Sarnians breathing the worst air in Canada: WHO

From Tara Jeffrey’s article in The Observer

A new study that ranks Sarnia as Canada’s #1 “hotspot” for air pollution should be a wake-up call to residents, industry and government, says Jim Brophy.

“This is a scary thing for the community to deal with. Nobody wants to be listed as having the worst air quality in the country,” said the health researcher and former executive director of the Point Edward-based Occupational Health Clinic for Ontario Workers.

“You can try to use denial as a defense, or you can say, ‘OK, we’ve got to do something about this; there’s no reason for our community to be putting that kind of pollution into the air.”

Protest at the Ministry of the Environment

Fox FM has posted an audio clip from the protest today

Here is the note that they included with it -

Drawing the occasional honk from passing motorists, members of a local advocacy group are holding a demonstration outside of Sarnia’s Environment Ministry building today. S.H.A.M.E. (Sarnia’s Hometown Activist Movement Emerging) is trying to put pressure on to clean-up persistent leachate odours at Clean Harbors. Residents have been complaining about the odours for over 6 weeks, many have even reported becoming sick. Ministry officials are now staffing the Clean Harbors site around the clock. SHAME Spokesman Zak Nicholls says it’s not enough. He’d like to see fines imposed against the Brigden area company.

Clean Harbors has until October 14th to present a clean-up plan to the Environment Ministry.

Demand More from the MoE

Lori Vokes and Jim Stenton, both of whom have been severely affected by the Clean Harbours Off Site Impact.

S.H.A.M.E. (Sarnia’s Hometown Activist Movement Emerging) will be participating in its first direct action against the MoE.

WHERE – Ministry of the Environment, 1094 London Road, Sarnia

WHEN – Monday, September 26th, 10am to 1pm

We feel this is necessary in light of a continued MoE failure to bring relief to residents living near Clean Harbours. For more than six weeks, residents living near Clean Harbours have been suffering from an odour that causes severe and overwhelming illness including instant headaches and vomiting. On the evening of Wednesday, September 21, residents were again forced from their homes. It was the seventh time this has occurred. This is wrong.

We are calling on the MoE to take immediate and drastic action to protect the health and livelihood of all residents living near Clean Harbours. We demand that the MoE take real action against Clean Harbours in bringing about an immediate and ongoing solution to the odour that is causing such illness. Clean Harbours must be heavily fined for their flagrant ignorance of directives, weak ones at that, from the MoE. An example must be made to CV industry that those citizens living nearby have the right to clean air, water, and earth.

Parents rally to show film on neighboring ‘chemical valley’

A video and a write-up in The Voice

“I wish there was a way to get our government to step in and do some real studies and give us some real answers.”

Above is a line from a film called “The Beloved Community,” by Pamela Calvert. It continues:

“You’re not going to create dialogue by pointing fingers, because it is a global problem. We can’t put our heads in the sand. It’s arrogant of us to believe that we can exist the way we are and not cause serious ramifications to our environment or our children.”

Fittingly, September is Childhood Cancer Awareness Month.

The families, recently touched by a rare kidney disease called Wilms tumor, are refusing to put their heads in the sand. This month, they are sponsoring a showing and discussion of the film at five different libraries in St. Clair County.

Marie Kulman, mother of Ireland, a Wilms survivor, said that the film is a documentary on what locals call “chemical valley,” an area across the river near Sarnia, Ontario.

“‘Putrid’ landfill smell returns”

[The smell obviously is the least of their problems. This facility handles petro-chemical wastes, and people in the area obviously are breathing in fumes from those.]

In The Observer -

ST. CLAIR TOWNSHIP — Neighbours of Ontario’s only hazardous waste management facility say they feel betrayed after weeks of exposure to an intense odour that recently sent one man to hospital.

…

“Terrible doesn’t start to describe it,” he said. “I’m sick to death of this. It’s got to be against the law. It’s got to be public endangerment.”

Stenton said that for the sixth time in so many weeks, a “putrid” smell from Clean Harbors overwhelmed him on Sept. 15 at about 10 p.m.

“I got an instant headache, I became nauseous, I got the dry heaves. It’s the same thing as before. Same thing, different day.”

For the second time since Aug. 10, Stenton called paramedics. He also reported the stench to Ontario’s Spills Action line and phoned St. Clair Township Mayor Steve Arnold, the local Ministry of Environment office and Clean Harbours.

“Clean Harbors promised to do more masking,” Stenton said, referring to the company’s use of sweet scented misters to cover the smell.

