Government responds to arsenic goo found in Whitney Pier basements
by Tanya Collier, Cape Breton Post, May 14, 1999
Four families with arsenic goo seeping into their homes are being temporarily relocated by the provincial government
"It's scary. I don't know what to think about it. I'm concerned for me and my daughter," said Ann Ross, a resident on Laurier Street in Whitney Pier.
Ross and three families from Frederick Street were given the option to stay at the Delta Sydney Thursday night until Monday while government decides on the next step.
Results from tests performed about one week ago on material seeping into the basements of the four homes were released to the families this week.
Although there are no Canadian Council of Ministers of the Environment (CCME) guidelines for toxic substances found in a dwelling, government decided to give the residents the option to relocate temporarily.
Environment Minister Michel Samson told the Cape Breton Post the traces of arsenic found in the samples of sediments taken from the homes caused a heightened level of concern and fear for the residents but there is no cause for alarm.
"The levels found are consistent with the range we would expect to find in natural soils throughout the province, especially in areas where there is a high concentration of coal."
His statement was supported by Dr. Jeff Scott, provincial medical officer, in a press release. He said the concentration of chemicals identified in the basements does not pose a threat unless there is direct contact on an ongoing basis, particularly by young children.
The decision to temporarily relocate the residents was done out of compassion, continued Sampson.
There will be further tests at the homes to determine how the material seeped into the basements and from where.
Samson said the government hasn't decided what the future may hold for the residents after the temporary relocation.
Various government representatives will meet with the residents today to assess the families' needs on an individual basis.
Following the stay at the Delta, "more appropriate accomodations" may be arranged. Samson declined to say what the families' options may include.
"This is a work in progress."
Samson said he couldn't comment on why the government didn't move the residents one year ago when soil samples taken from backyards on Frederick Street showed elevated levels of lead, poly aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) and arsenic. The levels were 18.5 times higher than acceptable limits set out by CCME.
Debbie Ouellette, a Frederick Street resident, said when she leaves her family home, she doesn't plan on ever moving back.
"I want a new house."
"I new it was arsenic. I could feel it in my bones," she said.
Ouellette, who lives with her husband and children aged 18, 15 and 10, said it's not safe for her or her family to live in the home.
"I'm tired of it. No more studies. No more tests."
Frederick Street residents have been asking to be relocated since a yellow coloured goo was spotted oozing from a brook bank near their homes in May 1998.
Ouellette contacted her lawyer Rocky Jones, of Halifax, Thursday to discuss her next step but she does plan to send the provincial and federal governments a bill containing the purchase price of a new home and the cost of moving her family.
Ronnie MacDonald said his 10-year old son will be celebrating his birthday today and is excited about the termporary relocation to a hotel.
"We should have a block party but on another block."
McDonald stayed behind to watch the home while his wife and son moved to the hotel. He said any amount of arsenic in a home is too much
Juanita McKenzie, the spokesperson for Frederick Street residents for the past year, her husband Rickie and their daughter have also moved to the hotel.
She was concerned earlier in the day her family wouldn't be included in the move and was prepared to battle government for the relocation option.
"I feel confused, happy, suspicious, exhausted, scared - a whole gauntlet of emotions," said McKenzie.
The relocation is either the beginning of a long process or the end of a long year, she added.
McKenzie said Environment representatives informed her the temporary move could last upwards of eight months.
Frederick Street borders the north side of the former coke ovens site, part of the , which includes the notorious Sydney tar ponds, containing 700,000 tonnes of toxic sludge left behind from nearly a century of steel making.
The area is fenced in with signs posted, warning of a human health hazard.
Friday, May 14, 1999
Toxic-street residents get move
By RICHARD DOOLEY -- The Daily News
An announcement by Environment Minister Michel Samson to temporarily
relocate some of the Sydney families affected by the Frederick Street ooze
is no victory, said the woman leading the battle to have residents moved
away from their toxic neighbourhood.
People on the street will be put up in a hotel for about three weeks while a
team of provincial scientists continues tests on a substance that has been
oozing into some basements.
"What it is is, the government taking first steps towards some
responsibility down here," said Juanita McKenzie.
The Frederick Street resident has been trying for a year to force the
government move her family and her neighbours off the street.
She says the health of residents has been affected by years of industrial
pollution from the former Sydney coke ovens, which has contaminated the
soil in the area.
