PCB Clean up in Wolfville?
On March 28, 2008 I – a concerned resident – had a meeting on different subjects with Mr. J. Roy Brideau, Chief Administrative Officer of the Town of Wolfville.
In trying to prepare myself for the meeting, I had checked the Town’s website http://ww.town.wolfville.ns.ca/ that morning and had found an Important Notice to Residents, set in a colored frame at the top of the website. This notice is still to be found further down on the website and without a colored frame.
It states that Jacques Whitford will conduct an investigation and excavation “of any identified free product at the NSPI property located at 282 Main Street, Wolfville, NS” and that the Department of Environment & Labour had been notified. It states as well that for health and safety reasons no one should enter the site without proper protective equipment.
When I had asked Mr. Brideau during our meeting if the works of Jacques Whitford were related to the “filled-in PCB ponds” with – as I was told – overflow pipes into the harbor, his answer was astonishing and created even more suspicion.
His answer was a strict “no” to PCB and then he tried to tell me that he doesn’t really know the subject of the investigation and excavation, because it was ordered by NSP and not by the Town. To me, there seems to be no logic in telling me “no” to PCB on one hand and then “I don’t know what the investigation is all about” on the other one.
I even had a bigger problem to believe him telling me that the Town, its Administration and its Councilors knew/know nothing about any PCB ponds. In this context he then gave me – as expected of a Town’s officer – a kind of “sweet talk” that the Town would do and would have done everything to keep any harm from its residents.
Thereafter, I had spoken to quite a number of people regarding the “filled-in PCB ponds”. Mr. Brideau’s statement at the meeting that the Mayor, the Town’s Administration and the Councilors knew/know nothing about “filled-in PCB ponds” created quite a variety of reactions.
Some could recall talking about the “PCB ponds” with the Mayor, some called the Chief Administrative Officer a liar, and some said that he should not hold the job as CAO, if he really doesn’t know anything about the “filled-in PCB ponds”.
Whatever the truth, if he really lied to me, all his “sweet talk” about keeping harm away from residents would have to be regarded as hypocrisy and I would have to ask myself if I and/or the public could trust this Administration at all.
On April 07, 2008 I wrote a fax to Jacques Whitford asking if the works would be related to the “filled-in PCB ponds”. No answer as of today.
The very same day I emailed the question to the Honorable Mark A. Parent, Minister, because the Town’s Important Notice states that the Department of Environment & Labour had been notified.
The answer I got reads:
“Will do a department response will take a few weeks”.
Is this a standardized answer, or is it because those ponds were used during times as well when the Government owned NSPI and someone in the Department of Environment & Labour is playing for time, maybe hoping, that Jacques Whitford won’t find anything?
As well I emailed Mr. Brideau, the Mayor and the Councilors on April 07, 2008 again telling them that it would be due time to go public with my “PCB” concerns. No response from the Town as of today.
The Town’s reaction or non-reaction, including the possible lies of its Chief Administrative Officer, leaves some following questions unanswered:
- Why does the Town publish an Important Notice about health risks and pretends not to know, what these risks are all about?
- Does the Town try to keep its residents uninformed and stupid?
- Does the Town try to cover up that it has done nothing for very many years in relation to the clean up of the “filled-in PCB ponds”?
Lutz E. Becker / 04/10/2008
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