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Ontario knew about Grassy Narrows mercury site for decades, but kept it secret
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- Created on Saturday, 11 November 2017 15:20
A confidential 2016 report says provincial officials were told in the 1990s that the site of a paper mill near Grassy Narrows First Nation was contaminated with mercury — and that the poison is likely still present.
By DAVID BRUSER News Reporter
JAYME POISSON Investigative Reporter
Grassy Narrows' fishing tourism industry was decimated in the 1970s by news of mercury dumping at a nearby paper mill.
(TODD KOROL/TORONTO STAR FILE PHOTO)
"Meanwhile, recent key findings by the Star, environmental group Earthroots and top scientists have shown high levels of mercury in soil, fish and river sediment — all strongly suggesting the site of the mill is still leaking mercury.
Earlier this year, the Star and Earthroots found soil on mill property that had mercury readings up to 80 times normal levels. Then top mercury scientists reported that sediment in the stretch of the Wabigoon River that flows past the plant had mercury levels up to 130 times normal levels. Both findings came after the Star revealed that walleye downstream are the most mercury-contaminated in the province."
Government officials knew in the 1990s that mercury was visible in soil under the paper mill upstream from Grassy Narrows First Nation, but the people there did not find out until this week, the Star has learned.
During the intervening years, as the residents of Grassy Narrows and scientists sounded the alarm that the neurotoxin was poisoning the fish and the people who eat it, government official after government official kept repeating that there was no ongoing source of mercury in the Wabigoon River that is the lifeblood of Grassy Narrows.
The residents were told that since the mill, then owned by Reed Paper, dumped 10 tonnes of mercury into the Wabigoon between 1962 and 1970, the river would, over time, clean itself naturally.
A confidential report, commissioned by the current owner of the mill, Domtar, and prepared in 2016 by an environmental consulting firm, tells a different story: the province knew decades ago that the site of the mill was contaminated with mercury. Today, the report says, it likely still is.
Further, the report — which is based on a “collection of historical sampling” from the mill’s archives — also reveals that groundwater samples taken from wells on the mill property over the years have come back with extremely high mercury levels. The province’s Environment Ministry said it was unaware of this well data until it got the report in July 2016.
The report says there are two potential ongoing sources of mercury at the site of the old mill: under the old chlor-alkali plant where “additional mercury-contaminated soils are known to remain present beneath the building,” and a ditch beside the river where there has been no monitoring.
These potential sources, experts say, could be contaminating the river still.
Grassy Narrows grandmother and health advocate Judy Da Silva calls the development “sickening.”
“It shows how lowly we are, the Anishinabeg, to the government and corporations. Like we are not worth it to be alive,” said Da Silva. “They knew about this poison and they did nothing. They didn’t even tell us. It is awful.”
Grassy Narrows Chief Simon Fobister said: “For decades I have been seeking justice for my people for mercury poisoning, searching for answers, searching for help. Never once was I told that mercury poison is still under the mill, right next to our river. I was told over and over that the mill site was cleaned up and that the problem ended in the ’70s. I now see that was a deception and my people have paid the price with their health.”
Ontario Municipal Board decision saves Blanding’s Turtle habitat on Stoney Lake
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- Created on Thursday, 02 November 2017 22:07
Two Provincially Significant Wetlands and 6.2 km Undeveloped Shoreline Protected
Earthroots congratulates Gord Miller, former Environmental Commissioner of Ontario and Chair of Earthroots, David Donnelly, Friends of Fraser Wetlands and Curve Lake First Nation on this significant environmental victory!
Blanding's Turtle, a threatened species
PETERBOROUGH—The last significant undeveloped shoreline in the Kawarthas has been saved from a 58-unit housing development on Stoney Lake, immediately adjacent to Burleigh Falls.
