David J. Widmann

From pristine wetland to industrial transportation hub and the confluence of major urban expressways, the Lower Don Lands area has gone through many changes throughout Toronto’s history. The mouth of the Don River is about to change again.

Back in February, the Toronto Waterfront Revitalization Corporation announced a competition to redesign a 40-hectare area located at the mouth of the river and the entrance to the Port Lands (pictured right). The teams invited to compete were Stoss (Boston), Brown and Storey Architects (Toronto) with Zas Architects (Toronto); Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates (New York), Behnisch Architects (Los Angeles) Greenberg Consultants (Toronto), and Great Eastern Ecology (New York); Weiss/Manfredi (New York), with du Toit Allsopp Hillier (Toronto); and Atelier Girot (Zurich), Office of Landscape Morphology (Paris), and ReK Productions (Toronto).

The teams were given 8 weeks to come up with designs that would naturalize the mouth of the Don River, create a riverfront park system, enhance the Martin Goodman Trail, prioritize public transit and promote sustainable development. At that briefing, the teams received input from a number of stakeholders including the Toronto and Region Conservation Authority (TRCA); City of Toronto planning, parks and transportation staff, the Toronto Port Authority and a community advisory committee established by the TWRC.

At a media briefing this morning, the design teams revealed their visions for the Lower Donlands. From April 16 to 24, the public can view the images of sweeping boardwalks, naturalized marshlands and recreational facilities at the Allan Lambert Galleria, BCE Place, beginning with a public forum on Monday at 6:00 p.m. A jury appointed by the TWRC will announce the winning design in mid-May.

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“Use more — waste less!” That’s the motto of the new barter-community web site known as SwitchPlanet.

SwitchPlanet is now open to the public as a beta version (which might explain why the interface is a little less than intuitive). The site facilitates trading DVDs, CDs and video games with an online community of people who create lists of the items they want and the items they wish they had. The currency of SwitchPlanet is known as SwitchBucs, which are equivalent to one US dollar each. When you post an available item, you decide how many SwitchBucs it’s worth. If someone “switches” (the site’s euphemism for purchasing) your item, you can use the SwitchBucs you’ve earned to “switch” things with other users on the site.

While the site is a little clunky and confusing, the philosophy behind SwitchPlanet makes it worth a look at the very least. Espousing the ideas of reducing, reusing and recycling, the site also aims to become a philanthropic hub. The site encourages people who receive an item from a fellow SwitchPlanet user instead of buying a new item to donate a portion of their cash savings to charity.

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Our Power, a community-based clean-energy initiative, is made up of homeowners recruiting neighbours in order to bring affordable solar energy solutions into neighbourhoods across the city. This quiet revolution has become a little louder with the release of the Our Power Solar Music Compilation. Released exclusively through indie digital-download service Zunior.com, this compilation is a mostly-acoustic collection of songs. This may seem odd for a project that’s trying to promote the use of alternative forms of electricity, but after all, clean energy begins with conservation.

The artists that have contributed to this project include superstars like Gord Downie, Ron Sexsmith, and Steven Page as well as indie darlings such as In-Flight Safety, The Violet Archers, and Jill Barber. All of these artists believe in promoting sustainable energy, and have lent their support to spread the word about the Our Power initiative. The album also includes printable PDF liner notes featuring artwork from Ottawa-based artist Ben Welland. To further save on energy and cut pollution, this album is available exclusively as a digital download.

The Our Power message has already spread from its home in the Riverdale neighbourhood to West Toronto and Guelph. Proceeds from the sale of this compilation will help Our Power bring grassroots solar power initiatives to other communities.

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The Underground Gift Economy

It started in Tucson, Arizona in May of 2003 as a way to stop pristine desert land from becoming landfill.  In a year and a half, it has spread to over 1600 cities in 30 countries.

The Freecycle Network (http://www. freecycle.org) is a place where hundreds of thousands of people connect to get what they have to the people who need it.

Here’s how it works: let’s say you’ve got something you don’t need, perhaps a broken VCR.  You’ve decided that rather than going through the hassle of fixing it, you’re just going to get rid of it.  Instead of pitching it in the trash, you offer it up on your local Freecycle list.  Someone else on the list sees your offer, figures they can put your old  VCR to some use, and arranges a pickup.  It’s that simple.

