KJIPUKTUK (Halifax) – Last night there was yet another meeting on water quality issues in the Harrietsfield and Williamswood area. This time part of the focus was on the Harrietsfield Elementary School, where kids are advised not to drink the tap water because of a high uranium content.

To say that the 40 or so residents at last night’s meeting were concerned is an understatement.

The area has known of its water problem for decades now.

Citing government reports dating back to 1980, Harrietsfield’s tireless community advocate Marlene Brown discussed the history of high amounts of uranium detected in the region’s groundwater, making the water in people’s wells unsafe to drink.

“In 1981 the Nova Scotia Department of Health carried out an extensive sampling program which determined that 107 wells in the Harrietsfield/Williamswood area exceeded the 0.02mg/1 limit (of uranium),” it says in the Harrietsfield Williamswood Pollution Control Study, which was published by the municipality in 1987.

“30 years ago, they did this study. A lot of these problems are probably fixed, but more than likely a lot of them are not,” Brown said.

Uranium concentration in drinking water seven times over the limit at Harrietsfield Elementary School

One problem that has not been dealt with has to do with the water quality at Harrietsfield Elementary School. The school is 500 metres away from a contaminated site which was once home to frequent illegal dumping, illegal waste disposal practices and that still houses a containment cell with 120,000 tonnes of toxic waste inside. The cell was improperly built, and ended up leaking chemical contaminants into the ground and groundwater.

Concerned about the water quality, Brown submitted a water sample from the school to be tested and analyzed by the Environmental Services division at the Nova Scotia Health Authority.

“Today I got the results from our school. The uranium is 133, the arsenic is 7” she says at the meeting. The maximum concentration of uranium in drinking water is 20 micrograms per litre, according to the Canadian Drinking Water Guidelines, meaning that the school’s concentration of uranium, 133 micrograms per litre, is almost seven times over the accepted limit.

Dalhousie professor Judith Guernsey, an environmental epidemiologist specializing in community health, has initiated an independently funded health impact study on water quality in Harrietsfield. In an email she sent after the meeting she wrote that drinking water with a concentration of uranium of 133 micrograms per litre is linked to kidney damage.

“Radon gas has also been shown to be elevated in homes where drinking water contains higher uranium concentrations. Radon gas exposure has been shown to be associated with lung cancer,” Guernsey wrote.

Guernsey notes that “clinical studies of the health effects of uranium exposures that involved members of the Harrietsfield community in the 1980’s are amongst the most cited of publications about the chronic effects of elevated uranium exposure worldwide.”

As well, citing a recent study, Guernsey said that when arsenic concentrations are more than 5 micrograms per litre, the risk of bladder cancer is 18% higher and the risk of kidney cancer is 14% higher than when concentrations are from 0-2 micrograms per litre.

During her presentation, Brown expressed deep concern for the health of those at the school.

“I found out in June, four little girls were filling up their water bottles in the bathroom sinks. So any parents, please let your children know—do not fill up their water bottles in the sink,” Brown says, showing images of caution signs that have been put up in the school’s bathrooms.

“We’re talking about children five to eleven, maybe. I’m sorry but a five and a six-year-old cannot read chemical contamination notices, and these are above the sinks, where the water is still running with all this contamination,” she says.

Something was always off with the water

Valerie Gallant, a resident of Williamswood and former teacher at Harrietsfield Elementary, told the Nova Scotia Advocate that when she sees photos of the caution signs on the walls of the school, it terrifies her.

When Gallant worked at the school from 1975 to 2008, she does not recall seeing any signs, but she does recall telling the children not to drink the water from the fountains.

“We did tell the children when they first realized that the water was not going to be potable (in 1980), and they brought in water and they drank out of paper cups. That’s what they had, little paper cups,” Gallant says.

She also recalls someone from the Department of Environment coming to take water samples, but “he never engaged with us and talked to us about what he was actually doing. He would just take his water samples and then he would go,” she says.

“Other than that, we instructed the kids to use the bottled water, which was at times really inconvenient because the bottles would empty, the janitor wouldn’t be really diligent sometimes at replacing them, they were huge and heavy for female staff, you know, to tip upside down.”

