Hamilton will always have an uphill fight in an effort to win the war on environmental pollution. That's just the nature of the beast for a city heavy relied on industrial business. It still smarts though; when every time it looks like Hamilton is waging a strong front we get kicked back. Today's news is indicative how aggravating things can be.
Premier Dalton McGuinty Ontario government will finally pay their promised $30 million share toward the clean-up of Hamilton Harbour’s tainted Randle Reef. The harbour bottom is tainted with coal tar and heavy metal residue, largely as a result of decades of steel making.
All we need now is for the federal and municipal governments to cough up their one third $30 million dollar shares.
And now the bad news,
The toxic substance that contaminated Spencer Creek following the fire at Biederman Packaging in Dundas was confirmed as being Diainon. A highly poisonous chemical to birds, fish and wildlife and illegal for use in Canada, except for agricultural purpose.
The company owner trying to do damage control, came up with this gem, "The stuff we make here is all for home and garden use ... There was no serious escape of any nature." oops!
The technical director for Biedermann, covering his ass said the owner must have misspoken because the diazinon is used for agricultural customers. Adding that only a couple of skids where on sight.
The Environment Ministry has confirmed that run-off samples taken from within the building contained diazinon. On the day of the fire, a water reading taken at the Mill Street outfall to Spencer Creek found 720 micrograms of diazinon per litre. At the north building of the packaging plant, another reading showed 1,900 micrograms.
The lethal concentration to kill 50 per cent of rainbow trout in a given area is between 2,600 and 3,200 micrograms of diazinon per litre. (source The Hamilton Spectator)
So that means a quarter of trout in Spencer Creek are potentially dead, not to mention the many plants that the remaining fish feed on. This is not a small problem that can be swept under the proverbial rug, Spencer Creek is a vital link in the chain of this areas fragile ecosystem and any amount of contamination can destroy it forever.
Later,
Kenaz