The Toronto Freecycle list (http:// groups.yahoo.com/group/freecycleto) started in November of 2003.  Since then, the list has grown to over 1900 members offering items from kitchen utensils to building materials.

“I think perhaps the strangest item was a pile of dirt,” says Andrew Beatty, moderator of the local Freecycle group.  “Someone had a pile of dirt up for offer, and it was taken.  On the Toronto site, items have ranged from the mundane, such as ink cartridges, books and magazines, to the amazing, like washers, dryers, stoves and televisions.  Someone was also looking for a rubber stopper for a piggy bank.  I thought that was amusing.”

Beatty first heard about Freecycling while working in South Korea.
“Salon.com wrote a fantastic article about this movement, and I found the idea so fascinating that I researched it further,” he says.
Beatty says he was surprised to find that, when he looked into it, there was no Toronto node of this worldwide network.

“After looking at the main Freecycling site, I noticed that there were a few other Canadian cities with several members, but no one had opened a Toronto chapter.  I decided that the biggest city in Canada certainly should be involved in such a worthy and simple idea.  If nobody else was going to do it, I certainly could.”

“Freecycle is faster and less work than a garage sale,” Kathie Weiss-Lefebvre, an ardent Freecycler, says.  “You don’t get any cash for your efforts, just the joy of seeing the new owner take away the item with thanks.

“It is about the fluidity of ownership of so many objects in our lives,” she continues.  “Our needs change, interests change, children grow, households  change location and composition.  Our possessions change with these changes.”

Weiss-Lefebvre also enjoys the ease of Freecycling over other methods for getting rid of unwanted stuff.

“Selling things and finding places to donate things takes time, space, and expertise that not everyone has,” she explains.  “Freecycle is less anonymous than selling used goods on consignment or donating used goods to a charitable organization that either sells or gives the item to someone in need of  it.  Barter is less anonymous, but has limitations.”

“Reusing items is one of the most effective ways to help the environment,” Beatty says.  “Not only does it keep waste out of landfills, but it also lessens the impact of mass consumption and commercialization that are byproducts of our society.

“The interpersonal aspect of the movement, especially in larger urban areas like Toronto, is as beneficial as the environmental aspects,” Beatty continues.  “It gives strangers a chance to meet, touch each others lives, and basically generate goodwill and friendliness.  We see thousands of people every day in Toronto, but probably we do not get a chance to connect with many of them positively.”

Adding to the social aspect of Freecycling is a monthly meet-up (http://freecycle.meetup.com/15) that lets group members chat face-to-face with people who would otherwise be names on an email list.

Beatty points out that it’s not just individuals who benefit from the act of Free-cycling.  Non-profit organizations also use the network to find things they need to keep going.

“There are actually a few different animal shelters that are members of the group.  I have seen a few postings from them requesting items.  Freecyclers are usually asked to offer items to charities first, although no one is required to do this.  It is just a general guideline.”

New members with a variety of different items and needs join Toronto Freecycle every day.  Whether you need a new set of shelves for the garage or you’ve inherited some canning jars you’ll never use, sooner or later you’ll find someone who has what you need or needs what you have.

A few things to look for when buying a used air conditioner

The summer heat has descended upon the city, and the lazy oscillation of the table fan just isn’t enough to cut through the crushing humidity. While thoughts of an air conditioner filling an open window are enticing, the price of a new air conditioner (not to mention all the cardboard, plastic and packing foam that comes with it) to cool a room for a couple of months can seem a little steep.

It’s easy to save a few hundred dollars by purchasing a used air conditioner. 6,000 BTU units, which are good for cooling a room of about 200 square feet, can be found for around $100 used as opposed to nearly $300 new. Be warned, however, that not all units are created equal. A little research will help you keep your cool without generating surprise energy bills.

BTU and You

BTUs (British Thermal Units) are the standard measure for an air conditioner’s cooling capacity. A simple way to figure out how many BTUs you need in an air conditioner is to measure the space you want to cool, then multiply that by 30. For instance, if your room measures 15 feet by 12 feet, you would need an air conditioner with enough power to cool 180 square feet, or 5400 BTUs.

