Legal war takes shape

Residents near toxic waste meet to plot strategy

By Tera Camus / Cape Breton Bureau, April 28, 1999
Whitney Pier - Residents living near Sydney's toxic waste met with a lawyer Tuesday night to explore launching a legal war to force government to move them out.

About 25 people turned out for a meeting at the Hankard Street community hall to add their names to a suit pursued by several families living on Frederick Street near the toxic coke ovens site.

Sydney lawyer Joe Rizzetto has offered to take the case.

"It's the type of thing that you need a good solid group of individuals that are interested in pursuing it by negotiation and ultimately, if negotiations fail, . . . talk about whether litigation is an option," he said. Suing three levels of government would be like David taking on Goliath, he said, but even that battle was won by the little guy.

"What I see is that this government didn't create the problem... But what I don't understand is why there would be any opposition for government to come in . . . to address these peoples' concerns immediately to either move them or compensate them."

He thinks negotiation with three levels of government may work without the need for a lawsuit.

"You've got to get a lawyer. . . . If you don't have a lawyer that's prepared to marshal your concerns and to say to government 'We mean business,' it's like anything else, they'll just roll along, roll along."

The Frederick Street families have been calling on the three levels of government to move them away from the toxins oozing into their neighbourhood. Just last week, a new yellowish ooze believed to contain arsenic bubbled down an embankment near a resident's home.

A similar deposit was found there last year. Tests revealed it contained 18 times the acceptable limits of arsenic. A pool of black goo was also unearthed, revealing 9,000 times more than acceptable limits of naphthalene.

Since then, Environment Canada and the provincial Transportation Department have erected a fence to keep children and pets away, although there are gaps large enough for an adult to crawl through.

The province also hired Cantox Environmental to conduct a three-week study last summer. It determined residents were not in harm's way from migrating chemicals, yet the province has not removed the Human Health Hazard signs near their homes.

Since the residents complained, there's also been no work conducted on a cleanup despite a commitment by three levels of government.

Mr. Rizzetto said the delays are not necessary. "There's a given knowledge that there's a very serious environmental problem here. . . . Isn't it part of the government's responsibility to ensure their citizens and their children don't live in direct proximity to environmental hazards?"

If there are not enough people interested, Mr. Rizzetto said he will not take the case. "It may very well be extremely expensive and it may be when we meet with these people and we look at what litigation costs, we can't do it, it may not make economic sense," he said.

Meanwhile, the federal standing committee on the environment and sustainable development has agreed to visit Sydney to investigate its environmental woes. Reform MP Bill Gilmour introduced a motion Tuesday for the all-party committee to visit for two days in June.

Residents consider legal possibilities

By Laurel Munroe, Cape Breton Post, April 28, 1999

Rizetto & residents Homeowners directly affected by contamination in the Muggah Creek Watershed area must come together with a determined, united voice if they hope to obtain government compensation.

That was the message Sydney lawyer Joe Rizzetto had Tuesday for about 30 residents living near the toxic zone.

During what Rizzetto termed an exploratory meeting, he stressed the problem is not unique to Frederick Street residents, who have been lobbying for relocation for over a year because of the pollution many say is making them sick.

Those who attended Tuesday’s meeting at the Hankard Street Community Hall agreed to spread the word among their communities before a similar session scheduled for next Tuesday evening. Rizzetto encouraged people from all affected areas to attend.

MPs to tour tar ponds

OTTAWA - Ten members of Parliament will visit the Sydney tar ponds this summer, to view a toxic waste dump regarded as Canada's worst environmental problem.

Members of the House of Commons environment committee are planning to take a first-hand look at the site's 700,000 tonnes of PCB-filled sludge - the runoff from nearly a century of steelmaking.

Committee vice-chair Bill Gilmour, a Reform MP, said it's time the Commons was made aware of the problem.

``We've been pushing this issue for at least two Parliaments,'' Gilmour said.

``Finally, we've got the committee travelling out to Sydney, before June, to have a look.''

Gilmour said the committee will also visit the former coke ovens site, which has been closed off with a fence and where signs have been posted warning of human health hazard.

They will also visit Frederick Street, a residential street bordering the coke ovens site where some people have found toxic goo seeping into their backyards.

Gilmour said the committee will hold a series of public hearings during the summer months and then make recommendations on how the area can be cleaned up.
Back to [In the News]



Nightmare on Frederick Street

Return to Main Page





1