Plus, the small Dixie cups given to the children held very small amounts of water, making it disruptive for teachers when their students were thirsty.

“You have little ones that are thirsty coming from gym, so they want to get multiple cups of water,” she said. “It didn’t work very well.”

From the beginning, Gallant sensed something was “off” with the water at the school, so she never drank it. Thanks to frequent testing, she knows that her well water is safe to drink, and she always brought her own water to work with her.

“If I didn’t have my water with me, I didn’t drink. And I have no health issues,” she says.

Gallant mentioned that several teachers and staff left the school for health problems, such as autoimmune issues, and respiratory issues stemming from the poor air quality in the building. She also recalls children having frequent “severe nosebleeds” and noticed patterns of behavioural issues among children from Harrietsfield, particularly in the areas where they first detected uranium.

“It’s not just about the water, it’s about us”

According to Brendan Maguire, the MLA for Halifax Atlantic who attended the meeting, the principal of the school said that the water is regularly tested, students are advised not to drink from the taps and instructed to use bottled water.

After the presentations, community members were given the opportunity to ask questions. Many expressed concern for the health of their grandchildren who are currently attending Harrietsfield Elementary School.

Mark Welsh, a long-time resident of Harrietsfield, said the biggest thing he senses is “a lack of urgency” with regards to how the government is dealing with the issue of the contaminated site, but also the community’s lack of access to safe drinking water. As Brown points out, they have been relying on the taps at St. Paul’s Church to fill up bottles to live off of for five years now.

Others tried to appeal to Maguire and district councilor Stephen Adams to feel empathy for the people forced to live with the contaminated water, especially for those who are sick and struggling every single day.

“It’s not just about the water, it’s about us,” Angela Welsh says. “It’s very serious. It’s life or death for some people.”

See also: Drinking water fears confirmed at angry Harrietsfield community meeting

The post High uranium content in water at Harrietsfield Elementary School has parents very worried appeared first on Nova Scotia Advocate.

Meet Melissa King, who with her husband bought a modest house in Harrietsfield to raise her family. The previous owner claimed the water was fine, and promptly left the country. Now King tells us how contaminated water forced the family to abandon their hopes and dreams and declare bankruptcy just so her family could start all over somewhere else.

In her most recent story, reporter Rebecca Hussman, who has written about Harrietsfield extensively, reports that an independent health impact study shows how terribly alarming the situation really is.

This week’s weekend video is a fragment of a much longer and truly excellent documentary, Defenders of the Dawn: Green Rights in the Maritimes, by activist, author and filmmaker Silver Donald Cameron. The documentary investigates the idea that clean air, clean water and a clean earth are basic human rights. If you haven’t yet, check out this CBC production here.

Silver Donald Cameron is the driving force behind the Green Interview, a series of inspiring documentaries, well over 100 interviews, and a book, all focusing on environmental issues. Check out its website here. Some of the material on the website requires a subscription.  

If you can, please support the Nova Scotia Advocate so that it can continue to cover issues such as poverty, racism, exclusion, workers’ rights and the environment in Nova Scotia. A paywall is not an option, since it would exclude many readers who don’t have any disposable income at all. We rely entirely on one-time donations and a tiny but mighty group of dedicated monthly sustainers.

The post Weekend video: Harrietsfield water woes appeared first on Nova Scotia Advocate.

Community members are especially worried that the high rates of serious illnesses in the area, such as throat, kidney and esophagus cancer, are connected to the contaminated water they have consumed for so many years.

Despite multiple court proceedings, no health impact studies were ever conducted because residents couldn’t afford them, and no branch of government was ever willing to step up to the plate.

That reluctance by government to cough up some money continues, but the study is finally happening after all.  

Environmental epidemiologist Judith Guernsey, along with a multi-disciplinary team of experts, have begun an independently funded year-long pilot study analyzing water samples of domestic wells in the Harrietsfield region. This past spring, the Dalhousie professor and her team tested around two dozen different wells and Guernsey presented the results during the meeting.

