Newsletter #19
Sierra Club - Chebucto Group
in this issue:
- the pitch for SIERRA CLUB CALENDAR *buyers* and *volunteers*
- Sierra Cape Breton - Tar Ponds - Action Alert
- Sierra Club of Canada - Cheviot Mine - Action Alert
- *** excomm phone numbers and email addresses ***
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want to help the Planet *and* do your holiday shopping ... all at once?
SIERRA CLUB 1998 *BABY ANIMALS* CALENDARS are here!!!
contact Lola {doucetl@is2.dal.ca} 455-6365 to order
... or if you can volunteer to help us sell them!
only $13.95 ... plus $2.50 if you'd like one mailed to you
featuring 13 gorgeous pin-up photos of baby animals ...
and over 100 stickers of holidays, special events, etc
they're really for KIDS ... but grown-ups can buy 'em too
have a peek at http://www.sierraclub.org/books
proceeds stay in Atlantic Canada, with Chebucto Group of the Sierra Club
... a cute volunteer grass roots group
[but we're not nearly as cute as the Tiger Kitten which is the March
picture ... or the Wolf Cubs in September ... need i say more? 8)
rsvp!
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SIERRA CLUB HOTLINE/FAXBACK 902-492-1995
To find out what's happenning in Chebucto Group call 492-1995 anytime for a
regularly updated recording with the latest events schedule. Call from a
fax line to receive a membership brochure and other info by fax.
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From: Frances Morrison {fran.morrison@ns.sympatico.ca}
WE NEED YOUR HELP TO TURN CANADA'S LARGEST TOXIC WASTE SITE INTO
A NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL ISSUE.
You can send your individual e-mail messages to:
Gerry Ryan
Cape Breton Regional Municipality
Chief Executive Administrator
e-mail: jjryan@region.cape-breton.ns.ca
Mr. Don Down
Honourable Minister of Transportation and Public Works
Province of Nova Scotia
e-mail: downedr@gov.ns.ca
urging these two levels of government to stop their incineration
initiatives in Sydney. You can cc a copy of these requests to my address
so that I may have a copy of the correspondence. To
msbiagi@syd.auracom.com.
I further ask you to post this request to as many other environmental
groups around Canada and the World urging them to support us in this
fight.
Thank you very much for your help in this matter,
Mark Biagi
Concerned Citizen
SAMPLE LETTER TO SEND:
Dear Sir/Madam:
I am a concerned citizen and a volunteer in Sydney, Nova Scotia. Sydney
is home to Canada's largest toxic waste dump, i.e. the Muggah Creek
Watershed (formerly the Sydney Tar Ponds). A proposal from the Sierra
Club of Canada indicates that the Muggah Creek Watershed is thirty times
more contaminated than Love Canal. This toxic waste site is located right
in the middle of the city of Sydney, Nova Scotia, and can be divided into
3 sections:
1. On the uppermost reaches of the watershed are two landfill dumps which
have received municipal and industrial waste for decades. Close by, there
is an unlined ash landfill with an estimated 200,000 MT of contaminated
ash from the municipal incinerator (the incinerator is right across the
street from a residential area.).
2. For over 80 years, the Coke Ovens Site was used to produce the coke
that fired the steel-making furnaces. Through the years, many of the
byproducts from the Coking process were dumped on the ground.
3. The Tar Ponds are in a tidal estuary of 34 hectares. This site has
over 700,000 MT of PAH-contaminated sludge. Of this, at least 65,000 MT
are also contaminated with high levels of PCB. Although not the only
contaminants in the ponds, these are the most notorious. The first
attempts to clean up this section of the site involved incineration of the
sludge in a fluidized bed incinerator. This project failed. A second
attempt proposed the encapsulation of the site, using slag material. This
second proposal was met with great community opposition and was put on the
shelf.
The latest development in this situation is the attempt to fire-up the
fluidized bed incinerator and to burn biomedical waste in the municipal
incinerator. Both incinerators are located in the centre of Sydney. We
are trying to:
gather as much information and support as we can concerning fluidized bed
and other incinerators,
locate experts who are not in favour of the incineration of toxic waste,
secure the financial means to pay for the independent assessment of the
incinerators, as well as test the emissions and ashes from these facilities.
The fact that this is the largest toxic waste site in Canada is about to
become bigger. I would like to invite you and the rest of your
organisation to help us lobby the Cape Breton Regional Municipality and
the Nova Scotia Department of Transportation and Public Works to stop
their incineration initiatives in Sydney.