The Vancouver-based developer Burleigh Bay Corporation (BBC) had planned to build the community, plus 72-slip marina, fitness facility, clubhouse, guest cottages, swimming pool, parking lots and internal roadway system in two provincially significant wetlands (PSW), containing the habitat of the “Threatened” Blanding’s turtle and muskellunge.
“We’re elated. This gives the Kawarthas a breathtaking opportunity to preserve an extraordinary natural setting that can’t be replaced,” said Heather Brooks-Hill, a third-generation Stoney Lake resident and Director of the Friends of Fraser Wetlands (FFW).
The Board cited the location of the development in and around the PSWs as one of the most “compelling” reasons for denying approval. The Decision endorses the testimony of FFW expert Mr. Gord Miller, former Environmental Commissioner of Ontario, who testified that wetland complexes must be afforded a higher degree of protection and cannot be isolated. The Board held, “As Mr. Miller stated, ‘the stakes are high’ given the significance of endangered species, a complex ecological system of entwined elements and functions and highly sensitive wetlands” on the site.
The site is believed to contain over 450 different species, a number of which are endangered or threatened. The Board also accepted FFW’s expert Mr. D. Janus’ opinion that 95% of the site is habitat for the Blanding’s turtle, a threatened species.
Earthroots echoes Environmental Commissioner’s call to recover at risk wolves
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- Created on Tuesday, 24 October 2017 15:56
Ontario needs to protect threatened Algonquin wolves from hunting and trapping
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
TORONTO (October 24th, 2017) – Today Ontario’s Environmental Commissioner Dianne Saxe released her annual report, “Good Choices, Bad Choices”, a critical assessment of the Ontario government’s environmental practices and recent decisions. The report outlines multiple areas where the province is failing to take effective action on pressing environmental issues.
In particular, Commissioner Saxe emphasizes that the Algonquin wolf, a unique species that was listed as Threatened last year, needs more protection. Threatened species receive immediate province-wide protection under the Endangered Species Act but the protection of Algonquin wolves was stripped down to 4 provincial parks and buffers around them on the opening day of hunting and trapping season in 2016. Outside of these areas, where eastern coyotes are heavily hunted and trapped, Algonquin wolves receive no protection because it is difficult to visually distinguish them from each other (a genetic test is required to correctly identify them).
“It is critical that our government upholds the objectives of the Endangered Species Act, and prohibits non-aboriginal hunting and trapping of Algonquin wolves across their range,” said Hannah Barron, Earthroots Director of Wildlife Conservation Campaigns. “We need our government to take immediate measures to protect these wolves – there may be as few as 250 mature Algonquin wolves left in the world, mostly in Ontario. Scientific research funded by the Ontario government shows that without additional protection, this small yet ecologically invaluable population of top predators will not recover.”
The Algonquin wolf is the only Threatened species that can be legally sport hunted and trapped, even in some protected areas. Commissioner Saxe builds on this point in her report, stating that, “Thousands of Ontarians expressed concerns about the inadequacy of the government’s new measures to protect Algonquin wolves. If the MNRF is incapable of protecting a small number of threatened Algonquin wolves in only one part of the province, it creates doubt about the ministry’s commitment to sustainably managing any species of wildlife – let alone an imperilled one.”
Hunting season for wolves and coyotes is now open - help ban wolf snaring!
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- Created on Friday, 15 September 2017 22:31
Wolves and coyotes are only protected year-round in 4 buffer zones around provincial parks where the majority of threatened Algonquin wolves have been found. Elsewhere, they are shot opportunistically and trappers remain active all winter with no limits to the amount of wolves they can kill. The most commonly used wolf trap is the strangling snare, recently deemed inhumane by researchers.
Take action to ban cruel and non-selective strangling snares!
Province maps out new nature and farm protection for the Greater Golden Horseshoe
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- Created on Thursday, 06 July 2017 16:52
TORONTO, July 6, 2017 – This afternoon the Province took an important step towards better protecting nature and farming across the Greater Golden Horseshoe (GGH) with the release of regional plans for a Natural Heritage System and Agricultural System. The plans are an important step towards protecting and recovering biodiversity and supporting healthy, thriving rural communities, especially in an era of climate change.
