Muggah Creek Watershed
PUBLICATIONCape Breton Post
DATE Wed 26 May 1999
EDITION FINAL
SECTION/CATEGORY News
PAGE NUMBER3
STORY LENGTH 286
Public forum to discuss tar ponds, coke ovens
A public forum on the tar ponds and coke ovens site will be held
today at the Leisure Gardens on Vulcan Avenue, Sydney, at 7 p.m.
Don Deleskie, speaking for the citizens who've organized the
forum, said more than 1,000 flyers had been distributed as of
Tuesday inviting all concerned citizens from all areas of the city
to attend.
The flyer urges citizens to ``speak as one voice regarding the
health issues created as a result of the toxic waste site we have
here in Sydney. Enough is enough.''
Deleskie said the sponsors of the meeting are not another in a
growing list of organizations popping up around the controversial
cleanup of the former steel plant properties.
``This is just a few people worried about our health and the lack
of action to clean up this mess,'' said Deleskie, who once staged
a hunger strike to force action on an epidemiological study of the
area.
He said steel union president Bill McNeil and regional Coun. Lorne
Green have agreed to join himself and brother Ronald, both
longtime environmental crusaders, on the platform.
``We'll be informing people what's in these toxic sites and what
they can do to your health. We'll be demanding to know when a
cleanup will start, what the buffer zones will be and when our
governments are going to start talking to the public about the
situation at public forums like this one.''
McNeil has fallen out with JAG over the limitations it placed on
steelworker-members who had been employed on the tarpond cleanup.
He said he hasn't quit JAG but has been supporting the efforts of
dissident steelworkers who've left JAG and set up an alliance
aimed at getting the cleanup started.
PUBLICATIONThe Halifax Chronicle-Herald
DATE Wednesday May 26, 1999
PAGE A7
BYLINE Tera Camus
Frederick Street residents upset about fire at abandoned
house
Sydney - An abandoned house near the coke ovens site was set
ablaze Monday night, prompting Frederick Street residents to worry
that their homes might be next.
"I got such a fright when they called me. My heart went up to my
throat," said Juanita McKenzie, an outspoken resident whom the
province moved two weeks ago from the contaminated street.
Eight other families on Frederick Street were also moved to a
downtown Sydney hotel after an ooze laden with arsenic seeped into
some of their basements. About 15 homes are on the street. Security
was and continues to be a concern.
"We took (Monday's fire) as a real threat," Ms. McKenzie said. "This
was scary." Security was in place on Frederick Street when the
Lingan Road home at the intersection caught fire. Officials suspect
arson as the home had not been serviced for some time.
"If security is sitting across the street at one home and they're
staring at one home, what are they doing at the top of the hill, or
in this case, the bottom of the hill?" Ms. McKenzie said.
"They were on the road (when the fire occurred)."
Relations between Frederick Street residents and others in the
neighbourhood hasn't been great since public attention focused on
the oozing toxins. Just last week, after more families were moved,
about 100 other neighbourhood residents gathered to vent their anger
and fear at being left behind by the provincial government.
So many verbal threats have been made against the relocated
Frederick Street residents that security is being brought in to
oversee Wednesday night's Joint Action Group meeting at the
Steelworkers Hall.
"I've had threatening phone calls," Ms. McKenzie said. "It's been
happening over the last year. I've had people verbally assault me,
I've had friends yell at me, it's nothing new. But it's wearing me
down."
She said the provincial Environment Department hasn't helped ease
tensions.
"The biggest stress of this whole situation is the fact the
government hasn't come out and said that they moved us because of
health reasons. They have said they moved us because of mental
reasons, so we have the community now saying we're all mental cases."
The province says "compassionate" reasons were behind the
relocations.
Radio and Television Coverage
5B557-14 -- 25 May 99 - "JUANITA MACKENZIE", FORMER 19:14
CBC-R/CBC RESIDENT OF FREDERICK STREET 08:00
MINUTES
AS IT HAPPENS VISITED THE LOVE CANAL
ANOTHER
NATIONALCOMMUNITY THAT HAD TO BE MOVED
BECAUSE OF ENVIRONMENTAL
CONTAMINATION. SHE DRAWS THE
PARALLELS BETWEEN THE TWO
COMMUNITIES.
SHE SAYS THAT WHILE
LOVE CANAL IS BEING RE-BUILT AND
SOME RESIDENTS ARE COMING BACK, THE
AREA IS STILL NOT A HUNDRED PERCENT
SAFE. SHE SAYS THAT RESIDENTS OF
FREDERICK STREET WILL STILL NEED TO
BE CONVINCED TO GO BACK EVEN AFTER
THEIR COMMUNITY IS CLEANED-UP.
(B.BUDD/ M.L.FINLAY)