Keep in mind that this calculation doesn’t take into account things like high ceilings, large windows and air leaks. Seal any cracks (which will also help you with winter heating) to keep cool air in the room. If you have high ceilings, look into installing ceiling fans or buying a more powerful air conditioner. Direct sunlight warming the room can be balanced by keeping curtains or blinds closed during the day. In any case, adding 2000 BTUs to your cooling requirements is a good idea, just to be sure the air conditioner isn’t overworked.

Raw Energy

Now that you’ve brushed up on your math skills at home, it’s time to take your calculator into the field. When it comes to energy efficiency, the federal government has made comparing new appliances easy with EnerGuide and Energy Star labeling systems. The energy efficiency ratio (EER) is plainly visible on the unit, and comparing the energy efficiency of similar air conditioners is as simple as looking for the lowest EER number. Figuring out the EER for a secondhand air conditioner is a little more difficult. The label may have been removed, or the unit may have been built before the EnerGuide labeling requirements came into effect.

Fortunately, any electrical device has a label on it somewhere indicating its power usage. The label may be easily visible on the back or side of the unit, or you may have to remove a panel in the front or near the power cord to find it. If that’s the case, it’s a good idea to get the person selling the air conditioner to uncover the label in order to avoid a you-break-you-buy situation.

On the label, look for the air conditioner’s wattage. If the watts aren’t on the label, you can multiply the amps by the volts to get what you need. Divide the air conditioner’s BTUs by the number of watts, and that gives you the units EER. For example, a 6,000 BTU air condition using 840 watts has an EER of about 7. Another 6,000 BTU air conditioner using 1200 watts would have an EER of about 5. The higher the number, the less energy is required to cool your room.

The Ministry of Natural Resources website (http://nrcan.gc.ca) contains detailed information on energy uses, and tables to help you estimate the cost of running your air conditioner for the summer. For example, if you’ve got an 8,000 BTU unit with an EER of 9.7, you can expect to use 585 kilowatt-hours of electricity for the average Toronto summer. At 4.7 cents per kilowatt-hour, expect to add $27.50 to your bill.

Window Seat

There are few things in life that can make a person feel more foolish than hauling an air conditioner up the stairs in 32-degree heat only to find that it’s too big for the window you’ve planned to set it up in (trust me, I know from experience). Make sure you take accurate measurements of the window before you purchase a unit, and compare those measurements to the air conditioner before you purchase it. Eye-balling doesn’t always work.

Be sure to choose a window that’s close to an electrical outlet, preferably one that’s not being used for anything else. Air conditioners use a lot of power and cause electrical interference that can damage other appliances – particularly computer or stereo equipment – that might be plugged into the same circuit. Power bars and extension cords should also be avoided.

Do your best to ensure that you purchase the right air conditioner for the type of window you’re installing it into. Although an air conditioner meant for vertical-sliding windows can be rigged with a board to fit into a window with side-sliding panes, it won’t often work the other way. Air conditioners meant for side-sliding windows usually don’t have a support bracket along the top. Installing this type of unit into a window with vertical-sliding panes leaves very little between your air conditioner and the pavement below.

Another thing to be aware of when buying a used air conditioner is the possibility that the unit required special mounting hardware to keep it secure. Empty screw holes or evenly-spaced scratches along the top or sides of the unit are tell-tale signs that there may be more to installing it than just sitting it on the window sill. Ask someone knowledgeable about air conditioner installation if there are additional brackets needed to hold the unit up. If you’re not sure, it’s best to pass on that particular unit and find a model that looks like it’s an easier installation.
When installing the air conditioner, make sure the unit is level so that the moisture it draws out of the air can drain outside properly and not form a pool of water on the floor. Also do your best to seal the area around the unit so no outside air can get in around it. This will ensure that the air conditioner can cool the room as efficiently as possible.

Relief is here

Getting the right air conditioner ready to go requires a lot of thought and work. Being able to sleep comfortably on those short summer nights makes it all worthwhile. With proper servicing, even a secondhand air conditioner can last for many years. Consider making a trip to the local library and checking out a book on basic air conditioner maintenance. Simple things like changing filters regularly and keeping electrical contacts clean will keep the unit running efficiently and can help prevent bigger, more costly problems down the road.