The Natural Heritage System plan identifies a network of forests, rivers and wetlands that provide essential habitat for wildlife. “We’re thrilled to see the Province step up and lead this important mapping exercise,” says Joshua Wise, Ontario Nature’s Greenway Program Manager. “However, important habitats in regions such as Wellington and Waterloo are not adequately represented in the draft plan. This needs to be fixed.”
The proposed natural heritage system builds outward from the Oak Ridges Moraine and the Greenbelt Plans. “Linking these natural heritage systems is the key to creating a more resilient, healthy landscape,” says Debbe Crandall, Save the Oak Ridges Moraine (STORM) Coalition’s Policy Director. “I am concerned, however, that the proposed linkage areas connecting the core natural habitats are much too narrow – only 500 metres wide. By comparison, linkage areas in the Oak Ridges Moraine are as wide as two kilometres. The corridors are critical placeholders. Once identified, they would be protected from urban development, and would present opportunities for ecological restoration and stewardship over time.”
Ontario commits $85 million to clean up ‘gross neglect’ at Grassy Narrows
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- Created on Tuesday, 27 June 2017 16:02
Generations sickened by mercury poisoning prompt province to agree to fund cleanup.
Water flows in the Wabigoon River that is contaminated with mercury near Grassy Narrows. (TODD KOROL / TORONTO STAR FILE PHOTO)
By DAVID BRUSER News Reporter
ROBERT BENZIE Queen's Park Bureau Chief
JAYME POISSON News reporter
"The mercury contamination still plagues these Indigenous communities in northern Ontario. Recent key findings by the Star, environmental group Earthroots and top scientists have shown high levels of mercury in soil, fish and river sediment — all strongly suggesting the site of the mill is still leaking mercury, about 50 years on."
The Ontario government is committing $85 million to finally clean up the mercury-contaminated Wabigoon River that has poisoned the people of Grassy Narrows First Nation and nearby Whitedog First Nation for generations.
The “comprehensive remediation action plan” will also involve finding all contaminated sites that could be leaking mercury into the river.
At Queen’s Park, Environment and Climate Change Minister Glen Murray did not mince words.
“If you ask me when would I like to have done this? Fifty years ago,” Murray said in an interview Tuesday. “I have never seen a case of such gross neglect. I am embarrassed as a Canadian that this ever happened and I can’t understand how people for 50 years sat in that environment office knowing this was going on as a minister and simply didn’t do anything about it,” he thundered.
The province’s historic commitment follows a Star investigation that probed the impact of the poisoning and decades-long lack of action by government.
The Ontario government is committing $85 million to finally clean up the mercury-contaminated Wabigoon River that has poisoned the people of Grassy Narrows First Nation and nearby Whitedog First Nation for generations.
The “comprehensive remediation action plan” will also involve finding all contaminated sites that could be leaking mercury into the river.
At Queen’s Park, Environment and Climate Change Minister Glen Murray did not mince words.
“If you ask me when would I like to have done this? Fifty years ago,” Murray said in an interview Tuesday. “I have never seen a case of such gross neglect. I am embarrassed as a Canadian that this ever happened and I can’t understand how people for 50 years sat in that environment office knowing this was going on as a minister and simply didn’t do anything about it,” he thundered.
The province’s historic commitment follows a Star investigation that probed the impact of the poisoning and decades-long lack of action by government.
The mercury contamination still plagues these Indigenous communities in northern Ontario. Recent key findings by the Star, environmental group Earthroots and top scientists have shown high levels of mercury in soil, fish and river sediment — all strongly suggesting the site of the mill is still leaking mercury, about 50 years on.
