David J. Widmann

On Sunday, as an unofficial kickoff to the Walk21 pedestrian conference coming to Toronto next month, the Walking Life exhibit opened at the Gladstone Hotel.

The exhibit is an eclectic mix of paintings, maps, architectural drawings, collages and video. It represents images of urban walking from many different viewpoints, from the casual rambler to the urban planner.

Highlights of the show include Adam Krawesky’s “Clockwork,” a digital composite showing pedestrians crossing to all four corners of a street; “Walking Maps,” a collection of paintings based on Marlena Zuber’’s strolls with the Toronto Psychogeography Society, and Val Nye’s stark and stunning photograph entitled “Open Road.”

A stroll through Walking Life is free. It will be on the third floor of the Gladstone until October 4, and is open daily from noon to 5:00pm.

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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.

On Monday, the Ad Hoc School Review Committee for Dr. L. B. Powers Public School was given a tour of Beatrice Strong Public School by principal Karen Vandermeer.

Beatrice Strong P.S. is one of the schools were students of L. B. Powers P.S. will be transferred to should the Kawartha Pine Ridge District School Board choose to close Dr. Powers.

Vandermeer showed the committee around Beatrice Strong P.S., describing the facilities current students enjoy.

“At Beatrice Strong school, we have a junior Y daycare,” she said. “It is a seamless day, with students coming back and forth quite comfortably from school back to day care at the beginning of the morning and at the end of the day. We also have after-school programs that the Y puts on for all the children at the end of the day.”

In the school gymnasium, Vandermeer explained that access to the rest of the school from that area can be restricted.

“If a community group wanted to come in on Saturday, there is no access to the rest of the school,” she said.

The tour participants were shown many of the school’s bright, spacious rooms, accessibility features, the up-to-date kitchen and washroom facilities, and some of the 100 computers that are available for student use.

Vandermeer also took the time to explain what each area was currently used for, and how it could be repurposed should the need to house more students arise.

“We host the Southfield Centre,” she said. “We have a speech pathology, social workers, psychometrists. They are using the centre right at the moment. If we relocate these people (if the Powers students are moved to Beatrice Strong), this will be a special education resource room as well. So I may have up to three new resource rooms.”

“There are very few modifications needed to accommodate (the new students),” said Joe Hubbard at superintendent of administrative services for the Kawartha Pine Ridge District School Board. “This school is blessed with a lot of storage space because it was built prior to the new (provincial) funding formula. There is one area in here that is currently a storage room that can be turned into a classroom. There is a workshop here that can be turned into a resource room.”

In all, Hubbard said that by repurposing in the existing space, Beatrice Strong Public School could have up to five new classrooms available.

An option being considered to bring portables onto the property could add another two classroom spaces.

The issue of portables raised the question of whether or not closing Dr. Powers P.S. and moving the students to Beatrice Strong P.S. would provide the “equivalent or a better core services” the board is required to provide under the provincial funding formula.

“If we’re going to be objective, we have to list the fact that if the students are going to be housed in portables, that would be a disadvantage,” said Reno Piccini, one of the community representatives on the committee. “I don’t see how students in portables can be considered as having educational opportunities expanded.”

There was also a health issue brought up in regards to portables. Sarah Clayton, and other community representative on the committee, recorded in 1999 report that found over 90% of portables in Peel, Halton and Brant counties had been found to be contaminated with mould.

Hubbard explained that since that report, the mould issue in portables has been addressed.”Since 1999, there have been significant rebuilds and significant further testing (of portables),” Hubbard said. “Those figures might have been true for that specific board at that specific time, but it would not be true for this board at this time.”

Committee chair Erin Brown pointed out that the presence of portables is merely an option at this point.

“One of the options is not to have portables at all,” Brown said.

The Ad Hoc School Review Committee meets again on Tuesday, February 18th at 7:30 p.m. at Dr. L. B. Powers Public School.

The ad hoc school review committee for Dr. L. B. Powers Public School continued deliberations on Tuesday.  As the deadline for the committee’s final report draws closer, there are still many questions surrounding the perceived financial benefits of amalgamating Powers with Beatrice Strong P.S.

