Muggah Creek Watershed
PUBLICATIONThe Halifax Chronicle-Herald
DATE Tuesday June 1, 1999
PAGE B1
HEADLINE:
Carried along by the ooze
THE PROVINCIAL government has finally done the right thing by
residents of Sydney's Frederick Street and Curry's Lane in offering
to buy all homes located on the two streets adjacent to the Sysco
coke-ovens site.
It's about time.
Since 10 families were moved out of the neighbourhood two weeks
ago, after material seeping into basements was found to contain
arsenic, anyone with eyes could see that neighbours of the
government's toxic-waste site had been subjected to more than enough
hardship.
Even if the province could not point to a clear health risk from the
coke-ovens site - and it still says it can't - the evacuated
families could hardly be asked to move back.
And neighbours who remained in their homes could hardly be left
trapped - worried about the health and financial implications of the
decision to evacuate some residents, but with little chance of being
able to sell if they wanted to leave, too.
And so, like the long-suffering residents of New York state's
infamous Love Canal, a community built on a reclaimed dumpsite, the
immediate neighbours of the coke ovens had a compelling case to be
moved by the province - on compassionate grounds alone.
Compassion was the rationale for government evacuation of the Love
Canal. And essentially, this is how Public Works Minister Cliff
Huskilson characterized the province's "voluntary offer" Friday to
buy all 24 homes on the two Sydney streets.
Careful not to assume liability, the government is not acknowledging
** any health risk to residents and is not expropriating the homes.
Mr.
** Huskilson said the offer is being made so the Environment
Department
can conduct "more intrusive" testing - including drilling and
excavating on several properties - without disrupting residents'
lives.
The offer at least treats everyone on the two affected streets
equitably. All owners will be able to sell for a price based on the
value of a similar home away from the waste site. The province will
pay for transaction costs - legal and real estate fees, independent
appraisals, title search, deed transfer tax and moving costs.
But it would be foolish to think this ends the disruption to life in
the area, even temporarily.
Residents of other streets, some just as close to the ovens site,
are worred about the health of their families, are angry at not
being included in the purchase offer and are puzzled by the criteria
used to limit the offer to two streets.
The intrusive work cited by Mr. Huskilson will surely have its own
domino effect: depressing property values and creating pressure for
a more extensive buyout.
Indeed, Sierra Club executive-director Elizabeth May says residents
of four nearby streets and much of the downtown should be relocated.
That sounds extreme - but in the absence of any clear and credible
criteria from the province on relocations, the sense of a spreading
crisis is bound to grow.
The rationale for Friday's purchase offer - compassion and
mitigation of nuisance - saves the province from admitting fault.
But it's not much help determining who needs to move.
Many people deserve compassion because of the mess and the dawdling,
confused handling of it. As Cape Breton Mayor David Muise aptly
summed it up on Friday, the community is in turmoil.
All this can be attributed to governments flying by the seat of
their pants, reacting to each coke-oven crisis as it, predictably,
oozes up. The province and Ottawa can do better.
Since toxic goo began appearing in basements a year ago, the need to
move some residents has clearly been a serious possibility. Yet no
plan or criteria for doing this were developed. Even today,
officials are still trying to define an exclusion zone as Ottawa and
the province spend another $60 million on studies, fencing and minor
remediation.
So far, governments have just been carried along by the ooze. It's
really time they got a step or two ahead of it.
PUBLICATIONCP Wire
DATE Tue 01 Jun 1999
SECTION/CATEGORY National general news
STORY LENGTH 295
Residents demand buyout offer
SYDNEY, N.S. (CP) - Householders excluded from a provincial
government offer to buy 24 homes on two polluted streets began
fighting for the same deal Tuesday night.
``They just want the same offer that's already been put forward,
so that's basically the fight,'' Coun. Lorne Green said prior to a
public meeting in Whitney Pier, a grimy neighbourhood near the
Sydney Steel mill and infamous tar ponds.
