Harrietsfield residents and their lawyers say they’re frustrated and skeptical about the latest cleanup orders issued by the provincial government for a construction and demolition site.
The site, which is currently shut down, is leaking contaminants into groundwater and affecting wells downstream.
READ MORE: Minister says Harrietsfield well-water is safe, residents disagree
Marlene Brown, who has been fighting for more than a decade to have her well water cleaned up, says news of the orders leaves her feeling “skeptical.”
“We received an order in 2010 — six years ago — and it was never followed through,” she said.
Environment Minister Margaret Miller, who issued the orders last Thursday, said she does “expect compliance” with it. The orders are “to past operators of the now closed RDM Recycling facility in Halifax Regional Municipality to assess and repair the environmental impacts from activities that affected residential wells in Harrietsfield.”
According to the province, the orders were served to 3012334 Nova Scotia Limited and 3076525 Nova Scotia Limited. The companies operated the site between 2002 and 2013. Neither company responded to requests for an interview.
There’s no time frame for when the site will be cleaned up, so what happens in the meantime remains a question for residents. There is also debate about whether the water coming from the taps belonging to Brown and the other residents is safe to drink. Government documents show at-times unsafe levels of uranium and arsenic have been detected in some of the wells.
“I’ve been told by the Department of Environment staff that all of the homes have access to safe drinking water,” Miller said.
In a statement, Ecojustice lawyer Kaitlyn Mitchell said two of the residents don’t have any water-treatment systems.
Brown has already filed a complaint with the Nova Scotia ombudsman about how the Environment Department handled cleanup of the site. She says she is still going ahead with the complaint, but Miller says she is confident with how her department handled this issue.
“My department had 10 years worth of data to bring forward and to look at before I issued this ministerial order,” Miller said.
Rather than drinking her water, Brown drives six kilometres every week to fill up water bottles at a nearby church. She says she is frustrated by a lack of information from the government.
Comments