THUNDER BAY -- A member of Thunder Bay City Council believes the city needs to apply pressure on the federal government to deal with the 400,000 cubic metres of mercury-contaminated sediment in Thunder Bay harbour.
Andrew Foulds, who chairs the city's EarthCare Advisory Committee, said the group has already identified the industrial pollution site as a serious issue.
In an interview with tbnewswatch.com, Foulds noted that mercury contamination in waterways across Ontario has had serious impacts on communities and ecosystems.
"The fact that this sediment is being left in the north harbour is, frankly, not acceptable, and something needs to be done," he said.
Foulds endorses the view of other cleanup proponents who say the site must be added to a government list of polluted areas in order to qualify it for federal funding.
The EarthCare committee, he said, recently drafted a memo to council asking that Transport Canada and the Thunder Bay Port Authority identify a lead agency to apply for the federal designation.
Foulds said the memo, drafted in consultation with the Remedial Action Plan (a program that monitors harbour pollution) was pulled from the council agenda pending a meeting of stakeholders.
According to RAP spokesperson Jim Bailey, participants from the Port Authority, the city and RAP subsequently met to discuss ideas centred on getting the north harbour put on the federal list.
Foulds, however, described the nature of the meeting as "some cursory conversations."
"Nothing has come forward yet." he said. "I'm losing my patience in terms of organizations working together. I think city council needs to continue the pressure to get this done," Foulds said.
He said the memo may have to be re-submitted to council in the near future in order to expedite progress.
"It's time to deal with this, but we are also talking about tens of millions of dollars for the cleanup. The city cannot be responsible for that. This needs to be a collaboration with the orders of government that have the dollars to get this done."
Foulds added that if the mercury continues to sit in the harbour, "What's going to happen to it? And when are we going to find out if it has any impact on human health or eco-system health?...We do know that mercury is a neuro-toxin."
Kate Taillon, the Great Lakes program coordinator for Environment Canada, said the department and its partners have made "a lot of effort" to try to understand the risks at the Thunder Bay site.
She said the main concerns for people related to the contamination were identified in a risk assessment conducted in 2013:
· Recreational users may come in direct contact with the sediment through touching impacted sediments, should these individuals come in to the harbour for recreational activities such as boating, canoeing, kayaking;
· Recreational fishers who catch and consume fish from the harbour, certain fish can accumulate contaminants in their bodies (including fillets) and individuals can be exposed through consuming fish fillets; and
· Construction workers who may come in contact with impacted sediments during construction or maintenance work on or near the shoreline.
Taillon said investigations conducted by Environment Canada in 2013 showed the contaminated sediment had not moved outside the harbour breakwall.