``How do we get the province to respond to that?'' A government
spokesman said Tuesday that 11 homeowners on Frederick Street and
Curry's Lane have told the province they want to accept the
province's buyout offer.
Green said a committee will go door to door to reach all of the
estimated 500 other residents who may want to sell their homes.
``Our goal is to get the same letter in everyone's hands . . . in
anyone's hands who wants out.''
Residents from as far away as Maloney Street, about five streets
further along Whitney Pier, have told Green they want the province
to buy their homes. Householders on Vulcan Avenue in Ashby and
Intercolonial Street near the tar ponds also want the deal.
``The community must band together,'' said resident Leonard
Axworthy. ``The government knows we're here. It's not going to
end.
``We'll keep on fighting even if our children have to fight after
we have passed on.''
The province's buyout offer has been criticized for excluding some
areas. Although arsenic has been found in liquid oozing into
basements on Laurier and Frederick streets, the deal is only for
the two dozen householders on Frederick and Curry's, which border
the east side of the former coke ovens site.
The province made the offer so it can do tests to determine the
cause of migrating toxins. (Halifax Chronicle-Herald)
PUBLICATIONThe Daily News (Halifax)
DATE Sun 30 May 1999
EDITION DAILY
SECTION/CATEGORY OP-ED
PAGE NUMBER15
BYLINE Parker Barss Donham
STORY LENGTH 803
HEADLINE:
Ooze control: Government finally trying to do the right
thing
It's not hard to understand the anger that greeted Friday's
announcement of a federal-provincial program to clean up the
Sydney Steel Coke Ovens and buy out nearby residents.
The history of the coke ovens and the Sydney Tar Pond is riddled
with government mistakes, misjudgments, incompetence, negligence,
and cover-up. The surprise would be if residents trusted anything
government did or said about the problem.
Still, having followed this story for almost 20 years, I can find
nothing wrong with the actions taken by the federal and provincial
governments over the last two weeks. From this vantage point, the
two governments seem to be doing the right thing, for the right
reason, in the right way.
Two issues sparked most of the community's anger: government's
insistence it was acting not out of any belief affected residents
face any immediate health threat but out of compassion; and the
arbitrary drawing of boundaries as to which homeowners would be
offered buyouts.
First the health risk. The toxic mess centring on the coke ovens
and the tar ponds is the product of 100 years of environmental
recklessness. For the first 70 or so, people didn't know or care
much about environmental hazards. For the last 30, the community
and its politicians were too desperate for jobs to squawk about
pollution. Until the mid-80s, government was happy to ignore the
problem.
There is no doubt the soil underlying the coke ovens site and the
petrochemical sludge lining the tar ponds pose a serious health
** hazard. Both are severely contaminated with PAH, a potent
** carcinogen, as well as an ominous list of heavy metals and organic
poisons.
** An underground plume of these highly dangerous pollutants has been
growing for decades, migrating toward the tar ponds and the
** harbour beyond.
There's also clear evidence residents of Sydney experience
higher-than-average rates of environmentally sensitive illnesses
like cancer, birth defects, and heart disease.
What's not clear is how much of Sydney's poorer health outcomes
can be traced to the toxic waste dump at the city's heart, and how
much to the community's higher smoking rates, poorer eating
habits, and higher rates of industrial employment -- all of which
have likewise been clearly documented.
Nor is there any clear evidence the worst pollutants at the coke
ovens have migrated into nearby residential neighbourhoods in
significant quantities.
Yes, the orange goo seeping into basements along Frederick Street
contains a percentage of arsenic far above recommended limits. It
has, in fact, a level of arsenic typical of that found in Nova
Scotia coal, piles of which can be found in many basements.
Arsenic is a common problem in Nova Scotia. The soil in many
residential neighbourhoods in Nova Scotia has several times the
arsenic level of the Frederick Street ooze. Shall we buy out all
those homes, too?
** Ground water samples in residential neighbourhoods surrounding the
coke ovens show levels of PAH well below what's deemed acceptable
for a remediated site.