The Province’s coordinated land use review is on the right track, but questions remain
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- Created on Thursday, 18 May 2017 14:39
Bolder action needed to grow the Greenbelt, protect species at risk and halt urban sprawl for good
After a 26 month review, the Government of Ontario is generally heading in the right direction with updated policies that govern the Oak Ridges Moraine, Greenbelt, Niagara Escarpment and growth in the Greater Golden Horseshoe (GGH), but some key missteps indicate a questionable commitment to the long-term protection of the region’s water, nature and communities.
The coordinated review has been coloured by a dramatic attempt by the development industry to misrepresent the Greenbelt’s role in limiting housing supply and increasing prices. This came to a head last week when provincial planner Victor Doyle squashed the misinformation campaign. “The Oak Ridges Moraine and Greenbelt have increased the prosperity of those living within the GGH,” remarks Joyce Chau, Executive Director of EcoSpark. “I hope today’s announcement marks an end to this inaccurate rhetoric. The government needs to step up and get to the important task of growing the Greenbelt to protect vulnerable water supplies that are threatened by development pressures in communities like Simcoe and Brant County.”
Disappointing policy changes in the Greenbelt and Oak Ridges Moraine include significantly weakening protections for the habitat of endangered species. “We are taken aback that policy safeguards for our most vulnerable plants and animals were removed,” says Dr. Anne Bell, Ontario Nature’s Director of Conservation and Education. “On one hand we’re pleased the government has committed to protecting the Greater Golden Horseshoe’s natural heritage system. On the other hand, if the policies don’t protect species at risk in the Oak Ridges Moraine and Greenbelt, where is there left for those species to go?”
The Town Where Mercury Still Rises
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- Created on Wednesday, 19 April 2017 00:09
The New York Times
By SUSAN GOLDBERG
"The government didn’t initially act on the claim in the 2015 Glowacki email that additional mercury had been stored in drums. Volunteers from the environmental organization EARTHROOTS and reporters from The Toronto Star in the fall of 2016 took a dozen samples from the site identified by Mr. Glowacki; three came back with levels of mercury up to nearly 80 times expected levels for soil in the region."
Photo credit: freegrassy.net
Read the full article below or visit The New York Times.
GRASSY NARROWS, Ontario — “About 15 years ago, I started to drop things,” Steve Fobister recalled. “I couldn’t work on cars the way I used to. I couldn’t play hockey or baseball — I couldn’t hold a stick or a bat. My knees would just buckle. I started choking a lot.”
Today, Mr. Fobister, 64, needs a walker to move around his small house in the Grassy Narrows First Nation, an Ojibway reserve about an hour northeast of Kenora, Ontario. Like almost all of the 950 or so residents of Grassy Narrows, Mr. Fobister suffers from the effects of mercury poisoning. For much of our conversation, he had to support his jaw with his fingers because of the joint weakness and pain mercury can cause.
“I have memory loss,” said Mr. Fobister, a former chief of Grassy Narrows. “I have no feeling in my feet. My legs and skin feel like they’re burning. My hearing is going. I’m a walking drugstore: I take about 16 pills a day to control seizures, pain, depression.”
Mercury poisoning among the people of Grassy Narrows was first discovered in the early 1970s by Japanese researchers. From 1962 to 1970, a paper mill owned by Reed Paper, a company in nearby Dryden, dumped more than 20,000 pounds of raw mercury into the English-Wabigoon River system. Fish from those waters provided the main source of protein downstream in Grassy Narrows. By the time the contamination was discovered — and the community’s commercial fishing industry shuttered — residents had consumed dangerous quantities of fish.
Terry Graves: northern warrior dies
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- Created on Wednesday, 05 April 2017 01:06
“Canada has lost a great eco-warrior, an unsung hero of the front line environmental movement - Terry Graves...friend, compatriot, father, husband. Terry was the co-founder of the Temagami Wilderness Society (now Earthroots, Toronto), in 1986. Terry, unlike many well-known activists, had candor, selfless passion and humility and fought the good fight for all the right reasons. Terry knew life and love and will be well missed.”