“13 of at least 20 samples had one parameter that exceeded the Canadian Drinking Water Guidelines,” Guernsey said.

Guernsey explained that in this region in particular, there are several factors at play that, in combination, caused the pollution levels to arrive at where they are now; in other words, a now defunct construction and demolition recycling facility only worsened an area that was already known to have unsafe levels of uranium and arsenic, among others.

“Our preliminary findings from samples studied to date corroborate evidence of elevated exposures to arsenic, uranium and manganese and other contaminants as well as lower pH levels in Harrietsfield residential water supplies,” Guernsey said.

Having a pH level that is lower than the Canadian Drinking Water Guidelines means firstly that the water is unsafe to drink, but also since it is highly acidic, the water itself mobilizes any existing metals such as uranium into the groundwater flow and affects the chemistry of other contaminants.

As well, Guernsey found high levels of manganese in water samples. Currently, the guidelines for manganese levels in drinking water is 50 mg/L, but according to Guernsey this is in the midst of being updated as recent studies have found that there is a link between excessive consumption of manganese and impaired brain function in children.

More work needs to be done, Guernsey said. “However, given what is already known about these health effects, a public health strategy or intervention to reduce these exposures seems prudent and should be considered.”

The community was also briefed about the long history of court proceedings, led by Lisa Mitchell, the executive director at East Coast Environmental Law (ECELaw). ECELaw has has a long history of supporting Brown and other residents in their legal fight.

• See also: A small step, but a very important step — Judge gives go ahead to Harrietsfield private prosecution

Brown’s in the midst of a private prosecution against the companies responsible in part for the environmental contamination that has occurred. Brown was the first person to file such a private prosecution to enforce the Environment Act in Nova Scotia. Yet since the public prosecutor took over the case in July 2017, it has been delayed 12 times, causing much disappointment among Brown and others hoping for some action.

“And now, we wait,” Mitchell said.

After hearing brief speeches from Stephen Adams, the district councillor for the area, Andy Fillmore, the Member of Parliament for Halifax, Brendan Maguire, the MLA for Halifax Atlantic and Minister of Environment Ian Rankin, the community members were given a chance to ask questions.

A lot of questions from the audience had to do with the lack of timeline or action plan that would ensure that this meeting was not just the politicians “giving lip service” to the community yet again.

To this day, the site has not been cleaned up, there has not been an extension of city water services to the area, nor has any water been shipped out to those with impacted wells. In the meantime, eight homes were given water treatment systems, but residents claim that the number of impacted wells in the region is much greater and more people need these systems.

With regards to an action plan, all the government representatives would say was that they had to wait until Brown’s prosecution case was concluded to proceed with an environmental assessment of the former construction and recycling site, as well as enforce the terms of the ministerial orders.

These terms include monitoring the well water of 18 wells which have been previously flagged by a hydrogeologist hired by the Department of Environment for having various parameters exceeding standards outlined in the Canadian Drinking Water Guidelines.

Minister Rankin mentioned that there are 300 contaminated sites in Nova Scotia and that “no one site is more important than the other,” but a community member later asked “how many of these sites are in residential areas?”

When no one would step up to answer, Mitchell took the microphone to best answer the question. She said that in her knowledge few, if any, of the 300 contaminated sites are in residential areas and probably zero percent of them are negatively affecting a community of 900 families’ drinking water.

Councillor Adams did say that he has requested that the 1400 block of Harrietsfield will get city water. The federal infrastructure cost-sharing model that has been proposed, according to Adams, would see the federal government pick up 50%, the provincial government take on 33% and municipal government the remaining 17%. However, this does not mean that the people of Harrietsfield would not have to pay to have it extended to their homes.

MLA Brendan Maguire said that he has put in a request arguing that residents of Harrietsfield “should not have to pay a dime” for the extension of water and sewage services to their area, “due to the circumstances.”

However, the people of Williamswood were concerned that the federal cost-sharing request only included the 1400 block of Harrietsfield. What about the rest of their community, equally impacted by the polluted construction site, angry residents wondered.

Brown agreed. Harrietsfield and Williamswood were always looked at as one community, and the request should be amended to include the homes in Williamswood as well, she stated, to resounding applause.