Sooner or later the time will come to dispose of your air conditioner. Remember that air conditioners contain hazardous chemicals and require special disposal arrangements. Check out the City of Toronto’s household hazardous waste guidelines (http://www.toronto.on.ca/hhw) for more information.

When your air conditioner gives up the ghost, there still may be a use for it. Local used appliance dealers might offer some money for a unit they can use for parts. Look around your neighbourhood for community or school programs that refurbish old appliances. It’s surprising to see how many different uses old machines have when you take the time to look.

Watering hole doubles as museum of technology

Opening the door at 609 Queen Street West is to step into the future we were promised. Robots mill around the bar, computers vigilantly watch over human patrons, and dusty souvenirs of space travel line the walls like your grandmother’s set of collectable plates. The whole scene is bathed in a green glow generated by backlit circuit boards embedded in the bar.

“The circuit boards are from a defunct computer graveyard place that we found when we first opened,” says James Applegath, one of the owners of NASA Dance Pub. “They had piles and piles garbage lying around. We just sorted through it and came up with those.”

The distinctive bar is just the beginning of NASA’s unique ambiance. The walls are rife with items honouring its namesake space agency including mission patches, photos, and one small piece of fabric that has actually made it into orbit.

“This little NATO flag was flown in outer space, on Columbia’s 3rd mission,” says Applegath “It was donated by one of the customers here. Her father worked for the Canadian Space Agency. He gave it to her and she gave it to us.”

Another one of NASA’s claims to fame is its collection of vintage video games. There are few places where you can see original Atari 2600, Sega, Intellivision, Gemini and Vectrex systems on public display.

“We actually had a guy who’s a huge Vectrex fan from Ottawa,” Applegath says. “He happened to come here one night and saw this, and he was so impressed that he actually programmed a cartridge for us. When you turned it on it said ‘NASA’ on the front, and he put five or six games on one cartridge.”

“One of our DJs, DJ Gadget, donated the Commodore Pet,” says Applegath about another piece of cast-off computer hardware. “He’s a huge technology buff. He can pretty much fix anything, so he put that together and brought it here. They used to be state of the art. Now I don’t even know what you’d use it for.”

NASA also makes a home for an impressive collection of science fiction memorabilia. The list of items is extensive, and it includes a cornucopia of action figures, comic books, toy UFOs, and movie posters for such classics as Tron and Battlestar Galactica.

“We got a lot of stuff on eBay before we opened,” says Applegath. “A lot of little toys and robots are from Goodwill. You just go to Buy The Pound and rummage through. A lot of the stuff was just donated by customers.”

It’s not just electronics and collectibles that are finding new life as NASA’s decor. Applegath and his partner, Ben Ferguson, have even sought out secondhand fixtures and furniture to create the bar’s ambiance. Sitting in the front window is a distinctive floor lamp that Applegath says was purchased from a set sale after the movie X-Men completed production in Toronto. Flanking the lamp, two rows of airplane seats provide a comfortable vantage point for watching the action on Queen Street.

“The airplane seats came from a guy that was doing independent theatre on Jarvis just before we opened,” says Applegath. “He cancelled his plans and we got them from him. They’ve got the ashtrays in the arms, so you know they’re old for sure.”

Hanging above the circuit-board bar is a row of silver lamps, each displaying the NASA logo. Even these pristine-looking silver orbs are part of Applegath and Ferguson’s assemblage of used items.

“We purchased the lamps from a club that closed down,” Applegath explains. “Our doorman does sandblasting, so he did the logos on the glass. It worked quite nicely.”

Applegath and Ferguson opened NASA in December of 1999. They gained their management experience working at legendary Toronto hot-spot Industry, then decided to go into business for themselves. As for the collection of toys, machines and furniture that give the bar its vibe, Applegath cites his mother as a big inspiration.

“I was going to auctions with my mom,” he says. “I saw all this cool stuff, and I thought it would make a good space-aged retro-themed place. It’s a cool way to do it because it doesn’t cost a fortune and it’s really unique.”

The low cost of keeping the atmosphere alive at NASA is a plus.

“There’s a bunch of stuff I have at home that I just don’t bring here, because it disappears,” says Applegath. “I had a C-3P0 piggy-bank. That lasted two weeks. We had a cool 8-track tape player that disappeared. It happens all the time, where things are just missing.”