Sarah Clayton, one of two Powers school representatives on the committee and a financial analyst for the Regional Municipality of Durham is concerned that a proper building analysis comparing the efficiencies of Powers and Strong has not been completed.

“The provincial auditor and the ministry have noted problems with boards not using full-cycle building cost analyses and not actually making accommodations based on efficiency,” she said.  “As an analyst myself, this doesn’t prove to me that we’re not going to move all these students to Beatrice Strong, close down Powers and then end up having to build a bigger school five years down the road.”

Community representative Reno Piccini seemed to agree that the analysis, as presented, appeared incomplete.

“This looks like it’s generating all this revenue when in fact it’s revenue that’s going to have to go right back into a building campaign,” he said.

Ms. Clayton also brought up the point that the board had a reserve fund of $3 million for capital projects, yet instead went with a different method of financing.

“You could have used this money, but it comes with a cost of 8 per cent based on the ministry guidelines,” she said.  “Instead you went to the market where you got a debenture for 6 per cent.  So you’re filling up this reserve by closing schools such as Hawkins and Powers, and filling others to overcapacity, then you don’t even use the money.”

“That’s true,” superintendent of administrative services Joe Hubbard replied.  “I think the board is being economically wise in doing so.  At a better interest rate, the board can pay off a capital project in a quicker amount of time.  This generates more money to be available for more capital projects.”

“My question is, can you consider not putting more money into this reserve account when you don’t need it, when you can go to the market at a cheaper rate?” Ms. Clayton asked.  “Why not just leave Powers alone and go out and debenture a new school that you think you need to build?”

“That makes the assumption that we don’t need the money,” Hubbard responded.  “We do need it, and we need to have money flowing by way of new pupil place grants.  As enrollment declines, that means revenues also decline.  Based on the number of projects the board has funded to date, albeit at a better interest rate, it still needs to generate continued revenue from new pupil place grants to offset declining enrollment and ensure that we have the money in the future to pay off those projects.”

Erin Brown, board trustee and chair of the committee, objected to the inference that the board was considering closing Powers merely as a “cash grab.”

“Nobody wants to close schools,” she said.  “It needs to be made clear that we wouldn’t be doing this unless we needed to close schools.  If you look, as an example, at the trustees that have been removed from power and replaqced by a government supervisor, they are going through massive school closures right now; more than we would be.”

The Kawartha Pine Ridge District School Board invites and encourages the public to attend review committee meetings.  The next meeting is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. on Feb. 26 in the Dr. Powers School library.  Public input meetings are scheduled for Thursday, April 3 and Wednesday, April 9 in the Powers gym.

Tim Hortons bag program going gangbusters

It’s only the first week of the Tim Hortons Food Share bag program, and it is already being branded a success.

“So far this year it’s going well,” said Joan Bebee of Northumberland Fare Share in Port Hope. “Just since Friday, Saturday and Sunday, we’ve had an excellent response, above and beyond what we thought we’d pull in.”

George Leger at Fare Share in Cobourg agrees.

“People are donating by the bagful,” he said.

He also noted that the Tim Hortons Food Share bags, which were included in last Friday’s Port Hope Evening Guide and Cobourg Daily Star newspapers, are not the only donation vehicles being used.

“Donations are coming in bags and boxes, any way, shape or form,” Leger said.

“We pick this time of year because it’s normally a slow time for the food bank,” said John Meeussen, owner of the Tim Hortons franchises in Port Hope and Cobourg. “Christmas and Thanksgiving are strong times of the year, but this is when the shelves are normally empty.”

“This is the second year that we’ve been in partnership with Tim Hortons, and with CHUC and Star 93,” said Mike Walsh, publisher of the Cobourg Daily Star and Port Hope Evening Guide. “We’re encouraging the public to fill the bags with items as outlined on the bag itself and drop them off at Tim Hortons in Cobourg and Port Hope by the 28th of February.”