For Brown, despite all the layers of this issue, the “number one thing we need to take care of is the school.” Harrietsfield Elementary should have a hookup to safe drinking water, she said.

“Children should not have to be a part of this mess that we are stuck in,” Brown said.

See also: Harrietsfield homeowners win in court, but drinking water concerns remain

The post Drinking water fears confirmed at angry Harrietsfield community meeting appeared first on Nova Scotia Advocate.

On April 26, 2017, in her continued efforts to get the site cleaned up, Brown laid charges against those responsible for the contamination.  

It is the first time private prosecution has been used to enforce environmental laws in Nova Scotia. The Department of Environment has never charged the polluter and Brown felt she had no other option.

The area’s groundwater, which supplies the residents’ well water, was contaminated by activities at a now defunct recycling facility in Harrietsfield between the years of 2002 and 2013. These activities include things such as illegally stockpiling construction and demolition waste materials for extended periods, which led to toxic chemicals leaking into the ground, thereby infiltrating the area’s water supply.

On May 18, 2017, after hearing a testimony by Brown and two Nova Scotia Environment employees, a provincial judge agreed that the basis for Brown’s charges were valid, and that the case can proceed to trial, says Jamie Simpson, who is representing Brown along with Lisa Mitchell of East Coast Environmental Law (ECELAW).

“It’s a small step along the way, but a very important step,” Simpson says.

A formal summons has been issued to 3076525 Nova Scotia Limited (307) and “service is being undertaken for 3012334 Nova Scotia Limited and the individual Roy Brown,” according to ECELAW. Roy Brown was the company owner of the latter, the original company that went by RDM Recycling, along with Michael Lawrence, until the owners of 307 bought all their assets, began leasing the property from them and took over the RDM name in 2005.

The accused have been asked to come to court on June 13, 2017, where scheduling of the next steps will take place, Simpson says.

Brown says she was relieved as soon as she heard that the judge’s decision was in her favour.

“I feel we are being heard,” she says. “I am remaining optimistic.”

Brown is alleging that the parties in question violated the Environment Act in two ways: first, by failing to prevent the release of harmful substances into the environment; and second, for not being compliant with the terms of the ministerial orders that have been issued to them.

Two ministerial orders were issued to all of the parties mentioned—one in 2010 and another in 2016—yet the terms of those orders were never fully complied with, and are still not being complied with to this day. For example, there is still no monitoring of residents’ well water as one of the terms of the order requires, which is of great concern to Brown who is stuck living with contaminated well water. Without the ongoing testing, she and others who were once part of the monitoring program don’t know exactly what contaminants are in their water.

Court documents indicate the Department of Environment has known about the severity of the environmental contamination in Harrietsfield, as well as the health risks this subjects residents to, for more than a decade. Despite this, no formal charges have been laid by the Department against the noncompliant parties.

Simpson says that the province has decided not to formally participate in this private prosecution, but representatives of the Department of Environment were present at the hearing on May 18. Simpson explains that they “can always step in at any time.”

“It’s open to them to step in and take it over, or put a stop to it,” Simpson says, adding that he’d be surprised if the province stepped in to stop it from going forward, especially after the judge agreed that “there’s something that needs to be taken to trial here.”

Brown says her underlying motive in doing all this is to “obtain justice for all those who have to deal with this nightmare.”

Requests for comments by Roy Brown and Robert Grant, a lawyer linked to 307, were not returned at the time of publication This story will be updated when we receive their response.

The post A small step, but a very important step — Judge gives go ahead to Harrietsfield private prosecution appeared first on Nova Scotia Advocate.

KJIPUKTUK (Halifax) – It seems people running for election in Nova Scotia acquire the bizarre skill to say things that are so completely incorrect that those on the receiving end are simply rendered speechless.

We saw it again on Sunday, May 7, 2017 at the Harrietsfield-Williamswood Community Centre. Residents and their supporters had gathered for a meeting to update and raise support for the community in their continuing battle for safe drinking water.

