Members of the board of directors of the Sierra Club of Canada will be in Sydney this weekend for a round of talks and a tour of the tar ponds.
The weekend session marks the first time the six-member board of the Ottawa-based group have come to the island for meetings.
The group is scheduled to tour the ponds which are considered Canada's, if not North America's, worst toxic waste dump.
Formed after nearly a century of unregulated dumping of steel manufacturing byproducts and other wastes, the ponds contain some 700,000 tonnes of toxic waste including polychlorinated biphenyls (PCB) and poly aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH).
The ponds, which run into Sydney Harbor, have been targeted for cleanup in the past but despite the spending of millions of dollars, the mess remains.
The task of recommending a remediation plan now rests with the Joint Action Group (JAG) in conjunction with the three levels of government.
The JAG process will encompass the entire which includes a municipal landfill, former coke ovens site and the tar ponds.
The Sierra Club is mandated to develop a diverse and well-trained grassroots network to protect the integrity of the environment.
The club's executive director is Elizabeth May, a former resident of Cape Breton. may was not available for comment Friday.

Sierra Club promises no rest for politicians
BY STEVE MACINNIS

Politicians at all levels and all parties can expect some increased heat this summer and it won't be supplied by Mother Nature.
After a weekend board of directors meeting in Cape Breton, the Sierra Club of Canada is promising increased pressure on decision makers to move quickly to cleaning up North America's worst toxic waste dump - the Sydney tar ponds.
Elizabeth May, the Sierra's executive director for Canadian operations, said Monday the tar ponds are among the seven priorities selected by the board to work on for 1999-2000. Other agenda items include climate change and legislation for endangered species.
The board meeting was the first time the group had met in Cape Breton, May's former home, and members also toured the ponds which are included as part of the . The tour was organized by Sydney Environmental Resources Ltd. - a provincial Crown corporation which owns fluidized bed incinerators which could be included in the final remediation plan of the ponds.
The watershed is now the target of a clean up spearheaded by the Joint action Group (JAG) which has come under increasing criticism for being bogged down in its bureaucracy.
"The JAG process may be the right way for some elements of this project but not when it comes to applying political pressure," said May.
"There needs to be a more independent voice."
may credited JAG members for their work to date noting many have put themselves through a great deal of stress to keep the process going.
However, she said, more needs to be done to get government to move quickly toward a final clean up. All three levels of government are partners in the JAG process which was designed to allow the community to have its say in terms of a clean up.
The ponds and the watershed are highly contaminated after nearly a century of unregulated dumping from steel manufacturing.
May looks to the construction of an interceptor sewer line as evidence of government not being fully committed to the project.
May wonders how government will afford a multi-million dollar clean up of the ponds when they can't pay for a sewage treatment plant.
"We have to make this more of a national issue," she said, adding her board was appalled at the condition of the ponds and watershed area.
The ponds alone contain some 700,000 tonnes of toxic waste including polychlorinated biphenyls (PCB) and poly aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH).
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