C03. THIS MAYOR AND HIS ADMINISTRATION

C3.:

The “Clock-Tower Park” Issue

In an email sent to the Mayor and the Councilors on Apr. 24, 08 I had copied my letter to the Honorable Mark Parent, Minister Environment and Labor asking to investigate environmental concerns regarding the Clock Tower property.

At that time it was clear to me that the Town and its Administration “know about and accept” an obviously unsolved environmental problem without putting pressure for a complete clean-up on one of the richest companies in the Atlantic Provinces and furthermore, that the current Mayor of Wolfville, Mr. Stead, (a former administrator at Acadia University) might regard it more important to have Irving finance and erect additional buildings at the University grounds (the Irving sons received honorary PhDs in return) instead.

After I had learned from the Town’s CAO, Mr. Brideau, that the transfer of the Clock Tower property to the Town is now in its final stage and that the Town had set aside major amounts of money for the creation of the “Clock Tower Park” in previous budget years already, my suspicions even grew.

The questions arising on my mind were:

• Why had the business, Irving Oil Ltd., offered to the Town this piece of property on Main Street and within the down-town business core for just $1? (If not polluted, this property would have quite a different market value and the Town can’t provide additional honorary PhDs.)
• Is this a planned “cover-up deal” between Irving and the Town due to the fact that for the creation of a park nobody will have to dig deep and therefore may not touch or disturb polluted soil and/or groundwater levels?

To get answers to these questions I paid the obligatory $25 fee to file an application under the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act to get all records regarding the clean-up of the Clock Tower property.

In return I got a huge parcel of documents - several hundred pages thick - from the Department of Environment & Labour, weighing 3.520 kg in total.

Most of the records are lab reports, risk analysis and well monitoring reports of different years and statements of opinions and/or believes of consultants and other “experts”.

The interesting ones are:

• the description of the Emergency Response by MGI Ltd. and actions taken on behalf of Irving Oil Ltd. in December 1998 and January 1999
• the monitoring reports with soil and groundwater pollution levels up to the fall of 2005
• the statement of the fact that the Department of Environment & Labour did not receive any monitoring data since the fall of 2005
• the critical comments and responses of the Department of Environment & Labour to those monitoring reports of what was done incorrectly, missing, incomplete etc. ( i.e. a letter dated July 29, 2003 sent from the Department of Environment & Labour to Health, Environment & Safety in Saint John, NB states under point 4. “Samples collected on site were sent to the Irving Oil Limited Laboratory in New Brunswick. The perception of bias is apparent with Irving analyzing samples collected from their properties.”
• a memo from a hydrologist to the Department of Environment & Labour dated October 16, 2007 (about half a year ago) stating under point 1) “….Wolfville has not finished developing their SWPP [Source Water Protection Plan]…..Wolfville are in the process creating their plan. They have identified potential sources of contamination and created a land use map, but haven’t specified how they are to manage the risks within their protection zone yet.”
• And under point 2) “…The town should somehow be informed that they will not be able to put a park on this site until it is below Teir 1 RBSL residential potable water levels (only half of the property is currently at those levels)”
• the letter dated November 19, 2007 from the Department of Environment & Labour to Irving Oil Ltd. stating “…Based upon the above, and a meeting held between Dillon Consulting and the Town of Wolfville on November 9, 2007, please be advised that the Department is in agreement that no further remediation is required on the site. Notwithstanding this, the Department reserves the right to evaluate the site should activities change that cause an adverse effect. …. All future property owners should be made aware of the limitations to land use associated with this site. It should be communicated that a consultant must be contacted to conduct further assessment should a future property owner intend to alter the site in any way which may affect the risk (i.e. through the construction of buildings or wells).”

As of now and due to the restrictions and limitations of the future land use, imposed by the Department of Environment & Labour, the Clock Tower property can only be used as a park.

No deep digging, no buildings, no wells are allowed.

There are the answers to my questions as above and why the Irving business has offered the property to the Town for $1. It obviously has no real market value.

And to demonstrate its future land use Irving just recently planted a tree in the middle of the property and in the presence of the Mayor.

Why are there those restrictions and limitations?

There are still risks present which no one can really calculate and/or evaluate which may or will have some impact on residents of Wolfville.

Did the Town and its Administration advise you and warn you - a resident of Wolfville - about these still present risks? The Town has communicated the creation of a park in the down-town area only and you may feel good about it and may love the idea.

But have you really been told the truth behind it? Do you want to be kept stupid? Wouldn’t you expect to be told the truth paying this Administration with your tax dollars?

Give your answer in this Election Year. Make the current Administration understand that they do not own the Town and get new faces with new ideas and a better understanding on what serves Wolfville’s residents best voted in!

Lutz E. Becker / June 03, 2008