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Members of various media outlets watch as Donnie Deleskie gets help from his brother Ron and neighbours putting sludge into a drum during a symbolic cleanup of the Sydney tar ponds Monday morning. The Deleskies want immediate action to clean up the toxic waste site near downtown Sydney

Message sent from tar ponds

Two people collapse as sludge is removed from toxic site

BY WES STEWART, Cape Breton Post, August 24, 1999
A Sydney resident's symbolic gesture to get the cleanup of the Sydney tar ponds moving got an unexpected boost from the toxic dump itself Monday.

One woman overcome by the sickeniing smell fainted and a short time later, a CTV reporter collapsed while covering the event. Both had to be helped from the bank of the tar ponds, off Intercolonial Street.

Don Deleskie, clad in rubber boots and old clothes, waded into the thick black sludge and began shovelling the mess into a 45-gallon drum. He had earlier circulated a petition signed by more than 1,500 people demanding immediate action on the cleanup.

He is angered by the fact it may take three more years before a start is made on the remediation.

"We want the sites cleaned up, it is killing people."

Three years is too long, people want it started now, he said.

Despite overcast skies and a light breeze, the putrid, acrid smell emanating from the stagnant pond caused the two people to collapse, others to gag and cover their noses from the stench.

Deleskie, his brother Ron and neighbours used a bucket and shovel to dig into the toxic mess in the center of the municipality.

Deleskie and his supporters want the Joint action Group (JAG), mandated to develop a remediation plan for the coke ovens, former city dump and, downstream, a pond containing an estimated 700,000 tonnes of toxic waste left over from 100 years of steelmaking. Sydney also dumps its sewage into the ponds.

The longtime outspoken advocate wants steelworkers and the unemployed to get on with the cleanup. he also wants people moved from nearby streets.

"This is not justice, this is murder, people are dying," stated Deleskie as he called for a march on the JAG office.

Former Frederick Street resident Debbie Ouellette is thankful every day she is no longer living next to the former coke ovens site. She was one of the families moved when hazardous goo was found seeping into their basements.

She attended Monday's demonstration as a show of support for the Deleskies.

"Ten years ago he went on a hunger strike to raise public awareness" and wondered why the community has yet to get behind the cleanup.

Steelworkers' union president Bill McNeil knows Deleskie's frustration with the slowness of the process.

Department of the Environment spokesman TErry MacPherson said there is raw sewage in the pond and it is not an area he would advise anybody to go near.

He attended the demonstration to find out what the protesters planned to do with the drum of toxic sludge.

He said the site is under remediation through a phased approach.

JAG volunteer Eric Brophy said he is involved because of the high cancer rate among residents living near the site.

Mayor David Muise shares the protesters' frustrations but as a signing partner of JAG he supports the process.

"People need some tangible sign to see the process is moving forward." Maybe some of the $60 million could be used to get rid of some of the structures on the coke ovens site.

JAG chairman Dan Fraser said the three years will give all interested oompanies the opportunity to demonstrate their abilities and to put a project management team in place.

"JAG is doing the right thing by looking at a phased in method. We have to do it right and proper."

By the fact people got sick at the demonstration shows the need for caution.

It is important to have a proper cleanup in place to ensure the health and safety of the people, he said. Fraser adds he wishes Deleskie would join JAG.

Sydney man vows to begin own cleanup of tar ponds

BY STEVE MacINNIS, Cape Breton Post, August 21, 1999
A Sydney man is so determined to have his community rid of the toxic tar ponds that he plans on starting his own remediation effort.

Don Deleskie says beginning Monday at 11am he plans to start digging up the tar ponds and putting the highly toxic sludge into sealed barrels.

"People are dying, property values are in the toilet and we can't wait another three years for JAG to decide what to do," he says.

Deleskie plans to start digging off Intercolonial Street and Friday issued an invitation to anyone who wants to help.

"This whole mess just makes you want to cry."

For the past two weeks, Deleskie and others have knocked on hundreds of doors in Sydney soliciting names for an immediate cleanup of the ponds and associated sites.

The petition now contains more than 1,500 names and Deleskie says it's time for action.

In a letter to the chairperson of the Joint Action Group (JAG) Dan Fraser, Deleskie says Sydney has become known as the City of Grief and residents can no longer abide having the country's worst toxic waste zone in their backyards.

The tar ponds are part of the to which JAG is mandated to develop a remediation plan. Formed in 1996, JAG comprises mainly community volunteers who have spent countless hours studying all aspects of a possible cleanup.

The ponds contain more than 700,000 tonnes of toxic waste left behind after nearly a century of steel making. Deleskie is a life-long resident of the community and has been involved in previous attempts to remediate the site. He has never been shy to express his views whether in a verbal attack to visiting government officials or letters to the editor section of the Cape Breton Post.

JAG is expected to soon call for tenders to hire a management team to review more than 200 proposals already received from around the world promising to clean up the problem.

But JAG officials say it will be three years before a final remediation option is presented.

Fraser says he has no intentions of stopping Deleskie's promise to dig through the ponds.

"As a citizen, he's got the right to go over and do what he wants. I'm not going to interfere," says Fraser.

He says JAG is sticking to its mandate and won't be swayed by public pressure.

Deleskie says he has nothing personal against those involved in JAG but wants action to be taken immediately.

Also, he says any cleanup attempt should involve former steelworkers and other unemployed Cape Bretoners.

"No company should be allowed to come in here and clean up that mess without using Cape Breton labour," he says.
Publication: Globe and Mail NOVA SCOTIA:

Ecologist to dig up tar ponds

Saturday, August 21, 1999
Ron Deleskie isn't prepared to wait any longer for someone to clean up Sydney's notorious tar ponds.

The Sydney environmentalist said yesterday that he intends to begin digging up the ponds Monday morning and put the highly toxic sludge into sealed barrels.

"People are dying, property values are in the toilet and we can't wait another three years for JAG to decide what to do," he said.

JAG, or Joint Action Group, is a community-based volunteer organization charged with overseeing the cleanup. CP

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