JAG examines research fund

By Steve MacInnis, Cape Breton Post, December 8, 1998

Officials charged with cleaning up Sydney's highly toxic tar ponds and associated sites are reviewing guidelines of a new $40 million research fund which they maybe able to tap into. Mike Britten, program co-ordinator for the Joint Action Group (JAG) , said Monday eligibility requirements for the new federal fund have been distributed to the chairpersons of JAG's working groups.

"If we have an initiative that qualifies then we will be applying," said Britten, adding the release of funding has to be fit into JAG's time line for the remediation project. The new four-year program announced last week is specifically earmarked for research into the effects of toxic chemicals associated with human illnesses such as heart and lung diseases and cancers.

The program is not meant to duplicate existing research but rather increase the understanding of a massive global health and ecological problems.

The tar ponds are considered Canada's worst toxic waste dump and were created after a nearly a century of dumping waste from steel manufacturing. JAG is now mandated to develop Canada's largest remediation plan for the ponds and other contaminated sites within the . The area is a hot spot containing any number of cancer causing contaminants.

JAG not seeking cash

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