Ministry kept town in dark over arsenic, group says
Air, soil laced with carcinogen, records reveal
By Brian McAndrew
Toronto Star Environment Reporter DELORO - The provincial government has known for over a
decade that arsenic has poisoned the soil around the homes of
residents of this tiny eastern Ontario village. And for years people were breathing air laced with arsenic dust,
government records reveal. But the environment ministry never let them in on these
potentially deadly little secrets. Last night, they found out. A Toronto environmental group, Energy Probe, dropped the
bombshell during a community meeting organized by the
ministry to keep residents informed about cleanup efforts at the
abandoned Deloro gold mine and smelter. Residents have known for years about the pollution problems
around the 280-hectare mine along the eastern edge of town,
but they did not know the problem was so close to home. About 30 village residents attending the meeting were
outraged. ``If we knew this information in the first place, we never would
have bought a house here,'' shouted angry resident Gord
Dancey. About 175 people live in the village. The residents were also anxious to learn results of a ministry
health test last fall that involved soil and dust sampling, and
voluntary urine samples from residents. Jim Ritter, the ministry's Deloro project engineer, conceded the
ministry was aware of contamination within the village when the
tests were started last fall. He refused to reveal results of the tests that are still being
studied, but promised a community meeting in mid-July. ``You've got to tell us something, man,'' pleaded resident
Andrew Wells. ``I think they found more contamination than they want us to
know.'' Researchers at a Probe affiliate - the Environmental Bureau of
Investigation - uncovered a ministry document revealing that
tests conducted on private property in Deloro outside the mine
site more than 10 years ago showed arsenic contamination in
the soil 30 times higher than levels now considered acceptable. The tests were done in 1986 and 1987 by the ministry's
phytotoxicology section, but the results were never made
public, according to the document. They never even shared the results with others in the ministry,
although members of its regional office's operations division
provided them with a guided tour to take soil samples, the
document says. ``We can't rely on the government to help the people of Deloro''
said Tom Adams, executive director of Energy Probe. ``The
government just isn't dealing with this.'' Adams believes the province, which took control of the Deloro
mine site in 1979, should provide residents with financial
assistance to relocate. ``It seems to me that's the only thing to do,'' Adams said. ``You
can't force people to leave, but these men, women and children
should have the option of getting out of there.'' The information made public by Energy Probe was contained in
a ``briefing note'' prepared by the ministry for a meeting in
Belleville last Feb. 18 with health ministry officials and the area's
medical officer of health to discuss what amounted to the
accidental discovery of high levels of arsenic within the town. Deloro is about 45 kilometres north of Belleville beyond
Highway 7, between the towns of Marmora and Madoc. According to the briefing note: An outside consultant had conducted some soil sampling
tests around the mine and in parts of the town in 1997 as part of
the ministry's ongoing cleanup efforts. The consultant recommended additional studies after finding
arsenic levels ranging between 190 and 1,200 parts per million
(ppm). Ministry guidelines recommend a soil cleanup when
arsenic reach 25 ppm. Members of the phytotoxicology section reviewed the
consultant's proposal on Feb. 2, 1998. Four days later the
section's manager informed the ministry's Deloro cleanup
project engineer that the work proposed by the consultant had
already been done in 1986 and 1987. Those earlier soil tests from 18 sampling sites around the village
revealed an average arsenic level of 723 ppm - nearly 30 times
higher than the level recommended for cleanup with a maximum
finding of 5,500 ppm. The testing in the village was done as a part of the ministry's
effort to develop a cleanup standard for arsenic contamination
and ``as such, a public report was not prepared and the Eastern
Region (ministry office in Kingston) was not informed of the
findings.'' The briefing note's author, Dave McLaughlin of the ministry's
standards development branch, wrote the arsenic in the village
likely came from the smoke stacks of the refinery that closed in
1961 and more recently as contaminated dust blown by the
wind from piles of mine wastes known as tailings. The tailings piles are now covered by rock to prevent the dust
from blowing into the town just west of the mine property
boundary. Arsenic, a by-product of the mining industry, is a known
cancer-causing agent. It can be ingested through food grown in
contaminated soil or absorbed through the skin. Small amounts absorbed over a period of time can result in
chronic arsenic poisoning, producing nausea, headaches,
colouration and scaling of the skin anorexia and white lines
across the fingernails. Ingestion of large amounts can lead to vomiting, renal failure
and death. | 