- Hap Wilson, Earthroots Director
The nemesis of three Ontario premiers and one Toronto mayor, northern environmental activist Terry Graves died last night after a five-year bout with cancer.
For almost three decades he fought for the environment, including leadership in two of Canada's biggest environmental battles: Temagami and the Adams Mine landfill.
"Graves was a 'fixer' like the George Clooney character in the film Michael Clayton," wrote Charlie Angus in his book Unlikely Radicals. "In a world of hard-asses, Graves was as hard as they come."
Graves made the Adams Mine Coalition presentation to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) meeting in Lausanne, Switzerland in 2000. Toronto's bid for the 2008 Olympics died on impact.
"I like a good fight," he once said.
This time it was a fight he didn't win.
Story courtesy of ottertooth.com
ACTION ALERT: Stand up for the Greenbelt and stop sprawl for good!
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- Created on Wednesday, 05 April 2017 00:51
Decisions on the future of the Greenbelt are about to be made...
The Premier and Cabinet are about to make final decisions on the updated Oak Ridges Moraine, Greenbelt, Niagara Escarpment and Growth Plans. They have a big choice to make; protect water sources, sensitive natural areas, and farmland in and around the Greenbelt or allow developers to pave over these areas for years to come.
Sign our petition here and urge the government to stand up for the Greenbelt and stop sprawl for good. The decisions made now will have a lasting impact for our water, nature and communities.
Growth Plan Loopholes Allow Sprawl in Rural Communities
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- Created on Thursday, 09 March 2017 18:57
Photo: Bill Lishman
A new Neptis Foundation report raises the alarm that major loopholes in the Government of Ontario’s proposed Growth Plan would make rural communities a focus of growth, wreaking havoc on the water, nature and communities across the Greater Golden Horseshoe (GGH). These changes would allow decades-old style of sprawl in over 400 rural towns, villages and hamlets – including many within the protected Greenbelt. Around 31,200 hectares of farmland, natural habitat and rural areas (equivalent in collective size to Mississauga) would come under threat from low-density, car-dependent development.
“This goes against the spirit and intent of the Province’s Growth Plan and its promotion of complete communities,” says Joyce Chau, Executive Director of EcoSpark. “These rural settlement areas were specifically excluded by the Province from the built boundary where growth should not occur because of a lack of servicing.”
The proposed Growth Plan creates a loophole where sprawling greenfield developments could be manipulated to count as intensification. The intent of the Growth Plan is to direct major growth to areas with existing roads, sewers and other major infrastructure in the GGH.
Ontario ‘completely committed’ to mercury cleanup at Grassy Narrows
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- Created on Thursday, 16 February 2017 01:41
First Nations chief says Premier Kathleen Wynne has promised action and “wants to get the ball rolling.”
Grassy Narrows Chief Simon Fobister Sr. Fobister has been fighting to have the mercury-contamination of his people addressed for more than 40 years, after a Dryden paper plant dumped 10 tonnes of mercury into the English-Wabigoon River system between 1962 and 1970. (TODD KOROL / TORONTO STAR FILE PHOTO)
By JAYME POISSON News reporter
DAVID BRUSER News Reporter
Nearly five decades after mercury was dumped in the river upstream from their home, the people of Grassy Narrows First Nation have received a clear provincial commitment to clean up the potent neurotoxin that has been making them sick.
Environment Minister Glen Murray and Indigenous Relations Minister David Zimmer said in a statement Monday they were “completely committed” to finding areas near Grassy Narrows contaminated with mercury and creating a plan to clean it up. That includes a “full and rigorous” assessment of the site of the old paper mill upstream where the Star recently found mercury-contaminated soil.
“Mercury contamination has had a profound impact on the people of Grassy Narrows First Nation and Wabaseemoong (White dog) Independent Nations, and has to be properly addressed,” the ministers said.
