Sobeys will continue to build store

By Tanya Collier, Cape Breton Post, March 27, 1999


The Nova Scotia Department of Environment will not issue a stop-work order for the Sobeys expansion on Prince Street in Sydney.

Terry MacPherson, hydro geologist, said the department does not have reasonable or probable grounds to believe irreparable or adverse affects are occurring at the construction site. “We don’t feel a stop-work order is prudent.”

MacPherson noted the department does not normally regulate building construction but they used a section of the Environmental Protection Act that says there is a duty for the company to take remedial measures.

A uniquely engineered sub-slab vapour barrier system to mitigate volatile and toxic gases emerging from the ground, other design changes, and a health risk assessment report due from the Atlantic Shopping Centres Ltd. are all remedial measures by the company, he said.

“They are taking our requests seriously.” The slab is being constructed now under the agreement that if the health risk assessment recommends modifications to the project, the company will be required to comply.

“They are doing work knowing they may have to pull it up.”
Sobeys confident they have answer to environmental concerns
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