the JAG to discuss
remedial options they used to begin cleaning a
contaminated site.
The event will take place at the former Woodill school in
Sydney Dec. 8 at 7 p.m. and the public is invited to attend.
The Newfoundland group is cleaning up contaminants such
as aviation fuel that leaked from underground tanks at the
base. The public presentation will be hosted by JAG's
working group Environmental Data Gathering and
Remedial Options (EDGAR).
Diane Giffin Boudreau, representing Environment Canada,
said the presentation will be paid for by the federal
government with no strain on JAG's budget.
- Six paid
employees will be hired by JAG in upcoming weeks. Four
of the potential employees will be part-time administrative
assistants, one will be a full-time community outreach
officer and there will be one clerk. John MacMullin, JAG
member, said the positions will be filled quickly.
- Hyd-Eng Geophysics Inc. was awarded the contract to
do a geophysical study to further characterize underground
structures at the Sydney coke oven site. The study
coincides with Phase 2 and 3 of intrusive sampling and will
cost between $50,000 and $100,000 to complete. The
contractor will be attending a kick-off meeting in early
December with JAG representatives to decide when the
project will begin. It's expected to take three months to
complete. Hyd-Eng Geophysics Inc. have an office in
Bedford, Nova Scotia but are based in Mississauga, Ont.
Poll shows public is aware of JAG
By Tanya Collier
The public is aware of the Joint Action Group (JAG) but
there are some gaps in how well it is understood, a poll has
revealed.
David Ash, chair of the JAG working group Public
Education and Participation (PEP), said 600
randomly-selected residents from industrial Cape Breton
were contacted in the past month for the poll, which was
outlined during a roundtable session in Sydney recently.
The majority of respondents (75.2 per cent) were aware
of JAG although 97 per cent of respondents who heard of
the group never visited the JAG office.
A majority of the respondents also indicated they did not
know what the composition of JAG was and less than half
knew the Cape Breton Regional Municipality was involved
in the process.
Ash said the majority of respondents said JAG's mandate
was to clean up the but about
25 per cent indicated they didn't know what JAG¼s
purpose was.
Respondents said they would be "somewhat comfortable"
accepting clean up recommendations from JAG but
"somewhat uncomfortable" accepting recommendations
from government.
A green belt or park was the most popular choice of
possibilities for the watershed once it was remediated with
slightly fewer respondents saying they were unsure of what
they would prefer.
Ash said 26 years was the average length of time estimated
by respondents to complete the clean up although six years
was considered a reasonable length of time by the
participants.
The newspaper was the respondents choice as the main
source for local news followed by television then radio.
Overall, respondents indicated they were very concerned
about the possible health effects from the tar ponds site
and were also concerned about possible health effects
from the coke ovens site, he continued.
Participants also indicated they were dissatisfied with the
progress made so far in cleaning up the watershed, added
Ash.
Jag Examines Research Fund
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