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From: Sierra Club of Canada {sierra@web.net>}
>Sierra Club Fighting Consolidation Coal on Both Sides of the Border
>
>Sierra Club of Canada Financially Supports Smallboy Camp Legal Challenge for
>Access to Portion of Cheviot Mine Site
>
>Thursday, Dec. 11, 1997 - What do Jasper National Park and the Ryerson
>Station State Park, located in Greene County, Pennsylvania have in common?
>Not only are they significant natural areas, but they are both threatened
>by one of the largest coal mining companies in the U.S., Consolidation
>Coal Co. (Consol) of Pittsburgh. Cardinal River Coals, responsible for
>the development of the Cheviot Mine in Alberta, is a joint venture by the
>Albertan company Luscar and Consol, while the proposed expansion of the
>Bailey Mine in Greene County, Pennsylvania, is also a Consol project. The
>Sierra Club of Canada and their counterparts down south are working to
>protect both Jasper and Ryerson Station State Park. The fight to protect
>natural areas from Consol's activities has become a North American
>endeavour.
>
>"Jasper National Park is at risk in the current project, but so is the
>survival of the Rocky Mountain Cree community at Smallboy Camp" says
>Elizabeth May of the Sierra Club of Canada. The people of Smallboy Camp
>who have lived in the area since ancient times are deeply concerned about
>the impacts the mine will have on Redcap Refugium, an area in the
>southeast part of the mine site. They have used this area for traditional
>purposes, including the collection of medicinal plants, for centuries.
>Smallboy Camp has filed a claim that is supported by the Sierra Club of
>Canada, for the protection of Redcap Refugium. Ms. May has stated that
>"we [the Sierra Club of Canada] support their courageous stand 100%" .
>
>The Cheviot Mine was approved by cabinet on Oct. 2, 1997 and will consist
>of a series of 26 pits in an area 23 km long and 3.5 km wide, just 2.8 km
>outside of Jasper National Park. This mine will compromise the ecological
>integrity of the entire region, including Jasper. Species seriously at
>risk include grizzly bears, wolverines, harlequin ducks, bull trout and
>numerous plants. Furthermore, the actual mine site will be situated
>directly on a hotspot of biological diversity. This sub-alpine mountain
>and alpine tundra landscape was left unglaciated during the last
>continental ice age, resulting in the high incidence of rare, disjunct and
>threatened species found today.
>
>These struggles are paralleled in the U.S. where the Sierra Club chapter
>in Pennsylvania is trying to stop the expansion of Bailey Mine into
>Ryerson Station State Park. This underground mine is one of the largest
>of its kind in the U.S. and if approved, mining under the park could begin
>in 2003. Originally, the expansion was to include areas under Duke Lake
>which is located in the park. This caused fears of serious environmental
>damage such as the lake's eventual drainage. Concerned citizens have also
>expressed fears that longwall mining will affect the area water and gas
>supplies as well as damage 40 homes in the permit area.
>
>-30-
>
>For more information, please contact:
>Elizabeth May, Executive Director, Sierra Club of Canada (613-241-4611)
>Wyona Coleman, Chair of Mining Committee, Sierra Club of Pennsylvania
>(412-938-2907 or 412-785-7861)
>Buff Parry, Spokesperson, Smallboy Camp (403-429-2378)
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Chebucto Group Excomm: [officially effective 1 January 1998]
Group Chair Arciris Garay 443-8472 af169@chebucto.ns.ca
Vice / Treas. Jack Devenney 463-0090 jack.devdart@ns.sympatico.ca
Secretary Allison Denning 423-6486 adenning@is2.dal.ca
Outings Lola Doucet 455-6365 doucetl@is2.dal.ca
Publicity Paul Falvo 492-1995 pfalvo@chebucto.ns.ca
Cape Breton Fran Morrison 737-2855 fran.morrison@ns.sympatico.ca
Non Excomm Officer:
Conservation Doreen Huybers 422-4956
Visit us on the 'Net!
http://www.chebucto.ns.ca/Environment/Sierra/
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The Mission statement of the Sierra Club ...
To explore, enjoy, and protect the wild places of the Earth;
To practise and promote the responsible use of the Earth's ecosystems and
resources;
To educate and enlist humanity to protect and restore the quality of the
natural and human environment; and
To use all lawful means to carry out these objectives.
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Sierra Club is North America's most effective grass roots environmental
group. Chebucto Group is the local branch, covering Atlantic Canada. To
subscribe to our bimonthly email newsletter, and receive regular updates
on conservation activities, outings, and get-togethers just send a message
with only the words "subscribe sierra-news" to {majordomo@chebucto.ns.ca}
http://www.chebucto.ns.ca/Environment/Sierra/