NASA also had to stop its practice of making the vintage video games available for customers to play while enjoying drinks.

“You get some drunk guy playing it and the joystick breaks, and the joysticks are impossible to find,” says Applegath.

Still, for better or worse, it’s the constantly changing collection of items that keeps NASA’s look fresh. Even though the items change, the bar keeps comfortable, friend’s-basement appeal… much like the bar’s owners themselves.

“Back when I was 12 or 13, I had this buddy and we were totally into all this stuff,” Applegath explains. “Years later, he showed up here and said: ‘This is weird. Last time I saw you we were playing Atari and doing all this stuff.’ I haven’t changed at all.”

NASA is open seven days a week from 9:00pm to 3:00am. For more information, check out http://www.nasadancepub.ca

Artist/writer Cynthia Gould finds warmth in Kensington Market

Cynthia Gould is a writer, spoken-word performer and painter who has secondhand shopped “since I was around 15 or 16. I discovered I could get much more for my money.”

“I like shopping, period, but secondhand shopping usually ensures that you won’t run into someone wearing the exact same outfit,” she says, “and there tends to be much more variety in secondhand stores. In new stores, they only have what is supposedly hip this season. I’ll be the judge of what I choose to wear, thank you very much!”

Over a large cup of coffee at the Organic Bhudda Cafe, Cynthia showed off one of her recent finds.

“I found this long, black cardigan with burgundy funfur cuffs and collar at Ohm Shanti in Kensington Market,” she said. “It’s very warm. I saw it on the rack out front. I was just walking by and saw funfur, so shazam!”

Cynthia can often be found haunting the storefronts and laneways of Kensington Market. She says the leisurely pace and friendly atmosphere of the neighbourhood are what attracts her to its many shops and cafes.

“It can take me an entire afternoon to walk up that street,” she laughs. “I can rarely remember the names of the individual stores, because I go through them all at once and it gets blurry.”

Cynthia also displayed one of her earliest and most treasured acquistions.

“I bought this silver necklace for a quarter when I was 16 so I’ve had it for, let’s just say a million years,” she says. “I got it at the Big Sisters secondhand store in downtown Port Hope. There’s three big silver wigglies on it where three blue jewels are supposed to be stuck in, but two of the jewels were missing. I went out and spent 70 cents on blue model paint that matched, and I painted in the other two circles so you can’t tell that their missing. I’ve worn it ever since.”

Sometimes, though, great finds are just a matter of being in the right place at the right time.

“My boots are secondhand Docs that are in fabulous condition,” Cynthia says. “I was at a friend of mine’s house for dinner one day. She was cleaning her closet, and we’re close enough to the same size. That’s secondhand I didn’t even have to go to a store for.”

Of course Cynthia doesn’t spend all her time rummaging through the used clothing racks. Since moving into a new art studio space, she’s been “painting like a madperson,” to the point that the gallery section of her web site (www.cynthiagould.com) has become “a bit confusing.” She’s working on that too.

“I’m also going to be hosting some shows coming up.” she says. “I’m going to be featuring at Night of Sirens, which is an evening exploring the sensual side of women. It’s all female performers and musicians. That’s at the Renaissance Cafe on April 28.”

For more info on Cynthia’s live performances, check out http://cynthiagould.coffeehouse.ca.

Many sites to be included in upcoming cleanup project

“Port Hope has lived with this problem for so long,” says Sue Stickley of the Low-Level Radioactive Waste Management Office in Port Hope, about the radioactive and industrial waste throughout the municipality.

“The waste was placed in the 1930s and 1950s and got spread around,” she said at the start of a tour of waste sites in Port Hope. It was a time when the long-term effects of radioactive and industrial wastes hadn’t even been conceived, much less considered.

The refinement of materials such as radium and uranium at Eldorado Nuclear on the waterfront, as well as the manufacture of consumer and industrial products by other area companies, created waste. To the people creating it, it was waste just like any other — it was buried, dumped into the lake or shipped off, and then forgotten about.

It wasn’t until the 1970s that the full scope of the problem had been realized. Not only had the sites occupied by factory, foundry and refinement operations been contaminated, but radioactive materials and other industrial waste products had been found throughout the town, Ms. Stickley said. Contaminated fill had been used on building sites, radioactive materials had been discovered in garbage dumps, even transportation routes had been polluted. There was even radiation detected in some of the community’s commercial and residential buildings.