October 1st – A Walk to Remember the Victims of Asbestos

S.H.A.M.E. will be joining this march -

Saturday, October 1^st, 10 am
A Walk to Remember the
Victims of Asbestos
and put an end to Canadian Asbestos Production

Location: Centennial Park, Sarnia, Ontario, Canada

If you have lost a loved one to asbestos, or have a loved one currently fighting asbestos related disease, please bring a copy of a picture of the victim that can be pinned to a memorial at the walk.

http://asbestos.cattran.ca/asbestos/

http://www.facebook.com/asbestoswalksarnia

Special Guest:Linda Reinstein, President/CEO and Co-Founder of Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization (ADAO)

Also speaking are Mayor Mike Bradley, and Alec Farquhar, Managing Director of the Occupational Health Clinics for Ontario Workers (OHCOW).

Do you want Clean Harbors to expand?

Clean Harbors is planning to open another unit at their St. Clair location. This is the proposal for an amendment to their Certificate of Approval. This is YOUR opportunity to participate in the process. You can make your comments heard by the Ministry of the Environment until the end of September. Do we really want Clean Harbors starting up another unit when they haven’t yet taken care of the current toxic nightmare being lived by nearby residents? There is an ongoing stench from Clean Harbors that is causing illness to nearby residents  This new unit would spew MORE toluene and benzene, amongst other chemicals.

http://www.ebr.gov.on.ca/ERS-WEB-External/displaynoticecontent.do?noticeId=MTE0MzU4&statusId=MTcxMjk1&language=en

Click the above link. Halfway down the page on the right is the submit comment button. Clink on and fill out info on page, leaving your comment. Save. You will be notified when a decision is made. Participation allows you to be informed of what happens with this request, and to be involved with any subsequent appeals.

Don’t frack with our water

A statement from Mina Ramos, in The Observer

I am writing because I am deeply concerned that several different companies in Chemical Valley are considering the Sarnia Lambton region for natural gas extraction through a process called “hydro fracking” in the near future. I am also concerned that there is almost no community awareness in respects to the hydro fracking process and its negative implications.

Hydro fracking (which is officially known as “hydro fracturing”) is the process used to extract natural gas from deposits found in shale rock formations. It is a method that is currently being used throughout the United States and in British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan and New Brunswick. This form of extraction involves using large amounts of water as well as sand and chemicals (the majority of them being toxic) to put pressure on rock formations until they fracture; releasing natural gas. This is done by digging a well vertically into the ground and then horizontally across the formation. Water is inserted in the well putting pressure on the formation and the result is the released natural gas to come up the well as well as the fluid used to frack the water. Although the use of natural gas has been largely seen as a `cleaner` option as opposed to coal, there is increasing evidence that this method may result in a larger carbon footprint in the long run. It is not that the burning of natural gas produces more greenhouse gases rather, that the fracking process itself is still largely flawed. The problem lies in the fact that in the fracking process, methane which is the main component of natural gas is leached not only in the water used to frack rock formations but also into the atmosphere. This becomes a problem as methane is almost 20 times more potent that carbon dioxide. Many communities close to drilling sites have had to experience their watersheds become extreme,y polluted and in some cases have had their own drinking water become affected.

Chemical Valley PSA

September 10th – Wipe Out Wilms Benefit Concert

WHEN -  Saturday, September 10th, 11am to 10pm

WHERE – East China Performing Arts Center, 1585 Meisner Road, Marine City, Michigan

5 Local (Marine City) Families have been affected by a rare form of pediatric kidney cancer called Wilms Tumor. The Marine City Music Festival Presents…Wipe Out Wilms, Benefit Concert. Raising Funds and Awareness for Wilms Tumor.

****Last band will play through 10:00 pm (sorry but FB will not allow me to change the time*********

Vendors, please be prepared for set up at 10 am, the gates will open at 11, please bring your own tables and chairs****

Money being raised will (depending on amount raised) hopefully purchase and implement air monitors

CONFIRMED APPEARANCES BY: JIMMY DEHENO, TRAILER PARK MILLIONAIRES, TOXIC CANDY, THE MOTOR CITY MISFITS, THE AFTERNOON ROUND, ZYEDCO HEPCATS, AND HEADLINING WILL BE “DOWN FOR NOW”!

If your not able to attend but would still like to donate checks can be mailed to the following:

Marine City Music Festival, Inc.
PO Box 186
Marine City MI 48039
*Please put Wilms Benefit in the Memo line*

Donations are tax deductible! Keep your cancelled check as your reciept!

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=222672581092805