Tar Ponds to be buried

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After decades of study, the federal and Nova Scotia governments say the best way to deal with the notorious Sydney tar ponds is to bury the whole mess.

Officials from Ottawa and the province announced Sunday a $400-million plan to solidify the toxic sludge by mixing in a concrete-like substance.

They hope to eventually cover the area with a plastic sheet, then soil, and finally grass.

Environmentalists and local residents were worried officials would incinerate some of the material, but that won't happen.

Federal and provincial officials said the plan they've chosen should stabilize the 100-hectare site without producing any adverse health or environmental effects.

Neila MacQueen, who has lived near the tar ponds for about 50 years, is not so sure. She says the toxic material will have to be moved around during the project, which is expected to last seven years.

"It should be monitored and the people, especially the children, should be monitored and if there are any illnesses, they should be attended to."

"Right now, here in Cape Breton, I think there's an epidemic with lung cancer, brain tumours and many other illnesses," said MacQueen, adding that she had to quit operating a small store near the tar ponds after undergoing surgery for lung cancer.

She said she's glad "incineration is off the table, but she's calling on the two governments to compensate people who want to move from the area until construction is complete.

The tar ponds and the former Sydney Steel coke ovens have long been considered one of Canada's worst toxic waste sites.

The site is the size of three city blocks and is a toxic cesspool of waste, the result of pollution from steel-making and coke ovens that began operating at in the early 20th century.

People living nearby have been complaining for years that pollution from the plants is responsible for elevated rates of cancer in the area and a slew of other illnesses.


The site contains 700,000 tonnes of soil contaminated with polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), solvents, and various heavy metals.

There are stories of material believed to be from the site leaching into the basements of some residences, and some people have felt compelled to leave the area.

About 26,000 people live within a four-kilometre radius of the tar ponds, the majority of them less than 1.5 kilometres from the site.

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To give a more in-depth look at the Tar Ponds, I pulled this from CBC.

Towering cliffs, golden beaches, thundering waterfalls – they're only a small part of the beauty that makes up one of Canada's most cherished locations – Cape Breton. And in the heart of that beauty lies the small industrial city of Sydney.

The region had been a rich source for coal mining since the 1700s. But it wasn't until the end of the 19th century that Sydney, and much of the area around it, was thrust into the industrial age.

The consolidation of several coal mines in nearby Glace Bay and New Waterford and the construction of a steel plant near Muggah Creek spelled prosperity for the area and gradually the people there grew to depend on steel, coal, and fishing for their livelihood.

At the centre of that prosperity was the Sydney Steel Co., or Sysco as it is known. For almost a century, the smoke that belched from its tall stacks spelled jobs for residents of the city. Few of them could have known that it also spelled serious health problems and environmental disaster.

What prosperity had existed, soon faded. The three industries that supported Sydney, and most of Cape Breton, began to collapse. In 1967, the Nova Scotia government bought the Sydney Steel Co. after its previous owner shut it down. For the next few decades it limped along supported by government handouts.

Little money was spent to reduce the large volumes of water and air pollution that the plant's old furnaces and coke-ovens produced. It was this pollution that eventually created the area's infamous tar ponds.

At the heart of the tar ponds disaster was the coke-oven. A coke-oven is a large chamber where coal is heated. At a certain temperature undesired tar and gases are separated off from the desired coke.

These toxic wastes, which included benzene, kerosene, and naphthalene, were being poured off into a nearby brook and slowly collecting into an estuary that flows into Sydney Harbour; this area is known as Muggah Creek.

More than 80 years of this type of coke-oven operation left the ground water and surface water in the area seriously contaminated with arsenic, lead and other toxins. It also led to the accumulation of some 700,000 tonnes of chemical waste and raw sewage, 40,000 tonnes of which are PCBs (Polychlorinated Biphenyls).

The locals have come to refer to the area – the size of three city blocks – as the Tar Ponds.

Effects of the Tar Ponds


Toxic sludge on cellar wall
Many of the side effects caused by the tar ponds are still unknown. Residents of Sydney have reported an orange goo seeping into their cellars and basements.

Others have said that when it rains, puddles in the area turn fluorescent green. Those who live near the ponds, especially those in Whitney Pier, adjacent to the site, have complained of massive headaches, nosebleeds, and serious breathing problems.

It's also believed that the wastes which make up the tar ponds contain 15 varieties of cancer related chemicals. Today, Sydney has one of the highest rates of cancer, birth defects, and miscarriages in Canada.

The effects on animal and plant life in the area have also been severe. In 1980 chemical byproducts from the coke-oven process were discovered in lobsters.

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A Health Canada study, in the late 90's, revealed people living in industrial Cape Breton have a greater chance of dying from cancer than other Canadians. It showed their life span is likely to be shorter than in the rest of the country, but nobody knows why.
The study also revealed that the mortality rate in Cape Breton County was 16 per cent higher than the national average between 1951-1994.

Scientists are reluctant to point the finger at the polluted landscape.

"Not a single cause can explain all of this," said federal researcher Michel Camus. He was speaking to a community committee examining ways to clean up the Sydney tar ponds, considered the country's worst toxic mess.

Researchers found that the rates of leukemia, breast, cervical, pancreas, stomach and lung cancer deaths are higher than the national average.

Nova Scotia, on whole, had higher rates of cancer than the rest of the country but when figures from Cape Breton were removed, the Nova Scotia numbers were on par with the rest of cancer.

In response to the study, Politicians of the day attempted to shift the focus to the lifestyles of Cape Bretoners. According to them, the high smoking rates, diets, habits, and economy played a major role in the high mortality rates.

For these two articles, pulled from the Herald, and posted on the Sierra Club website, go to:

www.sierraclub.ca/atlantic/cbgroup/old_site/health925.html