“When they took down the radium factories in Clarington in the 1950s, a lot of people took building materials because they didn’t know,” she said.

The Atomic Energy Control Board began a large-scale radiation reduction program in Port Hope in 1976, and in 1982 the Low-Level Radioactive Waste Management Office (LLRWMO) was established to manage Port Hope’s waste, both radioactive and industrial.
While the LLRWMO works with the federal government and the local community to come up with a long-term solution to containing this waste, it is being monitored at several sites in and around Port Hope.

The centre pier area in the harbour is marked by the LLRWMO as one of the main industrial waste sites that needs attention.

“The harbour itself needs to be completely cleaned up,” Ms. Stickley said. “The sediment needs to be dredged.”

The centre pier and harbour is currently the home of the Port Hope Yacht Club. According to Ms. Stickley, the club will have to be moved before cleanup operations can take place.

“We figure that we can clean up the harbour in one boating season, so they only have to move for one season,” she said. “We’re trying to minimize the impact as much as possible.”

With cleanup of the harbour not scheduled to take place for another five years, the Yacht Club has yet to announce where its temporary location will be.

Just southwest of centre pier is the waterworks area.

“Back in the very first days of Eldorado Mining, they called it the Lakeshore Disposal Area,” Ms. Stickley said.

Much of the area has been cleaned up already, but further cleanup in the area will have to go ahead of schedule. The waterworks building is being expanded in the spring to meet new provincial water treatment standards. Part of that expansion area is still contaminated.

“We’re looking for a temporary storage site until we get the permanent facility,” Ms. Stickley said.

Overlooking the waterworks area is the entrance to the Alexander Street Ravine.

“The waste got to the Alexander Street Ravine during the ’30s, ’40s and ’50s by diversion from designated disposal areas,” Ms. Stickley said. “Subsequently the contamination was spread down the ravine, contaminating soil and other materials dumped there such as ash, cinders, municipal and industrial waste.”

The corner of Alexander and John Streets is nondescript, but is another industrial waste site that the LLRWMO is eager to get cleaned up. It is the site of a coal gasification plant that operated between 1859 and 1939. Although the last of the buildings was removed around 1971, the plant left a legacy of various heavy metals and hydrocarbons. Some of the pollutants on this site are considered leachate, which will require monitoring until it is moved into a permanent storage facility.

“Another area is around the Lion’s Recreation Centre here, literally in my back yard,” Ms. Stickley said. “There’s foundry waste and a variety of industrial waste. We’re not exactly sure how all of it got here — most of it came from the same plant that was at Centre Pier. There are areas that have lead, boron, and various other metal contaminates.

“We would clean this area up as well and put it in the long-term storage facility.”

The tour then proceeded to the Jack Burger Sports Complex on Highland Drive.

“Directly behind the sports complex is the old landfill site,” Ms. Stickley said. “The east end has been contaminated with radioactive material, runoff mixing with the waste, that sort of thing.”

Not far from the Highland Drive site is the Pine Street Extension area. This is where waste is consolidated and stored on a temporary basis.

“After the cleanup that took material up to Chalk River this whole area, called Brewery Pond, was then cleaned up,” Ms. Stickley said. “There was no place to put it outside the municipality, so we put it in an engineered mound called the ‘consolidation site.’ The other mound, the one with the tires, is a temporary storage site.

“We doubled the size of the temporary storage site because we knew that this has to last until we get a permanent site.”

The Pine Street Extension site is also one of the proposed sites for a permanent waste management facility. A permanent facility would replace the current mounds with a multi-component capsule designed to “cap and cover” the contaminated material. The waste would be isolated from the surface and from the flow of groundwater, and monitored to ensure that no leakage occurs.

Another proposed site is the Welcome Waste Management Facility on Marsh Road.

“This site is still owned and operated by Cameco Corporation,” Stickley said. “They’re looking after the waste on behalf of the federal government until a decommissioning and cleanup plan goes ahead.”

An auto wrecking yard adjacent to the site would be removed to facilitate expansion. As well, a house across from the facility is scheduled to be moved. The federal government has purchased the property so an access road can be built, allowing construction and waste-transportation vehicles to avoid passing through any residential areas after exiting Highway 401.