Trouble is, bloodless reassurances like these cut no ice with
affected householders. Why should they? Who wants to risk the
health of their families by continuing to live next to an
acknowledged health hazard whose illness-generating components
might be acting or moving in ways not yet discovered, appreciated,
or acknowledged by the authorities. No prudent person would buy a
house in this area.
So the government has decided not to hide behind the opinion of
its scientific advisors. It decided to respond to the real
problems faced by Frederick Street residents, without worrying too
much about whether the risks behind those problems are real or
perceived.
It was an expensive decision, but it was the right one.
Next, the boundary issue. The government isn't going to buy out
every home-owner in Cape Breton. Somewhere there will come a line
between homeowners who were bought out, and those who weren't.
Residents of nearby Tupper Street argued, passionately and
movingly, that they need to move too. And maybe they do. Since the
decision to move residents of Frederick Street and Curry's Lane
was based, not on irrefutable scientific proof of risk but
rational apprehension of risk, it might become necessary to
broaden the area to be evacuated.
The politicians I heard discussing this all emphasized their
flexibility on this point. Friday's announcement was couched as a
first step.
This is in sharp contrast to the announced closing of Devco, at
which federal officials signalled clearly that the pension
packages were non-negotiable. They have not budged from that
position since.
Federal Environment Minister Christine Stewart and provincial
Environment Minister Michel Samson signalled no such inflexibility
Friday.
That flexibility could likewise prove expensive. But it is the
right approach.
Governments have made many bad mistakes in dealing with the Coke
Ovens disaster. Friday's announcement isn't one of them.
Copyright 1999 by Parker Barss Donham. All rights reserved.
(pdonham@fox.nstn.ca)
No more buyouts - premier
But Samson says goo relocation might not be over
By Amy Smith Provincial reporter and Jocelyn Bethune Chronicle Herald - June 1, 1999
Environment Minister Michel Samson says the province hasn't "drawn a line in the sand" on how
many houses it will buy near the Sydney coke ovens site.
But don't tell that to his boss, Premier Russell MacLellan.
Last week, the province offered to buy 24 houses on Frederick Street and Curry's Lane. But
Monday, the Sierra Club of Canada demanded the government buy neighbouring homes as well.
"We're more than happy to start looking at some of the other areas," Mr. Samson said Monday
night at the House. "In fact, with this buyout, it will allow us to ... address some questions in relation
to the other streets."
But Mr. MacLellan said the province's offer is good only for homes on those two streets.
"As far as I'm concerned, there won't be any more homes," the premier said. "There's no reason
to believe there will be anybody else moved."
The premier said the homes that are bought will eventually be torn down, and residents who
choose to stay behind have been made aware of the disruption from the demolition and testing.
"If they want to stay in light of that and we're telling the whole story ... that's certainly their
privilege."
Nearly a dozen families were moved to a Sydney hotel after high arsenic levels were found in an
orange ooze that seeped into their basements.
The province has stressed the buyout offers weren't made because of any health risk to the
residents. Public Works Minister Cliff Huskilson characterized the Friday announcement as the
right thing to do.
Residents have a year to decide whether to sell, and the decision is voluntary.
Residents near Frederick Street and Curry's Lane say they want the same government bailout
offered their neighbours.
"I would expect the exact same offer. Nothing more, nothing less," said Lorne Green, councillor
for Whitney Pier and a resident of Tupper Street.
Todd Marsman, a lifelong resident of Laurier Street, said he and his neighbours have been
alarmed since the buyout announcement.
"If you had asked me six months ago, three months ago, even two months ago if these (Frederick
Street) people would ever be moved, I'd say no because the government wouldn't open a can of
worms like that," he said, looking across his backyard to houses that the government will soon
buy.
"They're (residents) gone now, but we're still here. It would calm a lot of people's nerves if the
government would come and give us some answers."
Mr. Marsman said he worries when his two children play in the yard.
A community meeting will be held at 7 o'clock tonight at Melnick Hall on Laurier Street.