The items needed by the food bank are powdered milk, canned fruit or juice, canned vegetables, canned salmon and tuna; canned meat and stews; rice, pasta and pasta sauces, peanut butter, jam and honey, condiments, sugar, cereal, pancake mix and syrup, diapers, baby formula, toiletries and toilet paper.

And remember, Food Share accepts donations throughout the year, not just during campaign times. Non-perishable food items can be dropped off any time at police and fire stations, and at Food Share offices on Wednesdays and Fridays. For more information, call (905) 885-6674 in Port Hope, or (905) 372-5308 in Cobourg.

Committee chair says process tightened

As deliberations into the fate of Dr. L. B. Powers Public School continue, Sarah Clayton, one of two Dr. Powers school council representatives on the ad hoc school review committee, is frustrated with the review process.

“My worry is the timing,” she said.”  I do think it’s a rush.”

Ms. Clayton, who works as an economist for the Regional Municipality of Durham, said that there were protestations early on from the Kawartha Pine Ridge District School Board in regards to the date of the recommendation to close Dr. Powers.

Ms Clayton said that school board regulations require that any recommendations for school closing be made by Sept. 30.  The recommendation to close Powers wasn’t made until Nov. 28, two months later than regulations state.

“The board policy states Sept. 30, but the board voted to amend that date this year,” said Erin Brown, local trustee and chair of the committee.  “It was originally amended to Oct. 30, then changed again to Nov. 30 because we had the C. N. Watson Report commissioned.  We wanted to wait until we had gotten all the information from that report and had the opportunity to do public presentations in each of our communities.

“We also changed the way in which information flowed out to the committees.  Instead of coming to each meeting with a little bit of information, we put all of the information out there right at the beginning,” she said.

The way the information was presented to teh committee was changed so that timelines would not have to be pushed back, Ms. Brown said.

“One of the things we heard from three of the school communities that were reviewed last year was that the process was far too long.  We’ve tried to tighten up the process a bit,” she said.

“Timelines are only an issue now with Dr. Powers,” Ms. Brown said.  “Of the other four committees we have operating right now, one has wrapped up completely and the other three, I think their reports are going to the board at the end of this month.”

Ms. Clayton, however, feels that the compressed timeline is squeezing some of the issues out of the debate.

“It seems now that when we bring up issues to investigate, we’re reminded that we need to get this wrapped up by the beginning of April,” she said. “That’s frustrating, because as we get more into the statistics and cost numbers there are more questions than answers.”

One area where Ms. Clayton is at odds with the board statistics revolves around the population growth in the neighborhood around Dr. Powers.

“The school board argues that there’s new residential development in the west end, but it’s all empty-nesters so it doesn’t affect enrollment potential. I’d argue that there is also resale market growth in the community,” she said.  “I talked to Century 21, and they said that in the last three years there has been an increase in property sales and in the average sale price in Port Hope, and they’re seeing younger families.

“Yes, growth in Port Hope has been slow over the last five years, but I don’t think that it’s indicative of a long-term trend. The junior kindergarten class at Powers this year was 28 kids.  The board was only expecting 20.”

Ms. Brown could not confirm those enrollment numbers, but stated that the committee was looking for projection numbers from several different sources.  Right now, though, she is not optimistic.

“It’s very frustrating,” she said.  “Either we’re not seeing the growth in Port Hope that we had anticipated, or the growth we’re seeing is not producing the number of students we need.  We’re not funded to keep spaces open for a long period of time in hopes that they will eventually fill up.”

The ad hoc school review committee meets tonight at 7:30 p.m. — a special time for these meetings — at R. L. B. Powers.

Quality furniture needed for mentoring room

It isn’t often that a charitable organization in need is reluctant to make a public plea, but Northumberland Big Sisters is afraid that it could be swamped by this generous community.

“We don’t want to get inundated,” said Barb Keenan at Northumberland Big Sisters.  “We’re kind of afraid that we could get a barrage of people coming with their old chairs.”

Big Sisters needs to furnish their new mentoring room, located above its office on John Street in Port Hope.

“We just need two or three good quality armchairs, a loveseat or two, maybe a couple of coffee tables.  That would be dandy.”

