New Brunswick MP Greg Thompson Slams Provincial Claim on Quarry
"The St. Croix Courier's front-page story this week (Province responds to Thompson's charges - March 24, ) is a classic example of the frustration the people of Bayside, St. Andrews and the Chamcook watershed have had to put up with in dealing with New Brunswick's Department of the Environment and the provincial government.
It absolutely defies logic that a spokesperson for the provincial department would claim the fines (or tailings) from Jamer Materials' quarry in Bayside pose no risk to human health or the environment. This, of course, is the same response the province kept trotting out until the Town of St. Andrews finally spent tens of thousands of dollars to prove the toxic fines were threatening its water supply in Chamcook Lake. The Town was forced - yet again -- to do the very job the province should have been doing.
The facts are clear, and the environment department knows it. After all, it was this same department which eventually issued a ministerial order to have the fines removed from PID 01235118, where soil analysis found arsenic levels of approximately 180 parts per million - or 15 times the CCME Soil Guidelines. Is the province now trying to suggest the arsenic contamination came from another source?
Does the province actually believe that these fines - which are supposedly now under strict conditions for on-site storage at the quarry - suddenly become safe when they are distributed into local communities? This is simply not believable.
Of course, none of this makes any sense - except to confirm that the provincial department of the environment has utterly failed to meet its most basic responsibility of protecting New Brunswick's environment and the health of our people.
lFor too long, this department has relied on Jamer Materials to monitor and police itself. They have consistently chosen to serve as the chief apologist for this company, and the results have been disastrous. When it comes to the Bayside quarry, it seems the only time the province ever takes steps to safeguard the environment is after the damage has already been done."
