PUBLICATIONCape Breton Post
DATE Mon 07 Jun 1999
EDITION FINAL
SECTION/CATEGORY News
PAGE NUMBER1 / Front
BYLINE Laurel Munroe
STORY LENGTH 586
HEADLINE:
Pier residents told to keep making noise: Environmentalist
stresses importance of media in battle for relocation
Whitney Pier homeowners must stick together and keep themselves in
the limelight if they want government to relocate them, advises
the executive director of the Sierra Club of Canada.
Elizabeth May, who attended an information session at the Hankard
Street Community Hall Sunday, said the residents must also learn
to ask the right questions and stressed the need for independent
soil, water, air and health testing.
The meeting was organized by a committee of residents angered
after government offered a voluntary buyout to 24 homeowners on
Frederick Street and Curry's Lane.
The offer was made as a result of extensive testing planned for
the neighbourhood this summer, to trace the source of arsenic
contamination which has turned up in some basements.
``The only thing that gets people moved is staying in the
attention of the media,'' May told the crowd of some 60 people.
``Stay where the media can see you.''
In the short-term, May said, people living on streets close to the
former coke ovens site should be offered an opportunity to move
from their homes to somewhere that is safe.
The environmentalist suggested building replacement communities if
people cannot find suitable homes for the value the government
agrees to pay them for their current houses.
``We need to keep the cultural and social integrity of this
community together and that means building a new community, maybe
Sydney River, that provides decent homes for people that have to
be evacuated from here.''
Debbie Ouellette, of Frederick Street, was moved, along with
several other families, to a Sydney hotel 37 days ago.
She said she can't find a suitable house in the price range the
government is offering for her home.
``They say they'll give the approximate value of a (similar) house
in the Pier. I'm looking for a house less than $40,000; there's
nothing out there,'' Ouellette said. ``I don't have a mortgage,
but I'm going to end up with one. I'm going in the hole here and
the government's saying take it or leave it.''
Meanwhile, Ouellette said she and several other families have been
told this is their last week at the hotel and they must find other
accommodations immediately.
Ann Ross, of Laurier Street, was moved to the hotel along with the
Frederick Street residents after arsenic was found in her
basement.
Ross was not included in the buyout offer and does not know how
long she will be permitted to stay at the hotel.
``I haven't been given any date of any time whatsoever,'' Ross
said. ``I've been told the government is not going to deal with me
on a buyout . . . I was told if I did not move to the Delta the
government would have probably dealt with me.''
Ross feels as if she is in limbo and said she is scared to
describe what it's like, ``because I have a 13-year-old; we don't
know where we're going or what we're going to do.''
Ross has lived on Laurier Street for 39 years but says she will
never return to her home.
``I don't care if I have to put a pup tent out on the lawn of the
Delta.''
If the community does not stick together, nothing will ever be
done, added Ross.
The community is located adjacent to the ,
considered Canada's worst toxic waste site containing the
notorious Sydney tar ponds and former coke ovens site.
The area is the subject of a remediation plan being led by the
Joint Action Group.
PUBLICATIONThe Halifax Chronicle-Herald
DATE Monday June 7, 1999
PAGE A5
BYLINE Mike Hunter
HEADLINE:
Are our families safe? tar ponds neighbours ask
More families need to be moved, Sierra Club says
Sydney - The silence of government is deafening, according to
angry and nervous families living near the country's worst
industrial waste site.
At a community meeting Sunday evening, more than 70 families
expressed their frustrations and planned their next move to get
their concerns addressed.
In recent weeks, the Nova Scotia government has offered to buy up
to 24 homes in an area bordering an abandoned coke ovens site
because toxic contaminants from 100 years of steelmaking at Sysco
have been leaching into their basements.
That has raised many more questions, says municipal councillor Lorne
Green. Neighbours want to know what is being done to test other
homes and what parameters are being used to decide who is being
bought out.
"People want assurances that where they live is safe to bring their
children up in," he said. "It's causing panic when they hear of
other people being moved.
"There has been no action, no assurance and no information from
government. We at least want to get our questions answered, but
there is nothing at all (forthcoming)."
Mr. Green invited Elizabeth May, executive director of the Sierra
Club of Canada, to speak with residents Sunday to advise them what
actions might be taken to pressure the government.
"These are people who have never dealt with government before," Mr.
Green said. "They want to know what testing should be conducted and
there is talk of legal action - they just want to know it's safe."
Ms. May said the Joint Action Group (JAG), charged with remediating
the entire area, must establish a series of
buffer zones, with timelines to relocate neighbourhoods, so that a
cleanup of the waste sites can resume and continue.
"There is no question we have to move a lot more people," she said. "
People believe the health of their children is at risk (and) we have
to think in terms of phased-in decision-making for new neighbourhood
areas, even moving them collectively to keep them intact."
The national environmental group is recommending that neurological
testing be undertaken for adults and children in the neighbourhood.
"(Toxic) effects are not just cancer and birth defects," she said, "
and government has done nothing to assess risks to children. The
community needs to know (everything)."
PUBLICATIONCape Breton Post
DATE Sat 05 Jun 1999
EDITION FINAL
SECTION/CATEGORY Cape Breton
PAGE NUMBER3
STORY LENGTH 109
HEADLINE:
Sierra Club director to attend Sunday meeting
The executive director of the Sierra Club of Canada, Elizabeth
May, will attend a meeting Sunday at the Hankard Street Community
Hall in Whitney Pier.
The meeting was organized by a residents' committee formed in
response to the voluntary buyout offer to residents of Frederick
Street and Curry's Lane. The offer was made as a result of
extensive testing planned for the neighbourhood this summer to
trace the source of arsenic contamination which has turned up in
some basements.
The committee, representing residents from other streets in the
Whitney Pier community, is demanding they be included in the
buyout offer.