Keenan stresses that it is important for the organization to see any furniture before it is accepted.

“Size really matters,” she said.  “The room is on the third floor, and it’s brutal getting things up and down the stairs.”

Keenan is excited about getting the mentoring room up and running, as it will provide some much-needed group space.  Keenan said that the room has already benefited from the generosity of the community.

“It’s a very cool space,” she said.  “There was a whole bunch of community effort put in with the Days of Caring that the United Way put together in June.  Management from local industries came and worked for free.  The carpeted and painted the room.  We didn’t have to pay for any of the materials or the labour.  Then we had the Cobourg Y Exchange Program kids help mortar the wall.”

Once furnished, the mentoring room will be a space for Big Sisters and other organizations to run classes, group counseling sessions and meetings.

“We’re hoping to launch a teen-mom mentoring program,” Keenan said. “There’s a possibility that a new service called Wraparound Service will use the space.  It isn’t a Big Sisters service, but we’re housing them for the time being.  We also run a teen esteem program, and there’s a possibility that teen esteem will be able to use it for crafts or to have a speaker come.

“We’re hoping to have a multi-purpose use for it.”

To offer a piece of furniture or for more information, contact Northumberland Big Sisters at (905) 885-6422.

According to the National Eating Disorder Information Centre, most women and a growing number of men are dissatisfied with their bodies.

“The beauty ideal today is thin, able-bodied, smooth-skinned, young and glamorous,” said Rachel Moon Kelly, public health nutritionist at the Haliburton, Kawartha, Pine Ridge District Health unit.  “The reality is that less than one per cent of us fits this ideal.”

The quest to fit into this ideal has led many people, — up to 15 per cent of the population — to fall into a pattern of eating disorders.

Ms. Moon Kelly said that dealing with an unhealthy body image is difficult, and can lead to depression, low self-esteem, and harmful eating habits.

“How we picture ourselves in the mirror and our minds has tremendous impact on how we act,” she said.  “With media influences and other factors, it’s easy to fall into the trap of unhealthy weight loss diets and the like.”

To help combat this trend, the HKPR District Health Unit is using Eating Disorders Awareness Week, which runs until Feb. 8, as a forum to lay the groundwork for a new Body Image Group in Northumberland.

“We are starting a body image coalition, beginning with a focus group on Tuesday evening,” said Ms. Moon Kelly.

The focus group was expected to include representatives from the medical, mental health, dietetics, and educational communities, teens and parents.

On Wednesday, Kids Help Phone and Parent Help Line announced it’s usage statistics for 2002.

The two services, which are Canada’s only 24-hour, toll-free, bilingual and anonymous telephone and internet referral and counseling services, answered almost 363,000 calls and online questions from children and parents from almost 3,000 communities across Canada.

“Since 1989, the Kids Help Phone organization has been committed to the protection of children against physical, emotional and sexual abuse through education, prevention and intervention,” Chris Simmons-Physick, vice president of Child and Family Services at Kids Help Phone said in a press release. “We achieve his through the continued provision of our professional phone and web-based counseling and referral services and through our commitment to educating the public about critical issues affecting Canadian families.”

In 2002, calls to the Kids Help Phone service (1-800-668-6868) increased by 7 per cent.

Traffic to the web site (kidshelp.sympatico.ca) received almost 460,000 hits, representing an increase of 230 per cent. This includes people who used the new “Ask A Counselor” service on the site, which received more than 3,200 hits in six months.

Counselors at Parent Help Line (1888-603-9100) answered more than 23,000 calls from more than 1,800 communities in Canada – a 34 per cent increase. The Parent Help Line web site received over 70,000 hits.

Thousands of callers were referred to help right in their own communities through the organization’s database of 30,000 health and service agencies.

The Kids Help Phone organization receives no on-going government or United Way funding, and relies on the contributions of corporate and individual donors.

More than 10,000 volunteers across the country also help raise money and awareness for Kids Help Phone through special events including the Bell Walk for Kids, which takes place on Sunday, May 4. For more information on this fundraising event, visit www.bellwalkforkids.com.

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.