Tests show the sludge leaking into basements of homes bordering the former
Sydney coke ovens contain arsenic in the same range as natural soils.
Temporary move
But Samson said in a news release given the level of anxiety within the
community, the province would temporarily relocate residents with the
sediment in their basements.
McKenzie said that's a good start, but worries about the minister's use of
the word temporary.
"That's a bad word to use," said McKenzie. "Temporary means no real
solution." McKenzie also worries the government is not taking the concerns
of residents seriously.
The province's Chief Medical Officer Dr. Jeff Scott said the ooze is not an
immediate health threat, but recommends the basements be cleaned and
fixed to stop the source of the leak.
"It's like we're victims of chemical warfare from our own government," said
McKenzie.
Premier Russell MacLellan said the future of Frederick Street residents is
tied to the "whole issue'' of the Sydney tar ponds and the coke ovens
property.
Cape Breton-The Lakes NDP MLA Helen MacDonald said the MacLellan
government should quickly decide what action to take to help the residents.
"The ooze isn't just going to disappear," she said.
"Government has a responsibility to these people to release the results
immediately and take whatever action is necessary to ensure the health and
safety of Frederick Street residents.''
Pier families evacuated
Province plucks four families from toxic-ooze area
By Tera Camus / Staff Reporter
Sydney - Four families whose homes were invaded by a strange goo more than 10
days ago were
evacuated to a downtown hotel by the provincial Environment Department on
Thursday night.
Three families on Frederick Street - the McKenzies, McDonalds, and Ouellettes
- and the Ross
family on nearby Laurier Street received a call from Environment Minister
Michel Samson about
the temporary relocation and the arsenic levels detected in their basements.
"Instead of waiting until terms of reference are set up, . . . we made the
decision today as a
government in cabinet this morning to offer residents temporary relocation,"
he said in an interview
Thursday night.
He said the results are consistent with soil found near coal deposits in the
province.
Debbie Ouellette warned the minister that she wasn't returning to her home,
which had the greatest
accumulation of the yellow-orange ooze.
"Thank you for offering us a place but I'll tell you right now, Michel, I'm
not moving back," she
said as a reporter sat nearby.
Earlier in the day, Mr. Samson told reporters he had not seen the results of
tests on the substance,
although his department has had the results since Tuesday.
A news release issued from his office at about 5 p.m. said his department
wants to conduct more
work to identify the source, and was unable to determine if the contamination
is the result of "years
of coal-burning on these properties, is originating from the coke ovens site"
or is from a
combination of both.
"This poses no health risk but given the level of anxiety that exists within
the community, the
province is prepared to temporarily relocate the residents who found sediment
in their basements,"
Mr. Samson said. "This move is being made on compassionate grounds."
Dr. Jeff Scott, the province's chief medical officer, again told residents
not
to fear the ooze.
"The concentration of chemicals identified in basements does not pose a
threat
unless there is
direct contact on an ongoing basis, particularly by young children," he
said.
He recommended the basements be cleaned and remediated to prevent leaks.
Last week, tests on a deposit less than eight metres from the Ouellette home
found 49.9 milligrams
of arsenic per kilogram of soil. The acceptable outdoor limit on residential
land is 12 milligrams.
There's no established indoor limit.
Last year, 222.55 milligrams per kilogram was found in the soil in the same
spot. The federal
government cleaned it up and replaced it with gravel, but more tests revealed
results of 13
milligrams per kilogram.
Dr. Scott later told residents they were not in danger and Cantox
Environmental, hired by the
province to conduct a three-week study, said the same thing.
Juanita McKenzie, the spokeswoman for Frederick Street residents who've been
fighting to
relocate their families, cried in her husband's arms when she heard they have
to move.
"No one knows what I've gone through," she sobbed. Some on the street blame
the families for
lowering their property values, and she has lost friends.
When told Dr. Scott recommended cleaning up their basements, she was angry
and
said she's not
moving back either.
"What about the signs on the fences that say Human Health Hazard, are they
going to move
them?" she asked. "Are they going to make the air any better to breathe
here?"
And she didn't think moving residents to the Delta Sydney was a significant
triumph.
"It's not a victory at all. In fact I think it's the beginning of the biggest
battle we've ever had."
She said it took 100 years to create the mess from the nearby coke ovens site
and it can't be
cleaned up in three weeks.
