The Crying Shame of Randle Reef

My personal take on the "Crying Shame of Randle Reef" featuring my cat character

Background

Randle Reef is located at the foot of Sherman Ave N in Hamilton Harbour, and is considered to be one of the more complex and highly contaminated sediment sites throughout the Canadian Areas of Concern.

HOW BAD IS RANDLE REEF?

* Second-worst coal tar contamination in Canada, behind the Sydney Tar Ponds in Nova Scotia, where a century of coke and coal gas manufacture left one million tonnes of contaminated soil and sediment.

The federal and provincial governments began a 10-year, $400-million, cleanup of the Sydney site in 2004.

* Mud to a depth of three metres or more is laced with chemicals so toxic they burn human skin and if inhaled cause anaphylactic shock -- a severe allergic reaction. There's enough hazardous material to fill Copps Coliseum to the roof three times.

* The sediment is so toxic to underwater creatures that 80 hectares of the harbour floor is essentially a dead zone. Fish that survive have growth and reproductive disorders.

* John Shaw of Environment Canada calls it "a spill in slow motion," because contaminants deposited in the Sherman Inlet as far back as the 19th century are spreading outward and leaching up into the harbour water. "The more diffuse it gets, the more difficult it becomes to implement solutions," he warns.

Goal

To erase the stigma of being a dirty, polluted steeltown and to change in the way people look at Hamilton.

Cost of the Plan

The proposed plan is to contain and cap the contaminated sediment, creating an eight-hectare peninsula with shipping terminals surrounded by green space, calls the $90 Million cost to be shared three ways by the federal government, province and local interests.

Problems

Both Federal Environment Minister John Baird and the McGuinty government's representative Ontario Environment Minister Laurel Broten say they put the environment first, but they won't commit the government to helping fund the cleanup of toxic contaminated Randle Reef.

Broten said her government has put up $30 million for other Great Lakes cleanup projects. She said Ottawa needs to put up its share for Randle Reef as it did for the Sydney tar ponds, but she wouldn't address what is the hold up from the province. This is buck passing by any other name. The truth is, the tar ponds only got cleaned up because Nova Scotia embarrassed the Federal Government into doing so. It's about time Hamilton politicians step up to the plate and drum it into the heads of the Liberals that Hamilton is important to the environmental fabric of Ontario.

Later,
Kenaz