The area has been plagued with drinking water issues for decades. First stemming from uranium exploration in the 1970s, and more recently from leakage of construction and demolition waste on a property owned by RDM Recycling in the middle of a residential area.

Many naturally occurring heavy metals already present in the ground were mobilized and exacerbated by the leaching that occurred from the 120,000 tons of non-recyclable  waste buried in a cell there. There is no evidence that the cell was ever lined and the engineered system that was supposed to capture leachate has never worked.

Marlene Brown, who has been leading the charge on this issue, offered background information on this issue to a large and supportive crowd. She went over the many illnesses, especially cancers, experienced in the community that have at times caused death and continue to cause emotional hurt.

Brown also mentioned Blue, a neighbour’s pet dog who recently lost his sibling and who has had tumors removed, while also suffering from incurable lip cancer.

After Marlene wound down her presentation, the room has many questions, mostly for the incumbent Liberal candidate, Brendan Maguire. People were not happy with his responses.

Here is my effort to give a blow by blow report on what transpired.

The shrinking number of affected homes

People asked Maguire why only eight homes were being offered a solution to their water issues, and a temporary solution to boot.  Maguire’s response was simply that “there is a process in place, and if people’s wells are impacted, they need to call the department of Environment.”

However, the department  already knows which homes are affected, after all it has had the test results since 2003. The department also knows which households beyond the eight were sent letters in 2006, telling the residents not to drink their water.

At one time there were 83 households deemed affected, over time that number shrunk to the current eight. How and why that happened we don’t know. But the infuriating part is when an elected municipal or provincial official suggests that just eight homes were ever affected, so what’s the big deal…

What has Maguire done about this issue when he was MLA?

Maguire claims he has been talking many times with the mayor, the local councilor and Halifax Council.

But if true, all that talk certainly didn’t lead to results. A search of council minutes shows there is no record of council discussing the water issue in Harrietsfield since October 2013, except for one motion made by Councillor Stephen  Adams in November 2016, asking for staff to prepare a report for a committee to see if it is possible to pay for the purchase, installation and maintenance of eight systems.

What is wrong with the water?

The 120,000 tons of waste from old demolished buildings is just about the size of the local elementary school.

Among other things remains of an old hospital is buried at the site. That old hospital was demolished when it was deemed unfit. One resident in attendance stated she worked at a hospital and it was the sickest building in Canada. That resident also mentioned the noxious smell emanating from the site.

She told Maguire that there is no need to pretend we don’t know how this is impacting health of residents. Testing showed high levels of heavy metals in the water, including aluminum, uranium, lead, cadmium, boron, arsenic, etc.

Maguire was quick to point out these are all naturally occurring issues. Marlene Brown was just as efficient in explaining, for the one millionth time, that yes, while these things are naturally occurring in groundwater, they are  exacerbated and activated due to the additional contamination of the site.  

Meanwhile residents know that the system engineered to prevent leachate has never worked. There is supposed to be a liner in the cell to protect the surrounding environment, but there is no evidence that a liner was ever installed.

The system was supposed to capture an estimated 250 gallons of leachate daily. However, no leachate has ever been pumped out of the system.

Just do the math. 250 gallons per day, every day for 13 plus years equals at least 1.2 million gallons of leachate that has been released directly into the environment….

Brown spoke about the meeting in February, where she and another resident met with Maguire, councillor Adams and staff of the department of Environment.  Brown was told she had to provide evidence that there was an issue with the water. This while the department has  been in court time after time with the owners and operators of the site.

Maguire  kept saying that he has spoken to Brown several times. Brown countered she has not heard from him since February.

Dollars and Sense

In June 2016, at the last rally, Maguire and Councillor Adams stated it would cost $5 million to bring water to the residents. That may sound like a lot, but in reality is only a fraction of the city’s overall budget.

Flash forward to May 2017, how much will it cost to bring the water out to Harrietsfield – Maguire now says it will cost between $9, $12,  maybe even $15 Million. How did the cost double or triple since last year?

Maguire stated the province has put an offer on the table to help with the cost to bring water to the area, but that Halifax Water has no plan to do so. This was the first anyone has heard about the Province putting any money on the table for this issue. But hey, it’s election time. Do I believe there is money on the table for this issue? Not really.

