Environmental Bureau of Investigation/ Deloro Radioactive Contamination Facts

PRIVATE PROSECUTION FACT SHEET

ACCUSED: The Province of Ontario
OFFENCE DATES: Between September 17 and November 14, 1998.
PLACE OF OFFENCE: Deloro mine site, Village of Deloro, Ontario.
OFFENCE: Discharging or Permitting the discharge of radiation into the natural environment that caused or was likely to cause an adverse effect. Environmental Protection Act, R.S.O., 1990, c. E.19, section 14 (1) and section 186 (1).
ENVIRONMENT: An area near the western fence of the Deloro mine site to which the public has free unrestricted access.
TYPE OF POLLUTION: Dangerous radioactive contamination due to the presence of radioactive wastes which include uranium, radium and cobalt. Total radiation levels up to 3 millirem/hour and gamma fields at or above 0.75 millirem/hour were detected.
CIRCUMSTANCES: The Province of Ontario (MOE) has managed and controlled the abandoned Deloro mine site for 19 years.
Dr. Hari Sharma, Professor Emeritus of Chemistry at the University of Waterloo visited the site and took radiation readings and stated in his report: "...radioactive material that is outside the fenced area, where I measured the radiation field, presents a risk to the general public of deleterious health effects and an impairment to the safety of the general public. Furthermore, ongoing leaching of radium and other radionuclides from the Plant site poses serious environmental problems that have not been addressed."
Radioactive wastes at the site come from many sources and include uranium and radium ores and cobalt-bearing materials. The scientists of the chemistry laboratory at Deloro are credited with developing the uranium smelting process for the Eldorado plant in Port Hope.
Fourteen radiation surveys have been conducted at the site since 1976, but none off-site since the involvement of the provincial federal task force on radioactivity led by the Atomic Energy Control Board in 1975. The 1975 survey led to the remediation of 4 of the 72 properties surveyed. One home was subsequently demolished but the radioactive material was not removed from the property where high radiation levels were detected in 1998.
The MOE enforcement officers are not trained nor do they have proper equipment such as Geiger counters to investigate radiation hazards in Ontario.
The Low Level Radioactive Waste Management Office, a federal agency, has a "marginal involvement" at the Deloro site through the "Technical Liaison Committee" but, like the Atomic Energy Control Board, it has refused any responsibility including much needed funding for the clean up of the site.
THE INFORMANT: Tom Adams is the executive director of Energy Probe and a member of the Environmental Bureau of Investigation Advisory Panel.
CONTACTS: Tom Adams, Energy Probe
(416) 964 9223 ext. 239
Stewart Elgie, Sierra Legal Defence Fund
(416) 368-7533 ext.24

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PRIVATE PROSECUTION FACT SHEET
ACCUSED:	The Province of Ontario
OFFENCE DATES:	Between September 17 and November 14, 1998.
PLACE OF OFFENCE:	Deloro mine site, Village of Deloro, Ontario.
OFFENCE:	Discharging or Permitting the discharge of radiation into the natural environment that caused or was likely to cause an adverse effect. Environmental Protection Act, R.S.O., 1990, c. E.19, section 14 (1) and section 186 (1).
ENVIRONMENT:	An area near the western fence of the Deloro mine site to which the public has free unrestricted access.
TYPE OF POLLUTION:	Dangerous radioactive contamination due to the presence of radioactive wastes which include uranium, radium and cobalt. Total radiation levels up to 3 millirem/hour and gamma fields at or above 0.75 millirem/hour were detected.
CIRCUMSTANCES:	The Province of Ontario (MOE) has managed and controlled the abandoned Deloro mine site for 19 years. Dr. Hari Sharma, Professor Emeritus of Chemistry at the University of Waterloo visited the site and took radiation readings and stated in his report: "...radioactive material that is outside the fenced area, where I measured the radiation field, presents a risk to the general public of deleterious health effects and an impairment to the safety of the general public. Furthermore, ongoing leaching of radium and other radionuclides from the Plant site poses serious environmental problems that have not been addressed." Radioactive wastes at the site come from many sources and include uranium and radium ores and cobalt-bearing materials. The scientists of the chemistry laboratory at Deloro are credited with developing the uranium smelting process for the Eldorado plant in Port Hope. Fourteen radiation surveys have been conducted at the site since 1976, but none off-site since the involvement of the provincial federal task force on radioactivity led by the Atomic Energy Control Board in 1975. The 1975 survey led to the remediation of 4 of the 72 properties surveyed. One home was subsequently demolished but the radioactive material was not removed from the property where high radiation levels were detected in 1998. The MOE enforcement officers are not trained nor do they have proper equipment such as Geiger counters to investigate radiation hazards in Ontario. The Low Level Radioactive Waste Management Office, a federal agency, has a "marginal involvement" at the Deloro site through the "Technical Liaison Committee" but, like the Atomic Energy Control Board, it has refused any responsibility including much needed funding for the clean up of the site.
THE INFORMANT:	Tom Adams is the executive director of Energy Probe and a member of the Environmental Bureau of Investigation Advisory Panel.
CONTACTS:	Tom Adams, Energy Probe (416) 964 9223 ext. 239 Stewart Elgie, Sierra Legal Defence Fund (416) 368-7533 ext.24