Arsenic is considered toxic under federal standards and can be fatal if
consumed. It naturally
forms from weathering and from erosion of rock and soil. In Nova Scotia,
levels range from 0.6 to
433 milligrams per kilogram of soil.
Sierra Club spokeswoman Angela Rickman said she was disgusted the province
continues to hide
the test results.
"It's a violation of their right to know. These are people who have children
living in their houses,"
she said from Ottawa.
Mr. Samson said his department will consider moving out other residents on a
"case-by-case"
basis.
He will be meeting with other departments to establish acceptable long-term
measures. He
wouldn't say how much they plan to spend.
Joe Kozak of Environment Canada says because there's no acceptable indoor
limit for arsenic, the
province will likely establish its own limits.
No one from the federal or provincial health departments returned calls on
Thursday.
CLASS: National News
DATELINE: Halifax NS
WORDS: 405
N.S. to move families away from toxin Province plans to repair Sydney basements but residents want out for good
KEVIN COX, Atlantic Bureau
Halifax Residents of infamous Frederick Street in Sydney, shocked and
sickened by an orange liquid oozing into their basements from Canada's
largest toxic-waste site, will be temporarily relocated, the Nova
Scotia Environment Minister said last night. The move is the first
acknowledgment by the province that a dozen or more families have been
adversely affected from living near a toxin-laden site that was once
the home of coke ovens for Sydney Steel Corp.
But residents of the street, who have been demanding for more than a
year that the province relocate them, were angered that both
Environment Minister Michael Samson and provincial medical officer of
health Jeff Scott maintained that the levels of arsenic found in their
homes posed no health risk.
Recent tests done by the province found arsenic levels in the area at
about 49 parts per million. The recommended level of the Canadian
Council of Ministers of the Environment is 12 parts per million.
Mr. Samson said the levels of arsenic are consistent with those found
in Nova Scotia soil and don't represent a health risk. "This poses no
health risk, but given the level of anxiety that exists within the
community, the province is prepared to temporarily relocate residents
who found sediment in their basements," he said in a statement.
He said the basements will have to be cleaned and fixed up to prevent
leaks.
As well, the provincial government will be looking at a long-range
plan to determine the source of contamination and clean it up.
But Frederick Street resident Juanita McKenzie said people in the area
have suffered recurring headaches, nausea, breathing problems and
kidney infections over the past year because of contamination from the
former steel-making facility located across a fence from their homes.
She said residents were told that they would be staying at an area
hotel for about three weeks.
But Ms. McKenzie has no intention of going back unless she is sure
that the area has been cleaned up. "Until they can guarantee me that
I'm moving back to a healthy environment, then I will not be moving
back," she said.
She said people on the street will continue to press the provincial
government to permanently relocate them. "No one knows what we've gone
through over the past year," she said. "Our whole lives have been
taken and thrown away."
PUBLICATIONThe Toronto Star
DATE Friday May 14, 1999
BYLINEKelly Toughill
HEADLINE:
Toxic goo forces out 4 Sydney families
ATLANTIC CANADA BUREAUHALIFAX - Families in one of Canada's most
polluted neighbourhoods were suddenly forced from their homes last
night, more than a year after toxic goo was first discovered in area
yards and a nearby stream.
"I don't know what to feel," said Juanita McKenzie, who has led the
fight to move people off Frederick St., in the heart of industrial
Sydney, N.S. "I'm relieved, but it's not over. Happiness will come
when I'm looking in my rear-view mirror and saying good-bye to
Frederick Street for the last time."
Nova Scotia Environment Minister Michel Sampson yesterday announced
the province would move four families, the only four to have
reported the arsenic-laced orange goo seeping into their basements,
to a nearby hotel immediately while officials look for the source.
He insisted that the latest goo does not pose a health hazard,
saying the evacuation was made on "compassionate grounds" because of
"increased emotions" in the area. But he also held out hope that the
evacuation may turn into the permanent relocation some residents
have long demanded.
"This is a first step," Sampson said. "My staff left with a smile on
their face tonight and the sense that we did the right thing today."
Several residents last night vowed they will never return to the
short street of small clapboard homes where so many of them got sick.