Ms. Stickley said that this site was under construction because it is “large enough to accommodate everything from Port Hope and Welcome.”

East of Rose Glen Road and south of Lake Street is the site of the former Chemetron property, now occupied by Esco.

“Chemetron was a pigment producer who came in, didn’t stay very long, polluted the environment and left,” Ms. Stickley said. “They left this lagoon area here that’s filled with chemicals and pigment. We’ll clean it up as part of the overall project.”

The waste in the lagoon will be dried, then encapsulated with the rest of Port Hope’s radioactive and industrial waste.

Not far from the Chemetron site is a temporary storage site for some contaminated sewage, near the treatment plant. All of the sewage waste has been biologically treated, but is still considered contaminated.

“There was a certain amount of uranium going into the sewers, so the sludge has uranium in it,” Ms. Stickley explained. “Some contamination got spread around Port Hope by the sludge too, because in those days some people took the sludge and used it in their gardens.”

There are some other minor areas of contamination within Port Hope that are also being monitored by the LLRWMO and are slated for cleanup. The project is currently in the environmental assessment process, with facilities construction and cleanup scheduled to begin around 2006. Although a few years down the road, the project has been moving according to schedule since the federal government and the municipality signed the legal agreement that set the cleanup process in motion.

For her part, Ms. Stickley is glad to be part of the process that will finally see a resolution to Port Hope’s ongoing industrial pollution problem.

“We’ve lived in this community for a long time, and we get to work on the solution to a problem,” she said. “That’s really satisfying.”

ABOVE: The centre pier at Port Hope harbour, one of many contaminated areas due to be cleaned up.
BELOW: A temporary storage mound with sewage treatment plant sludge in the background, at the east end of Lake Street.

The repercussions of a furnace oil spill on Front Street in Harwood are rippling more than where the nearby creek and ditch empties into Rice Lake.

An oil slick is still visible near shore, coating surviving geese.

Two geese have already died, according to nearby property owners.

Water and oil soaked pads are frozen into the lake ice about 20 feet from shore.

Furnace oil continues to seep into the lake from a drainage ditch that runs behind the house, 150 metres away.

A tenant in the house where the leak originates is out thousands of dollars, and is now also experiencing health problems, believed to be associated with the oil.

The house and furnishings are impregnated with the stench of furnace/diesel oil.

The registered owner of the property, George Newton Lang, lives in Studio City, California.

The property is under the care of Fred Holloway of Cobourg, as property manager.

It was rented to tenant Sandra Mate in December 2002.

The spill was reported to the Peterborough Office of the Ministry of the Environment on Jan. 24 and was told by Mr. Holloway that “approximately one gallon of furnace oil had leaked from the basement of the house at 5425 Front Street.”

He also indicated to the Ministry, according to a Provincial Officers report “that on behalf of the property owner, he would retain Johnson Septic Service Limited, a local spill clean-op contractor, to begin controlling and cleaning up the spill.”

Provincial Officer Michael Longpre, writing in his report states: “based on an update from the Spills Action Centre on January 27, 2003, indicating that the spill was ongoing, and that area waterfowl was being impacted at Rice Lake, he and another Officer, David Arnott attended the site location to assess current conditions”

He wrote “it was noted there was a creek flowing through the site location, connecting to a municipal ditch which in turn connected to Rice Lake”.

The officers observed that the creek, the municipal ditch and an open section of Rice Lake “all had visible signs of oil present on the surface of the water”. They also observed “visible contamination on the banks of the creek and the municipal ditch.”

In addition, the provincial officers observed “that oil was getting past the booms placed in the ditch by Johnson Septic Service on behalf of the property owner and was continuing to flow downstream into Rice Lake.”

Their investigation of the house, also on Jan. 27, “revealed significant flooding in the basement with visible oil on the surface of the water in the basement.”

Samples of the contaminated water were collected from all areas, from the house to the Lake.

Subsequently a clean up order was issued as a result of a contravention of section 14 of the Enviromental Protection Act due to the spill. The report was issued Jan. 28 and gave the property owner/manager 24 hours to contain the problem, hire a consultant to assess the damage, prepare an action plan with implementation schedule to restore the property.