“We are completely committed to working with all partners to identify all potentially contaminated sites, and to creating and implementing a comprehensive remediation action plan for the English-Wabigoon River (system).”
Scientists are ready to get to work on the northern Ontario watershed this spring, as soon as weather permits.
The province’s commitment follows a Star investigation that probed the impact of the poisoning and decades-long lack of action by government.
Late last week, Premier Kathleen Wynne met with Grassy Narrows Chief Simon Fobister Sr. and environmentalist David Suzuki, who has been calling for a cleanup of the river system.
Fobister said Wynne told him the old mill site, and the river, would be cleaned. “She wants to get the ball rolling and get the work budget in place and get this thing done,” he said.
Fobister, who called Monday’s commitment “historic,” has been fighting to have the mercury-contamination of his people addressed for more than 40 years, after a Dryden paper plant dumped 10 tonnes of mercury into the English-Wabigoon River system between 1962 and 1970. The site of the plant, now under different ownership, is about 100 kilometres upstream from Grassy Narrows.
Coincidentally, Fobister, 61, is travelling to Minimata, Japan, on Tuesday to commemorate the 60th anniversary of an industrial mercury disaster that began poisoning the Japanese in the 1950s. A photograph of his brother protesting over the mercury-contamination of Grassy Narrows hangs in a museum there.
Monday’s joint statement from Murray and Zimmer said that, in light of new information of potential mercury contamination, the province is now conducting a “full and rigorous mercury contamination assessment on the entire mill site.” (A spokesperson for Domtar, the company that now owns the land, said the company has also volunteered to pay for some additional sampling by independent experts.)
Last month, the Star published a story detailing how two reporters and volunteers from environmental group Earthroots dug holes in a clearing behind the old mill and found significantly higher-than-normal levels of mercury — nearly 80 times the level expected to be found in soil from that region of the province. The spot where the Star found contaminated soil is near where a former mill worker said he was part of a crew that “haphazardly” buried drums filled with salt and mercury in the 1970s.
The province says it is taking its lead on cleanup efforts from a team of scientists, led by mercury expert John Rudd, who have been advising Grassy Narrows.
Earthroots helped Grassy Narrows achieve a major milestone!
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- Created on Tuesday, 14 February 2017 15:52
Ontario commits to cleanup of mercury contamination near Grassy Narrows First Nation
Cabinet ministers promise First Nations-led cleanup effort of decades-old mercury contamination
By Jody Porter, CBC News
Research released in September 2016 shows more than 90 per cent of the population at Grassy Narrows First Nation is experiencing symptoms of mercury poisoning. (Jody Porter/CBC)
The Ontario government is promising to find and remediate all the mercury contamination that continues to poison people at Grassy Narrows and Wabaseemoong First Nations in the northwestern corner of the province.
"We are completely committed to working with all partners to identify all potentially contaminated sites, and to creating and implementing a comprehensive remediation action plan for the English Wabigoon River," said a statement issued Monday from the minister of environment and the minister of Indigenous relations and reconciliation.
The announcement came after a meeting on Friday between Premier Kathleen Wynne, Grassy Narrows Chief Simon Fobister and environmentalist David Suzuki.
Mercury was dumped in the river that flows through the two northwestern Ontario First Nations by Reed Paper, upstream in Dryden, Ont., in the 1960s and early 1970s. Recent scientific reports show the water is still contaminated.
More than 90 per cent of the population at Grassy Narrows and Wabaseemoong First Nations show signs of mercury poisoning, according toresearch released in September by Japanese experts who have been studying the health of people there for decades.
'Historic commitment'
"I welcome this historic commitment and I am eager to work to make this promise a reality so that my people can enjoy our culture and our homeland in health again without fear of an invisible poison," Fobister said.
"When our fish are safe to eat, we will know that his promise has been kept."
The First Nations have been calling for a cleanup for more than 40 years and were recently joined by some of the world's leading scientific experts on mercury remediation.
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