Note: numerous media reports have since raised doubts about the seriousness of this offer and have accused Maguire of making statements about the City’s cooperation that are untrue.

And let’s not forget about the Federal infrastructure funding. Maguire stated seven projects were approved, but Harrietsfield was not one of them. Harrietsfield was never included in the applications for infrastructure money.

Who is responsible?

Stephen  Adams, the local councillor at one time pushed for the site to be rezoned to allow this operation to proceed. There is evidence the councillor was personal friends with the owner, even sitting beside him in the courtroom during the hearings with the department of Environment, while the residents sat across the aisle.

Environment issued the permit for the operation and failed to enforce or monitor the conditions for the site.

We know full well that the municipality is able to bring water out to the residents, and Environment has the power  to force the site to be cleaned up.  What is missing is political will.

The local people who attended the meeting were mostly on their own and were not heard until lately. But that is changing. Many more people attended this meeting than ever before, to show their support and to prove to the residents as well as their representatives that this story has legs.

And that’s a good thing. We cannot close our eyes and pretend it’s not happening. And we cannot allow this community to stand alone any longer.

I am not sure how Adams and Maguire sleep at night. They are not the only ones, but they are certainly at the top of the list for failing miserably in doing what they are supposed to do.

Unlike them, we must not fail the people of Harrietsfield.

If you can, please support the Nova Scotia Advocate so that it can continue to cover issues of poverty, racism, exclusion, workers’ rights and the environment in Nova Scotia. A pay wall is not an option, since it would exclude many readers who don’t have any disposable income at all. We rely entirely on one-time donations and a small group of kindhearted monthly sustainers.

The post Harrietsfield and the idiocracy we live in appeared first on Nova Scotia Advocate.

But nearby residents are not celebrating yet. The companies responsible for the pollution have stopped court-mandated water monitoring, and residents are still waiting for water treatment systems that the province promised would be in place by February.

Marlene Brown, a Harrietsfield resident of more than 30 years, lives just down the road from the waste site that has contaminated her community’s water supply. Watch her describe some of the daily difficulties she faces at home due to the polluted water coming from her well. Video by Rebecca Hussman, 2015

On March 9 Justice Gabriel of the Nova Scotia Supreme Court dismissed an appeal filed by two of the owners and operators of the RDM Recycling site, finding that the terms of the ministerial order issued to them by Environment minister Margaret Miller in 2016 to be reasonable.

The order requires that the owners of the company, 3076525 Nova Scotia Ltd. (307 NSL), conduct water testing and ongoing monitoring of wells flagged for having various parameters exceeding the Canadian drinking water guidelines, as well as pay for remediation of the site.

A similar appeal after the department of Environment issued an order against the companies was dismissed by the Nova Scotia Supreme Court in November 2016.

Three Harrietsfield residents, Marlene Brown, Melissa King and Angela Zwicker, were granted intervenor status in both appeals, and were represented by Ecojustice lawyers Kaitlyn Mitchell and Julia Croome for both hearings. They are among the Harrietsfield residents whose well water have been severely impacted by the runoff coming from the contaminated site.

According to Mitchell, during 307 NSL’s appeal the residents argued that “it was reasonable for the minister to hold responsible two directors of the company that owns the site and used to operate the RDM facility.”

“In upholding the Ministerial Order against 307 (NSL), Justice Gabriel acknowledged the serious impacts that contamination from the site has had on the environment and local residents, and that 307’s operations contributed to those impacts.”

“We’ve been disappointed so many times”

One of the intervenors, Marlene Brown, says she is grateful for Justice Gabriel’s decision to uphold the order, but she she remains cautiously optimistic about how things will play out now that the legal battles are over.

Brown and others living in the community have been voicing their concerns to city councillors, MLAs and the Department of Environment regarding the deteriorating water quality and subsequent health concerns for decades.

“I’m just fed up with it,” Brown says. “Once I see action happening, then I’ll be happy, but we’ve been disappointed so many times, with all levels of government.”