Ministry officials said the clean-up will include removing all contamination, vegetation and soil from the affected site all the way to the Lake, a distance of about 150 metres. Cost is expected to run between $140,000 and $180,000.

However, while they currently don’t know the total impact or effect of the damage, they expect to know soon.

Ministry investigators have also been brought in to study the violation to determine if any further prosecution may take place.

The new tenant, Sandra Mate said all of the problems started in December when they moved in to clean up the house, repaint and wallpaper.

She paid her first and last months rent in the amount of $1,000 on Dec. 16 and was told there was a lot of oil in the tank.

They ran out of oil two days later.

Because they could not get a company to refill the tank before Christmas, she was forced to spend $280 filling the tank five gallons at a time with diesel fuel until Dec. 26.

The furnance oil supply company she contacted said an inspection of the tank would have to be done before they filled it on Dec. 27. Because it had a hole in it, it was condemned.

A new tank was installed on Jan. 2, but it apparently also leaked near the furnace.

The red coloured furnace oil had apparently leaked into a sump pump well in the corner of the basement. With a continuous odor of oil, Ms. Mate said she bailed out between 30 and 40 gallons of the red liquid which now sits stored in a large drum on the front lawn. And the problems were not over yet.

Water almost eight inches deep seeped into the basement and froze, mixing with the furnace oil, and then leaked out a basement door, across the grass, and into the ditch.

They were ordered out of the house Jan. 27 by ministry officials and the power has been turned off, Ms. Mate said.

Ministry officials in Peterborough were contacted late in the day Monday, and told their questions would be answered by Tuesday morning.

Mr. Holloway, who is also reeve of Hamilton Township could not be reached Monday at the Municipal Offices, nor could he be reached at home prior to the paper’s printing deadline of the Cobourg Daily Star and Port Hope Evening Guide.

$27-million program to make these lands available for recreation and development

Ontario Minister of Northern Development and Mines Jim Wilson was at the former Kam Kotia mine site near Timmins last week to officially open the lime treatment plant built last year with funding from the province’s Abandoned Mines Rehabilitation Program.

“With support from this program, the important rehabilitation work begun at Kam Kotia last year is moving ahead on schedule and is the main focus on fourth-year activities,” Wilson said.

Kam Kotia, a former copper and zinc mine, is part of a four- year, $27-million program to begin rehabilitation of Ontario’s abandoned mine sites and make these lands available for recreation and development.

“The Ontario government is dedicating $10-million this fiscal year toward rehabilitation of abandoned mine sites on Crown lands to ensure public safety, improve the environment and make these lands available for productive use,” said Wilson.

“I’m proud that this government is leading the way in Canada when it comes to addressing physical hazards and environmental contamination at former mine sites.”

In the first three years of the program, work has been undertaken at more than 45 abandoned mine sites. In addition, the Ontario government is one of the few jurisdictions in Canada that has completed an assessment of all known abandoned mine sites on Crown and privately owned land.

As well as construction of the plant at Kam Kotia, projects for the fourth year of the four-year, $27-million program include:

- capping a mine shaft, backfilling two mine stopes and fencing off several areas of the Toburn Mine in Kirkland Lake;

- removing the temporary Bailey bridge and constructing a permanent bridge to restore the North Road to its original two lanes at the Central Patricia Mine in Pickle Lake;

- continuing a rehabilitation partnership with Kinross Gold Corporation at the Kinross properties in Timmins;

- backfilling underground stopes in Cobalt’s Provincial Mine;

- removing PCBs, capping open holes and removing a surface structure at the Coppercorp property in Sault Ste. Marie; and

- removing fire-damaged buildings from the Buffalo Ankerite Mine in Timmins.

While the Ministry of Northern Development and Mines is responsible for mine site rehabilitation, representatives from the Ministry of Natural Resources and the Ministry of the Environment have also participated in the planning process.

“This government’s strategic approach to managing the environment relies on strong partnerships, both across ministries and with the businesses, community groups and citizens who make conservation and pollution prevention a daily concern,” said Environment Minister Chris Stockwell.

“The ongoing work at Kam Kotia is an excellent example of the results that this kind of co-operation can achieve.”

The government’s efforts to address acid mine drainage at Kam Kotia earned an honourable mention from the Environmental Commissioner of Ontario in his 2001-2002 annual report.