"Never, never never," said Debbie Ouellette, who lives in a small
home on the street with her husband and three children. "I'm not
coming back. I can finally put my kids in a place that is safe for a
few weeks. "
Frederick St. runs along the edge of a former coal processing plant
where dangerous chemicals were produced for generations with almost
no environmental safeguards. The site is just upstream from the
infamous Sydney tar ponds, which contain 40,000 tonnes of PCBs, all
residue of a century of steel-making. Together, the lands are
considered by many environmentalists to be the worst toxic waste
site in North America.
Ouellette says she has spent the last two weeks crying, since she
discovered the familiar orange goo puddling on her concrete basement
floor. She once again called the province for help, and put a
padlock on her basement door.
Sampson said tests did reveal arsenic in the thin orange mud, but at
concentrations that are often found in Nova Scotia soil,
particularly in areas where there is coal.
PUBLICATIONCP Wire
DATE Thu 13 May 1999
SECTION/CATEGORY National general news
BYLINEBy Alison Auld
STORY LENGTH 647
HEADLINE: AM-
Toxic-Street code
:2; INDEX: Environment, Health,
Politics; Residents of toxic street to be moved
temporarily
HALIFAX (CP) - Residents of one of Canada's most notorious streets
got a slight measure of vindication Thursday when the Nova Scotia
government announced it would move them out of their homes to
study arsenic levels.
People on Frederick Street in Sydney, N.S., will be put up in a
hotel for about three weeks while a team of provincial scientists
continues tests on a substance that has been oozing into some
basements.
``I think it's great,'' said Ronnie McDonald, a resident who
planned to move his wife and son out of his house Thursday. ``It's
good to see that they finally took the feelings and the anxiety of
the people into consideration.''
The announcement comes about a year after residents intensified
efforts to be relocated, complaining that nausea, vomiting and
other ailments from prolonged exposure to contaminants was making
their lives unbearable.
Fears escalated when residents discovered a toxic slime seeping
into a nearby stream that backs on to what is considered the
country's worst toxic waste dump.
A watershed in the area receives runoff from the Sydney Steel
mill, the mill's abandoned coke ovens, an overstuffed municipal
landfill, and tar ponds that contain 700,000 tonnes of highly
toxic sludge. The area has been compared to New York's infamous
Love Canal.
The province said it wants to discover the origins of the
yellow-orange substance that seeped through basement floors about
three weeks ago.
``Our concern as a department is to see what is this substance and
where is it coming from,'' Environment Minister Michel Samson said
in Halifax.
The department said it hasn't been able to conclude if arsenic in
the ooze comes from the coke ovens, ash buried years ago from
coal-burning stoves or rail lines owned by the Cape Breton
Development Corp.
Results so far indicate the levels of arsenic aren't dangerous,
Samson said.
``The test results are not uncommon with what we've seen in other
parts of the province, especially where there is a high coal
content in the ground,'' he said after phoning residents at home
to notify them of their voluntary relocation.
Dr. Jeff Scott, provincial medical officer, said the chemicals do
``not pose a threat unless there is direct contact on an ongoing
basis, particularly by young children.''
The province estimated it will take about three weeks to finish
the tests. It's offered the relocation to the four homes that were
originally tested.
Some residents who have fought for the investigation and
relocation felt ambivalent about the announcement.
``They're taking a step toward a very, very serious problem,''
said Juanita McKenzie, a resident who has led the fight to have
people relocated.
``But I will have mixed feelings until I'm in my car and I'm
driving off this road and I look in my rear-view mirror for the
last time. That's when I will have closure.''
Last week, the Environment Department hand-delivered to residents
test results from similar-looking ooze that trickled from a rail
bed behind some of the homes.
Those tests showed elevated levels of arsenic, 49.9 milligrams per
kilogram of soil. The acceptable limit for residential land and
parkland is 12 milligrams per kilogram.
It was the third time in a year that tests were done on material
from that spot. Last spring, tests revealed 222.55 milligrams per
kilogram of arsenic in the soil. Two months later, after the
federal government cleaned up the area, levels had dropped to 13.2
milligrams per kilogram.
The province plans to ``remediate'' the basements, but Samson
couldn't specify what that might mean.
For some, that might not be enough.
``When I come back in three weeks, are those fences going to be
down? Is that human health hazard sign going to be down? Am I
going to come back to a healthy environment?,'' wondered McKenzie.
``They can't guarantee me that, but until they can, I will not be
coming back to this house.''