“In our own community here, every moment of every day is consumed with the contaminated water, either when you go to have a shower, brush your teeth, whatever… It’s always there in the back of your mind, and it’s very frustrating” 

Brown says that it is hard for Nova Scotia Environment to understand what it is like for those who are stuck living with a contaminated water supply.

“In our own community here, every moment of every day is consumed with the contaminated water, either when you go to have a shower, brush your teeth, whatever… It’s always there in the back of your mind, and it’s very frustrating,” she says.

According to court records, the contamination was caused by a combination of things which took place over a number of years. Notably, before 307 NSL bought RDM and began leasing the property, 301 NSL was stockpiling 120,000 tonnes of non-recycling waste on site. Having these materials exposed to the elements resulted in chemicals seeping into the ground and then into the neighbourhood’s groundwater supply in a growing cloud, or plume.

After the department found out about this 301 NSL was ordered to put the waste in a containment cell designed to help catch the leachate, or run-off, from the materials; however, court files indicate that the containment cell was not properly built. Hence the contamination was caused by the illegal stockpiling of the waste materials (and the subsequent leaching of these materials via the ineffective containment cell) as well as the continued operations on site by the owners of 307 NSL, from 2005 until being forced to shut down in Jan. 2013.

“Residents health are at risk because of this plume, and I’d like to see some action,” Brown says.

Still waiting for water treatment system

In Nov. 2016, Environment minister Miller said that the province would be providing water treatment systems for eight of the Harrietsfield homes listed in the ministerial orders, and that they would be installed in Feb. 2017. However, that has yet to happen.

When asked about this, Krista Higdon, media relations adviser for the department, said in an email that “staff are going through the procurement process reviewing the proposals. Once a decision is made on a successful company, affected residents will be notified.”

Brown says that two of those eight homes listed in the order and that are supposed to receive treatment systems are currently unoccupied.

“I’d like to see them take those water systems and actually give them to other people who are even closer than we are to the site,” she says, expressing concern for her neighbours who also live downgradient from the RDM site, which is on a hill.

“Those other homes have similar water results as we do down here. So they need to do their homework,” she says. “If they care enough about people and the environment, they will do their research and rectify what’s been going on.”

Brown also does not have high hopes for the companies who are required to begin cleaning up the site, now that their appeal has been dismissed.

“I think they’re going to drag on. I don’t see anything happening on the site for at least another year. Maybe longer,” she says. “In 2010 they were given the first ministerial order. They didn’t comply with it, and the Nova Scotia Environment did not enforce it. So what’s going to make things change immediately because of this?”

“We have no idea what’s in the water now”

Melissa King agrees, adding that to her, it feels like the companies “don’t recognize their responsibility.”

“They appealed the first order, they lost, but there was an opportunity to appeal again, so they appealed again,” King says. “They don’t have another opportunity to do that now, but it seems that they’ll take any way out or any way to delay that they can think of, no matter what it costs.”

Brown also notes that 307 NSL stopped the water monitoring of wells with levels of contaminants which exceeded national drinking water guidelines, including hers, as the terms of ministerial order require.

“We have no idea what’s in the water now,” she says.

“The fact that they cut off the water monitoring program for the past 15 months shows me just how much they are concerned with the health and well being of the residents and our environment.”

Brown adds that she, King and Zwicker want to make public the fact that RDM is a contaminated site.

“We want them to make that public because we have new homes going up within 500 metres of the site, and these new residents have no idea of what’s in their neighbourhood,” she says.

Robert Grant, the lawyer who represented the owners of 307 NSL during the latest appeal, said his clients decline the opportunity to comment.

If you can, please support the Nova Scotia Advocate so that we can continue to pay writers like Rebecca to cover issues such as poverty, racism, exclusion, workers’ rights and the environment in Nova Scotia. A pay wall is not an option, since it would exclude many readers who don’t have any disposable income at all. We rely entirely on one-time donations and a group of 25 or so dedicated monthly sustainers. 

The post Harrietsfield homeowners win in court, but drinking water concerns remain appeared first on Nova Scotia Advocate.